5 Childhood Movies That Deserve Reboots

No, I’m not talking about remaking the Iron Giant (it will stand the test of time) – but I am referring to 5 other childhood favorites that I feel deserve a re-do of sorts. Before you go getting all bent out of shape please hear me out. I have a 2 year old son who one day will be old enough to start partaking in movies from my childhood. Films that I’ve treasured over the years that if you were to dust off the ol’ VHS player (if you could find one) and slide one of these 5 tapes into it, I’d probably watch it with a huge grin on my face. I can’t wait to sit down with him on a Friday night, turn one of these on, pop some popcorn and watch his reactions to all the magical moments. Yet, I’m fearful that by the time he hits that age, these movies will not hold up as well as I might think they do.

I’m only speaking to childhood favorites of my generation. I’m not trying to say that the movies were amazing on any oscar award winning merit or that they were the best in their respective genres. These are simply films that I think the younger generations of today shouldn’t miss – but might – due to how they might perceive them as old and outdated. (it’s as if you were to ask yourself how many films that you enjoy that your parents grew up watching … yeah, not many for me either)

 

I doubt that many of you Unrealtors out there reading this haven’t seen the movies I’m about to discuss. So I’ll spare you any details of what the movies are about and just get right into why I feel the deserve a reboot.

Hocus Pocus

My wife would probably hate me for saying this, but this movie is a prime example of a film that is losing it’s “luster”. While most Disney movies tend to hold up quite well, the live action ones suffer. If kids were to watch this movie today and expect the children to be representative of the way they are now, it’s just not going to happen. This is a common problem with lots of films. Not only are the children dated, but they are just plain awful at acting. As a kid you don’t notice this stuff, but now a days it seems as if casting directors are taking this into account and finding talent when it’s needed. Thankfully the three leading ladies for the film are what hold up the best but I’d be completely fine if they were all recast with fresh faces.

I’ve read rumors about the possibility of a sequel and I hope that doesn’t happen. Disney, this is my plea to you, don’t do what you’ve done in the past by taking a good movie and ruining it with a bad follow up. (this is typical of Disney with live action movies) Rather, save yourselves and just reboot what worked the first time with new special effects, same story, and better child actors.

 

The Neverending Story

Ok, start throwing the stones now…

When was the last time you actually watched The Neverending Story? Not just a scene from it, but the entire thing? This is where your childhood nostalgia gets the best of you. This is not a good movie. Sure the story and puppetry are astounding (at least for the time), but that doesn’t save the film if you were to watch it now. I probably adore TNS more than any other movie on this list and I can say without a doubt that it deserves a reboot. I can’t help but wonder what this movie could be like if it were given the Avatar treatment. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE the puppets and how great some of them are, especially when they interact with the humans, but even with this magic it just doesn’t hold up.

For example:

The dialogue between Atreyu and G’Mork is great, but I can’t hardly stomach how awful G’Mork actually looks. Not to mention how bad it looks when Atreyu throws the dead lumbering beast to the ground after he’s run him through with his stone dagger. I wouldn’t want all the puppets gone or the amazing sets, just update EVERYTHING and for the love of god, make Falkor an actual dragon and not some half dog thing.

 

Honey I Shrunk The Kids

The best parts of this movie were the ant, the oversized Oreo and then Rick Moranis. I doubt that I’d get much argument there. As a kid, watching this movie was awesome as I’m sure being a kid and acting in this movie was equally awesome. Who didn’t want to sleep in a 3 story LEGO block after watching this? With all the fun gimmicks aside I doubt that many of you would want to watch this movie now. It’s another film plagued by the younger acting talent not being up to par combined with set designs that could be given a complete makeover. The concept was fun and the message of “not knowing what you’ve got till it’s gone” is subtle enough, but it deserves another go.

 

Gremlins

As a kid I never thought that Gremlins was a scary movie. Sure I might’ve jumped a few times when one of the gremlins popped out of nowhere but I found them funnier than anything else. This is one of those movies I constantly teeter back and forth on whether I want to show it to my kid. We are all scared in different ways by many different things. What I found to be funny someone else might have found to be disturbing and grotesque. I can’t help but think that my son might shield his eyes with his “blankey” and run away if I were to show him Gremlins. Regardless of this circumstance its one film that begs to be completely restructured from the ground up.

For one, (mind you if it went this way I’d forgo letting my kid watch it) but I think it’d benefit tilting more towards the horror genre. Give it a heightened sense of tension between characters and scenes, make the Gremlins more menacing and evil, and finally, make sure the people who are acting in the film have more talent than the Gremlins themselves. Watching this and “A New Batch” you will understand what I mean by that. I’d love to see a new take on the actual Gremlin appearance and what Gizmo might look like.

 

The Dark Crystal

Have any stones left yet? I was torn between this or Mario Brothers, but honestly I don’t think I’d watch a Mario Brothers movie if it was made today.

A film by the Henson team that is so masterfully done makes it hard for anyone to argue why it should be remade. Though, I have a few points that might suede some of you to see my side of things. The first being that as a kid, I never understood quite what was going on. Sure I could tell the good guys from the bad guys, but there was no concrete set up or plot that was easy enough for a child to comprehend. Next, we have absolutely zero character development. Who is Jen, why is he the last Gelfling? What’s a Gelfling? What’s a Msytic? What is that little dog thing that runs around with the girl Gelfling? Wait, I thought Jen was the last Gelfling? (do you see what I’m getting at here?) I’m sure that it could benefit from an extra hour, but that’s a lot of extra time to do a lot of puppeteering work.

I don’t want an animated reboot – keep the CGI away unless desperately needed in order to achieve some stunning effect! The puppets are so meticulously well done that they deserve to stay the focal point of what makes this movie such a timless treasure.

 

That’s it my Unrealtors … 5 of my Childhood favorites put up on the reboot block. Would you agree with me on any of them or does your nostalgia come into play and keep you from wanting to see a new take on these films? Sometimes reboots work – the Departed, True Grit, Freaky Friday, Batman Begins, Let Me In, the Ring and Ocean’s Eleven are just some examples. Could it work for kid movies too?

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Hey guys & gals, my name is Lucas Tetrault and if you like this post or any of the others I’ve done – please feel free to venture over to my Blog and take a gander at some other stuff I write about. I promise I don’t intend to waste your time.

I work as a Creative Director and spend time away from my job with my wife and son, writing for Unreality, and trying to be creative with my own personal projects.