Disappointing “Uglies” proves YA adaptations should be animated

We open on a world in concrete gray. There is a powerful government, a post-apocalyptic class system with a telling name, and an unremarkable teenager ready to start a worldwide revolution. Does this sound familiar? That's because it is the basis of most of the popular dystopian franchises for young adults, including Uglya series of novels by Scott Westerfeld from the mid-2000s that has finally been adapted into a movie (now on Netflix). Unfortunately, while Westerfeld's books were memorable trendsetters for the genre, the long-awaited film feels like a rehash of teen cliches. And it's not just a frame-for-frame retelling of some of the genre's most disappointing aspects. It's proof that such expansive works and worlds deserve equally expansive treatment on screen – approaches that live-action recreations simply can't sustain.

The story follows Tally Youngblood (Joey King), a girl who is about to turn 16. She feels ugly, but it's not her fault. She lives in a society where every person undergoes an aggressive, life-changing cosmetic procedure on their sixteenth birthday that transforms them into a perfectly symmetrical beauty. Children Tally's age and younger are called Uglies; after their birthday surgery, they are Pretties and are allowed to live and play among the town's beautiful residents. After a failed attempt to sneak into the pretty part of town to visit her best friend Peris (Chase Stokes), who has already had his surgery, Tally meets 15-year-old Shay (Brianne Tju), who has the same birthday as her. They quickly develop an intense bond, riding their hoverboards and fantasizing about what they want their new faces to look like. But when Shay decides not to have surgery and flees to a secret society of surgery resisters called the Smoke, the government sends Tally on a mission to infiltrate the camp. All she has to do is betray the outlaws, and then she'll finally be Pretty. But Tally's time with the people of Smoke – and a budding romance with their leader, David (Keith Powers) – opens her eyes to hard truths about the Pretties. Soon she must choose between the life she's always wanted and a new home she never considered.

As a film Ugly is in predictable form for a young adult Netflix adaptation. The muted color palette is complemented by lackluster performances from the cast, the acting relies on seemingly archival footage, and the reams of visual effects make the project seem dated and entirely implausible. (The one bright spot is an inspired performance from Tju as the rebellious Shay.) But the film's glaring lack of imagination isn't due to its source material. Westerfeld's dystopia creates one of the most unforgettable revelations in the history of young adult literature by playing with our ideas of beauty. In the books, Tally looks at carefully preserved magazines from an earlier era, easily recognizable to readers as a mix of tabloids and standard celebrity-filled glossy magazines. But in her eyes, not every single famous person is beautiful. They're ugly. It's an unexpected twist that beauty in this new culture doesn't just mean poreless skin and taut facial features. In this dystopia, being pretty means becoming monstrous.

But the adaptation fails to capture this essential nuance, contenting itself with whitewashing the cast with something resembling a clumsy Facetune. The book's critique of government bread and circuses to appease the masses is also toned down, as the film ironically squeezes cameo appearances from other Netflix stars into every spare minute – as if to remind viewers that there's a lot more to see here after the film ends. (Stokes and King each lead their own Netflix series. There is also Laverne Cox from Orange is the new black Fame, Luke Eisner of Big Girl 2, Selling Sunset Star Breana Tiesi and either model Lucky Blue Smith or someone who looks just damn like him.)

But these shortcomings are not unique. In fact, there are a number of YA fails based on popular works – Beautiful creatures, Eragon, The Giver, City of Embers, Divergent, And The darkest minds — who suffer from the same main problem: live-action films simply cannot convey the size and scope of their imaginary settings. After the great success of The Hunger Gamesit is clear that studio bosses will never stop greenlighting YA adaptations starring Your Favorite Stars in the hope that one of them will spawn the next smash-hit franchise. In fact, several are already in the works, including a television version of Harry Potterand a cinema version of Tomi Adeymi's successful fantasy series Children of blood and boneAt the same time, film and television producers ignore the better option for adaptation that is available to them: animation.

In this era of remakes, live action is seen as the ultimate, especially for animated classics. There have been star-studded live-action remakes of famous children's films such as The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Jungle Book, Dumbo, Mulan, And The Little Mermaid. And each one has been criticized for not living up to the inspired world of its predecessor. But animation can fill in the gaps that live-action films can't. Artists can tell a story that isn't bound by the rules of filming real people in the real world. Yes, given enough time and money, VFX can create incredible spectacles. But let's face it, no studio is going to give a teen film the same budget as James Cameron's VFX masterpiece. Avatar: The Way of Water. One of the greatest strengths of animation is also the way it can convey emotion as a physical presence. There are limitless art styles and creative choices that can be made in the animation process, as the Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verses ability to transform Miles Morales' leap of faith from a tall building into a scene in which a frightened boy literally stands up to meet his fate, or like the 2001 Japanese film Spirited Away gave a mystical dragon the sunken eyes of grief during a fight in flight. It is almost obvious how an animated adaptation of Ugly could have depicted his city powered by fields of polluting flowers, party machines with many tentacles roaming the streets firing off fireworks or music, and hoverboards controlled by maglev and thrusters.

The best young adult books become—and stay—popular because they give their readers plenty of room for imagination. They're limitless stories with challenging social systems and compelling universes. And with each new generation, the young adult books that make them up become more and more imaginative. When it comes to translating the worlds these stories create in our minds to the screen, these books deserve better. And so do audiences.