
Girl Gang Podcast
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Girl Gang Podcast
Episode 15: Why Can't They Leave Good Movies Alone? A Dive into Remakes
Remember that magical feeling when you first watched your favorite childhood movie? Now imagine Hollywood trying to remake it—sometimes brilliantly, often disastrously. This week, the Girl Gang dives headfirst into the world of remakes, sequels, and spinoffs, exploring why some brilliantly recapture magic while others leave us wondering why anyone bothered.
Have strong feelings about remakes? The Girl Gang wants to hear which ones you love, which ones you hate, and which classics should remain untouched. Join the conversation and let us know—should Hollywood keep remaking our favorites, or is it time to demand original stories?
Hi everyone, welcome to Girl Gang Podcast. My name's Rachel,
Sarah:I'm Sarah
Brandi:and I'm Brandi and we are your hosts for this episode.
Rachael:So this week the Girl Gang went and saw the remake of how to Train your Dragon and that's kind of what sparked the interest for our episode this week. So we were interested in talking about remakes, what we think about them, which ones are awesome, which ones suck, and then we also kind of went down this rabbit hole of, well, what's the difference between a sequel versus a remake, versus a spinoff? So Google lets us know that, for those of you who are questioning it, what's the difference? Sequel continues the story of an existing story. A remake retells the story of an existing work but has updated production values, but it might not be considered part of the same continuity Continuity, continuity, I don't know. And then a spinoff focuses on, maybe, a new story featuring a specific character from that first kind of universe.
Brandi:Yeah, typically in the same universe.
Rachael:So, How to Train your Dragon is a remake, but it's a live action remake right?
Brandi:Yes, and honestly, probably one of the better remakes.
Rachael:So good.
Sarah:Agreed.
Sarah:I don't know if there's gonna be any spoilers or not, but definitely recommend going to see it
Brandi:well, it was exactly like the animation one,
Sarah:which is that's true
Sarah:Yes, and
Rachael:didn't you listen? Didn't you watch the interview? Saying that like this person is very Like, doesn't like it when they change details?
Sarah:Yes, who was this produdcer..
Sarah:There was an interview I saw with one of the um producer or directors and he had said one of his biggest pet peeves was when a team goes to remake a movie and they try too hard to change the animation to make it more modern, like yes in his words, it takes the magic out of it.
Sarah:So he tried really hard. He had said in this interview to keep the magic in toothless as much as possible. That was shown in the original and he went on to. I looked up the rest of the interview. I'll just look it up and tag it in the in the comments. But he went back to and he said they even tried to reanimate toothless in a different way, you know, more realistic, like because it was a live action. Like they tried to make his mouth smaller. He changed the size of his eyes because what natural animal has that?
Brandi:Big of eyes they do.
Sarah:They do. So he said they tried it in a number of different ways and nothing ever worked. So he's like you know what it's? Just it's meant to stay the same, it's meant to be magical and he's meant to look like that. That is, toothless is what we know and love. So he said I'm going to try and make this as best as I can, or die trying, and I'm like we appreciate you, sir.
Brandi:I will say that is something I noticed when I watched it is that he looks so like he's going against all these realistic-looking dragons who are just meaner and scarier than he is. Yeah, and he just. He was just, you know, different, which I liked because he's by far the best part of those movies, but it was just kind of funny watching him with his big gummy smile yeah, big eyes go after these scary, like I say, realistic, like a dragon's, a real animal, but you know what I mean. You know more of what you would have seen. And if they were real, I guess?
Sarah:And true. When we were all at the theater, we saw two people who had, like their, viking helmets on and like gotten a character and they had the little toothless on their shoulder. Yeah, if they were, would have changed what toothless looked like I mean a ll of those stuffed animals would have gone to waste, yeah.
Brandi:You know, For sure. Or that movie just would have sucked,
Sarah:or exactly right?
Sarah:So the interview is on YouTube. It's How to Train your Dragon interview with director Dean DeBlois, I'm assuming it's French, I don't know how to pronounce that. He is a three-time Oscar nominee and a Golden Globe winner, and that was a really cool interview. It was interesting to see.
Rachael:I just appreciated that. So I had not watched How to Train your Dragon in a while, but I watched it and I was like this feels exactly the same. I hate it when I go into a theater and I watch something and I'm like, oh, they changed this.
Sarah:Yes.
Rachael:Like a particular part
Sarah:It was so nice I actually watched the first one and the second one earlier that day because I really like to compare, like the remakes, or like the first one to the second one, or I just like to see what they change, what they keep the same, how they modernize it. All that fun stuff. But it was definitely a good one.
Brandi:I am the same way and I will say a lot of times you know they market it to a look Like. When you see commercials and stuff, they put the familiar clips in there.
Sarah:Yes,
Brandi:Especially with like, a lot of the like, the Disney remakes that they're doing the live actions. They put all of the scenes that you're like yes, this is going to be great, it looks just like the animated one. And then you get in there and it's completely different, and that's what frustrates me.
Sarah:Right? I want to know why. Why are we doing so many remakes?
Brandi:Because they make money. It's an easy way to make money.
Sarah:Are we just losing creativity? Like
Brandi:Money just speaks louder than art. Always has.
Sarah:Crazy to me, that I feel like and I don't know if this is just, maybe this is just me but I feel like pre-COVID we had a lot of better movies.
Brandi:uhh, there are still a lot of
Sarah:I don't know. I feel like there are right, but I feel like since then, something just kind of changed, like there hasn't really been something that came out that's like I mean, I will say Wicked was a really good one that came out post-covid, but there hasn't really been, at least to my knowledge, a really good movie that's like whoa,
Rachael:Do you think there are more movies based on real stories coming out, nowadays?
Sarah:I do like that because I think that's part of like the keeping history alive and sharing those pastimes
Brandi:yeah, but then again lack of creativity
Sarah:right,
Brandi:you know
Sarah:right unless we go back to you know more honest, truthful storylines instead of, because we all know a lot of those fairy tales are fabricated, like a lot of I won't say fairy tales. A lot of the disney version of these fairy tales are fabricated they're not like the original folklores
Brandi:The original ones are horror movies.
Sarah:They are but, like you know, like I would, for some reason, I think I'd rather. Well, I don't know if I'd rather, but it would be interesting to see remakes where they're going back to more originality versus trying to modernize everything.
