Corporate bastards ruin another childhood character

[SpankMe]

Rupert the Bear has been "modernized". Whored is more like it. There was nothing wrong with him in the first place so why change him. I remember reading all the Rupert The Bear annuals at my grandma’s place when I stayed their as a kid.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4393038.stm

This is NOT Rupert the Bear.

[Sniper]

SpankMe is right. I read all the original ruperts too and that bear looks screwy.

[ManDownUnder]

As an official member of the Rupert the Bear Club I am appalled at what they've done.

He adorned all my porrige packets and the annuals, and even sent me birthday cards.

Not sure who THAT dude is... maybe the Son of Rupert (he'd be about the right age..)

[SpankMe]

He's also got some fingers missing. All Rupert characters have full 5 fingers, not four like today’s cartoon characters.

[James Deuce]

Now there was a bear who had no trouble calling a golliwog a golliwog.

Hollywood runs out of ideas so it plunders British literary history. Roald Dahl, A. A. Milne, Rev. Wilbert Awdry, and now Mary Tourtel/Alfred Bestall.

We can only hope there is a hell for culture pimps.

[Colapop]

The 'new' modernised version looks like one of those processed potatoe face things. It's not Rupert.

[SARGE]

you guys have WAY too much time on your hands..

[Ixion]

Blurdy Yanks !

I still have some of the Rupert annuals. Still a good read.

It was a more innocent age - Hollywood can't cope with that. Bastards

[Big Dave]

you guys have WAY too much time on your hands..

I think they might be gay.

[SARGE]

I think they might be gay.


see you all at the teddy bears picnic :eek5:

[Motu]

They better leave Tiger Lily alone!!!!!

We knew our little 4 yr old girl was really reading by her self when she started talking about Rup pert.We had never read them to her,she picked up the books and sorted it out herself.We have all the annuals and all 4 kids have got a lot out of Rupert.

Hey - did you make any of the folding paper projects?

[SpankMe]

Yep, the first bit of origami I did was from a Rupert annual.

[Big Dave]

see you all at the teddy bears picnic :eek5:


What were your first books? The first ones that you wanted.

'Go dog go' Dr S
and I did 'Peanuts' - every volume, hard or softback.
That's where i learned what they call 'emotional intelligence' today.

[Motu]

What were your first books? The first ones that you wanted.

'Go dog go' Dr S
and I did 'Peanuts' - every volume, hard or softback.
That's where i learned what they call 'emotional intelligence' today.

Willard Price and the Adventure books - Hal and Roger got into all sorts of dramas.Again,all my kids have devoured them.

Books I really enjoyed reading to my kids....

Go Dog Go
One Fish,Two Fish,Red Fish,Blue Fish
A Fly Went By.
Green Eggs and Ham

[mstriumph]

Yuk, GROSS!! and all to sell a few million pairs of trendy kid's sneakers ......

I am SOOOoooooooooooooo bl#@dy sick and TIRED of things that have formed a valued part of my childhood being gussied up and homogenized to conform to some advertising mogul's idea of a current day 'marketing opportunity'

POPULATE THE BATTLEMENTS! MAN THE BARRICADES! WOMAN THE DRAWBRIDGE! [this is a gender-neutral battle, kiddies......]

...... and the hell of it is, they will probably sell a hell of a lot of sneakers ....*sigh*

[sunhuntin]

looks like the bear on the uncle tobys porridge boxes....gross.

i remember loving go dog go, and the bill peet books....big bad bruce, how droofus the dragon lost his head, the pinkish purplish bluish egg, lmfao. thanks for the memories guys! brought tears to my eyes.

[Ghost Lemur]

Let me guess. Another Disney acquision.

Those scumsuckers are at the top of my hitlist.

[Colapop]

What were your first books? The first ones that you wanted.

'Go dog go' Dr S
and I did 'Peanuts' - every volume, hard or softback.
That's where i learned what they call 'emotional intelligence' today.

Hardy Boys Adventures, The Cat in the Hat, and Willard Price and the Adventure books.
All the Footrot Flats collections right up to vol 12.
When I was about 8 I read my first Stephen King book. I swear I didn't sleep properly for a week!! Reading is so under-rated these days. I got my daughter the complete Narnia set in one big hardback and she's been reading it everyday for about 6 weeks.

[Riff Raff]

Gotta put Famous Five on the list. Plus I reckon George was a lezzo!
No, really??? :shit:
It actually upsets me to see my favourite characters being upgraded and conforming to PC bullshit.

A few years ago I bought the complete collection of AA Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories and poems - so much better than the Walt Disney crappy version.

