A reboot means to start something again, but in the sense of television and media it means to revive or rebrand an already established series, sometimes to make it more relevant and modern.
It seems like lately everything is being remade.
In recent years, Disney has been notorious for reboots — remaking many of its original animated movies with more planned. Disney even jokes about it.
In the trailer for the surprise hit movie “Free Guy” starring Ryan Reynolds as a self-aware non-playable-character, the joke “from the studio that brought you Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, and The Lion King … Twice” is made.
Does Disney need to remake every animated movie? When it comes to dumping money into a new project or revamping something that they know has been popular in the past, it’s safer financially to stick with the tried-and-true, even if that’s not what the audience wants.
“I think film companies should be selective about which reboots they should make,” said student Jamie Phan. “If they feel as though some sort of storyline needs to be updated because it contains something offensive, then I’d understand if they would want to make a reboot of that. If the storyline is good as is, and if current generations are enjoying old stories, then just keep it the way it is. There’s no need to reproduce.”
The video game industry is doing something similar with “remastering” older games, which is where they dust off a game that was popular in the past, and update it with the latest engines to run on the newest machines, then re-release it. Popular remastered titles include Final Fantasy X|X-2, The Last Of Us and Dark Souls.
As the saying goes: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
When it comes down to it, how are these industries surviving with little to no new content? Simple. People crave nostalgia. They’re selling comfort — things people are familiar with and trust.
“The reboot that instantly comes to mind is Cobra Kai. I love it,” said student Aja Ancheta. “It’s very nostalgic — based on the Karate Kid movies. I feel like they actually did it really well. Sometimes it’s a hit or miss with reboots.”
Unfortunately, sometimes in the process of rebooting, things do get broken and the reboot doesn’t do the original justice.
“It depends on how much effort they actually put into it,” said Ancheta. “There are some, like the Girl Meets World reboot that they did off of Boy Meets World…it kinda was a flop. Not that a reboot has to pay homage to the original show, or it has to be a carbon copy of it, but it just didn’t feel that nostalgic while at the same time they didn’t put their own twist to it at all.”
For instance “Bel-Air”, a Peacock Exclusive, imagines a grittier, more dramatic reboot of the cult classic, 90s sitcom “Fresh Prince” starring Will Smith. “Fresh Prince” defined a generation, but unfortunately in its first few episodes, Bel-Air has seen less than stellar reviews by audiences and critics alike, which has been disappointing for the high hopes set by NBC’s heavy advertising campaign for Bel-Air during the Winter Olympics.
“I think that when it comes to reboots, they should cater towards younger generations, so they can experience those older shows that were so prominent to older generations before rather than it being in between and confusing the audience,” said Phan. “The first reboot that came to my mind is probably one of the more recent reboots Disney has made, and that’s The Proud Family. I didn’t grow up watching The Proud Family (I didn’t have cable), so I don’t think I could connect to it as much as older generations do… I look at the comments of the posts on social media, and I see the amount of backlash they’ve received. A lot of people are saying to keep the original one out there, and let that be the only one left of The Proud Family instead of trying to make it more relevant to kids today because the way I heard Disney rebooted it, people aren’t understanding the intended audience.”
The goal with nostalgic things is to have the older generations introduce it to newer generations, but is there an expiration date of what can or can’t be rebooted?
Consider “Frasier.” The spinoff of the iconic 80s sitcom “Cheers,” tells the story of Dr. Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) and his life, juggling living with his aging father in Seattle, his brother, and being a hit radio psychiatrist.
“Frasier” ran for 11 seasons on NBC from 1993 to 2004. In 2018, nearly 25 years after the first episode was aired, Paramount announced it was rebooting it. Five years later, news has been kept tightly under wraps. Why announce a reboot now, when the target demographic of 18 to 34-year-olds most shows strive to cater to literally weren’t even born when this show was airing? They’ve probably never heard of this show before.
It can’t be that we as a society are at a point where originality is dead and no one can think of anything new. No matter the case, it’s clear there are more reboots coming in the future.