NOSTALGIATOPIA

DuchessSatineKenobi wrote:

I remember Webkinz! I played on there too! I also had a Club Penguin.

I never got a Club Penguin for some reason. I also remember two other online game things my friends had but I never got, but I don't remember what they were exactly...

I LOVE WEBKINZ!!!!!!!! I collected a lot of them, and recently they were selling mini Webkinz for $3 so I bought one and played rather obsessively for a few weeks XD I've weaned myself back off it! ^^;

I remember getting a club penguin for a very short amount of time because my friend in jr high was obsessed with it... but I never actually got the deluxe membership so it was kind of lame XD

Does anyone remember the movie The Brave Little Toaster? I loved that movie as a kid! It scared the living daylights out of me, though XD

I recently rewatched it, and it's actually really good! As weird as the concept is, it's a pretty awesome movie!

I only remember watching a trailer for The Brave Little Toaster Goes to Mars on one of my VHS movies. My sister says that she watched The Brave Little Toaster and it freaked her out.

I never saw that! I'm curious though, do you know if it's on Netflix or not? :B

The two sequels are on Netflix, but not the original. Sorry.

Awww oh well XDD

It's on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klmhRw_zB54

Oooh! I'll have to watch sometime!

Awesome! Let me know what you think if you do!

Hey, I have a discussion question. When is it okay to reboot a nostalgic franchise? I ask this because it was just announced that Disney is going to do a live-action/CGI remake of Dumbo.

http://time.com/2967232/dumbo-remake-disney/





My thoughts... Honestly, I think that these live-action reboots/remakes have gone too far. Dumbo is a classic and should not be messed with! I mean, I guess that IF they do a good job with it, then I'll be fine with it... I guess... maybe... I don't know.


Anyways, the news (and my reaction) sparked some internal "split-ness" because I think that there are some particular movies and TV shows that (if I were to ever go into Hollywood as a writer) I would like to reboot/remake for a modern audience.

Example? On the TV side, I think rebooting a certain Hanna-Barbera cartoon from the 60s certainly has potential, considering it had a good premise to begin with, but was never finished as a series and (in my opinion) has the potential to become epic (I already have a few general ideas for it, even though I think it needs some semi-major changes). That cartoon, Shazzan (the video below has the premise of the show at the end).


But then I thought about how much I didn't like (at least what I saw of) The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, a show from the 90s that was a reboot/remake of an old Hanna-Barbera cartoon from the 60s. So, I thought, is it okay for me to want to reboot a show from the 60s that someone else probably likes when I didn't like a reboot of a show that I like? Which led me to my final set of questions: When is it okay to reboot a nostalgic franchise? What certain movies and TV shows should never be touched and which ones need to be rebooted in order for a modern audience to discover them? When is changing the material ok and when is it going too far? I guess you could say that it's all a matter of individual opinion; and whenever there is a reboot/remake, there's always going to be people who are unhappy, but there has to be a general consensus on what is okay to reboot and what is okay to change in a reboot. Everyone seems to love the reboot of The Planet of the Apes franchise, so it's not like every reboot is universally hated.

So... please express your opinion on this subject...

I watched the Brave Little Toaster the other day!! It was adorable! XD

Hmmm honestly I don't know what my opinion would be on that, Allishmalli. Because everyone's going to view franchise reboots differently; some people will hate hate hate them,others will be super excited and love them, and some won't care either way.

I think a good way for movie makers looking to remake an old movie or tv show to find out if their particular idea would be statistically more "in favor" than "no way" would be to go on social media sights around the internet and find out if it's something people really want, cuz if it's not, then obviously they'll be wasting their time and money doing it.

However, I will say that there have been a few remakes that I really do enjoy, such as the newer Star Trek.

I'm glad you liked it Bluey!

That is a very good discussion, Allishmalli!

Really, if you think about it, reboots have been going on since the beginning of storytelling. Fairy tales have been passed down for ages, and have changed a lot depending on the time and place where they are told. Lots of different mythology has also been passed down and can still be found in today's stories.

I think it depends on what the reboot does. If it really adds something new to the story, or if an update was simply needed, then a reboot can be a very good thing. For example, I think that Maleficent was a very good movie and was an excellent retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Personally I never cared much for the original. I thought the characters and story were just pretty boring, and the idea of the prince saving a helpless princess is dated. But I feel like Maleficent really added an extra layer to that story and gave some much needed character development.

Another example of a good reboot is the new Robocop. Both the original and the reboot are wonderful movies, but I feel like the reboot did a good job of looking at robots and their problems/benefits from today's point of view, because a lot has changed between the 80's and now, especially technology wise, and there are new issues for the movie to explore.

