r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Morr4Seiya • 8d ago

Hated Tropes An adaptation completely botches the original theme and message

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Mulan(2020)-They give Mulan superpowers which is not only lame it goes against the message of the original about equality and struggle,plus they removes Shang because apparently having Mulan date her superior was "problematic" even though Shang genuienely respected Mulan and their rank was never brought up

I am Legend(2007)-You know why the story is called "I am legend"? SPOILER ALERT the protagonist is the actual monster,humanity is gone and the vampires have a actual society and the protagonist kills and terrorize them

Animal Farm(2026)-On the very slim chance that Andy Serkis ever sees this,here's the thing Andy,Animal Farm was not a children work it was not supposed to have a happy ending,you never heard of cautionary tales before?

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u/Ok-Letter3963 8d ago

Mind you, all of the changes to Mulan 2020 were meant to specifically pander to China, which is ironic because China ended up fucking hating this movie.

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u/foxfire981 8d ago

I mean that's often what happens when people not in the group try and pander to a group. They fail miserably at the attempt and it becomes insulting.

Another example: Miles Morales Thor. Basically did a "if Miles was Thor and everyone was black it would basically look like Harlem." A Hispanic creator was responsible. Black comic fans were not impressed.

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u/ryconn93 8d ago

I can't believe how many people worked on this and no thought "hey, maybe this sucks actually".

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u/forestwolf42 8d ago

I don't know the specifics of this project, but I was on as an extra in an incredibly bad sci-fi movie ego project, and pretty much everyone on set, from directors to actors new they were making something really stupid but were just doing their jobs and getting paid.

I suspect a lot of people writing and drawing this new it was a terrible idea but a gig is a gig.

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u/Not_Reality 8d ago

Yeah but wouldn't a shitty ego project be seen differently than one that appropriates another culture to an almost insulting degree? Like one can just be a job and another can feel like it's indifferent to the problematic commentary the project makes

Idk I'm kinda talking out my ass but I do think there'd be a little of that too

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u/forestwolf42 8d ago

That's definitely fair, but creative fields aren't that different from other jobs. A lot of Amazon employees or United Healthcare employees know there's something seriously wrong with the company, but you just kinda do your job.

Also with creative fields if you do convince the people in charge of funding that the project is a terrible idea you, and everyone else working on it is out of work. The harm of perpetuating problematic stereotypes are far less immediate than the harm of you and people you know the names of losing a gig. Not saying it's right but when the harm of your actions is super distant it doesn't feel real compared to actions that effect people you personally know.

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u/sobrique 7d ago

Yeah, this. Lots of people work for 'dubious' capitalist enterprises in one form or another, with maybe a sliding scale of just how dubious.

It ain't 'selling out' to put food on the table. Only wealthy people have the luxury of refusing work.

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u/sobrique 7d ago

Artistic integrity and $5 will buy you a coffee ...

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u/forestwolf42 7d ago

A plain black coffee in this economy. With change to spare at McD's!

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u/wafflecone927 7d ago

if it released, and no nda, just say the film plz. why the mystery all the time?

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u/forestwolf42 7d ago

Oh shit, I found it, it's the Holiguards Saga

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u/Patch86UK 7d ago

Directed by fucking Kevin Spacey, wtf. You really buried the lede on that one.

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u/forestwolf42 7d ago

I kinda forgot he was involved because I never saw him on the two days I was an extra. Worked with an Australian assistant director I do not not remember the name of.

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u/wafflecone927 7d ago

ok n thanks for backstory

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u/forestwolf42 7d ago

I hadn't thought about it in awhile and figured it never made it out of production. The trailer is on YouTube but I can't find anywhere to watch the piece of shit and point out a single shot where in the blurry background I can say "that's me!!!"

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u/forestwolf42 7d ago

Oh, it also stars Eric Roberts as the villain. Which taking a glance at his IMDB narrows it down very little

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u/forestwolf42 7d ago

Cause I don't remember what it was called.

The dude who made it was this Russian crypto oligarch type guy selling investments in his crypto-metaverse something or other. On his vids 90% of the comments looked like bots talking about what a genius he was and 10% were people asking "when are we, the investors gonna get paid dude?"

The project was this like, jedi superhero version of himself named Master Tao or something dumb and it was a movie with tie in comics.

If you can find it link me, shit was wild lmao.

Also the filming was done with standins. So he was being acted by this nice Mexican dude with a bunch of dots painted on his face so they could use AI later to super impose the Russian guy on the actors performance. Never saw the guy funding it anywhere near set, he probably never left Russia.