Not that I care about Strawberry Shortcake, but this article certainly makes me ill, and not because I've been inhaling fruit-scented dolls. I'm no genius, but it seems to me, if this character no longer connects to modern kids, you could, I dunno, create a new character instead of wasting time and money "reimagining" one nobody seems to care about.
Or you could examine the reasons no one cares about the characters anymore. Why, for instance, does Disney feel the need to upgrade Mickey Mouse, and why, in God's name, do the pinheads at Warner Bros. keep tinkering with the Looney Tunes characters? The reason kids these days don't know from Mickey Mouse or Bugs Bunny isn't necessarily because the characters are irrelevant, but because their starring vehicles are almost impossible to see.
Sure, Disney and Warners empty out their vaults periodically, but in expensive DVD sets aimed more at adult collectors than anyone else. In my experience, kids still love a good Road Runner cartoon, whenever they're exposed to one. The Disney Channel and Cartoon Network used to regularly showcase vintage animation, but these days they're too busy airing Spy Kids or Hook for the umpteenth time to bother celebrating the characters they claim to love. Maybe if kids had as many opportunities in a day to watch Daffy Duck as they do Camp Laszlo, they'd come to love these characters, too. And maybe--just maybe--they'd subliminally pick up on how much better these vintage cartoons are, how much more lively the animation, how much more vivid the design. Maybe they'd be able to separate the good stuff from the crap, the same way I could when I was a kid. (Sure, I'd watch Hong Kong Phooey, but I loved The Bugs Bunny Show.)
Or not. Let's just shamelessly pander to kids instead, let's give them what we think they want. As depressingly craven Warner executroid Lisa Gregorian puts it, "You want a dark, Goth version of Tweety Bird? Have at it." Sure. Why not?
