Two childhood cartoons from two different generations are being groomed for the big-screen. For any child of the ’90s or a fresh-faced young Lego fan, they’re bound to be excited by the news.
Warner Bros. is deep in the Lego business right now. Their first production “The Lego Movie” is set to release next year, but they’re already eyeballing another Lego license to bring to theaters. The Hollywood Reporter has learned that Warner Bros. has acquired the rights to adapt Lego’s “Ninjago” line of toys to the big-screen. The toy line is one of Lego’s most popular brands amongst young boys and is currently featured in the Cartoon Network animated series “Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu.” If you’re curious, you can watch the first episode of that show right here, and we’d reckon Dan and Kevin Hageman — the writers behind the animated series and “The Lego Movie” — will be be thinking on a grander scale for the movie.
So what of the other cartoon being adapted? Well, it’s none other than “Captain Planet and the Planeteers.” Yes, the eco-friendly cartoon from the ’90s that taught us all about the importance of recycling and sweet mullets is heading to the big-screen thanks to Sony Pictures. According to THR, the company is in final negotiations to adapt the classic cartoon series.
In the show, a mystical being named Gaia handed out magical rings to a group of diverse teens that suspiciously didn’t include any handicapped children. Together the teens fought pollution and corruption around the world using these rings, which had awesome powers like fire, earth, wind, water, and heart. Inevitably, they’d get in way over their heads and would have to summon Captain Planet to fix everything.
The show famously used people like Sting and Meg Ryan to voice some of the villains in the series, so one has to wonder if they’d be willing to come back for a live screen adaptation. However, the biggest question has to be who in Hollywood would be willing to don the red short shorts to play Captain Planet? Paging Don Cheadle…