Thoughts on a (hypothetical!) Digimon movie.
I just saw @lighdramons ask/response about a live action digimon movie. I absolutely agree with what they are saying, however this is something I’ve thought about a fair bit (I spend my time productively, I know) and I’d like to raise some solutions.
I reckon it could work, but to make it work it couldn’t be based off any particular Digimon story that we’ve seen before.
If they made an original story that took elements from the different seasons, it could actually be really good. The way that the entire Digimon franchise is set up caters to this, with there being numerous canonical universes with completely different settings, rules and circumstances.
To address the America issue; it could canonically be set in America! I’m definitely not saying they should whitewash characters; I think a diverse and appropriate cast is hugely important for every movie. I’m just saying there wouldn’t be pre-made characters that they could stuff up with their stupid America-centicity. I will say though that in this case I think it is important to have strong Asian representation given the series’ heritage.
With regards to the story it could be anything! Include any elements from the digimon universe! I have heaps of ideas, with one in particular that I think about a lot (I’ll save that for another post maybe), but it could be a good opportunity to experiment with a franchise that has already shown itself to be open to incorporating lots of new ideas.
As lighdramons quite rightly pointed out, the movies were adapting series’ with complexity that they couldn’t possibly fit onto the screen in the first place. You often here that the book is better than the movie, well I reckon the same thing applies here. The whitewashing elements are also problematic (get it together casting industry jc) but I see them as more of an institutionalised problem as opposed to the issue of poor inter-media adaptation.
Which brings me to my last point; the caveat. The above solutions do not mean it won’t be a bad film. There’s still a LOT more work to be done to make it good. So tentatively I’ll say, maybe one day this could be a thing. A good thing.
