Adapting cartoons into live-action movies and TV shows is nothing new. Over the last 40-plus years, it’s become increasingly more common, causing production studios to begin buying up comic book properties and animated IP like they were hotcakes.
And while there are undoubtedly a handful of examples that have been able to find commercial and critical success, by and large, these films and TV shows fall flat on their face. This is why it’s time to stop turning cartoons into live-action reboots.
One of the earliest and easiest examples of a live-action adaptation going awry is *Popeye*.
“Popeye the Sailor Man” first began its publication post-WWI in 1919. Popeye was a rough-and-tumble seaman with a sensitive side and a heart that belonged to his true love, Olive Oyl. The film starred Shelley Duvall and a young up-and-coming comedian by the name of Robin Williams.
On paper, the idea of someone like Robin bringing the beloved cartoon character to life seemed like a great idea. But sadly, audiences just couldn’t manage to get on board with the film’s frantic pace and overly eccentric charms.
In the ’90s, moviegoers and cartoon aficionados everywhere were lining up to see the live-action adaptation of *The Flintstones*.
The studio cast John Goodman as Fred Flintstone and Rick Moranis as the wise-cracking chucklehead neighbor, Barney Rubble. Once again, to anyone even loosely familiar with the classic cartoon from the 1950s, this appeared to be a dream cast and a film that couldn’t fail.
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Yet fail it did and in truly spectacular fashion. As of now, The Flintstones is sitting with a dismal Tomatometer Score of 20% and an audience score of only 24%. Yabba-Dabba-do-not-watch-this-movie — am I right?
But perhaps the worst offender of any live-action adaptation was 2009’s *Dragonball: Evolution*.
The film itself is actually based on the wildly popular Manga series “Dragonball” as well as the groundbreaking cartoon Dragonball Z that ran throughout most of the ’90s and into the early ’00s.
The first mistake that producers made was casting a white actor (Justin Chatwin) to portray Goku — one of the most iconic and popularized Asian characters in the history of literature. The film was little more than a bastardized version of a classic tale and is regarded as one of (if not the worst film) of the decade.
One of the latest cartoons from our collective childhood green-lit for a live-action adaptation is *The Powerpuff Girls*.
For anyone who remains uninitiated, The Powerpuff Girls was an incredibly popular breakthrough series that first premiered on Cartoon Network back in 1998. It told the story of three kindergarten girls blessed with superpowers and tasked to fight the injustices threatening the globe at large.
While on the air, The Powerpuff Girls was one of the most popular cartoons on television and is hailed as being a pioneer when it comes to advancing feminist ideas, specifically as they pertain to action/comic book heroes.
Yet it appears that the executives and showrunners over at the CW may be at risk of damaging the show’s historic legacy.
Ever since fans first learned that Dove Cameron, Chloe Bennett, and Yana Perrault were cast to play Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup, speculation has been rampant while trying to determine just how the actors (and their costumes) will look.
Unfortunately, going off of the first few glimpses that have been released from the set thus far — it’s not good.
In no time at all, the Twitterverse was awash with diehard fans ready to make their feelings known.
Twitter user @KawaiiStarred compared the live-action costumes to cosplay outfits that one might see at Comic-Con. They went on to remark how the dresses reminded them of a low-budget daytime Halloween party.
Their words might sound harsh at first, but after taking a good hard look at the set photos of the girls in their Powerpuff garb — it becomes difficult to argue otherwise.
So to all the TV networks and movie production companies who may be listening, we have but one simple request: stop ruining our childhood!
Stop picking apart source material until there’s nothing left and it becomes totally unrecognizable. Cease with the constant bombardment and rehashing of classic time-honored cartoon series!
The inherent nature of a cartoon (aside from being animated) is that it defies the laws of logic, rationale, and reality. Stop trying to make a square peg fit into a round hole and just leave our cartoons where they belong!
