Some things are meant to stay in the drafts folder. That embarrassing post you think is cute in the middle of the night, that snarky text you want to send to your ex-boyfriend and—most of all—that animated work that never needed to be adapted into a live-action feature? Just keep them to yourself.
“The Little Mermaid” (2023), “Harold and the Purple Crayon” (2024) and “Sonic The Hedgehog” (2020) are just a few adaptations of superior, original works of art that have been released in recent years. Although the term ‘live-action’ could refer to books and video games turned into “realistic” films, the pipeline of beloved animated TV shows and movies remade into live-action replicas is arguably the biggest sin of the three.
“I think live-action adaptation movies can open up a new kind of audience and story to a movie,” Alayna Novitsky (12) said. “These movies can be very good if they are portrayed well, but they can also be very badly made.”
Unfortunately, there have been so many more flops than hits in the adaptation scene. Thankfully, “Sonic The Hedgehog” was saved when, following the initial trailer release, fans essentially cyberbullied Paramount Studios into redesigning the unnerving CGI animation style. Although Disney’s attempts at recreating classic animation using live-action settings and actors, such as “Aladdin” (2019) and “Mulan” (2020) weren’t as outwardly ugly in comparison, they weren’t exactly spellbinding or artistic either, and the plot and characters took a big hit in the adaptation process as a result. Where beloved characters such as Mushu, a talking Chinese dragon, were removed to make the film “more realistic,” a shapeshifting witch, Xianniang, is added. So much for realism. Oh, and don’t even get me started on “A Minecraft Movie” (2025). Why did we need a live-action adaptation for a blocky video game, other than as a so-obvious cash grab aimed at Gen Z? And please, somebody tell me why we needed Jason Momoa (“Aquaman”) and Jack Black (“School of Rock”) in it besides to go for cheap, unearned laughs using their overused public personas.
“Live-action [adaptations] are, for the most part, horrible because they end up casting people who look nothing like the original characters,” Abdullahi Idor (12) said. “Most live-action adaptations don’t follow the original storyline either, making it hard for people to either enjoy or understand what’s going on.”
Thankfully, not all adaptations deserve to be buried and never watched again, such as the severely underrated “Dora and the Lost City of Gold” (2019). I would have never expected a movie adapted from an annoying animated children’s show on Nickelodeon to be one of the funniest, most self-aware movies I’ve ever seen. “Beauty and the Beast” (2017), despite the slightly scary CGI for the Beast, was also a worthwhile watch thanks in part to the charming lead performances from Emma Watson (“Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone”) and Dan Stevens (“Abigail”). Hopefully, directors and entertainment companies can take a few notes from these rare gems and stop spitting out movie adaptations that nobody asked for with little care regarding the final product.
One might ask the question, why does this keep happening? In the past few years, it has felt like every new movie that comes out is an adaptation of previously existing IP, a remake of an iconic story or some dragged-out sequel. Remind me why the Fast and Furious franchise is still alive, for instance. Maybe the screenwriters are running out of ideas, or maybe it’s the studio execs who are demanding a new world of universally unoriginal movies be ushered in for easy money and maximum profit.
One can only wish for either a) more original movies, or b) better adaptations that have some type of rhyme or reason behind them. On the horizon this summer alone we can expect, for better or worse, live-action adaptations of both “Lilo & Stitch” and “How to Train Your Dragon”, with “Moana” featuring Dwayne Johnson reprising his role as Maui the demigod on the books for 2026. For now, I guess we’ll have to wait and see what the next big hit will be—I just hope it’ll be a good one.
