The toy market seems to be booming. It is one product which will never get out of fashion. The variety available is immense. There are stuffed toys for the infants, Barbie dolls and things like power puff girls for the young girls and then we have those Spiderman, Batman and power ranger toys for the boys.
The kids of now days know better what cartoon character is depicted on the toy then us. I feel if I wouldn’t be a blogger I would definitely be in the toy industry. I love the way these people know how to attract the attention of the kids by making the products to colorful and lively, even we elders get attracted to them. When I see my daughter playing with those beautiful Barbie dolls wearing colorful clothes it gives a great feeling.
Sex and the City, the film, not the TV show is in the news these days, for having its world premiere on Monday, 12 may 2008. Have you noticed how TV show makers and Film makers tend to capitalize on each others’ successes? If ever a TV show got popular, a movie (or several if you count the sequels) promptly gets made based on that and if a film is a hit at the box office, someone will surely come along and cash in on the sensation created by it to produce a TV series based on the film!
Just off hand I can think of several cartoon or animation films that have been turned into long standing TV series: such as Alladin or the Lion King which got adapted for TV as Timon and Pumba and so on. Then Lizzie Mc Guire the series got made into Lizzie Mc Guire the film and so on. The rather bizarrely named TV show Spongebob Squarepants was made into The Spongebob Movie. The Simpsons TV series (which I admit to being a fan of) for made into The Simpsons Movie (which alas I have not yet seen). Then or course there are all the superhero films/TV shows: Superman, Batman, Spiderman; and I hardly know what came first, the chicken or the egg the movie or the series!
Charlies’ Angels, the long running and hugely successful TV series of yesteryears, got made into tremendously popular films wherein the angels are shown as the more modern and up to date and sexed up versions of the TV series.
The Planet of the Apes was another film that got made into a TV series, or was it the other way around, I can’t really tell because I am a fan of neither, though Planet of the Apes seems to have a cult following! Examples of these remakes or adaptations for the big or small screen as the case may be, seem to abound!
There is also the trend of making movies from comic strips, such as the Garfield movies and the movie about Felix the Cat. I was particularly glad of this trend when the comics of Asterix, my fave comic hero of all time were made into movies. I am a particular fan of the adorable Obelix with more brawn than brain.
Oh! And then there is the trend of making movies out of Video games and video games out of movies! A bunch of computer games were made from the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and so many, many others!
So you’re thinking, robotics, hmm… Sure it’s futuristic and all, but not really my cuppa. Think again. People in the ’60’s (or earlier about) all hyped about futuristic robots, they thought by the Millennium all computers would blow up and human life as we know it would end. Then of course to be taken over by robots. Or maybe aliens.
We’ve watched movies where the computers deem humans ‘inefficient’ and proceed to eliminate humankind. Like the mainframe computer in I, Robot. Its not too far I tell you! Look at Doc Ock from Spiderman 2, when one can have runaway robot men then it’s within imagination to have mutated spiders biting people. Go Spiderman!
You must have watched the youtube clips, notice how the robots have better coordination and can dance better than the average person? Even you possibly! Then there’s the US Army exoskeleton, which is a scary thing and the adorable Sony Rolly. The picture you see of the space-ship like thing on the floor is a robo-vacuum. You switch it on and it goes around your house vacuuming by itself… There you see that Sony robo dog. These all designed to replace your dancing partner, the security guard, a clown, maid and your pet dog!
I have evidence to believe robo things are even finding space in the bedroom! Appalling! But chances are someone you know knows someone who might have heard of someone owning one of those! Which might be you! Ha-ha, only joking. The world’s a small place, things come around too quickly. Too quickly for comfort.
Robotics arose out of human lethargy, or as some says need for greater production and efficiency. Robots are automations. Automations we have aplenty all around us already. Majority of the urban city goer’s time is spent interacting with machines. In some kind of automation or the other. The PC without which life does move these days does control our lives to good extent already.
So barricade your doors, keep the pet in. Run up your credit card bills, who cares? The robo’s are taking over the world!!
evawhite on August 4th, 2008