That being said, while I think it is good for a reboot to bring something new to the franchise (or else what is the point of rebooting it?), I also think that it should keep at least some of the spirit of the original. Like how Maleficent still has the Disney-ish magic and Robocop still has the political satire.

I think a reboot doesn't work when it completely gets rid of everything that made the original great. Like some of the newer Scooby Doo things (mostly the live action movies). The original Scooby Doo was about a bunch of friends having adventures and solving mysteries. It was fun. The live action movies were just freaky. They didn't have any of the fun that the original had.

I also think that sometimes a reboot simply isn't necessary. Some stories still work and are just timeless. Like How the Grinch Stole Christmas, for example. The original cartoon is perfect. We don't need a live action movie and we don't need another animated movie (which I hear is in the works). The original gets the message across perfectly, tells the story it needs to tell, and is still relevant today and probably will be for years to come. With Robocop and Maleficent, some ideas have changed since the originals came out, so a reboot can add something new that applies today. But with a story like the Grinch, the original is still relevant today and I feel that there is nothing new that needs to be added. Rebooting it just feels like they are trying to make money.

Actually, speaking of The Brave Little Toaster, I hear that they are going to make a reboot of that. Though I'm cautious of it because I don't trust the company it is coming from (the same one behind the  Alvin and the Chipmunks movies), I think that a reboot of The Brave Little Toaster has potential. It would be very interesting to see how they deal with today's technology, since new technology was a big theme in the original. It's actually kind of funny, because there is one part of the movie where a bunch of flashy "new" appliances are talking about how everyone wants the latest technology, but the thing is, the appliances that were saying that are all totally outdated now (old 80s computers and things like that), while appliances like a toaster will never be outdated because that is something you will always need. It just goes to show how quickly the "new" phones and computers and stuff get outdated, which would be an interesting theme for a new movie.

Anyways, as for a Dumbo reboot, I'm not really on board with that idea. For me the idea of a live action Dumbo just sounds freaky. I mean, why would you want to see a realistic looking elephant with huge ears? The whole idea is something that, in my opinion, is better suited for animation. A flying elephant with huge ears works great in animation, but I'm afraid in live action it would just be freaky.

I like your idea, Blue, about companies going to social media! That would be a very good strategy!

Thanks, Blue and DSK!

Calling all early 20s kids! All 65 episodes of Lizzie McGuire are now online!

http://video.disney.com/shows/lizzie-mcguire-4ba34ae3731d059e961b9666

Now we can all really feel nostalgic up in here!

Did you guys hear they are rebooting a bunch of old shows? I've heard Duck Tales and Inspector Gadget to name a few. I never watched those shows, but I think it is cool that they are giving the younger generation a taste of some old school shows.

I haven't heard that, no! I've never watched those either.

All I know is that nostalgia kills me ;w;

Yes! I was having so much nostalgia this week because I put in my housing deposit for college and it's kind of like . . . this is it . . . I'm about to actually leave.

NOSTALGIAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I get a heavy amount of nostalgia from listening to old music, or listening to the music while looking at the pictures or video associated with it.

Oh gosh yes! I remember listening to Taylor Swift when she first came out when I was like 10 years old. And every Lady Gaga song brings me right back to middle school dances XD

There are a few songs that we always had the CD's in the car when on road trips when I was like 9 or 10. They remind me of the trips I would always listen to this one instrumental song called "Tempest" I think by Jesse Cook, and I would pretend it was like the intro/theme to our vacation, and would imagine it like a movie in my head with all the names of my family like "featuring..." etc. xD

That's awesome! XD My brother and I used to do that too! We always listened to The Hamster Dance Song and the Weird Al Star Wars song XD

XDDDDDDDDD That sounds fantastic. I never actually shared my internal movie theme, it was just my personal inner monologue :3 Same with plane rides—in the years before I stopped carrying around my favorite Teddy, I would always look out the window on plane rides right after we were up in the air and hum the "over the mountains and the trees" worship song in my head XD I think it may have been a slight parody though because I could never remember any words past "over the mountains and the trees"

Does anybody ever experience nostalgia for things you didn't experience?

I get a taste of nostalgia whenever my friends tell me about their own nostalgic things like their childhoods or songs that mean a lot of them from certain points in their lives. It's interesting.

Yes! Like when people talk about being into Disney channel shows like Lizzy Macguire and stuff. I never watched any of those shows, but it makes me feel nostalgic anyways I guess because I just remember them being on (and now that I think of it I did have the theme song to that show on one of my Radio Disney CDs).