Hanna-Barbera Productions
I believe all retired cartoon characters are sitting in a lounge somewhere -- perhaps smoking and playing cards -- each waiting for that inevitable call to burst out of two dimensions and appear on the big screen in a live action/CG feature.
There's certainly a precedent. Marmaduke, The Berenstain Bears and Yogi Bear have all recently entered the well-traveled path of Garfield, Underdog, Scooby Doo, The Flintstones, Casper, George of the Jungle, Inspector Gadget, Josie and the Pussycats, Mr. Magoo, Speed Racer and countless others leading to cinematic destiny.
But most of these destinies consist of a very short theatrical run and eternity on a Blockbuster shelf.
Producers need to realize that waxing nostalgic about old TV shows doesn’t automatically mean audiences are ready to shell out $12 to see an updated version. Even a 3D version. And most of these classic characters are as familiar and resonant to contemporary kids as Engelbert Humperdinck.
Yet producers continually pick TV shows simply on the basis of their own classic TV memories. How else do you explain Boris and Natasha? I can’t even finish writing the sentence “Why can’t Hollywood come up with an original --” before an old cartoon or comic strip is dusted off, available stars are lined up, and Variety makes an announcement.
It won’t last, of course. Well, not for the Magilla Gorillas, Huckleberry Hounds and other two-dimensional critters of that era. Once new Hollywood decision-makers -- whose nostalgia banks only go back as far as Rugrats and The Powerpuff Girls -- are in power, Generation Yogi won’t even be a memory, much less a movie. Just ask Betty Boop.
