Resurrect: Reboot: Repeat

Besides being a 1994 CGI animated series, ‘reboot’ has become Hollywood’s buzzword for the 21st century. With remakes like Frankenweenie and Dark Shadows as well as series reboots like Steel Magnolias, GI Joe and Scooby Doo, it seem that Hollywood has well and truly given up the ghost on new concepts.

Of course, remaking previously told stories in some ‘new’ way is nothing new for Hollywood. Thomas Edison’s The Great Train Robbery (1903; directed by Edwin S. Porter) has been remade at least four times over the past century. Even Thomas Edison chose to ‘remake’ the movie with a child cast as a 1905 parody.

Let’s not forget the more than 20 incarnations of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Each version tried to ‘reimagine’ the story in its own unique style.

Have you ever been stuck for an idea? Go meet Dracula. From Abbot and Costello (1948) to Batman (2005) and an original cast in the Monster Squad (1987), tangling with Dracula has become a quick buck mainstay of many studios. (He who mentions Billy the Kidd gets a boot to the head.)

What some people may not realize is that story retreads aren’t just a Hollywood thing. The comic book industry ‘reimagines’ its characters so often that they’ve resorted to designating parallel Earth numbers to each version. All over the internet, there are servers overflowing with ‘alternate version’ fanfiction tellings of series, movies, plays and books.

The idea of rebooting a story goes back even further than Hollywood. Classic books like Little Women (1868 & 1869), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and the beyond infamous A Christmas Carol (1843) all have been ‘reimagined’ by various playwrights.

It could be argued that story reboots have been going on since humanity began telling stories. The legends of mythology went through many remakes as they advanced through geography and time.

What truly amuses me about the current crop of reboots is that they stem from the 1980s. 80s programming has been denounced as being too merchandise driven. Yet here we are watching My Little Pony, GI Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and many other “25 minute toy commercials” being rebooted and remade as some supposedly new thing.

Has the century produced some new things? Yes, we’ve seen the rise of brilliantly told series like Invader Zim (2001), Avatar the Last Airbender (2005) and the Walking Dead (2010). Even the horror genre got a nice little revival in Ring (2002 – originally Japan’s Ringu 1998), Saw (2004) and Paranormal Activity (2007).

Some people may be tempted to blame the Writers’ Strike of 2007-2008 for the influx of reboots. Considering that the entire decade has seen reboots of series like TMNT (2003), Scooby Doo (Take your pick), Care Bears (2004) and others, this argument is void. It’s even less valid when you consider that the Writers’ Strike of 1988 didn’t stop the innovation of the 1990s with shows like Chip’n’Dale’s Rescue Rangers, Animaniacs, the PowerPuff Girls and the Simpsons.

So come on, Hollywood! Get the dead out and find some new concepts again!

Footnotes:

Thanks to the searching powers of
Amazon.com
Internet Movie Database
Wikipedia