As we all know, the big studios are constantly in search of the next big kid-friendly franchise, regardless of the age of the source material. In recent years, the box office was even kind to big budget adaptations of The Smurfs, Alvin and the Chipmunks and even to some extent The Muppets.
But for every Lorax there are more than a few Dark Shadows. And that was just last year. There was also a slowly fading Diary of a Wimpy Kid installment and even the more kid friendly Snow White adaptation Mirror Mirror failed to reflect its good intentions.
Although it has ramped up in the last twenty years especially, the merchandising of past pop culture for a summer or winter tent-pole has always been met with mixed results.
One of my favorites is the almost immediately dismissed mixed bag from 2000, The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. Produced by Universal in an attempt to bring the popular early 60s animated series to the big screen for the first time (a failed 1992 Boris and Natasha did not pass go and went directly to Showtime), the movie flopped pretty badly.