Brandi:Well, I hope you like scary movies, because if you did any, hans Christian Andersen fairy tales are so dark.
Rachael:Hard pass for me.
Brandi:So dark.
Sarah:I kind of like those movies. They're different.
Brandi:I don't like scary movies. I like reading his fairy tales, like actually reading them and being like holy shit, this is so different. I could never watch it as a movie, though. I don't even like suspenseful movies because I don't like jump scares.
Rachael:I don't like suspenseful movies because I don't like jump scares. I like the movies that are based off stephen king novels like I can get behind those because they're more like
Brandi:well they stick to their source material better than a lot of other,
Sarah:yeah they're more like thrillers versus like these like said pop out and scare you, yeah, like all of the haunted house, like I don't know, exorcism, like movies that are just scary just to be scary.
Sarah:I agree I don't really like, but I go from very dark, like psychological thrillers to Disney movies real quick.
Brandi:Well, I mean that interacts with your personality,
Sarah:I know.
Sarah:Those are like my two favorites. I love them.
Rachael:Do we think that the Disney live action movies are like flops?
Brandi:Most yes,
Sarah:some yes.
Brandi:Love, Beauty and the Beast.
Rachael:Oh yeah,
Sarah:See, that was one I actually liked.
Brandi:I liked that one.
Sarah:That was a remake, one I actually liked.
Brandi:Hated Lion King, didn't see it. Hated Aladdin,
Sarah:you know.
Sarah:I don't know why Lion King got so much hate. Can we elaborate on that, because I didn't think it was that bad.
Rachael:I did not see it, so I cannot have it.
Brandi:I think it was the voice actors they picked.
Sarah:I would have probably recasted them if I was the casting director myself. I would agree. But I mean the animation and the storyline. I don't think there was too much difference.
Brandi:Here's the thing. How is it I do struggle with some of these movies and Lilo and Stitch was kind of the same way is how do you do a true live action with like talking animals?
Rachael:Yeah
Sarah:that is true,
Brandi:you know like they can make it stitch is very similar to the toothless aspect. He looked very similar.
Sarah:I did like it from the commercials how he looked like
Brandi:More realistic, yeah, and even some of the other.
Brandi:Well, and see, for that I don't want to spoil anything, but they even changed some of the other aliens,
Sarah:the looks of them
Brandi:Not necessarily the looks, but their abilities, to make it more realistic. So it's hard to explain without giving it away, and I think that was kind of a cool feature that they put in it. So I don't want to say anything, um, but I think for Lion ing is, there's literally no humans in it, so you're literally it's quote-unquote live action, but you're just animating in a different way.
Sarah:and see that one that I actually the one good thing I do see is because in that case it's not that half and half that you're talking about, where it's all live action humans but then like a stitch or a toothless. I kind of liked that, as like the modernized remake of Lion King, because it like, I don't know it's it's letting the animals feel a little more realistic to kids
Brandi:no, that's fine.
Brandi:Just don't don't sell it as a live action,
Sarah:that well. No, that is true, it's still, it's still.
Sarah:What is that considered? Cgi? Still, I don't know what all those terms are.
Brandi:Uh, you're talking the wrong, I don't.
Brandi:Yeah, yeah, no, it's essentially a form of cgi like all of yeah,
Sarah:so I would.
Sarah:I would agree, then I don't think that's considered like live action. Well, or um, did they like film? Because again, I don't know what this is called, but when they film animals and then use that footage to then
Brandi:still cgi,
Sarah:animate it probably, then
Brandi:still cgi live action. Part of live action is there's a live human being acting
Sarah:so we need to come up with another name for animal live action movies
Brandi:Yeah, cgi animation
Sarah:there you go
Brandi:Its animation.
Brandi:It's another animated animation.
Rachael:I think it also depends on, like, maybe what your like connection to those movies are
Sarah:true,
Rachael:like I remember really loving Lion King as a kid, but have I watched it? Like, do I feel the need to watch it, even the original, nowadays?
Brandi:no, that's where you differ from me and Kozy because we watch them all the time,
Sarah:all the time but I will say, I loved mulan as a kid.
Sarah:That was one of my favorite. I mean, I love
Brandi:don't talk to me about that remake.
Sarah:I haven't seen it and I refuse to
Brandi:don't
Sarah:because of the rumors because of the rumors I heard that they they have mushu but he doesn't talk, so they took out the songs. Yeah, it's more of like and I don't. I heard that they have Mushu but he doesn't talk.
Brandi:It's not. I don't even want to call it a remake, because
Rachael:Let me Google this what's?
Rachael:it considered it's a live action remake.
Sarah:It's a live action remake.
Brandi:It is technically because it's the same characters, but they make it more historically accurate and like
Sarah:was it still kid friendly, like I mean, I think it's still rated pg, but
Brandi:yeah,
Brandi:I mean, I mean it's the first one really kid friendly. I mean she's like, she's like they're like cutting heads off and stuff.
Rachael:So I mean, I didn't really get the like woman being the bird, like there's kind of like some like
Brandi:what?
Rachael:Because um, in the original, like the bad guy had his like bird, hawk.
Rachael:Yeah,
Rachael:I didnt really like that, like she was some sort of
Sarah:well chinese culture yes oh well, I mean, I was assuming, like chinese culture has a lot of, you know, like spirituality and um, what do you want to call it like?
Sarah:Uh, I don't what i am trying to think of, I don't know. It's more cultural aspect of, like their ancestors.
Rachael:, gotcha, no, that's what I thought.
Brandi:This was more they like pretend to as a sorcerer, as a sorcerer
Sarah:gotcha
Brandi:, yeah, I forgot about that.
Rachael:See, that's kind of why I didn't like that,
Sarah:yeah, I'm good.
Sarah:I like the songs
Brandi:yeah, those aren't in the live action whatsoever boo
Sarah:did anybody see the snow white remake?
Rachael:no I've heard it's terrible, though
Sarah:I did too, so I didn't want to see it.
Brandi:That was a flop.
Brandi:I didn't actually watch that one because I've been so upset with all the other remakes that
Rachael:that's the thing is like.
Rachael:I'm just not drawn towards them because I'm like, why ruin something that was already great to begin with?
