By Emily-Rose Toohey
Let’s face it: people are obsessed with nostalgia.
Whether it’s the resurgence of film cameras, record albums, or the terrifying return of early 2000s fashion and even fashion from decades prior, sentiment seems to sell.
A lot of these trend resurgences have been led by Generation Z, which is an interesting observation as most within this group weren’t alive or were too you to experience these fads.
Access to the internet and the development of content sharing sites like social media (TikTok especially has exploded in recent years and become the number one way youths are talking about and spreading trends), allows us to delve into the past and consequently, make things relevant again.
There’s a whole psychology to it.
The Time Travelling Fashionista (2011) author Bianca Turetsky said a lot of these trends “offer an escape”.
She describes it like “watching an old movie” (2011) and specifically relating to fashion trends, is a “way to experience a different life through clothing” (2011).
But there’s a catch, you see.
While the world is waist deep in sentiment, someone’s always profiting from it.
Perhaps one of the best examples of big corporations doing this is the Disney live action remakes.
As children, classic Disney animations meant the world to most people – there’s The Lion King (1994), The Little Mermaid (1989), and Beauty and the Beast (1991) to name a few.
These have all been made into live action movies over the past five years, with The Little Mermaid scheduled for a 2023 release.
Creators have even taken liberties and expanded upon iconic characters, like Cruella from 101 Dalmatians (1961), for instance.
Emma Stone played the titular role in last year’s Cruella film, which delved into the character’s life and backstory in an entirely new film.
Aladdin’s (1992) updated film in 2019, however, stuck very closely with the original movie aside from a few changes and song additions.
Basically, all of these films made millions at the box office, giving the Disney conglomerate even more money than they need.
All-in-all, this is due to the movie’s being family friendly and are largely driven by people’s love of the originals – why else retell perfectly good animated movies otherwise?
The knowledge that audiences will turn up and watch these films guarantees Disney a profit.
However, perhaps what’s most interesting is a majority of these films being met with lukewarm reviews from critics and criticisms that they don’t have the same magic that made us fall in love with the original animations.
This begs the question: will these remakes continue being made 20, 30 or even 40 years from now?
Will we be seeing Frozen (2013) or Moana (2016) in their real life form?
Honestly, the possibility is high if Disney keeps making billions of dollars off people’s nostalgia – but when will it stop and most importantly, do we really want these films to stop?
