Bring on the ’90s Renaissance

They say that trends are cyclical, that things that were once popular, will become popular again. It’s easy to understand why, though. Whenever something is popular with children, let’s say Transformers from 1984, once those kids are old enough to start paying for and making things, they begin to recreate their favorite things, like the Transformers film, 23 years later. This is also how we get shows like That ’70s Show, where in the ’90s there was an entire show about being a teenager two decades prior. Well, the ’90s kids are here. It’s been 30 years since the ’90s began, so now it’s time to leave all the ’80s nostalgia behind, and dive into ’90s nostalgia.

Fun fact: Nostalgia comes from two greek words, Nostos (Return Home) and Algos (Pain), so it literally means being homesick. The home, here, being the safety and security of your childhood.

Between movie remakes, shows based on movies, or just things set in the ’80s, it has been a never ending cascade. So much so, that there’s been 2 different versions of Ghostbusters, and 2 different revisitings of The Karate Kid.

As you can see, we have been drowning in the ’80s nostalgia for over 10 years now, it’s really time to move on.

What We’ve Seen

It is worth noting that Disney is leading the ’90s Renaissance, as they are in the middle of rebooting many of their popular animated films into live action, and the ’90s was a gold mine of animated Disney, largely due to Michael Eisner.

Now, there’s a wide range of quality when it comes to many of these projects. Some, like Animaniacs and Twin Peaks were fairly faithful adaptations, that fans of the originals liked, while appealing to new fans as well. Others, like Baywatch or All That, were cheap cash grabs, hoping that the ’90s Kids™ would automatically be all in.

So it’s clear that the ’90s nostalgia has started, and yet it still feels like the ’80s are dominating the box office. So looking forward, what IPs are we getting soon, that will really set in the ’90s?

What We’re Getting

A lot of ’90s properties have been announced, either in the works, or so far back in pre-production that we don’t even have casting announcements, much less any kind of promo material.

What I Want

It’s worth it to mention, that the things that most deserve reboots, are properties that were either good and ignored, or things with cool ideas, but poor execution. Things that were just great don’t need to be remade. So don’t remake Titanic, but take a look at this list instead.

Also, I could make a whole article on the Disney Channel Original Movies that I think deserve feature film budgets, because as bad as I’m sure they were, they were so great when I was their target demographic.

I should mention that ’90s music has been returning to the forefront once more, with everyone rallying around Britney Spears (rightfully so), as well as the Backstreet Boys, Spice Girls, and Smashing Pumpkins all about to start touring again. Also, videogames from the ’90s are being remade, like the Spyro Reignited Trilogy (which Chanel speedruns often on Twitch.tv/ChanelTheNerdd), Crash Bandicoot, and Pokemon.

Honestly, at this point, I’m almost ready for the early ’00s nostalgia to kick in, but I’m willing to wait a few more years for that.

The point is, it’s time to slow down on setting everything in the ’80s, and move on to another decade.

What ’90s property do you want to see come back? Let us know in the comments below!