I like a recent trend in movies, at least, a trend I'm picking up on. It seems there has been a push to make live-action movies based on children's programs—specifically cartoons—from my own childhood. Some prominent examples are The Flintstones, Scooby-Doo, Transformers, and Alvin and the Chipmunks.

It's going on in the television world, too. It seems to be, at least, in a different form it is—bringing back favorite television series, slightly re-envisioned. For example, recently, a movie that is supposed to be the pilot episode of Knight Rider aired. This experiment was also tried with Battlestar Galactica (a success, though I'm no longer a fan of it) and Bionic Woman (seemingly unsuccessful).

Next year, there's going to be a movie based off of the comic/cartoon/toy-line G.I. Joe, and I have to say that on some level I'm excited about it. At the same time, though, I'm disturbed at the "re-envisioning" it is receiving. First of all, G.I Joe has been changed to an acronym: G.I.J.O.E.—Globally Integrated Joint Operations Entity. That really sounds cheesy. Second, they are headquartered in Brussels...that's in Europe, in case you didn't know. Third, Cobra (the enemy) is a Scottish-based arms dealing organization. WHAT?!?!

So much for "A Real American Hero." Never mind the origin of the term G.I. Joe referring to the American soldier. All I can wonder is that the big wigs behind this feature film are changing things ever-so-slightly (ahem*yeahright*ahem) to make it more globally PC, and I'm not the only one who seems to think that. I really, really hope they change their minds, get back to the original idea of G.I. Joe (or a lot closer to it—at least on a similar level to the Transformers movie). Only that will make it worth my entertainment dollar.

Anyway, some other childhood favorites I wouldn't mind seeing turned into a full-length feature film:

• Gobots (to challenge Transformers, even though they were eventually acquired by Hasbro from Tonka)
• M.A.S.K.
• The Centurions
• Snorks (I can only see this as a family film, not too many mature themes here)
• Robotech/Macross
• The Pirates of Dark Water (admittedly, this one is a stretch)
• The Jetsons
• He-Man (do it again, I know it was made once before) - maybe even do a He-Man/She-ra cross-over
• Silverhawks
• ThunderCats
• Voltron (both the lions and the vehicles)

Writing this entry and searching for all of those links brought back some memories...