Sarah:true
Rachael:if I wanted to see it then
Sarah:I am kind of excited for the moana one, though I know we're talking a lot about disney ones too, but I feel like they are really the most popular ones that are kind of coming up right now.
Rachael:The moana ones
Sarah:just the disney ones in general.
Brandi:That's literally disney making an easy money grab
Sarah:yeah, yeah, and in a way kind of like continuing on those, a way for them to continue on those movies and those storylines for like our kids.
Rachael:Did you all see the cinderella one that came out?
Sarah:Which one
Rachael:Probably like
Sarah:there's been, like
Rachael:okay, yeah, there's okay,
Sarah:there's only one cinderella that I will ever watch
Rachael:the 20, it's the 2015 one
Sarah:no,
Brandi:no, are you talking about?
Brandi:so it's the one with the blonde? That one, I think, was very good.
Rachael:Okay, so which one is the one that you would? So it's the one with the blonde. That one I don't think was very good. Okay, so which one is the one that you would watch?
Brandi:is it the one with brandy?
Sarah:yes, with brandy and whitney houston. That is the besides the like disney one
Brandi:you don't like ever after
Sarah:I dont think ive seen Ever After
Rachael:Ever After is a Was that a remake?
Brandi:Was that a remake?
Brandi:of Cinderella
Rachael:Is Ever After. I'm just Googling a lot here a remake.
Sarah:No, yeah, no one can ever play. I'm sorry, no one can ever play the.
Sarah:Godmother better than Whitney Houston.
Rachael:It is not a direct remake.
Brandi:Well, yeah technically. Okay, adaptation. Let's throw another term in there Adaptation.
Rachael:I love me a good Ever After, but it does not pretend to be Cinderella specifically, so I feel like that's why I can get behind it?
Brandi:Yeah, it does. They literally call her Cinderella when the old lady's telling the story.
Rachael:I guess, but it seems it feels different to me. Feels, I mean, I guess, now that I'm thinking about it, like all the things align, but I don't know,
Brandi:it's just more realistic.
Brandi:There's no talking mice. There's no. You know, her outfits are historically accurate. It's true, yeah you know it ties in some history with certain characters
Rachael:what about like an ella enchanted?
Sarah:that was a cute one
Brandi:that's technically cinderella.
Brandi:It's an adaptation.
Sarah:There's a good example of that,
Brandi:literally ella it's cinderella.
Sarah:Yes,
Rachael:yeah yeah, but something like that, like I like that movie.
Sarah:Yeah, I love that one
Rachael:because that one's fun
Brandi:but I feel like they take so again.
Brandi:Cinderella's a fairy tale, Like a folklore, Like that's been like passed down. So technically, anything from that is an adaptation. But what we all like about these movies is they're not trying to be like the others. Yeah, they're trying to differentiate themselves. They're not coming out like oh, this is disney cinderella, we're gonna remake it right and it's gonna be exactly the same, but with people. These are all our interpretation of the fairy tale
Rachael:so they're supposed to do live action um tangled.
Sarah:Yes, I did hear that.
Rachael:I don't know if it's like official, but it's definitely rumored and I feel like
Sarah:I think they had auditions all over tiktok like people posting their like self-audition tapes.
Brandi:They're gonna want to do a live action frozen
Sarah:oh
Rachael:I feel like it's too soon
Sarah:no, they couldn't they couldn't.
Sarah:And if they don't bring back Idina Menzel, for that I I'm going to be very upset. I'm going to write a very strongly worded letter if they don't do that.
Rachael:But that's the thing is like when is it okay to do a remake? Because they were like I was watching this video and they're saying like it hasn't been that long since Tangled came out that long since Tangled came out
Sarah:yeah that's true.
Rachael:At what point can you do a remake or a live action and it will resonate with people?
Sarah:I feel like that's when it goes, what Brandi said when it's demand and if they know that's going to make money, because a bunch of little girls still love Tangled and Rapunzel. They kind of Tangled, brought Rapunzel back to the frame.
Brandi:Yeah, and maybe that is why we're just so over them, because when we were growing up, if there was a remake it was an old remake set maybe like our grandparents watched yeah, and so for us, they're like oh, this is a remake, this came out when I was a kid, but we didn't remember it, whereas now
Sarah:right,
Rachael:true,
Brandi:most they're coming out so quickly now that most people remember when the original came out and they're like we don't need another one of these, whereas the other ones.
Rachael:Agree.
Rachael:Like.
Rachael:Ocean's Eleven is a remake, like Scarface is a remake. But we did not know that those were remakes when we were growing up, because so much time had passed.
Sarah:I had definitely seen the Again, I thought it was the original Willy Wonka when I was a kid. The Gene Wilder, yes, yeah, but there was one before that. Oh no, just kidding, gene Wilder was the first one then. Johnny Depp, and then they did the newest one. That was, I think, like an appropriate amount of time in between each movie
Brandi:the first two, not the third one.
Sarah:The third one's kind of good, though that one?
Rachael:No, it's not. Is it in the musical?
Sarah:With Timothy
Sarah:No, I actually thought that was so cute.
Rachael:I have not seen it, but I heard it's a musical right.
Sarah:Yes,
Rachael:so it's different.
Sarah:It was different.
Sarah:It might not be everyone's cup of tea, but I thought that was a cute.
Brandi:What's his name? As an Oompa Loom? I can't remember.
Rachael:All I know is growing up.
Rachael:did I want to be in a big-ass room with a bunch of candy and a chocolate river? Yes, like you just can't top that.
Sarah:So another good one that I think is kind of fitting with our age group is this Freaky Friday.
Rachael:Oh yeah, I don't want to see it.
Brandi:It's too soon.
Sarah:So is that considered a remake?
Rachael:No it is a sequel.
Brandi:It's a sequel.
Rachael:Okay, so they can still name it the same thing, because it's Freakier Friday, right, or whatever. Oh is it?
Brandi:And it actually takes place after the first one with the original characters, so that is a sequel.
Rachael:Freakier Friday
Brandi:but it might be what they call a standalone,
Rachael:you know but there's been a shit ton. Well, not a shit ton, but there was one.
Brandi:The concept's been around,
Rachael:but there was a Freaky Friday, so there was one 1976, 1995. Then you have the 2003 version.
