Christopher Robin no more? Oh, bother
I know I pledged radio silence for the next couple of days, but I'm in a holding pattern, waiting for edits and notes on this free-lance project.
Plus, I just saw this item on Neil Gaiman's blog, which demonstrates that Disney isn't content to desecrate A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories with bad writing and even worse animation. Now the House of Mouse is removing Christopher Robin -- based on the son for whom Milne created the Hundred Acre Wood -- from the world of Pooh, and replacing him with with a 6-year-old "tomboyish" girl for a computer-generated series set to debut in 2007.
I'm perfectly aware that the original Pooh books are saccharine and a bit precious -- in her "Constant Reader" column, Dorothy Parker famously wrote of The House at Pooh Corner, "Tonstant Weader fwowed up" -- and I realize that children's stories of a certain era are overpopulated by little, middle-class white males.
But extracting the very inspiration for the source material just seems so ... wrong.
"We got raised eyebrows even in-house at first, but the feeling was these timeless characters really needed a breath of fresh air that only the introduction of someone new could provide," Disney Channel's Nancy Kanter told USA Today.
I shouldn't be surprised, I suppose. This is, after all, the same Disney that wrings the life out of complex, enthralling folk and fairy tales to make room for insipid, powerless heroines and big-eyed, singing forest creatures.
So, swapping the relatively gender-neutral Christopher Robin for a "tomboyish" girl is all in a day's work -- particularly, if it helps to expand the franchise that brings the company more than $1 billion annually.
We shouldn't fret too much, though. Kanter assures us that our little hero is still lurking, somewhere: "Christopher Robin is still out there in the woods, playing. We hope people will fall for this new tomboyish girl. The last thing we want to be is the ones who brought the franchise down."
Plus, I just saw this item on Neil Gaiman's blog, which demonstrates that Disney isn't content to desecrate A.A. Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories with bad writing and even worse animation. Now the House of Mouse is removing Christopher Robin -- based on the son for whom Milne created the Hundred Acre Wood -- from the world of Pooh, and replacing him with with a 6-year-old "tomboyish" girl for a computer-generated series set to debut in 2007.I'm perfectly aware that the original Pooh books are saccharine and a bit precious -- in her "Constant Reader" column, Dorothy Parker famously wrote of The House at Pooh Corner, "Tonstant Weader fwowed up" -- and I realize that children's stories of a certain era are overpopulated by little, middle-class white males.
But extracting the very inspiration for the source material just seems so ... wrong.
"We got raised eyebrows even in-house at first, but the feeling was these timeless characters really needed a breath of fresh air that only the introduction of someone new could provide," Disney Channel's Nancy Kanter told USA Today.
I shouldn't be surprised, I suppose. This is, after all, the same Disney that wrings the life out of complex, enthralling folk and fairy tales to make room for insipid, powerless heroines and big-eyed, singing forest creatures.
So, swapping the relatively gender-neutral Christopher Robin for a "tomboyish" girl is all in a day's work -- particularly, if it helps to expand the franchise that brings the company more than $1 billion annually.
We shouldn't fret too much, though. Kanter assures us that our little hero is still lurking, somewhere: "Christopher Robin is still out there in the woods, playing. We hope people will fall for this new tomboyish girl. The last thing we want to be is the ones who brought the franchise down."
Well of course they want folks to fall in love with the tomboyish girl, so they can spin her into her own franchise after they lose their License to Pooh.
As for "timeless characters needing a breath of fresh air", stuff like that gets you the Jon Peters inspired vision of Superman who doesn't fly, wears black and is borderline homicidal. I sure wish I was making this up, too.
Posted by Matt | 12:18 PM
"License to Pooh"? Wasn't that a discarded title for a James Bond movie?
Anyway, the "breath of fresh air" bit made me cringe.
The "Pooh" cast features only one female -- the motherly Kanga -- so I understand the desire to give little girls someone with whom they can easily identify. But Disney's idea of a "breath of fresh air" is swapping Christopher Robin for "tomboyish" girl and turning to really crappy computer animation?
That's ... depressing.
Posted by Kevin Melrose | 1:28 PM
I can't stand the idea of seeing Christpher Robin leave the 100 acre wood. It's not logical. He's the whole reason for the entire concept. I thing "giving a character a breather" is a crop of crap. I love Christopher Robin. I wonder who the idiot was who decided to change him with a "tomboyish" girl? I can't stand it.
Posted by Anonymous | 7:22 PM