Disney is Making a Latino Version of ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’
Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images
Another day, another Latino-fied reboot of a beloved story. Recently, we reported that “Father of the Bride” is going to be rebooted, this time with a “sprawling Cuban family” at the center of the movie. Now, apparently ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’ is getting the same treatment.
According to Deadline, this version of ‘Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day’ is going to “focus on a multigenerational Latinx family”.
Since there was already a 2014 version of the popular children’s book that starred Steve Carrell and Jennifer Garner, the movie is technically being called a “reboot”. But we just like to think of it as a reinterpretation.
Per Deadline, the movie is being developed specifically for Disney+. Seeing as this reinterpretation is being written by the same guy who is writing the “Father of the Bride” reboot (Matt Lopez), it looks like this writer is definitely carving out a niche for himself in Hollywood.
“Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” is an incredibly popular children’s book that was published in 1972 by the author Judith Viorst.
Latino artist Ray Cruz illustrated the famously distinctive pictures in the book and its three sequels, “Alexander, Who Used to be Rich Last Sunday”, “Alexander, Who’s Not (Do You Hear Me? I Mean It!) Going to Move”, and “Alexander Who’s Trying His Best to Be the Best Boy Ever”.
Viorst, who was also a psychoanalysis researcher, wrote the book to help children process the all-too-common feelings of isolation and frustration that occur when nothing seems to be going their way. It is considered a classic.
Although it’s exciting that another Latino-centric story is going to be brought to the screen, it would also be nice for new, original Latino stories to be told.
For example, part of “Coco’s” popularity was the fact that the movie celebrated and elevated specific aspects of Mexican culture. The movie wasn’t a Latino interpretation of a white text, but it was a Latino narrative through and through.
A lot of the time, Hollywood thinks it can just swap out the characters’ names and slap some Latino actors on the cast, and they’ve hit their “diversity quota” for the year. But true representation goes much deeper than that.
Think about how many “Latino Reboots” there have been. “Charmed”, “One Day at a Time”, “Party of Five”, “Magnum P.I.” , “Father of the Bride”. It’s exciting that Hollywood is taking steps to employee Latino actors and creatives, but it might be time for an original, authentic Latino story to be told.
