Reimagining Stories

So lately there has been a repetitive sequence of events that seems to carry on until some kind of death- of the story, of the company, or of the genre for a few years or so:

1. Disney remakes a classic fairytale or animated feature (live action/3D/etc)
2. The story, cast, setting, or character focus have been drastically changed from the original
3. The public hates the new iteration for some or all of the changes
4. Disney defends itself by accusing the audiences of some sort of bigotry or "not understanding the art" or what have you
5. New iteration flops or is fully stillborn
6. Rinse-repeat

There is talk that the newest live action Disney version of Snow White will be the death knell to this endeavor, to bring it full circle from 1937 (if I'm not mistaken, I'm too lazy to check right now).

This may happen, or may not. Disney has suffered low tides before, and then went into a creative renaissance. But what we're watching is not proof that reimagining stories is bad. In my opinion, what we're watching is that reimagining stories badly has a certain recipe.

See, the original, beloved classic animations of Disney fairytales are already reimagined stories. So much so that anyone familiar with the original fairytales would be right in saying pretty much everything Disney is being accused of doing with this new batch of new films: bending the story out of shape, taking out important characters, deleting powerful scenes, not understanding the theme or the tone of the material, and so on.

Because let's be real, Cinderella as an original is more at home with splatter movies than with girly glittery pink fairytales:

This:


Rather than this:


But that doesn't matter. The Disney version, though thoroughly sanitized and bedazzled, is a classic and beloved, while the original version is also there for the lovers of the grim.

And that's because the story itself works. The setting meshes well with the characters and the plot feels cohesive with both the former elements. It has nothing to do with whether the main character is passive or active, but rather how the setup of the story builds this character to exist and move forward within the plot and the setting.

That's why there's different Cinderellas that all work within their story iterations:



But for that to happen, elements have to mesh well together. And sometimes, you can be making an iteration of the Cinderella story, or Snow White, and not call it that exactly because you're putting such a unique spin on it, that it would limit you as a storyteller to have that title:


Those who have watched The K2, know which scene this is

I'm mentioning the kdrama The K2 because it's unabashedly a Snow White story, complete with evil queen/stepmother and a magic mirror. And yet it's so removed from the traditional Snow White as a plot and a setup, that naming it "Snow White But with Mobsters" would be a hilarious disservice.

Anyway, the general point of this is that every story is some kind of iteration of an earlier premise, plot, or official story (Romeo and Juliet, Damon and Pythias, Eros and Psyche, Faust, you name it). And that is absolutely FINE.

What isn't fine is to try and shove what you want to do in a setting that's so constricted that you end up with this:



Have you retold a classic story in any way? Would you do it if not, and how?

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