Sarah:I knew there was an original before that because I had seen that I feel like on some TV channels where they play all the old ones
Rachael:and then, in 2018, also, disney Channel came out with one too, so it's been redone a lot,
Sarah:all I know but that is lindsey lohan, if you are listening, if you're coming back for a freaky friday remake. we need a parent trap remake.
Rachael:Oh yeah,
Sarah:someone put on the internet an ai intro of the second series of parent trap and it opened up on the camp and it's like, nine years later, dot, dot, dot, dot dot. And I'm like, oh,
Rachael:Nine years later.?
Sarah:Yes
Brandi:, she's way older than that
Rachael:Right.
Sarah:Well correct
Sarah:But it was just that was the animation that it was. So that got me thinking I'm like, and she's doing the remake of this,
Brandi:it would be funny if she was a camp counselor now,
Sarah:or it's her girls going to camp.
Brandi:But Paratrap is a remake.
Sarah:It is yes true Also.
Brandi:So maybe social media has ruined remakes because we just didn't have access to the old ones unless we knew about it, whereas now you've got IMDB and you can look up anything,
Sarah:true.
Brandi:You know what I am excited about? This new Freaky Friday, though, they're bringing back Chad Michael Murray on his motorcycles.
Rachael:Gorgeous.
Sarah:Love him.
Brandi:That man has aged like a fine wine.
Sarah:I know people have been. Some people are excited, some people are upset that the Moana 2 or no Moana live action. Moana 2 was great but the Moana live action with Dwayne Johnson.
Brandi:Why are they upset?
Sarah:I don't know, but some people on the internet were upset.
Brandi:He's literally the voice of it. He's the voice of it, right, and what other man are you going to get to even resemble?
Sarah:the size of Maui. I mean, we do have a friend who looks like Maui.
Brandi:Yeah, but even next to the rock he's gonna look small
Sarah:um it chat Gpt says some backlash over duane johnson returning as maui and the optics of remaking a culturally significant animated movie while it's still fresh. Okay, I don't know what the problem is with that either. i dont know what the problem is with that, either
Rachael:when's the live animated?
Brandi:like moana 2, just came out a couple years ago yeah again, this is look
Sarah:and that's gonna be a part animal, part human one.
Sarah:So,
Brandi:yeah, but there's people in it.
Sarah:Yeah, but they're not gonna not have the chicken or the pig,
Brandi:yeah, but but I bet they don't,
Sarah:or all of the water animals that we see.
Brandi:I know, but they're not going to have the same characteristics
Sarah:or Maui shapeshifting. They're going to have to because these shapeshifts are different animals.
Brandi:Yeah, I mean, you can do things. I'm just saying CGI is in all of these live actions. You just that's part of it, but the whole movie can't be CGI, which is my problem with Lion King.
Rachael:What about? Roadhouse
Brandi:oh God, that's so bad, so bad
Rachael:Really.
Rachael:I was going to say I didn't mind it.
Sarah:I'm meaning to watch that because I love the original.
Brandi:Oh, don't do it to yourself, sarah. No, it's so bad?
Rachael:You should, I think you should. I liked it. I liked it. I liked it.
Sarah:Dang
Rachael:Okay. But here's the thing With Roadhouse like there were enough differences and like I felt like it was meant to be more ridiculous.
Sarah:Okay,
Rachael:like the fight scene at the end.
Brandi:There's nothing ridiculous about the original Roadhouse.
Rachael:I know, but it's because they weren't trying to make it exactly the same, like there were elements that were the same, but like the books, like the name of the bookstore had like significance, you know all these things, but it was. I just felt like it was
Brandi:garbage.
Rachael:Slightly different in the sense that I was like okay, like I could get behind it okay.
Brandi:And here's where I say maybe if I'd been prepared for it, I would have gone in differently.
Rachael:So TikTok would have been like this is how it's all going to be different.
Brandi:Maybe it is so it is like a mix of Fast and Furious nonsense and Roadhouse combined, and that's what I didn't like about it.
Sarah:Yeah.
Brandi:It's because the first one,
Rachael:it's exaggerated for sure.
Brandi:It's all about acting, and the actors were so good and the storyline was so good. And then you have this one and it's all about let's make this as extreme as possible, let's make this unbelievable, and the acting sucked.
Sarah:You know who I think is killing it when it comes to remakes or new renditions of movies Is all of these stage productions that they are now bringing into the movies
Rachael:Like the Wicked.
Sarah:Like Wicked, I mean, wicked was fantastic, but I think that
Rachael:I haven't seen it yet.
Sarah:Girl, how am I Friends? Oh my God.
Brandi:Is this when i drop the bomb, but I haven't seen it either.
Sarah:Oh my, that.
Rachael:Oh my gosh,
Brandi:I have no desire to see the movie.
Rachael:She's so upset with us right now.
Sarah:I own it.
Sarah:I think I watched it like a total of 20 times a week.
Brandi:I have no desire to watch the movie Because I have yet to see Wicked on stage.
Sarah:Okay, fair enough. Fair enough,
Brandi:I do not want to ruin the experience.
Brandi:I understand storyline blah, blah, blah.
Brandi:No, fair. I do not want to ruin the experience. I understand storyline blah, blah, blah yeah.
Rachael:No, it's definitely worth seeing on stage first.
Sarah:That's like reading the book before seeing the movie.
Sarah:You've got to see the play before seeing the movie.
Rachael:To be fair, I had tickets, I just didn't make it that day.
Brandi:Well, did you read the book Wicked? Because it's a book, it's a really big book.
Rachael:That's her answer no, she has not read it. I did.
Sarah:My family owned it at one point in time, but I feel like I no longer have it.
Sarah:I would like to go back and read it though because I know it has a lot more.
Brandi:I might like an audiobook of it,
Sarah:I'm going to get into audiobooks.
Sarah:That's going to be a whole other thing too.
Brandi:We could have a whole conversation on audiobooks. But one thing if you are hesitant to get started in audiobooks because you're like, oh, I can't pay attention, blah blah, there is a company out there now and the audiobooks are a little more expensive, but it's because it is a full production that is called graphic audio and they their tagline is basically a movie for your ears.
Rachael:Nice.
