Fairytales have always reflected the morals of the age. It's not a sin to rewrite them

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

6. People have been rewriting classic literature of all kinds

Since fiction writing came into being. Like scientists, all artists such as writers stand on the shoulders of the giants who came before them.

I mean, really, what is John Steinbeck's East of Eden but a modernized Cain and Abel? Or Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South other than a Victorian retelling of Pride and Prejudice? Or the film Clueless but a 20th-century retelling of Emma? Or, heck, an entire industry known as Regency romance? Those books--every single one of them--are all offshoots of Jane Austen's oeuvre, in some form, but especially Pride and Prejudice.

And let's not even get into all the modern retelling of classic lit from the perspectives of villains or other ancillary characters.

Or the many retreads in foreign countries. Akira Kurosawa's Ran is King Lear in montsuki and kimonos. The enormously successful Japanese manga sensation, Hana Yori Dango, is a modern update of Pride and Prejudice that has ratcheted up live-action TV series versions in multiple Asian countries (Japan--twice, China--twice, Taiwan, South Korean, India, Vietnam--and possibly more).

You can go through literally centuries of books and over a century of TV and films, and see stories getting recycled, over and over again, with new twists of all kinds. So why were most of those okay, but these new adaptations aren't, other than the idiotic racial/gender issue?