Where has all the movie originality gone?

I was thinking the other day when Scooby-Doo first hit the theaters, and I remember thinking this same thought about five years ago, "What's up with Hollywood reincarnating these old TV shows and cartoons as full-length feature movies?" Have we exhausted all original ideas that a creative mind can conjure up? Is creativity finite? Is it possible that we have actually reached the end of original thought? Even if you look at current television programming, with all its uninspired and short-lived reality shows, you begin to wonder if maybe Hollywood is just on a big collective give-up. What would Walt Disney say about this sad state of creative stagnation?

Another explanation might be that we are just at a point in the relatively short history of Television, where TV shows from the 60s and 70s are old enough that they've never been seen by the majority of kids, yet grown-ups remember them from their childhood. If you think about it, television fans from one or two generations ago were watching the pioneer programming of television. We have never before been at a point in television history where adults and their children grew up watching color television. It would logically make sense, from a box-office standpoint, to create films that draw upon the memories of our baby-boomer adults with the hope that they would bring their children along. What better way to do this than to draw from the childhood memories of the "boomer"?

But an even more logical accounting, and the one that I happen to buy into personally, is that you, the Gen-X movie-goer, are forking over your hard earned dollars by the bagful to attend these mindless, simpleton, reincarnated celluloid zombies. This goes for you too, you Gen-Y'ers. You grew up in the age of video games and VHS tapes. You know nothing but sitting back and letting the world come to you.

You Gen-Xers with your short attention spans, your ADD and your uninterested, care-free, sorry attitudes have grown up, and you are now beginning to become involved members of our society. And Hollywood is dumbing down to meet you half way. I can't blame Hollywood for not creating any more original masterpieces like Casablanca, A Streetcar Named Desire or Citizen Kane. Why spend the time on majestic endeavors when you can just whip out a quickie script for the remake of Flipper, The Brady Bunch, The Beverly Hillbillies or Charlie's Angels and Gen-Xers are guaranteed to show up in droves like a dog returning to its own vomit!

Those were my shows and you've soiled them! But, alas...not to worry, the number of old television programs and cartoons is finite, and good, creative, original concepts will eventually return and you'll be forced to watch.

I must go now....I'm going to see Scooby-Doo tonight.

Frank

a response to this rant

Response

Name: Shari L.
Subject: response to Frank's Reel Rant
July 2, 2002 Response: First of all, I personally resent the fact that I am officially lumped into the generation "X" merely because of the year of my birth (and I'm borderline there). I commented to my friend 3 weeks ago upon seeing the preview for "Scooby Doo" that it would be by far the WORST movie of 2002. I agree that it is absurd to recreate the shows (and even worse, the cartoons as live action flicks) of the 50s, 60s and 70s. I watched many of the original shows in syndication after school in the 70s, thank you very much, and have not cared much for TV since then. I worked my way through high school, college and graduate school, unlike most of my peers. I did not run off and do drugs and become a tattooed, body-pierced freak or teenage mom as many of my classmates did. I cannot argue with those who abhor and loathe the value system and morals of most of "Generation X." However, in some cases, I can blame their baby boomer parents for the selfish, uninvolved, "don't bother me" child-rearing tactics that resulted in spoiled, zoned-out, lazy (and drug-addicted) kids. I've seen the worst of boomer parenting skills and what happens there years later, believe me. But, just as all boomers aren't rotten parents, all "X-ers" aren't degenerates (at least not YET -- give me a few years)!

	Name: Frank Wilkins
	Subject: response to Frank's Reel Rant
	July 3, 2002 Response: Very nice! By the power vested in me by Bob Denver, Florence Henderson and Don Knotts, I hereby officially pronounce you a transcendent of the Gen-X classification! You will, from this point hence, be referred to as a respectable 'tweener falling between the two groupings, thereby shedding all negative stereotypes cast upon you by either. (Action: touching each of your shoulders with the paw of a Sleestak).

Name: Brent Y.
Subject: response to Frank's Reel Rant
July 2, 2002 Response: Frank, I think you forgot about all of those 60's movies with Don Knotts. I wouldn't go as far as saying they were as bad as Scooby Doo, but they are equal to the Adam Sandler movies. As far as taking up for the Gen X, Who runs the movie studios? Baby-Boomers. Who are the majority of directors? Baby-Boomers. HMMMMMM!!!! As far as Gen Y, I agree. Have you seen one of those Pokemon or Power Rangers movies? I think Jason Kidd and Jerry Narron act more excited than those actors. By the way, what is wrong with the Brady Bunch?, that was a great movie!!!!

	Name: Frank Wilkins
	Subject: response to Frank's Reel Rant
	July 3, 2002 Response: Hey, don't you come in here ripping those Apple Dumpling Gang movies. Those were genius! Along with The love Bug the Benji movies, and anything starring Jerry Lewis as well as all the original Planet of the Apes movies. They're all pure greatness! Just like I said though, I can't blame the studios when they get $125 million for that mess they call SCOOBY DOO! And don't get me started on those pure-fluff, mindless Chick movies like "The Yoo-hoo sisterhoods" "The Green Tomatoes" and "My Friend's Wedding" that bring the women out in droves. What a waste of time. But those Pokemon and Power Ranger movies are horrible. I try and try....but I just can't get them. I don't see why the kids go so crazy over them. Those whippersnappers!