Yes, we all saw it last time, the "Movie based on the comic" films.. X-men, Spiderman, Batman, all being high-rollers on the big screen.

But doesn't it strike you as odd that these same big-shot film and production companies are now trying to capitalize on the success of late-80s cartoons aswell?

With Transformers being a bit hit, and a sequel on the way, it seems producers and screenwriters have found a new "gap in the market". Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is another example of this new wave, as is the new adaptation of "Thundercats". Is there a reason for this wave? Or have writers just plain run out of ideas for new films? We already have movies based-on-the-book-of-the-film-of-the-book-of-the-film etc etc etc, with a new one on the way (I am legend), and fair play to those guys, taking the effort to write a prose-based novel into a screenplay takes alot of work, but adapting a cartoon to a movie takes very little work in comparison to writing a movie from scratch.. They already have characters, character profiles, storylines, traits, and heck, even PLOTS set out for them, all they have to do is digitalise the graphics and increase the resolution (I know theres more effort than that, but its nothing compared to the work that goes into a REAL film). The way I see it, theres a few reasons "they" are reviving old comics to the big screen... Whoever "they" may be.. And here they are :

- They're trying to capitalize on dead-success (Theres a reason 80s/90s cartoons should stay in the 80s/90s)

- They're doing it for nostalgia sake (In which case they'd be pitching to a very niche market.. Doesn't seem to be the case)

- They've simply run out of ideas (In which case, they need new writers, and theres alot of people willing to get payed obscene amounts for minimal effort, and by minimal I mean minimal.. For example : A raging toaster sets out to find the creators who gave him human emotions, whilst re-uniting with his old high-school flame on the way, but has to protect her from his arch-nemisis who is an alien with a speech impediment, starring Samuel L Jackson and Paris Hilton. It's THAT easy)

- They're just lazy (Seems to be the most probable reason to me, and doesn't really require too much explanation)

So yes, that feeling of deja-vu isn't a head trauma, it's simply that the movie companies are trying to suck the loose change from your pockets that they didn't seem to catch when they shook you by the ankles as a child, and they've realized that as you grow up, you have more money and looser pockets, they also note that ticket prices increase, thus bleeding you dry and forcing you to take out a second mortgage just to see the new remake of "The Jetsons" adapted to the big screen, or whatever next really.

And don't forget merchandising, the old plastic sacks of crap that are gathering dust in a warehouse for tesco-metro somewhere in Denmark now have a new point of sale and they can give the movie company a new means of income on a lunchbox they didn't even design, but royalties are royalties, and I hope the original writers of the old series' are making just as much if not more than the big-shots "adapting" their films.

</rant>