My favourite novels when I was a kid were the Famous Five, Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Biggles etc. They were great adventure stories.

[SARGE]

What were your first books? The first ones that you wanted.

'Go dog go' Dr S
and I did 'Peanuts' - every volume, hard or softback.
That's where i learned what they call 'emotional intelligence' today.


my first books were MAD magazine.. kind of explains alot actually

Oh.. and Car Craft/ Hot Rod

Penthouse didnt come into the scene till i was 10

read all the Curious George books and Hardy boys stuff too

[Coyote]

R.I.P. Cookie Monster, Basil Brush and Rupert

[Unit]

Im a poo bear girl personally, god forbid they f*#k with him, the world really has gone mad. :weep:

[Suney]

Ruperts the man, hes sporting new converse now lol

[Coyote]

Im a poo bear girl personally, god forbid they f*#k with him, the world really has gone mad. :weep:
They did. The Disney version is a cheap rip off of AA Milne's original

[parsley]

Rupert the Bear has been "modernized". Whored is more like it. There was nothing wrong with him in the first place so why change him.
I mostly agree, but there are definitely elements of Rupert that could be, ahem, modernised a bit. Check out this classic (and note the website hosting it):
http://www.aryanunity.com/rupertint.html

[Ixion]

Modernised? NEVER! What a jolly good tale. And a happy ending to boot. Racist? Humbug and poppycock. I throughly enjoyed that tale. Unfortunately there don't seem to be any others on that site, just a lot of boring stuff. Pity, they'd have been better to put up more Rupert Bear.

[Karma]

i grew up on The Far Side and Playboys mostly...

kinda explains the appitite for weird porn :)

[tracyprier]

Yes, Disney et al are guilty of many sins of mutilation. I'm still reeling from the genetic mutations they performed on Pooh!

Why the hell does everything that is more than 5 years old have to be "zhuzzed up" ? (damn, that's a REALLY gay word!)

PC it is... and do we know where PC came from children? that's right, the Soviet Union... uncle Karl and Uncle Joe.

[Krayy]

MY childhood included a bunch of books from that most un-pc of kiddie writers, Enid Blyton. Used to love reading about how PC Plod beat the shit shit out the Golliwogs while Noddy and Big Ears went off to bed together.

And in most of her stories there was always someone with the most inappropriate name like Fanny or Spankalot. And stereotypes...don't talk to ME about stereotypes. Bears were bad, as were goblins and brownies, but pixies were okay by her. The women were useless and cried a lot (except George, she kicked ass).

Secret Seven, Famous Five, Fab Four (oops, that was the Beatles), Faraway Tree, Wishing Chair, Noddy, hell she had it all.

And to top it off, I know a bloke who looks EXACTLY like Moonface, right down to the pointy lobes.

[Krayy]

Im a poo bear girl personally, god forbid they f*#k with him, the world really has gone mad. :weep:
You haven't seen that piece of shit 3-D computer generated Winnie ther Pooh on Disney channel have you?

I almost cried....... :nono:

[Toast]

Well, from one not taken in by the nostalgia here (I know who he is, but never really got in to Rupert stuff)...

The old version looks like a dodgy skinny bastard with a gimp mask on (check the shot of him on the magic carpet, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4393038.stm).

The new one is much cuter to be honest.

Having said that, if someone messes with Curious George or Pooh Bear, I'm gonna be pissed...

But really, they have to sell stuff, and the old ones look a bit crap without the fond memories of our childhoods to cloud our sights.

[James Deuce]

Well, from one not taken in by the nostalgia here (I know who he is, but never really got in to Rupert stuff)...

The old version looks like a dodgy skinny bastard with a gimp mask on (check the shot of him on the magic carpet, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4393038.stm).

The new one is much cuter to be honest.

Having said that, if someone messes with Curious George or Pooh Bear, I'm gonna be pissed...

But really, they have to sell stuff, and the old ones look a bit crap without the fond memories of our childhoods to cloud our sights.

It's nothing to do with nostalgia. Children's books that breach the generation barrier are rare as hen's teeth, and are regarded as literature and social commentary. The so-called un-PC nature of these stories documents attitudes that were historically correct, and nothing to do with modern concepts of racial or socio-economic "harmony". In fact leaving them intact shows how generalised uninformed propaganda can shape adult attitudes, while still enjoying stories that have an appeal outside their milieu

This type of corporate whoredom is the same as Adidas painting shoes on the feet of figures depicted on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, because the original isn't modern enough. Yo get wit da shizz. Not.

