Old to New - Alice in Wonderland
A remake is a film that has been re-created
from an original film. In most cases, the film will be directed by someone
different, will have different characters and even a different script. As long
as the narrative is the same and the main protagonists are in the plot, then
its classed as a remake. Films that get remade tend to be popular films that
producers think will make a lot of money if re-released with better production
values and up to date technology.
Over the years, certain trends have become
obvious for remakes. The main one being that most people prefer the originals
to the remake. Although remakes also have positive trends. Because of new
technology, you’ll find that the majority of remakes have better graphics and
special effects. This can either add or take from a film depending on your point
of view. Other trends include bigger stars. In original films there are not
likely to be many well-known actors. In 1951, audiences were more interested in
the narrative and visual side to film.
Whereas modern audiences now like to watch films that have certain
actors or are directed by certain people.
The films I’ll be analysing are the original and modern Alice in
Wonderland. Walt Disney makes both the original film and the modern film. The
original was released in 1951 and the modern was released in 2009, leaving a
big time gap between the two. The biggest difference you will notice straight
away between the two films are that the original is full animation whilst the
modern film is live acting mixed with CGI animation.
Although both films contain the same characters
such as the Mad Hatter and Alice. They both also follow similar narrative
lines.
CGI stands for Computer Generated Image.
Walt Disney uses this in the remake to create the setting of Wonderland.
Wonderland is designed to be a place of imagination and wondrous things. The
CGI used in the wonderland setting against the regular set for the earth
setting, makes wonderland stand out as more colorful and bold. It sets apart
the two worlds and shows the contrast between the two. Whereas in the original,
because it was all in animation, the divergence wasn’t as spectacular and the
reaction from audiences wasn’t as good. When the original was made in 1951,
they didn’t have the technology required to create CGI. This is one the reasons
why Walt Disney made a Hollywood remake.
Another benefit to using CGI is that you
are able to create a more spectacular mise en scène that you wouldn’t get with
a real set or a green screen. Although the type of animation is different in
the remake, the creators still used animation in the original for the same
reason, to create a mystical fictional world that would be hard to achieve any
other way.
When looking back on Disney’s classical
films, we can see that the majority of them are animation. For example, Peter
Pan, Bambi and Jungle Book. The reason why they may have used animation in the
original Alice in Wonderland may have been to keep to their trend, as this was
popular at time. In more recent Disney films, they have moved away from
animation and now do live action films such as Pirates of the Caribbean. Again,
the new Alice in Wonderland may have been created with live action to follow
this trend.
Even though Disney has always been
successful, it now has a higher budget to spend on new contemporary films. From
its previous successes and from the success of the original Alice, they saved
enough money to spend on popular and expensive actors such as Johnny Depp who
plays the Mad Hatter in the modern Alice.
Having big stars in the film such as Johnny
Depp is important as popular actors can get a cult following. This means that
films will get a certain amount of viewers just down to the actors in the film.
In the original Alice, because it was all in animation, they had to find a different
angle to promote the film.
Also due to higher budgets, they can also
afford better camera’s giving them better quality images, which is important
when competing in the film industry. The budget will also go towards things
like paying for better crew. This makes the production more efficient and
ultimately makes the film look and sound better. These kind of things weren’t
an option during the original.
Although some people would argue that they
prefer the original because the modern one had too high a budget, which ruined
the film. They think that too much thought and money went into the actors, set
and promotional push and they therefor missed out on creating a good story that
effected audiences emotionally.
Personally I agree with this statement as I
thought the modern film was lacking in character and plot development whereas
the original film had more attention put into the story rather than the
production values.
The budget for the modern film was $150 -
$200 million. Whereas the budget for the original film had a budget of $3
million. As you can see there is a huge difference in budget size. Although in
1933, they didn’t need as big of a budget as other productions also had a
fairly low budget size. Whereas in modern times, in order to compete with
competition, production companies feel the need to have a high budget.
Also due to advancement in technology,
there has become an increasingly number of ways to promote a film. The main
promoter is the Internet. Disney are able to release trailers and teasers on
You Tube. They also have social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter,
which will help them promote the film and get audiences to feel connected and
up to date. Another main promoter of the modern film is that older demographics
will remember reading or watching the original Alice when they were younger and
will want to watch the new one because of this.
The original was at a disadvantage with
promoting as it didn’t have modern technologies to help and it also couldn’t
work off fond memories from audiences, as there hadn’t been an earlier version
of the film. Luckily as Disney was still
a big name, the size and popularity of the company was enough to promote it. From there word of mouth was enough to promote
the film as audiences of all ages enjoyed the lightheartedness and comedy in
the film.
Although the main narrative and characters
are the same in the two films, the genre is different in order to appeal to a
different audience. The original Alice genre is comedy, centering on the
wackiness of the characters and how they behave around each other. In the
modern film, the genre is more horror and drama focusing on the adventure to
save Wonderland and defeat the evil monsters. Disney wants to aim the film at
older audiences and therefor have adapted the film so it’s more likely to
attract that demographic to the film.
In the original film there are many codes
and conventions that suggest the genre. For example there are symbolic conventions
seen in the colors and clothing used by the characters. Bright colors such as
vibrant blues and yellows give off a lighthearted feel and make the film seem
brighter and happier.
In the modern film, color is used
differently to add atmosphere and tension. For example dark skies are used to
represent the evil in the film and the characters despair. This attracts an
older audience. However the colors used in the original film attract a younger
audience.
There are also technical genre conventions
that set apart the two films. The camera shots used in the modern film consist
of lots of close ups. This has been done on purpose so as an audience we can
feel closely knotted with the characters emotions and reactions to the events.
This can make a film seem more scary, dramatic or emotional as we almost
experience the film from the characters point of view.
This is very different to the original film
where the director used, long shots more often. The purpose to the long shots
was to ‘show off’ Wonderland and captivate their younger audiences in this
magical world where anything could happen. This meant that that director had to
use a wider variety of shots to capture Wonderland.
Because both films are being aimed at
different audiences, the context is different. Although the certificate for the
modern film is PG. By having the certificate so low, it opens up the amount of
audience the film can be targeted out in the hope of making more money. Also,
even though the modern film is aimed at an older audience, younger demographics
will still want to watch the film because of the children’s book and the
reputation the name Alice in Wonderland has made. The original film doesn’t
have a certificate as it was made before it was enforced for films to have one,
although you can tell that it is child friendly. As you can see both films are
similar in that aspect, yet the films and their content is still different.
Although there are a lot of differences
between the films, there are also synergies between the two. For example he
character types are still the same. The Red Queen is still the Antagonist and
the Mad Hatter is the donor and the quest to defeat the Queen of Hearts is
there in both films. Costume is very similar also.
For example in both films, Alice wears a
blue dress and the Hatter wears a hat.
The concept of Wonderland is also the same
in both films. The idea that Alice has entered a world where anything of your
imagination is possible. This was
important to keep in both films, as it’s this concept that sells the idea so
well to audiences over the world. Also the characters are unlike anything seen
in any other films. So keeping characters such as the Chester cat and the Mad
hatter with their personalities is important.
