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Who needs original content when you can just remake old stuff we’ve forgotten about, right?
Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
If you were a kid in the early nineties, you probably cried a whole lot at the end of Homeward Bound when it looked like the aging golden retriever Shadow wouldn’t be joining his friends Chance and Sassy as they reunited with their family. And then when he finally appeared on screen, millions of kids got a whole new joyful core memory.
What you probably didn’t know is that this nineties family movie-night staple was actually a remake of a 1963 movie, The Incredible Journey—which itself is based on a book. Fun fact: in this one, they trek across the Canadian wilderness. You can check out the trailer here. It’s actually not bad.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
We’ve previously talked about how the nineties was all about turtle-mania. If you went to elementary school at that time, you’ll remember a sea of TMNT backpacks, lunchboxes, T-shirts, costumes, snacks, video games . . . and so many toys. And then those same kids grew up and got all grumpy when the franchise made some new movies a few years ago, grumbling about how the new films ruined their childhoods.
But here’s the thing: the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles weren’t made for kids originally. Before they were a kid-friendly Saturday-morning cartoon show, they were an extremely violent underground comic book parodying comics like Daredevil. That’s why they fight Foot Ninjas—Daredevil fights ninjas called the Hand. In fact, the comic kicked off a craze in the underground comics market, inspiring series such as Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters and Pre-Teen Dirty-Gene Kung-Fu Kangaroos.
But there was money to be made, and the comics creators made a kid-friendly show and cut a deal with Playmates Toys. So the next time you hear an adult whining about a new Turtles movie ruining their childhood, you can point out that in 1987, a bunch of adults were also whining about the new Turtles cartoon ruining their favourite comic book.
Meet the Parents
This 2000 comedy classic cemented Ben Stiller as the biggest comedy actor of that decade and made a whole generation think of Robert De Niro as a loveable comedy grandpa instead of a scary gangster. It also inspired two sequels, Meet the Fockers and Little Fockers.
But most don’t know that Meet the Parents was based on a 1992 independent film of the same name, which is a whole lot darker. It’s the same premise, except instead of a black eye during a pool game, there’s a dead family dog after a game of catch. The original is still a comedy—just a very dark one.
Wolfenstein 3D
Wolfenstein has been rebooted and remade quite a lot. Before the modern series kicked off in 2014 with Wolfenstein: The New Order, there was 2009’s Wolfenstein for the Xbox360 and PS3, and before that there was Return to Castle Wolfenstein in 2001. Even though we think of Wolfenstein 3D as the game that started it all—after all, it was the very first first-person shooter, the second game made by legendary ID Software (who would go on to make Doom and Quake) and was played by basically every kid whose school had a computer in the early nineties—but here’s the thing: Wolfenstein 3D wasn’t the first Wolfenstein game. It was a reboot.
In 1981, Wolfenstein came out on the Atari. It’s an adventure game with stealth elements that gives you a top-down view of rooms—although confusingly, side views of characters and objects—that you sneak your way through. You could sometimes shoot enemies, but mainly you bribed them, showed them a “pass,” or avoided them. As you can see from the gameplay, we’ve come a long way.
Scarface
Al Pacino’s 1983 turn as Tony Montana, the cocaine king of Miami, is one of the most iconic gangster portrayals in history. Funnily enough, Scarface was Al Pacino’s idea—after he saw the original 1932 Scarface.
Though considered significant (it’s on the National Film Registry), not many modern audiences are familiar with the original Scarface. The remake very roughly follows the same beats as this movie, in which a young Italian immigrant climbs his way through the Chicago mob scene, all while pursuing his boss’s mistress and selling bootlegged beer.