Brandi:A lot of times they're even a little shorter than traditional narrations of audiobooks, because when it says so-and-so close the door in like written out and in a normal audiobook it would say so-and-so, close the door. And this you just hear a door close, yeah, there's like sound effects and it's literally like you're listening to a movie almost, and that is one way to keep your interest much better. And every single character has a voice actor instead of just one narrator
Sarah:I've heard that where it's like yeah movie in your mind
Brandi:Yes, that's, yeah, that's their choice
Sarah:Is that what it is?
Brandi:yeah.
Brandi:Not music for or movie for your ears, music movie for your mind. Is it Highly recommend.
Brandi:It is worth the extra money for your mind is it highly recommend. It is worth the extra money.
Rachael:I think that remakes can go like even if they weren't good, the actors can still like. Sway you in that direction, though.
Speaker 2:Like,
Sarah:yes,
Speaker 2:Like, footloose, one of my all-time favorite movies, the remake yeah,
Brandi:the original
Rachael:yeah, the original I probably like growing up like footloose and flash Chance were my things, like I want to be a ballerina forever.
Rachael:I still want to be a ballerina, actually. Like that was my dream growing up and so Footloose like always resonated with me because I love to dance. He's so good, yes, um the remake is not great, but, oh my, I have the biggest crush on him. Julianne Hough, I have the biggest crush on her.
Sarah:That was very well casted, yes.
Rachael:I thought even Miles Teller
Brandi:Poorly executed,
Rachael:isn't it Miles Teller?
Sarah:Yes, that plays. Yes, I love him.
Rachael:Willard yes, yeah, and like thought that was so, I think, my casting could make it
Rachael:I didn't love it because like there were differences and it just like seemed a little off, but I love all three of them as actors and dancers. So I was like I still like it, I would still watch it because I'm about it
Brandi:i cant watch it it's bad enough.
Sarah:Oh my gosh
Brandi:. Well casted, poorly executed.
Sarah:I love it. I'll give it some love
Brandi:no, I am.
Sarah:I probably watch the remake more than I do the original one, to be honest
Brandi:One of my favorite remakes and you guys probably have haven't seen it, but, um, my grandpa has always been obsessed with mini coopers and so in like 2000, they came out with a new Italian job which is like a heist movie.
Rachael:Oh yeah, Mark Wahlberg
Sarah:Yes, oh, my god, I love that movie.
Brandi:I love that that's a remake. Yeah, I didn't know. In like 2000, they came out with a new italian job which is like a heist movie.
Sarah:Oh yeah, Mark Wahlberg, yes oh my god, I love that movie I love that
Brandi:that's a remake.
Rachael:Yeah, I didn't know that was a remake, though, but I fucking love Mark Wahlberg in that movie. Yeah,
Sarah:what's it called?
Brandi:the italian job.
Sarah:I have not seen
Brandi:that charlie's throne or, however you say, your last name, uh such a good movie, top movie for me, but yeah, it is the only reason I knew it was a remake when I was eight or nine years old is because we watched the original.
Brandi:Yeah, my, yeah it. Because it and the reason it was so, it resonated in our house so much is they use mini Coopers in their heists, and so that was um. My grandpa has a 1961, um mini morris, which is technically the model before the cooper came out. So he loves minis, loves classic british cars, and he was part of a club, saint louis I think it was the saint louis mini club or something and they got a like free, like preview, um, you know when you can see a movie before it comes out. What am I blanking on here? Oh, like a pre-screening yeah, pre-screening, yeah. And so he had like the movie poster and everything and we watched that all the time growing up. So that's one of my favorite remakes.
Rachael:I love that movie so much.
Brandi:It is so good.
Rachael:I feel like some movies, though, like do you ever go back and watch older movies and you're like this is very inappropriate, very inappropriate yeah.
Brandi:Blazing Saddles.
Rachael:That's exactly what I was thinking I was like they would never make a Blazing Saddles nowadays and what? The anniversary of it was just like a year or so ago, and they showed it in theaters and I was like went,
Brandi:my family went.
Rachael:Yeah, I went too. I took my dad because, like, growing up, that was like his birthday gift. I was like here you go, dad, we're gonna go see blazing saddles.
Rachael:But the fact that they even played it in theaters was shocking to me
Brandi:but it's all satire,
Rachael:I mean it is, but people get very upset about things like that nowadays, I feel
Sarah:that's why I feel like they won't ever do a live action or a remake of peter pan.
Brandi:Oh, they will,
Rachael:really.
Sarah:I don't know. I feel like people are they have, but it's been. Who was last time?
Rachael:I mean hook maybe
Brandi:no,
Sarah:that was a while ago
Brandi:oh who what?
Sarah:They made one when we were kids, yeah and my cousin went to school
Sarah:2003
Brandi:jim or jeremy. Oh, so I guess they did do a peter pan and wendy in 2023 and my cousin went to school with him.
Sarah:My best friend had a huge crush on him 2003. Jeremy, oh, so I guess they did do a Peter Pan and Wendy in 2023. Yeah, they've done it a couple times Peter Pan's Neverland Nightmare. Oh no, that was a horror one.
Rachael:Oh Lord, oh, that's so good. The things you find when you go to these things.
Sarah:Yeah, the one in 2003. I really enjoyed that one.
Brandi:What year Did you say 2003?
Sarah:Yeah, 2003, 2003. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Brandi:Sorry, that just cracked me up,
Sarah:but that's one that like I absolutely. Peter Pan was one of my favorites to see on a stage and like my first memory of it was seeing the recorded stage production with Mary Martin as Peter Pan, which was a big thing because she was like a woman playing a male one.
Rachael:You're talking about the 2003 version of Peter Pan.
Sarah:I mean, that's a remake, but I'm talking.
Brandi:She's talking about the Broadway.
Sarah:The original play Ah, got it got it and then they recorded like a stage production of the play, similar to what they did with Hamilton, but like a long more time ago
Rachael:Got it
Sarah:and I always wanted to see like a remake of that in, like mary martin's kind of own style, like of how she did that role. I don't know, but they have a lot of controversy on making, like, things too culturally culturally different or making sure everything is all
Rachael:that would definitely be tricky.
Rachael:It would be tricky to do peter pan nowadays
Sarah:I mean because we actually learned this the other day too is in like Pocahontas, the song Colors of the Wind, how they like change words in those songs too, like they're taking like the word savage out of it, like they just make little changes like that too. So I don't know if they would. I would really hope that they do, because that was just one of my favorite ones. Yes, hook was great.
