“The name’s Bear. Edward Bear.”

Seen here on :

I see from USA Today that Christopher Robin is being replaced by a “tomboy girl” in order to appeal to the youth of today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-12-06-winnie-the-pooh_x.htm. Undoubtedly Disney have done lots of marketing research on this. As we learn from the article, “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,” says Nancy Kanter of the Disney Channel.

Whatever next? Antidepressants for Eeyore?

I know that Milne’s books aren’t perfect. They’re a little sugary at the best of times (“Tonstant Weader fwowed up”, as Dorothy Parker wrote), but the existing Disneyfication makes my pancreas ache with the way it replaced whimsy with sentimentality. I’m not even going to start the rant about my intense hatred of the Disney illustrations compared to E.H. Shepard’s elegant originals, since it’s a bit of a long one. Since they’re not content with butchering it once, they’re going to do it again, except this time they’re getting rid of the central character, namely the young boy to whom the stories are being told.

I knew I shouldn’t have bothered getting out of bed this morning.

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