r/TopCharacterTropes • • 8d ago

Hated Tropes An adaptation completely botches the original theme and message

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?

6.0k Upvotes

1.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

61

u/CrazyCoKids 8d ago

Lilo and Stitch 2025

This is one-half "Missed the point" and one half "Dude, you had something pretty good!"

The Nani vs. Social Services conflict worked in the original because in that version? Nani & Lilo had nobody but each other. They GAINED an 'Ohana in the film and showed "Yeah, they can take care of Lilo and Stitch".

The remake attempts to be more grounded in reality - but adds Tūtū. See, when you add a pre-existing 'ohana in the form of Tūtū & David (instad of David being a coworker / close friend of Nani)? You fundamentally change it. Why doesn't Tūtū help out more...? It just feels more like she's just there to act as a deus ex machina.

And I don't think Lilo being in Tūtū's care is a bad thing - this is actually hānai. The "Dude, you had something good here!" part -they could have easily had it be established that Lilo's in Tūtū and David's care, but Nani's arc isn't "Social services will take my sister away" so much as "If I take this opportunity, I'll be abandoning my family" while we see moments of Tūtū speaking to Nani as an adult. The experience shows "Goodbye" is not forever and they will still be 'Ohana.

15

u/zeldamaster702 8d ago

You are one of the few people online I have ever seen able to accurately explain the ending of the remake. Be proud of yourself.

2

u/CrazyCoKids 8d ago

Yeah. I'm pissed off at it.... because they had such a solid premise.

3

u/zeldamaster702 8d ago

All things being equal, it weirdly worked for me? But I certainly understand the issues people have, I just wish more people understood that it wasn’t “Nani abandoning Lilo” because that wasn’t what the story was about. You could almost argue that other than 90% of the stuff with Lilo and Stitch(and even that last 10 is only really the change between Jumba and Gantu), the rest of the movie kinda just tells a different story with the same characters and motivations, plus a grandma and the CIA agent and social worker are different people. The changes worked for me, but I can perfectly understand why they didn’t for others.