Kids TV shows on the big screen are nothing new really, but it seems these days that with the large collection of remakes, reboots, sequels and prequels and now with Postman Pat the movie in cinemas in May, more Kids Movies are moving from the small screen to the big ones.
When it comes down to the movies brought to the big screen from the small screen, they never seem to be that popular, remember The Flinstones (1994), based on the TV series which ran from 1960-1966, it really never transferred that well from animated to live-action and personally for me, I hated it.
The same goes for those kids in a van with a rather crazy dog, Scooby-Doo in 2002, may have had the Great Dane nicely done in CGI, but it just never seemed to have the appeal of the animated series (1968-1972) and became more slapstick, good cast, but sadly it seemed that the film was smacked out on those Scooby snacks!
Remember Popeye the Sailor? One of the 60’s strangest characters, eating spinach to make him strong and hanging around with some very peculiar people, in  1980 the movie version, Popeye, was released starring Robin Williams as Popeye and Shelley Duvall as his sweetheart Olive Oil.
The film was released to poor reviews and disappointed audiences, but on the plus side, the film did get some good reviews for the Harry Nilsson soundtrack.
But let’s not put everything into a negative vibe here folks, there are those movies which us big kids really enjoyed and ones which always spring to mind for me are The Muppets.
The Muppet Show ran from 1976-1981 and for many of us, we would have a bath on a Sunday night and settle down, with some toast to watch the antics of the strange characters as they attempted each week to put on a show with a special celebrity guest.
With the popularity of the show came 9 movies and with the latest movie, Muppets Most Wanted, that makes 10 movies that I still enjoy to watch today, who can forget classic lines such as “Light the lamp not the rat!“.
Kids TV Show Classics Didn’t Escape The Movie Transfer
Not so much hitting the big screen, but made in to movies was the classic TV show, The Munsters (1964-1966), with 70 episodes made, The Munsters went on to have 5 movies for made, although these were for TV, a classic TV series, that was sadly cancelled due to the popularity of ABC’s Batman.
Even The Addams Family had their time from TV to Movie Theatre with 3 attempts to create a box office blast, but sadly they never really hit the mark with audiences and although the first film was quite good, they went dramatically downhill after.
A Cartoon To Live-Action Successfully
One success story that always springs to mind is of a certain animated TV series from the 1980s, the original series on ran from 1984-1987, but its story of a battle in the far reaches of space that find Autobots and Decepticons fighting for Earth and survival.
Yes, folks, Transformers, must be one of the biggest kids’ shows that has taken to the cinema screen extremely well, with the help of Michael Bay, the Transformers franchise has built a reputation on the big screen, with the interest re-igniting the love for the characters into a new TV series.
Although the last movie, didn’t really go down that well, the excitement has been sparked with the latest trailer for the 4th film, Transformers: Age of Extinction, with the introduction of the Dinobots in the trailer.
So Where Do We Go From Here?
Kids movies are always going to take in something that we enjoyed as a child and also what today’s children are enjoying, whether or not they work on the big screen is another matter, but small kids do love them.
I’ve reviewed several kids films and 9 times out of 10 the kids have such a massive smile on their face when they see their favourite character up on the screen, so much bigger than before, from Popeye to Postman Pat.
The adults, on the other hand, have a different look altogether, unless it’s The Muppets and we all know we love those guys, don’t we.
Karen Woodham is the founder and owner of the Blazing Minds. She is also a Cinema reviewer and works with RealD 3D reviewing the latest 3D releases and IMAX, she has also had several articles published in various publications including the first edition of SFW Magazine. In 2015 she became an Award Winning Blogger and also has her website listed as one of the UK’s Top 10 Film Blogs.
