(Washington Insider Magazine)—I might get a lot of heat over this Disney take but it may not matter. I love watching the live-action Disney remakes and I think the Star Wars sequels were a wasted opportunity. That already sounds like a divisive statement but I’m a divisive person and I’ll probably only appease half of the people reading this article as of now.
Let us begin with the live-action Disney remakes. First off, a lot of people will say that they started with Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland in 2010, but that’s technically not true. They first began with 1994’s The Jungle Book, was followed by Glenn Close’s 101 Dalmatians movies, took a break for a decade and then came back with Alice in Wonderland. I just wanted to give you guys that bit of history before I went any further into this article.
Anyway, the Disney remakes get a lot of hate and derision for not having the same heart and charm of their cartoon predecessors and to a degree, not all of them are as good as the cartoons but that doesn’t mean that they are terrible and they lack heart. Truth be told, a lot of these movies have plenty of heart and emotion but people are too blinded by the fact that Disney wants to make money off of their consumer, which is true but Disney has always acted like that. They acted like that before the remakes and they’ll act like that after the remakes, but the films that they put out as remakes are incredibly emotional.
Think of the CGI baby Dumbo being coddled by his mother, wrapping her trunk around the baby elephant while she remains caged up as a circus carny sings the song “Baby Mine”. Think of Tom Hanks’ Geppetto putting the finishing touches on his puppet in Pinocchio. Think of Emma Watson’s Belle cradling the beast in her arms and professing her love to him after Gaston shoots him in the back. I was almost moved to tears by all of those moments in the Disney remake catalog. WIth that being said, you can’t just discount them and say that these movies have no heart or soul. Maybe you can say that about the company itself, but the movies are still made with tender love and care and you cannot deny the ambitions and intentions of the filmmakers for taking on a massive effort in remaking their previous work with the talents that they have. These remakes are something truly special.
The Star Wars sequels, however, are a huge disappointment. The only way for me to break this down is by saying that the first entry in the trilogy, The Force Awakens, was a pretty solid return to form for Star Wars. It wasn’t perfect but it was nice to see some old friends from a galaxy far, far away. However, when Rian Johnson came around town and released The Last Jedi, it seemed that things took a different turn and the director decided to just follow the same derivative points from previous Star Wars movies with a much more bizarre twist that didn’t seem to go anywhere and what was the deal with Rey in the cave where it was an infinitesimal number of the character. That was never explained and I don’t think people even care enough to ask why. People thought that things would change with The Rise of Skywalker, but that just did more harm than good, as it destroyed the legacy of the first six Star Wars movies by bringing back Palpatine and rendering Vader’s sacrifice inconsequential. Moreover, the last film in the trilogy tries to do so much at one given time that it ends up failing on all fronts. When did Rey and Kylo have a thing for each other? Why have we just now heard of Babu Frik? Who did Palpatine knock up to have Rey’s mom or dad? Who are Rey’s parents? None of this shit is answered and it frustrates the audience more and more.
The bottom line as to why the Disney remakes work and why the Star Wars sequels don’t is largely because of their genres. The Disney remakes are remakes and when watching a remake, I’m not going to expect that much change. It should largely follow the same beats as the movie that it was based upon. The Star Wars sequels are sequels and you go in thinking that the sequel is going to do something différent and not follow the same structure as before, but it doesn’t and feels more like a remake instead. That’s my two cents, y’all.
