Almost everyone knows the old saying, "There is no such thing as an original idea." This is used regarding lots of things. Inventors are advised to make something better, not new. Writers are told to make an old, wrung-out story their own with creativity and fresh characters. Think outside the box, but good luck creating something entirely without connections to anything else. Nothing can be completely unique by itself anymore. Things always stem from something else.
I have always appreciated this idea. Taking something old and making it your own, especially with books and movies. It is a hard thing to do, but when done well, it's like coming up from being underwater: eye-opening and amazing.
For example, take "Harry Potter." Wizards were not news to the world, but J.K. Rowling brought her own spin and world to an overused idea. The movies were also original and unique. But now I fear Hollywood is running out of new ideas, or just the world in general is.
"Once Upon a Time," a new television show on ABC, came out this past season. It is a twist on all of the popular fairytales known to the general population, such as "Beauty and the Beast," "Rumpelstiltskin," "Little Red Riding Hood," "Hansel and Gretel" and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." The television series follows each character in their lives as they are trapped in our world, banished from their fairytale land by the evil queen, who happens to be the evil queen from the story of Snow White, harboring a vile hate for the wicked woman.
This past week, the movie "Mirror Mirror," starring Juliet Roberts as the evil queen and Lily Collins as Snow White, came to theaters. The title itself rings of the old Disney movie and the infamous Brothers Grimm take on the tale before that.
The movie seems to be a comedic take on the famous storyline, complete with silly love potions gone wrong and Julia Roberts as the queen. Let's face it, she isn't a very scary-looking character compared to the queen portrayed in the Disney version and the frightening one in the Brothers Grimm tale.
Coming to theaters this summer, Joe Roth (producer of Alice in Wonderland), teamed up with Sam Mercer and Rupert Sanders to create the movie "Snow White and the Huntsman." The movie features Kristen Stewart, most famously known for her role as Bella Swan in "Twilight," as the red lipped and dark haired beauty, Snow White.
Charlize Theron, a recent Oscar Winner, plays the role of the Evil Queen in all her dark and twisted beauty. The storyline gathers along the idea that Snow White is the one to rally a resistance in a fight against the "darkness" that has been ruling the land. She teams up with the Huntsman, played by Chris Hemsworth ("Thor"), who is sent to kill her but instead ends up training her in combat to lead a war against the evil queen.
I understand the idea of taking something that has already existed for a long time and trying to twist it to make it something new, but there is a limit when doing this. To me, this is an example of that limit.
The re-awakening of fairytales in terms of media, television and movies is only normal, seeing as it has now been about 75 years since Disney started producing the fairytales themselves. But isn't this a little much? Three rebirths of the same basic tale all in about a year?
It is sad to me when an idea has the opportunity to be amazing, but is outdone by others that either come before it and exhaust it or simply end up being better. While I am sure none of the three that circle around the main fairytale of Snow White have much in common, it is still so sad to see how our world lacks original ideas.
Of all things to choose from in this world to reinvent or recycle, ABC and Hollywood decide on the same topic to exhaust. This is almost as sad as when the movies "Friends with Benefits" and "No Strings Attached" came out around the same time: same basic plot line, same basic idea.
Where is the originality to these old ideas, and why does everyone have to pick the same one to regurgitate? Maybe expand the horizons, remake "Aladdin." No one's made a genie come out of a lamp in a while.
