anime and anime remakes.

This is my thoughts on certain Live action remakes of popular anime:

Dragonball: Evolution:

i honestly don't think too highly of the original Dragon Ball series, it was far too out-landish, the idea that Goku could have lived for however long alone and not encountered anyone else, and the idea that dinosaurs roam the area he lives is far too outlandish (yes, i think we've established the anime was quite outlandish) even for a series about supernatural aliens who can come back to life with the help of magic spheres. i mean, this is set someplace in the middle of Japan for crying out loud! Now, DBE compressed the crap that was the original Dragon Ball series into about 1.5 hours, it is FAR better imo than the anime, and they can slide right into a DBZ movie if they wish with hardly a time jump. now, this was not perfect, as it took a few turns i did not want, also, the suit that looks so cool in Dragon Ball Z is a little harsh so they would need to darken it a bit, but as far as this movie goes Goku's street clothes look better for a cool fighting suit.


Death Note:

i think it's safe to say you've either been living under a rock for almost ten years or are very young or fairly old to not have heard of this. one of the best thriller-fantasy-mystery series there is, and they've made three DS games, two novels, and three movies out of it.


now, as i have not seen the existing Death Note movies yet i have nothing to compare the possible remake by Warner Brothers to, but if Zac Efron is Light (yeah, you read that right), well i'm not entirely sure it's gonna make it. 
my initial reaction was....:

that was because i cannot fathom why he would be cast in such a complex role.
 Efron's main area of expertise is comedy, romantic movies, and musicals, i'm not entirely sure he can recreate the sense of realism and righteousness that the Death Note anime and manga managed to embody in the vigilante and dark hero that is Light Yagami. i hope that Efron knows how to act, and i mean really act because Light Yagami is a complex character and isn't a role to take on lightly (pun semi-intended).


now concerning Live-action adaptions of anime in general:
as a rule, i don't usually like live-action adaptions of cartoons (with the exception of the Ben 10 movie adaptions, which are decent and also have a place in cannon with the rest of the series). they usually wind up being insanely stupid and corny since they did not have good enough material to base a whole movie on so they come up with convoluted plot elements and plot-lines that wind up over-complicating the story to the point of it being totally unrecognizable next to its older original version. cartoon adaptions of live-action movies are a different matter seeing as most of them are low budget deals with most (if not all) of the original cast replaced. 


back on the topic of anime and manga being adapted into live action films, some of them are great, some not so great. while i haven't seen even a fraction of the ones released, i can tell you that certain ones are major improvements on the originals. Dragonball Evolution and Speed Racer being two of them, wheras from what i hear, the Japanese Death Note adaptions sucked.
now, i like the idea of anime and manga being adapted into live-action films, it gives us, the fans an opportunity to enjoy both a stylistically new and revised version of our favorite series, as well as allowing for a redone version that can cut out the filler and other things we didn't like in the original. but if they get too original with their remake, it can fail. likewise if they follow everything to the letter of the original, rather than making something realistic they can make it way too cartoony to appeal to the original fan-base and can even alienate them from it. also if they make a film too dark they can also alienate younger and newer fans.
that being said i don't want everyone to like it, if they did there'd definitely be something wrong.
it all boils down to they need to use some common sense when remaking a hit series into a live-action movie,  don't stray too far from the original yet don't let it hold you back from trying new things that might wind up being cooler than what was in the original. basically: good luck WB, i hope that you mange to create something great.


image credit Wikipedia, the video is by me and of me.


EDIT:


sorry about the white highlighting, Blogger does that sometimes and i can't figure out how or why.