The Famous Five are back...

and John Crace asks why in the Guardian's Comment is Free blog.

Disney has seized on the five for a new franchise, Crace reports. Here's the deal: "Disney is going to relaunch the Famous Five in updated cartoon versions for screen and print, with only Timmy the dog surviving unscathed. Out go the tweedy Julian, Anne, Dick and George and in come the archetypal 21st-century Gap kidz--Allie, Cole, Dylan and Jo. " Yuck.

I'll admit it, I had a Blyton weakness as a child, but only for the boarding school books. To me as an American public school child, they were exotica. Latin! Matrons! Midnight feasts! I'm with Crace here. Why bring back an old series? Isn't there anything new out there? Hey, Disney! I know plenty of people with good stories to sell. Send me an e-mail--I'll be waiting to hear from you.

And, as Crace rightly points out, "even middle-class kids recognise that an anodyne world where everything is always safely sorted out in time for tea has no relevance to their lives."