Family Circus movie (facepalm)

[robodog]

I like Mother Goose and Grimm. I think I have some of the comic strip treasuries around here somewhere. The series was pretty good too if I recall.

 

[Teheheman]

I dunno, I can KIND OF see it as a live action movie. All they gotta do is change everything about the comic that's made it work over the past 50 years. The comic isn't a BAD comic, it's not my FAVORITE comic but it's not bad. I think that Dilbert also wasn't a BAD TV show. It WAS on Comedy Central for a while when they had The Tick and The Critic on and they also have a web series somewhere online, if I find it, I'll let you know. Personally, I dunno HOW they successfully do comics to TV considering that the joke is ALWAYS in the 3rd panel and, with animation, that would take about 2 minutes to do it. That's how the Garfield and Friends shorties segments worked.

Daniel

 

[Drtooth]

I like Mother Goose and Grimm. I think I have some of the comic strip treasuries around here somewhere. The series was pretty good too if I recall.

Mark Evanier wrote that cartoon as well. He's really great at adapting comics to animation. His work on the 1979 Plastic Man cartoon isn't something to sneeze at either.

I really wish Monty got the respect it deserved too. The only Robotman cartoon was some ultra-corny 80's toy commercially TV special. It's a shame Jim Meddick's version of the character never got an animated version. Not even web shorts.

I dunno, I can KIND OF see it as a live action movie. All they gotta do is change everything about the comic that's made it work over the past 50 years.

All I know of the TV specials is they forced some of their brand of precociousness into the story whenever possible. I don't see much of a difference from them working a one liner/sight gag from a Garfield Strip or a Peanuts strip into story. The only real difference is that both Garfield and Peanuts, even without TV specials, were capable of having a story. Sometimes multiple connected storylines in a week or more. All we have to go on for story are those three obscure TV specials.

Something tells me this is going to wind up either a lame "affectionate parody" or just a generic family movie about a family with the title Family Circus pasted on.

 

[Teheheman]

Probably the generic family movie about a family that has NOTHING to do with Family Circus. They just HAPPEN to have the names of the people in the movie but nothing to do with said people.

Daniel

 

[Drtooth]

Probably the generic family movie about a family that has NOTHING to do with Family Circus. They just HAPPEN to have the names of the people in the movie but nothing to do with said people.

Yeah, I hate when they do that. Usually that happens when they buy the rights to a license to make a movie, sit on it for years, and then fart one out before the license expires.

 

[minor muppetz]

Mark Evanier wrote that cartoon as well. He's really great at adapting comics to animation.

This reminds me of the first time I heard of Mother Goose and Grimm, it was in a commercial for the cartoon series with Garfield talking about Grimm. Both shows were on CBS, but now I wonder if having Garfield promote the show had anything to do with Mark Evanier writing both.

 

[minor muppetz]

Am I the only one in the world who actually liked the comic?

I like the comic as well. Though I don't seek out book collections of the strip or particularly desire adaptations of the franchise.

 

[Drtooth]

This reminds me of the first time I heard of Mother Goose and Grimm, it was in a commercial for the cartoon series with Garfield talking about Grimm. Both shows were on CBS, but now I wonder if having Garfield promote the show had anything to do with Mark Evanier writing both.

I think it also has something to do with Mike Peters and Jim Davis being peers or friends or something of some kind. Grimmy had a cameo in one of the DTV CGI Garfield movies.

I'd venture to say Jim recommended Mark to Peter.

 

[fuzzygobo]

I agree with Snowthy, Family Circus might be cloying to some, but it's not all that bad. In fact, there's an anthology of the first few years of the strip from the early 60's, and was quite edgy at times. I actually liked it when I was growing up back in the 70's. There might not be anything edgy or provocative, but to a younger reader there's still a certain appeal.

But given the precedent set by the three holiday specials (Christmas, Valentine's Day, and Easter) a feature film could get quite sugary (the cinematic equivalent of eating a whole jar of Marshmallow Fluff)- so watch at your own risk.

Although it might've been nice, I'm glad Bill Watterson had the integrity not to exploit Calvin and Hobbes (he's received a number of tempting offers, but turned each one down). So at least there's no regrets that his creation will ever get tampered with (only the bootleg decals of Calvin peeing on a wall, which Bill gets no residuals for).

 

[robodog]

Those decals make my blood boil every time I see them. I hate seeing anyone's intellectual property exploited like that. I kind of doubt most people who buy those things even know who Calvin is. I have to believe any fan of the source material would refuse to contribute to anyone who would blatantly rip Watterson off like that.