Sarah:robin williams love him
Brandi:all right
Rachael:there's yes, oh yeah, you can't beat that, um, but even like dumbo, now I'm just like searching all the ones, or like lady and the tramp I just haven't seen any of these because
Brandi:they changed some stuff because of animal cruelty
Sarah:and I think, wasn't that one like really, really sad too, like dumbo's already has sad scenes, but
Rachael:Dumbo and Pinocchio, like I think I fell asleep during that, pinocchio scared the shit out of me growing up, like when he gets changed into the donkey or whatever.
Rachael:Like ugh, no, scarred for life. Even Alice in Wonderland like I struggled with that as a kid.
Sarah:There's probably some of those that I think of when I go back to watch old movies Instead of like how would they show that in the movie Like they wouldn't do it nowadays? There's some scenes from like kid movies that.
Sarah:I'm like oh, how did that not give me nightmares?
Rachael:How were we not scared by that?
Sarah:I mean
Rachael:Like I think, anastasia,
Sarah:oh, I loved that one,
Rachael:I loved that too but, when. I watched it when I was a little bit older. I was like this is kind of freaky, like the villain.
Brandi:When he has that dance with all the ghosts and everything. I used to get nightmares from that. I look at it now and I'm like, yep, I can see why that scared me. That makes sense. That checks out.
Sarah:I don't think any of those Disney movies ever gave me nightmares. The movie that gave me nightmares was Holes what? Yeah, for some reason I had like a reoccurring nightmare. I was like this is because the schoolhouse got on fire and for some reason. That was a nightmare I remember as a kid you were stuck in the schoolhouse being on fire.
Rachael:No, I think I was just watching it.
Brandi:Oh, like I mean it's pretty dark.
Brandi:I mean, what's his name? Like they kill him,
Sarah:they should do a Holes remake.
Sarah:Lady from Holes.
Brandi:No.
Sarah:No,
Brandi:no,
Sarah:I love that one
Brandi:no
Rachael:Okay, kate Barlow from Holes. Yes, she plays in Severance.
Sarah:Yes,
Rachael:I'm like I'm spinning off into a slightly different subject right now, but have you all seen Severance?
Sarah:No, I haven't seen all of it, but I have watched it.
Rachael:It is fucked. It is so good,
Sarah:I think, brian would like it but he won't watch it with me
Brandi:yet it's on my list.
Brandi:I just haven't gotten to it yet.
Rachael:Okay, yes, highly recommend. That is not a remake, I don't think.
Rachael:This is a whole new. But who knows right?
Brandi:And here's why I don't want holes to be remade, because it's perfection.
Sarah:It is true, it is true, it is true. And what are we saying? If it ain't broken, don't fuck with it.
Brandi:That too I like your version.
Sarah:Don't fuck with it,
Rachael:I like digging holes.
Rachael:Oh, so good, I'm gonna watch that now. I don't have disney plus, though, so I can't watch a lot of these.
Sarah:You can use mine, yeah, or just come over.
Brandi:You can use mine, yeah.
Sarah:Or just come over and watch it again.
Brandi:You can't because Hulu and Disney changed. They're like Netflix now. They take your IP address and if you're not in the same household you have to get your own account. Because I just got kicked off my parents
Sarah:don't find me.
Sarah:They are like combined though, like when you have Disney Plus and Hulu. Now I can see both of them, so I actually don't even have to log into my Hulu.
Sarah:Yeah you can just do it all. I can see them all from Disney
Brandi:Oh, that made so many people mad when they did that.
Sarah:I mean, I can just look at more options together
Brandi:For kids, there was this show that was on Hulu about like sex.
Brandi:There was the show that that was on hulu about like sex and it said
Sarah:that's why they have their parental control.
Brandi:That's what I said. But everyone was up in the arms because and I was just like maybe you should pay attention what your kids are watching.
Sarah:But maybe open the door, let your kids run outside and play okay, a good sorry,
Rachael:a good remake twisters
Sarah:I really don't I remember watching one like it's like a long time ago.
Rachael:Is it a sequel?
Brandi:It's a sequel,
Rachael:sequel, okay, okay, sorry, sequel.
Sarah:I feel like I don't purposely want to watch a movie about a tornado.
Rachael:Did you not see it?
Sarah:I don't think I've seen it, no what. At least not the remake,
Rachael:it's so good,
Sarah:but I've seen the original, like a long time ago
Brandi:my favorites oh, I love them,
Sarah:that's like those are the movies like if it's too, if it's too realistic? They're not, neither of them. No, it's not, no, but like okay, well, I guess I should actually watch it
Rachael:okay, there's this tagline in the movie.
Brandi:It's like if you can smell it, chase it. If you can smell it, chase it.
Rachael:Yeah, what did you say at the concert that one night
Brandi:oh god, I don't even remember.
Rachael:If you it like, if you can smell it, eat it, yes, or something like that. And we were like Brandi, that's not it,
Brandi:I butchered it, but you all knew what I meant.
Rachael:But yeah, you got to watch it because then you can do the hand motion and like be part of the cool kids club.
Brandi:I think it was in you can taste it, chase it. It's what I said. Oh, if you can taste it, chase it, instead of if you can smell it, chase it. We're like that, ain't it? No, it is. It is good, but see, twister, the original is what got me uns, like I wasn't scared of tornadoes as a kid
Rachael:I wanted to be a storm chaser.
Rachael:Yeah, yeah.
Brandi:Me freaking too. I actually so. In college I almost, when I was switching out of engineering, I was looking at going to biochemistry which is what I ended up doing or going into meteorology, like I was this close to becoming a storm chaser. But then I looked at logistics of things and decided that wasn't the best path forward for me
Rachael:when I was in high school, we my mom and I like did this tarot card reading and the lady was like, think of like three careers that you want to do. And I thought of the first two and she's like, yeah, you do okay in that career. And then the third one that I thought of was storm chaser and when she flipped over the card. She's like that's not a good one. Whatever you're thinking about, don't do that one so that's why I did not become a storm chaser.
Brandi:So well, sad days good, like there used to be a show on like tlc or like one of those like reality show channels and they were called twister sisters and you could pay to ride along with them while they were chasing storms. Yeah, I wanted to do it.
