My son recently turned nine. He desperately wanted the theme
of his party to be Pokemon. He’s crazy about this childhood phenomena that swept
through the 1990’s generation, then died significantly, only to live on in the shadows
of diehards fans. Now it’s back, as popular and lucrative as ever. I pondered
the dramatic return of these slightly annoying creatures, and came to a strange
conclusion: Everything old becomes new again.
Cinderella, the timeless fairytale re-told through
generations, has undergone yet another re-vamp and is currently playing to
audiences around the globe. I can’t wait to see it (if I can drag my son away
from Pokemon to do something ‘girly’, that is.) Then there are television shows.
I googled ‘old TV shows being remade’. The results claimed that over fifty
movies, and at least eight television shows are currently in the process of
being reinvented for a new generation.
And, of course, many movies are actually adaptations of
books, including The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and Fifty Shades (no, I
haven’t seen the movie or read the books). Fifty Shades is itself an adaptation,
of the Twilight series, which I did read. Although I managed to ignore the
controlling male character in Twilight, I found some interest in the romance
factor – something I am told Fifty Shades lacks.
Even Twilight is said to be a reinvention, with a
contemporary American setting, and the addition of vampires and werewolves. The
first book is apparently a retelling of Pride and Prejudice, while the second
is Romeo and Juliet (I’m told the third and fourth are also retellings of
famous romances, but I can’t recall which ones).
With so many remakes over so many creative genres, I had to
ask myself the question, have humans run out of ideas, or are we so invested in
a sure thing (money-wise) that we are unwilling to take a risk on all things new
and untested?
What do you think? Are we taking enough creative risks? Or
have new ideas been replaced with the greater-valued sure thing?
You can visit Rose Dee at: http://rosedee.com/
A special thank you to Iola Goulton for the extra information about the Twilight series.
