Murray, NEB–The remake-it’s nothing new. The general premise being, “one was made before. It earned a lot of money. We should try that again.” This is what has gotten us remakes of the action packed 1984 “Red Dawn,” western classic “The Magnificent 7,” and the live action remakes of some of Disney’s most popular animated classics.

Remakes spark a lot of debate among moviegoers, with film purists insisting that only the originals will suffice, and others seeing the merit in both. While I have never considered myself to be much of a movie critic, in this case, I have to put myself in the first category.

The newer versions of classic motion pictures will never quite be the same. Many of them just don’t compare when stood up next to the originals. An editorial on Rotten Tomatoes illustrated how remakes just don’t cut it. After an in depth analysis of remakes throughout the years, they found that only 33% really “worked” and achieved a measure of film success (e.g. winning Oscars, hitting the $1 billion mark at the box office, becoming cult classics).

Outside of success at the box office or with the fans, the overall quality of the movies as determined by experts is lacking.” In fact, the average “Tomatometer” score for remakes was a whopping 34% lower than the average score of the original movies. Only 40 remakes or reboots were able to beat their original in terms of score-a number they say to be less than 10% of remakes.

Picking on the Disney remakes in specific, Reviews.org analyzed data regarding the originals versus the remakes. In categories of Review.org’s ratings, IMDb’s ratings, and audience opinion, the original films handily outperformed the remakes. In box office earnings, the results are a little more mixed, but the top three spots are still held by Cinderella (1950), 101 Dalmatians (1961) and The Lion King (1994).

Remakes have been around for a while and it doesn’t look like they’re going away anytime soon. While some of them aren’t bad and others are even excellent adaptations, most remakes just don’t cut it, and can never compare to the previous glory of the versions that came before.