Sarah:So bad I always love watching like the storm chaser videos
Brandi:yeah, you could ride along with them while they chase tornadoes in oklahoma
Sarah:well, I guess I'll have to have to watch the twister movies
Rachael:yes, how do we feel about jurassic park?
Brandi:can we stop already? It's as bad as Fast and Furious,
Rachael:but is it, but is it okay?
Rachael:so you have like the original Jurassic Park? Yes, and you have.
Rachael:Jurassic. World. Now you have, like this new one with Scarlett Johansson that's going to come out.
Brandi:Those are all sequels
Sarah:Beats me. I've never seen Jurassic Park.
Rachael:You've never seen any of the Jurassic Parks.
Brandi:What, what and and you almost walked away when I said I had to watch Yep.
Sarah:What? This is a fair point. Fair point Because one of my neighbors growing up me and a neighbor girl were like a year apart and I remember we went over to her house and her brother babysat us for a day or an afternoon or something and he had Jurassic Park on and I can't remember what had all happened. But my friend and I ended up in the basement. He locked the door so we were in the basement and then he kept stomping like on the floor and we were like five, six years old or something. So that was just my only memory of anyone ever watching Jurassic Park. So I just never did it,
Brandi:girl
Sarah:. But to be fair, before meeting my husband I had never seen Star Wars. I had never seen Lord of the Rings.
Sarah:I've seen all of them. Now we're all caught up. But I've not seen Jurassic Park, so maybe we should do a movie marathon of that.
Rachael:That would be good
Rachael:You would be happy to know that when I was flying back from Lisbon, I did watch all of the Hobbits, ew. But I haven't seen the Lord of the Rings yet.
Sarah:They were good. I liked them a lot.
Rachael:I'm working on it
Rachael:I'm working on it I actually have like 15 minutes left of the Last Hobbit.
Sarah:I really like the Hobbit.
Brandi:You're not missing anything
Sarah:In another life I'm a Hobbit.
Brandi:So just so you know, kozy, if we're doing a marathon. The original has three movies. There's Jurassic Park 1, 2, and 3. Yes, it doesn't go from Jurassic Park to Jurassic World.
Sarah:Yeah, I knew that this was a whole other one.
Brandi:Technically, Jurassic World is a sequel to the original movies.
Sarah:I want to see if I like the Jurassic Park
Rachael:yeah because they changed.
Rachael:So the island is now like a tourist attraction, right, yeah, and
Brandi:the Jeep is still on the island, yeah
Rachael:because they changed. So the island is now like a tourist attraction, right, yeah, and the jeep is still on the island, yeah because they find it.
Sarah:Is Chris Pratt in one of the Jurassic Parks,
Brandi:Jurassic World
Sarah:Okay
Sarah:I'll watch that one,
Brandi:and they've made a couple with him too. There's probably like seven movies in the franchise now.
Sarah:He's nice to look at.
Rachael:Yes. So there's Jurassic Park, then there's the Lost World, then there's Jurassic Park 3. Then you skip 14 years and now you have the Jurassic World series.
Sarah:I would commit more to this series than I have committed to. Like the Marvel series. That's a little overwhelming for me.
Rachael:Okay, when I did have Disney Plus, I did watch all of the Marvel movies in order until I got rid.
Sarah:So like I'm all the way up through, like I watched all like the main ones, yeah, but we didn't do like every single spinoff or like and here's something else that everyone's tired of, and it's an easy money grab, Because like I'm sorry, how many more superheroes are there,
Brandi:oh girl, so many.
Brandi:They're just getting started.
Sarah:Like I was not a superhero superhero girly as a kid, so I just knew the of the basic ones.
Brandi:Oh no, there are so many, so I wonder when that will end, or if people stop spending money to go to them.
Rachael:Oh, okay, spider-man. What about the spider-mans?
Sarah:oh, they've done a lot of spider-mans and again, like is spider-man?
Brandi:their remakes, remakes.
Sarah:I don't think I've seen the Zendaya remakes.
Rachael:With Tom Holland.
Sarah:Yeah, I don't think I've seen those, or maybe I think I saw the first one, the first one that Tom Holland did as Spider-Man, I don't know. Like, I think I've seen them all up to that?
Rachael:Was it Andrew Garfield? Yes, garfield, I liked him, and Tobey Maguire.
Rachael:I didn't like Tobey
Sarah:I liked Tobey.
Rachael:No, those were like our OG ones. I do like Andrew too. Nope, kirsten Dunst liked her, did not like Tobey.
Sarah:Maguire. Oh, I thought he just like to me, that's always going to be Spider-Man, yeah.
Brandi:And I don't really like Spider-Man.
Sarah:Yeah.
Brandi:As a superhero in general, I don't like his villains or like the batmans, they're like redoing batman there's so many batman remakes too.
Sarah:Again, those are all remakes. Yes, they're doing a lot of harley quinn remakes too, or I guess those are more spinoffs, because now they're, they're taking harley quinn and like putting her in different storylines, or yeah, those would be movies on different stories.
Brandi:Yeah, those would be different. I think everyone is getting to the point where they are over superhero movies.
Brandi:Marvel DC doesn't matter.
Rachael:There's new Superman coming out this year.
Brandi:Yeah it was awful, awful.
Rachael:We get the point, we get the gist Like you can fly.
Sarah:We know how it ends.
Brandi:There are so many now that you can't do anything different.
Brandi:Yeah, and make it good,
Sarah:can we just like make up a new one?
Rachael:I like the joker movies. Which did you see the new ones though?
Sarah:no, because I liked the og
Brandi:what are you considering?
Brandi:the OG, the Dark Knight? No, the ones with Joaquin Phoenix.
Sarah:No, the actor who played the Joker, and then he passed away before the movie was finished.
Brandi:Oh, Heath Ledger. That's the Dark Knight. That's a Batman movie. Didn't that also do a Joker movie.
Sarah:Okay, never mind then.
Rachael:He just played the Joker in the Dark Knight.
Sarah:Yes, I really like the Dark Knight.
Sarah:And. I really love him. But the Joker movie, that
Brandi:With Joaquin Phoenix
Sarah:Maybe, but I also like the guy who's in Shameless. His version of it too, the redhead.
Rachael:Oh, I don't. Was that a show? Was it Gotham? No, because there's also like Gotham which,
Sarah:oh yeah, was it maybe Gotham?
