Adaptions of Transformers? A source of jokes. GI Joe? A film stunning in its mediocrity. If it's not equine and friendly and little, it seems most re-adaptions of cartoons aren't too good, and of course I snootily turn my nose up at them. Hell, we have one blogger here whose entire goal is to dissect adaptions, leaving me more time to be self-righteous if charming and personable.
Today I heard about J.J. Abrams and a Micronaut movies and I suddenly felt a visceral "yes!" echo in me head, and I understood just why people would be interested in these seemingly majority-terrible adaptions.
Let me come out and say this – Micronauts were awesome. A series of figures, vehicles, robots, cities, and more they were colorful,imaginative, and could be combined together in all sorts of ways. Go on check out just what it was all about – http://www.innerspaceonline.com/ or http://www.micro-outpost.com/ are decent places to start.
Of course this statement sounds biased, right? That's the point.
Nostalgia is powerful, and I had a huge blast of it when I saw this news, and throwing J.J. Abrams into the mix kept my hope going. My cynicism is kicking in – but that's me, I'm jaded. I'm still holding out hope, so imagine what kind of appeal this has to someone less cynical than me.
Curiosity is powerful too. Even a jaded person like myself is curious. "Will this work," I wonder. "What will J.J. Abrams do," I ask. "Maybe it won't suck to bad – or suck in a really fascinating way," I think. This curiosity is a very strong driver.
(Curiosity was a major driver for me seeing the G.I. Joe film – imagine how powerful it is when you actually care?)
Shared interest is also powerful. I know as I feel that nostalgia rush for the Micronauts that others experience it, and we may bond at the theater or at a con as we recount how cool they were. If this film is awful, we'll bond over that too – but this makes it a phenomena one way or another.
So me, now I get this recycling ideas a bit more. I get it viscerally.
This makes me wonder if perhaps I've been a bit harsh on adaptors and so forth – is it possible some of the ideas tossed out are sincere? Could it be that someone comes up with an idea that seems dumb – unless you have your Fan Goggles on? How many stupid ideas are born in the heat of remembrance of something past?
Maybe some of the people proposing adaptions or doing them are more like us than we realize.