[jrandom]

It's nothing to do with nostalgia. Children's books that breach the generation barrier are rare as hen's teeth, and are regarded as literature and social commentary.

do you see piles of the old Rupert books burning in the street?

[wanders to window, gazes out]

not today.

perhaps I could infer that Rupert's social commentary will stand, but that would be unscientific; I can't watch all the streets all day long, so They might sneak in and burn all the old books sometime when I'm not watching.


same as Adidas painting shoes on the feet of figures depicted on the roof of the Sistine Chapel, because the original isn't modern enough.

no tain't.

it's the same as Adidas making another painting with people wearing shoes and hanging it in their Portland HQ.

if you're looking at it, that means you already walked into the bloody Adidas HQ dunnit.

in this case, if you're looking at it, that means you already walked into the 'new children's books' section of your local whitcoulls, or summat.

and what, precisely, did you *expect* when you did that?

old Rupert books are not hens' teeth. go grab a few, and celebrate your imperialist history.

[James Deuce]

I never said the books themselves were rare, I said that those that have cross-generational influence and appeal were rare.

It isn't in any way the same as the scenario you described re. Adidas. The new stories will be characterless, trite, and corny, nothing bad will happen to anyone, and they will sink without trace, taking their historical legacy with them.

There was a run on making movies out of Roald Dahl stories in the 70s and those represented his initial intention for the stories quite well. The darkness inherent in Dahl's books were maintained, as were the holes left for children's imagination to road freely within. The latest iteration of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory is a saccharine piece of crap that tries to explain everything, and as a consequence has no intrinsic worth, except as a stand-alone piece modern children's entertainment. Over budget and uninspiring in other words.

[inlinefour]

must be that wakt disney bastard again

[Kickaha]

. I throughly enjoyed that tale. .

Me to, I can remember reading it many years ago

[Ixion]

I think Mr Jim2 is correct. The problem is that when Hollywood bastardises the classics, the deluge of publicity so overwhelms the original that everyone forgets that it existed. The "disney" version becomes the only one known. Since the "disney" verison (I know it's not always Disney) is basically crap people soon consign it to the figurative dustbin, and the original gets cast out along with the fake.

It is like the Riley car (and other makes) Most people only remember Rileys as badge engineeered BMCs. And rightly dismiss them as crap cars. Few bother to remember the original Riley, which was quite a different thing.

[jrandom]

I never said the books themselves were rare, I said that those that have cross-generational influence and appeal were rare.

this generation is not a generation that will influence bugger all. is that a bad thing? I t'ink not.

these are not the old days, the bad days, the all or nothing days.

these are, in fact, the insipid days, the mildly-clouded days, the blankly polite days.

we are not even God's unwanted children; we are his unwanted children's second cousins once removed, squirming restlessly on a Sunday afternoon visit in his rattan armchair.



The latest iteration of Charlie and The Chocolate Factory is a saccharine piece of crap that tries to explain everything...

beats the previous one, though...

[James Deuce]

this generation is not a generation that will influence bugger all. is that a bad thing? I t'ink not.

these are not the old days, the bad days, the all or nothing days.

these are, in fact, the insipid days, the mildly-clouded days, the blankly polite days.

we are not even God's unwanted children; we are his unwanted children's second cousins once removed, squirming restlessly on a Sunday afternoon visit in his rattan armchair

Niiiiice! Guess who created that world for these kids though? Shouldn't we "fix" it if we can?


beats the previous one, though...

Not, but your previous points were so good I forgive you.

[SPman]

my first books were MAD magazine.. kind of explains alot actually
Oh.. and Car Craft/ Hot Rod

Oh Shit! - me too - along with "the Water Babies" and all the Biggles books.
And Arthur Mees Encyclopedia.........
No wonder my mind's a strange thing to wander in........:eek5:

[parsley]

all the Biggles books.
Screwing with your childhood isn't a recent thing. Remember the Biggles film they made in the 1980's? Fucking travesty. :ar15:

[Ghost Lemur]

Damn am I the only one who grew up on National Geographic magazines?


Lets see Disney fuck with that.

[Krayy]

Screwing with your childhood isn't a recent thing. Remember the Biggles film they made in the 1980's? Fucking travesty. :ar15:
I really liked that film and even bought the soundtrack (but that was mainly cos I was a huge Jon Anderson fan - still am). I didn't mind the whole time-travel take on it and the flying scenes were quite cool. Mind you, I also enjoyed the film version of Howard the Duck as well :wait:

But of course, it wasn't a touch on Monty Python's Biggles sketch. Brought them right out of the closet like the "gay" flyers they were :bleh: