The trend of remastering, remaking, rebooting, and generally retreading old entertainment products has once again become a craze in the Western world. Studios, seemingly scared of taking a risk on an original idea, continue to heavily back plans to resurrect what once was with a new lick of paint.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of properties that undergo this process turn out to be lackluster at best. They lack the creativity that made the originals so beloved and so bankable as names when they’re rebooted or remade. So, most efforts end up looking like lazy cash grabs that don’t belong in the same bracket as the originals.
Of course, with so many of these projects being put out there, there’s always a chance – regardless of how slim – that some end up with passionate creatives on board who can make a good end product. In some cases, bringing back past products actually does a service for the creation and its fans. These are some of those novel successes.
On the Small Screen and Big Screen
In 1980, James Clavell’s 1975 novel Shōgun was made into a miniseries that was rather well received at the time. Holding up well to this day, a remake of the show based on a book wasn’t necessary. However, 2024’s Shōgun proved to be every bit worth the effort.
Superbly fronted by Anna Sawai, Cosmo Jarvis, and Hiroyuki Sanada, Shōgun deservedly collected stacks of awards and landed itself several nods as the best television show of the year. It offered upgrades on the original miniseries in almost every regard and maintained gripping writing throughout.
On the big screen, it’s tough to look beyond a certain sand-covered story as the best to come out of this retreading craze in Hollywood. The original from David Lynch in 1984 was rather out-there and didn’t age particularly well. With modern technology to tap into, Denis Villeneuve has created a superb two-part epic with Dune.
Better still, while he was originally only keen to do two films, the Canadian director is already penning the third Dune film, which might just add even more star power to its ranks with Robert Pattinson being tipped for a new upcoming role. For other very worthwhile film remakes, check out The Invisible Man and Little Women.
Bringing Back the Classics from a Simpler Time
Easily the most rapidly advancing form of entertainment over the last few decades has been gaming. With better hardware and an ever-advancing online space, what it means to play a digital game has expanded tremendously, but with these advances, some grand creations have been at risk of being lost to time.
Luckily, there’s still a huge fondness and a lot of demand for all kinds of classic games. In fact, in the still fairly young iGaming scene, which kicked off in 1994, players still look to play classic slots. Games like Vegas Diamonds or Route 777 are made with classic imagery and far more straightforward mechanics than just about any new slot, giving them unique appeal.
In online slot gaming, classics can get lost in the pile or just be discontinued because of the constant wave of new games being released. In video gaming, so many classics have been locked to past generations of hardware. Thankfully, dedicated studios have been hard at work remastering a whole host of greats.
Most recently, Dragon Quest III, the prequel to the first two games, broke records for its remastered HD-2D edition, which remained true to the 1988 RPG but gave it a stunning new aesthetic. The Crash and Spyro games, Resident Evils, Dead Space, Demon’s Souls, Croc, and even Crazy Taxi have all deservedly been reintroduced with worthy remasters.
The retreading craze isn’t going away anytime soon, but at least there are a few world-class gems that warrant being sold back to us again.
