Young Frankenstein: The Sequel That Defined It All
If you enjoy comedies, you have most certainly seen Young Frankenstein. Young Frankenstein is, ironically, among the first instances of a legacy sequel, though you might not know. This movie defined the traits of a legacy sequel ought to have.
How Young Frankenstein Defined the Sequel Legally
Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks is a funny and loving parodies of the venerable Universal Monster Movies. Gene Wilder plays Frederick Frankenstein, the grandson of the venerable Doctor Frankenstein. Brooks chose to approach the idea of the famous tale humoristically rather than directly parodies of the original Frankenstein. Although this was a dangerous action, it turned out to be smart.
Many of the elements of what we would define as a legacy sequel in contemporary film abound in Young Frankenstein. It centers on a descendent of an established character—in this case, Doctor Frankenstein—and occurs in the same environment as the original Frankenstein. Brooks even went so far as to accentuate the link using original movie audio. Apart from that, there are several visual allusions to earlier films, including famous scenes from the original Frankenstein. The film offers a funny fresh interpretation of the relationship between Frankenstein's Monster and the people he comes across. Young Frankenstein seems in many respects a forerunner of the modern legacy sequel.
Was the first legacy sequel Young Frankenstein?
Few of the long-running franchises and direct successors that preceded Young Frankenstein possessed the traits of what is thought of as a modern legacy sequel. A good illustration of that idea is The Color of Money (1986), which introduces a new character with Tom Cruise's Vincent while resurrecting Paul Newman's character from The Hustler. Additional early instances of the legacy sequel are Psycho II (1984), Return to Oz (1985), and Halloween H20: 20 Years Later (1998).
Though young Frankenstein comes in line with the kind of arc seen in many modern legacy films, it predates all those movies. There is respect for the earlier movies that still allow room for experimentation and subversion. The younger iterations of the older archetypes offer a fresh vitality to the narrative that still connects with the original. This lets Young Frankenstein continue the original series while yet feeling like a stand-alone tale.
Why Should More Legacy Sequels Mirror Young Frankenstein?
Though it pays loving respect to earlier Universal monster films, Young Frankenstein still feels different from them. Though it touches on many of the same story beats as the original Frankenstein, the film doesn't merely feel like a retread by adopting a comic approach to the idea. Though I stand alone as a separate narrative, Frankenstein inspires and directly relates to me. Legacy sequels in modern film are sometimes attacked for finally producing declining returns. They invite direct analogues to the past movies by repeating the same concepts but with a different cast.
More legacy films should be like Young Frankenstein and adopt a different tone or technique than their forebears. This indicates they're open to experimenting with the idea rather than that they all must be comedies. While still tying it to a familiar and popular concept, a readiness to be a different kind of movie inside the framework of past productions would allow the filmmakers freedom to tell their own story.
Though Young Frankenstein is among the first iterations of a movie legacy sequel, its uniqueness makes it still among the best.