Sarah:I'm going to figure that out, Cameron Monaghan,
Rachael:yes, he played. Yeah, he definitely played Gotham, okay, he played in Gotham.
Sarah:I was like I don't think I watched the entire like show on the streaming service. I looked up every single video that there was on tiktok. I liked gotham yeah I like him, I liked, I liked him. I would love to see a movie where he plays a joker.
Brandi:That'd be cool I'm just tired, and this is the thing, though. They took the success of the dark knight and that trilogy and they did these spin-offs on things and they rode those coattails to where now they're like beating it out of us. Same with the marvel ones, like it's just it's ridiculous and if it's not a movie, then it's a tv show, and true, but I don't mind a tv show like if it was a movie, because like if there's a spinoff story from like the show or a character I got like we're gonna remake, because you can get so much more detail in a tv show than you can a movie, your movie.
Brandi:You're really tied to about two hours, two and a half to fit a whole story in A series. You can make them all an hour long. You can have eight to ten hours of storyline in a season, and then you can have a second season.
Sarah:That's true.
Brandi:You can just put so much more into a TV show.
Rachael:Isn't that what they were doing with Harry Potter?
Brandi:We're not going to talk about that.
Sarah:Why not?
Brandi:I have very strong opinions on it. And I was so.
Rachael:Too soon?
Brandi:Yes that, and some of their casting choices were questionable.
Sarah:Didn't they do that with Friday Night Lights? That was a movie and a show, right?
Brandi:Yes, it was a movie first.
Sarah:Movie first, then they made a show spin-off of it.
Brandi:Movie 100% better than a show and my sister, if she's listening, is going to murder me because Friday Night Lights TV show is her absolute favorite, but the movie was 10 million times better.
Sarah:I think I actually only saw the movie of that and not the show.
Rachael:I think you'd like, I feel. I feel like there are like some very specific um series that resonate with our generation at least, like if they remade p? Uh harry potter or if they remade pirates of the caribbean or if they remade, like certain things, I think people would have very strong opinions about it.
Rachael:Or like Hunger Games, like two, two, like, but eventually like we're gonna get to that point, I think yeah
Brandi:we already are they're remaking HBO's bringing out Harry Potter
Sarah:this is actually kind of funny, so I just
Rachael:but it's gonna be a show yeah, it's gonna be a show
Sarah:I put it in chatGPT to see what like movies that went into TV shows, because I'm kind of blanking. I did not realize they made Jaws into a TV show. It failed. These are failed or short-lived TV remakes. Minority Report was based on the 2002. Tom Cruise film. Jaws apparently attempted multiple times but nothing ever stuck. Bad Teacher, oh yeah, Based with Cameron Diaz. They tried to do a TV show on that but it said bland writing and toned down humor, Canceled that from just three episodes aired. Yikes, my Big Fat Greek Life based on my Big Fat Greek Wedding. I don't think the last movie of that did very well either. Yeah, Mixed reviews. Were the Terminator Taken? Oh, they did make that into a TV show
Brandi:they did, it wasn't very good.
Sarah:Teen Wolf I guess I kind of knew that was an original, but I totally forgot about that. Yeah, I guess I kind of.
Brandi:I knew that was an original, but I totally forgot about that. Yeah, that was terribly.
Brandi:That was so different.
Brandi:I don't even know if I would call that a remake Because it was so different
Sarah:the movie or the show.
Brandi:Well, they were different from each other. Like you had Teen Wolf and then I feel like the Teen Wolf show was trying to ride the Twilight Wave and make it more dark or like the Vampire Diaries.
Sarah:Yes, same timeframe.
Brandi:Yes it wasn't this cheesy classic 80s movie, like the original Teen Wolf was. It'd be like them redoing Back to the Future, but in like.
Sarah:Okay but the musical was really good.
Rachael:The musical was good but
Brandi:I don't mind adapting it one way or the other, from play to movie or movie to play. I don't mind that. That's fine. I'm going into it expecting differences, because they're two different formats. You only have a stage to work with instead of multiple stages and millions of cameras,
Rachael:and it was Back to the Future, the musical so like way different,
Brandi:which is how they do all of them
Sarah:but they still kept it like mostly the same.
Brandi:Well, yeah, so I don't have.
Brandi:I go into that, knowing it's going to be different yeah and it's expected. You have to use your imagination when you're watching plays.
Brandi:That's just part of it
Rachael:honestly, I just try to go in with like zero expectations.
Brandi:I go in with too many expectations.
Rachael:Yeah, you got to lower your standards, girl, I mean,
Sarah:I am similar like that with a show.
Sarah:If there is a new show or one that like is up and coming, I try to not listen to the soundtrack or anything. So I can like have that first reaction when, I first go to see it.
Brandi:I just. There's so many things to choose from now, I don't want to waste my time, it's true. So.
Sarah:So
Rachael:Legend of Tarzan. I'm sorry, I thought of another one, the Tarzan.
Sarah:And then they did the George of the Jungle kind of like. I don't know if that's considered a spin-off of it. It was kind of a but like concept he wasn't raised by monkeys, though I think he was raised in the jungle, george of the jungle strong as long as he can be. Probably that's also true.
Rachael:I don't count that as Tarzan, but like the legend of Tarzan, with Hargarabi in it. I liked it. Adaptation Live action adaptation.
Brandi:Yeah, they're all
Brandi:We're using remake in the wrong way because they're all adaptations and that's how they get away with changing things yes, that makes sense well, interesting yeah,
Rachael:I guess we want to throw it out to our listeners. Um, what movies do you feel like hit the mark? Maybe did not hit the mark.
Brandi:The good, the bad, the ugly Like which ones were good, which ones were bad which ones were just
Rachael:which ones should we watch again, see if we haven't seen and avoid at all costs? We'd love to hear your thoughts.
Sarah:Do we keep making remakes or do we just tell everyone to just stop?
Rachael:And if we have, like, any directors out there or editors, people who work in the film industry. If you're in the know let us know, because we obviously don't know the right terminology. We just have strong opinions, love to learn. Which we're the audience. We have a lot of feelings, we'll give you our opinions, yes, and you'll teach us the way. Love it Well, thanks for listening. So until next time,
Sarah:stay bold,
Brandi:stay empowere
Sarah:Girl Gang out.