Why remake classic films?
With Tim Burton’s take on “Alice in Wonderland” to be released March 5, there’s no doubt some will be curious to see if it compares to the classic 1951 Disney animated film of the same name. I’m optimistic the film will be good, even though Burton stumbled with his 2001 remake of 1968’s classic “Planet of the Apes.” However, his 2005 take on “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” (a remake of 1971’s “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory”) fared somewhat better. In recent years, Burton seems to be one of the many filmmakers who have taken it upon themselves to directly remake the popular classics. It occurs to me, though, that remaking a film isn’t really as recent a phenomenon as some would think. As early as the 1950s, Great Britain’s Hammer Studios put itself on the map with its successful remakes of “Frankenstein,” “Dracula,” and “The Mummy,” among others. One of the key draws of these films was the fact that they were the first movie adaptations of those stories in color. They also p
