I’ll be honest here and say that I’m in agreement with what Ryan Scott from MovieWeb says about Disney having anything to do with Planet of the Apes and a reboot that apparently IS making its way to theaters eventually. These days it would seem that putting anything next to Disney tends to mean that people are going to think that it’s going to be a dulled-down version of what we might have expected from anyone else. Given that Fox made their movies gritty, somewhat thrilling, and altogether serious for the most part it’s hard to think that Disney getting hold of this franchise is going to do anything similar. It might sound just a little cynical to say such a thing, but if you need an example, look at Star Wars, or look at the Avengers, and you’ll have a perfect look at just what can happen when Disney gets hold of something that used to be a little harder, a little meaner, and a lot more entertaining in a big way. While I’m not stating that the Apes movie will start looking more like a reverse of the animated Tarzan movie, I am predicting that the serious aspect of the movie might be dulled down just a bit to be more ‘family-friendly’. If you don’t think this could happen then you might want to think about how cruel Thanos really was in the comics compared to the version we got in the movies. You need another example? Thanos turned Thor into glass and then smashed him to pieces. THAT’s how vicious the source material was in the comics, and as far as Planet of the Apes goes, things are anything but family-friendly most of the time, so Disney’s got a hard decision to make when it comes to bringing this idea back into the theater.
The big hope is that Disney won’t decide to scrap everything that’s already been done and be bold enough to try and redo everything from the beginning. Not only would that be a direct slap to the senses, much as creating a brand new canon was for Star Wars, but it could potentially alienate fans as much as Tim Burton did when he decided to roll his idea onto the big screen. Adam Holmes of CinemaBlend is of the mind, along with many others, that the reboot could be a positive thing so long as it stays on the same course as those that have already been created. Caesar is dead, his people are free, and the smart apes are not going away anytime soon. It’s time to build on that and bring the world back to what it was when the original Planet of the Apes was brought to the audience decades ago.
As Josh Millican of Dread Central joins into this conversation it’s kind of interesting to think of all the projects that Disney dumped only to keep a few that it might potentially destroy if it decides to do things a certain way. Anyone that’s been following the Apes movies should know at this point that they’re not meant to be kind, they’re not meant to be friendly. They’re an all-out war between humanity and the apes that’s pitting one person against another when it comes to various ideologies and who’s meant to survive. The Mouse House isn’t exactly the type of studio that seems eager to create something that’s going to frighten people, but honestly the hypocrisy of it is kind of hard to miss since Disney has already come up with some extremely horrifying and haunting visuals throughout its past, enough so that continuing on as Fox has done with the Ape movies shouldn’t even be given a second thought. If these movies become warm and fuzzy by comparison it seems fair to state that a lot of people are going to turn away from it and wonder why in the world Disney even bothered.
For those that want to argue that ‘Disney doesn’t do scary movies’, you have a point really when it comes to outright horror and scaring the hell out of people. But when it comes to controversial subjects and scenes in movies that argument falls pretty flat since the Mouse House has been writing in controversy with its movies for a long time now. The Planet of the Apes movies have been somewhat free of any real blood and gore that might have otherwise marred the movie, but there’s been plenty of violence, death, and overall controversial moments. Something like this for Disney shouldn’t much of an issue when it comes to keeping things just the way they are, since it would be similar to one of their own movies considering that in the animated movies we’ve seen people stabbed, dropped from great heights, hung, dragged into the netherworld, and so on and so forth. When it comes to remaking or continuing this movie let’s just hope the Mouse House skips the hypocrisy and fuzzy fun times.
Follow Us
