The Era of Remakes: Hollywood's Creative Void

From August 9th to August 11th, 2024, Disney fans gathered at the Anaheim Convention Center in mouse ears and jedi robes, awaiting new cinema announcements at D23: the biggest Disney expo in the world. In the span of 30 hours, attendees watched Disney’s most prominent faces announce upcoming films and tv shows—so why were they all underwhelmed?

A significant portion of the D23 cinema announcements were sequels, reboots, and film adaptations for previously told stories. Fans are outraged at the decline of creativity in Hollywood, no longer excited for recent Disney movies. Viewers report that with the rise of remakes in the entertainment industry, “[Disney and PIXAR] films don’t interest [them] anymore.” Loyal streamers aren’t looking forward to seeing Toy Story 5 or the second Descendants trilogy; people want something new, but Disney won’t give them that.

Big corporations like Disney, Warner Bros, and Sony know what makes them money at the box office, and are afraid to stray from those topics, but it’s getting old fast. With each sequel, one after another, critics get more and more demotivated to watch and review movies from the most famous entertainment companies in the industry; “It’s the same story copied onto a live-action counterpart, just to make them more money,” stated Marina Martinez at Three Penny Press.

Loyal consumers who enjoyed Disney movies during their childhoods are also extremely disappointed that today’s children cannot experience the thrill of a new, original film, claiming that “[their] generation saw the end of Disney as a creative powerhouse.”

Tony Chambers, head of theatrical distribution at Disney, has openly expressed his dissatisfaction with the poor outcome of Elemental’s opening weekend in theaters: “Original IP [(intellectual property)] has a harder time cutting through in the market … At this point in time, it’s a very busy marketplace.”

In addition, Disney PIXAR executives announced that if Inside Out 2 did well in the box office, they’d abandon original stories based on real-life experiences. This decision was based on the economical response to Luca and Turning Red; these two movies were released during the COVID-19 pandemic and, in result, made less money than expected. Instead of coming to the conclusion that the decline in income was due to the pandemic, they blamed it on the originality and authentic feel of the movies. While both films received mostly positive reviews from critics, producers are starting to lean towards what people have loved in the past, despite the ever growing demand for never-before-seen stories.

Disney used to be a magical realm of imagination and endless possibilities, every story being unpredictable, anticipation building up with every announcement. In recent years, it’s been as if someone shoved a vacuum into their HQ and sucked all of the creativity out of it. One thing is for sure: Disney needs new voices. Voices that can actually speak, rather than repeat what’s already been said. In reality, we might never hear those voices as long as their unnecessary sequels bring in the money Disney craves.

Interested? Find more by Maria Yolanda here!

ABOUT MARIA YOLANDA

Maria Yolanda is a freshman at Centner Academy. Beyond just reporting, Maria is also a digital organizer, designer and editor at The Pollinator Post. Maria has experience as a 7th-grade journalist and as an author of a suspenseful, thrilling novella. She has a strong passion for covering true crime, along with conducting interviews and surveys. Maria is fascinated by seeing the world from other people’s perspectives and putting herself in their minds.