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Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Famous Five to be cartoonised

Today's Telegraph reports that:
"Enid Blyton's Famous Five adventures are being turned into a Disney cartoon series.

A British company, Chorion, is working with a French animation firm to make the series which will première in the UK in 2008.

A spokesman said the series was still popular around the world and every generation of children "deserved" to be entertained by the Famous Five.

The Famous Five children (and dog) are, aside from Noddy, perhaps the most famous of Blyton's characters.

Julian, Dick, Anne and George, with their dog Timmy, typically used their school holidays to chance upon a mystery which led to a chase and adventure.

It might mean scrambling through caves and smugglers' tunnels or exploring a remote island to unmask criminals in their work.

Whatever the obstacles, the team always found time to stop for a picnic which would typically include ginger beer.

Indeed, if the term "lashings of ginger beer" has become a catch-phrase for mocking Blyton's characters, they have delighted generations with their courage and sense of fair play.

A spokesman for Chorion told the Daily Telegraph the cartoon characters would not use old-fashioned terminology, but the adventures would remain true."
Full article here.

Let's hope the figures look better than those on the recent covers of the Secret Seven series:

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:01 pm

    DOes this mean that young readers no longer have the attention span necessary to read a whole Famous Five book without the visual stimulation of pictures?? Oh dear.

    I know what you mean about the Secret Seven covers. They look dire. I have been trying collect for my children, editions from the mid '70s that I had, which were a lot more appealing.

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  2. I adored Enid Blyton books as a youngster and I'm afraid all the controversy about her books went way over my head. I just enjoyed the independence of the characters. I read the ones with the 1970 covers on too. There's a page devoted to them - http://www.enidblyton.net/showbookcovers.html?show=famous-five - most of the covers aren't too bad. Unlike the recent Secret 7 ones!

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