The Walking Dead

Remixing Mediums

In KS205: Comics and Cartoons last term, we discussed adaptation of comics to film and other mediums. Though we didn’t discuss this as a remix, I want to bring attention to this medium adaptation as a form of remix in the means of what we discuss in KS400. I was inspired by kayy_g's post on Bedtime stories remixed!

Now all special effects from drawing comic art can be replicated onto film. (For example: DC is owned by Time Warner.) Hollywood has found it easier to forge old myths rather then come up with new ideas. Comics in the film industry are valuable because they’ve already made a name for themselves, they are a brand with a rather large following. So filmmakers take advantage of that. Since print media is threatened because of film and computers, a positive look on this is that comics will always be up to date because of film technology that keeps them alive. The negative aspect is that print culture is losing value, but it is reassuring to know comics will be available online and in film.

Instead of seeing this as negative we can look at it in terms of Remix culture. Filmmakers can add new meanings and re-write parts artistically. There is also many ways montage keep this an artistic remix, montage means editing, camera angles, and movements. Using Benjamin’s theory “The conventional is uncritically enjoyed, and the truly new is criticized with aversion. This does not diminish its importance, however; if anything, it underlines it. Mechanical reproduction of art changes the reaction of the masses toward art. The reactionary attitude toward a Picasso painting changes into the progressive reaction toward a Chaplin movie. The progressive reaction is characterized by the direct, intimate fusion of visual and emotional enjoyment with the orientation of the expert. Such fusion is of great social significance (Benjamin).”

So the reaction, for example, the X-Men movie gets is a much different and progressive attitude towards it then the comic did. Not saying one is better then the other, they should both be viewed as their own separate entities according to their medium. The expert filmmaker can characterize X-Men movie in a way that differs from the comic, attaching different emotional enjoyment to it that the comic might lack since it is illustration vs. actors.

My last point is that although directors and filmmakers can take advantage of an existing piece of popular work and turn it into film for an almost guaranteed success, and many critics have scrutinized this for not having any creative value, I believe different mediums have their own artistic value. Yes I agree this is a profit motivated medium remix but at the same time every medium has something they do best and they should take advantage of that, and exploit its advantages to create a new product of art. X-Men probably took on a more adult sensibility with the movie, and even a bigger audience since films are much more popular medium for the masses rather the niche comic market. Remixing comics to film form can be very helpful and useful. So in turn the movie might have made the original comic much more popular. An Example of this is when The Walking Dead comic, was made into a television show, and the show made the original comic much more popular. Though the tv show deviates from the comic and only the first comic was faithfully re-created it still made the comic much more popular!

Bedtime Stories Remade

I would like to comment on the recent release of classic fairytale stories being remade in a different form of film than what we may be used to seeing. The stories I am referring to is the Little Red Riding hood story (watch the “Red Riding Hood” trailer here) and Beauty and the Beast (watch “Beastly” trailer here). These stories are not being remade in the cute, cartoon, Disney-style way that we grew up with and know and love. They are being made to appeal to adults - they are presented with real actors. Without singing and talking animals. Without magic. Without balancing out the actually quite dramatic and even horrific story lines with comedic and fun, entertaining songs, jokes or repetitive verses which make them appropriate for children.

These two fairy tales have been appropriated to appeal to much different demographic, and honestly, I think that they will be very successful at the box office. I personally am interested to see how the filmmakers turned a move like the Beauty and the Beast, a movie I have seen in cartoon version hundreds of times, and a story like Little Red Riding Hood, a classic tale that I have had repeated to me countless times as a child – to films with recognizable actors and an overall haunting feel to it.

This is a modern example of appropriating culture into contemporary remix culture, just like the Disney movies were appropriated re-makes of these classic tales in order to reach our generation when we were kids. The popularity of these "re-make" films comes out of the need for the morals of the stories to reach an older audience. The messages in both of these tales are helpful to children growing up: you know, like beauty is from within and don’t be lured into strangers’ houses and stuff. Kids seem to be growing up faster these days and with the classic Disney cartoons pretty much obsolete from our culture, (Although I suppose Vanessa Hudgens is the “Disney character” of today, which makes a lot of sense that she’s in the “Beastly” movie), this is the next, new way to get these stories out there and have this youth generation listen to them.