franchises that wouldnt work in live action

[heavytread]

Now a days it seems like everything is being adapted into a live action film often to be somewhat successful. However we all know somethings don't work very well Yogi Bear for instance really wasn't all that great (at least in my opinion).

What franchises, be they comic books, anime, video games, or cartoons do you think would not work in live action?

Personally based off some fan art I've seen pokemon would not work. *shudders*

Neither would evangelion without looking like a pill of dog sh*t

Sorry if this is in the wrong place or has already been made

[Guy Nacks]

Dragonball.

[Dataprime]

Dragonball.

bingo! I was just going to say this myself

[Gendo'sPapa]

Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The amount of changes you'd need to make to the characters - i.e. the pilots can't be children just entering puberty thus meaning they have to be aged up to a point where Shinji & Asuka don't need to live with each other or Misato thus they don't have the same type of relationship present in the show thus so on & so on - would render it a completely different story.

[BrikHaus]

I think a more apt thread would be about anime properties that COULD work in live action. There must be fewer of them.

[Giji Shinka]

Neon Genesis Evangelion.

[LegionWrex]

I think a more apt thread would be about anime properties that COULD work in live action. There must be fewer of them.

That thread wouldn't work because the only one that 100% can work in live-action is Cowboy Bebop. That anime is BEGGING to made into a live action movie.

Even Watanabe wants it made into live action.

[Mr. Tines]

That thread wouldn't work because the only one that 100% can work in live-action is Cowboy Bebop.

The Mushishi movie was rather well done; I've not seen the Kaiji live action, but the impression I get is that that was considered acceptable. Wikipedia tells me that there's a Mouryou no Hako live action, and that could definitely work, being a psychological detective story set in 1952 and all.

[Gendo'sPapa]

If there was any anime I could see being given a successful live adaptation it would be NOIR. I mean the show itself is basically an animated La Femme Nikita. I know Sam Raimi was working on a live action TV series at some point.

If there was any anime I could see easily moving to live action & not losing much of the magic that made it work, NOIR with it's fun gun play, musical numbers & sexuality is the way to go.

[Bomby von Bombsville]

I don't think Patch Adams would work as a live action film.

[BrikHaus]

I don't think Patch Adams would work as a live action film.

Thread win.

[gatotsu911]

Neon Genesis Evangelion.

The amount of changes you'd need to make to the characters - i.e. the pilots can't be children just entering puberty thus meaning they have to be aged up to a point where Shinji & Asuka don't need to live with each other or Misato thus they don't have the same type of relationship present in the show thus so on & so on - would render it a completely different story.

Forget all these practical reasons, Eva wouldn't work in live action because absolutely nothing about its visual language would survive the transition to live action in any recognizable form.

Other franchises that could not possibly work in live-action: Ranma 1/2. Apparently there were talks in the 90s for Hollywood to produce a live-action Ranma. Thankfully for absolutely everyone on earth, that didn't happen.

Actually most anime, or cartoons in general, would work terribly in live action, because animation is such a heavily stylized medium and all the animation that's good takes advantage of this. Not that there aren't some exceptions (not having seen the live-action movies that already exist, I can entirely imagine Death Note working as a live-action serial drama a la Breaking Bad).

(No one even mention that live action Fairly Odd Parents movie. That didn't happen.)

Now here's a more interesting question: what live-action movies could have benefitted from being animated instead? My first pick, and I dunno how weird this is, would be A Clockwork Orange. Every time I watch that film I can feel Kubrick's explosively surreal vision straining against the confines of the physical props, lighting and setpieces and yearning for the dreamlike fluidity, absolute stylization and capacity for flawless musical synchronization that it would find in a lavishly animated film. Of course, digital editing makes films with the visual stylization of animation more feasible today than they were in 1971, but it's not news by now that Kubrick was generations ahead of his time.

[FreakyFilmFan4ever]

Forget all these practical reasons, Eva wouldn't work in live action because absolutely nothing about its visual language would survive the transition to live action in any recognizable form.

I guess that depends on what visual language we’re talking about. I personally noticed a lot of French New Wave (on-screen texts depicting dialogue, deconstruction of religious symbols, abbreviated long takes in Ep 15, ect.), German Expressionism (landscapes and set pieces designed to evoke tones and themes in Ep 10, dark shadow for Ep. 16, ext.), and French Impressionism (basically all of episodes 13, 20, 25, 26, and some of 16), in the TV series, all of which had originated from live-action films.

That being said, I really doubt any of those particular visual forms of language will be translated into live-action for the “sophisticated modern audience,” a term I swear is used by Hollywood only to make 3rd graders feel important as they watch mindless explosion after thoughtless action scene.

[Dataprime]

No one even mention that live action Fairly Odd Parents movie.

Thanks for reminding me!

[Atropos]

I think RahXephon would work better than NGE as a live action series. It's got tighter plotting, less abstract direction, and a more typical protagonist. Hell, I even have some actors in mind (Nathan Fillion as Kunugi!).

[Gendo'sPapa]

I feel the Transformers series doesn't work in live action but the box office grosses continue to prove me wrong.

[Doublegee]

Garfield.

Scooby-Doo.

Smurfs.

(surprisingly, the first Alvin and the Chipmunks was pretty good, and most of Chipwrecked was tolerable)

Hitch-hiker's Guide.

Starship troopers.

I heard that watchmen loses quite a bit in translation, though I'm not familiar with the source material.

I feel the Transformers series doesn't work in live action

The problems with Bayformers have absolutely nothing to do with the fact that it's live-action, and have everything to do with shitty writing, shitty robot designs, product placement, shitty writing, shakeycam close-ups, using Victoria's Secret underwear models instead of real actresses, and most importantly, shitty writing.

Seriously how the fuck do you get a Mountain Dew vending machine into a college dorm room?

[Stillborn]

It may be nitpicking but what displeased me the most was how relationship between Mikaela and Sam was resolved. They spend two movies developing their relationship, solving their problems, saving each others asses and reafirming their love for each other.
Then Megan had a fighht with Bay and in T3 we get: "meh, they broke up".

[Chuckman]

I feel the Transformers series doesn't work in live action but the box office grosses continue to prove me wrong.

The problem with them is that if you shift the focus off the human characters onto the Transformers themselves, it becomes a very expensive cartoon with live action backdrops and pyrotechnics. The TF movies are basically an extremely violent Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

They're also brilliant. Especially the third one, but they receive no credit because people would rather jump on the Michael Bay hate bandwagon that fails to realize that many of the things they bitch about actually come from Speilberg's influence as executive producer.

[Gendo'sPapa]

The first one works because of the Spielberg influence. The very pure-hearted "A boy & his first car" story keeps you involved throughout all the mindless explosions. Hell, the third one even works as a "Aliens destroy the world" adventure film. The second one though is a piece of shit in every way imagineable.

I also doubt Spielberg's influences included "Hey, add two Stepin Fetchit Transformers so we can laugh at 'jokes' like they can't read.". Nor do I feel Spielberg's influence is responsible for the rampant misogyny throughout the series which includes a one-off line explaining Megan Fox's disappearance from the 3rd flick after being the emotional drive in the first two as simply being "She was a bitch".

I'd also argue anything Zack Snyder has done post Dawn of the Dead remake doesn't work as live action but now I'm just trolling. If Snyder was an animator like Hiroyuki Imaishi he'd probably get a lot more respect.