Another children's property is set to hit the big screen, and this time it's The Berenstain Bears. Created by Jan and the late Stan Berenstain, The Berenstain Bears was first published in 1962, eventually giving birth to 300-some-odd books, three animated TV series, and a host of TV specials.
Now, 40 years later, they're headed for theaters with Shawn Levy, director of the Night at the Museum movies, slated to produce. According to USA Today, Levy plans to combine computer animation with live-action filmmaking in an original story that borrows "details from some of the more popular Berenstain books."
"I'd like the film to be un-ironic about its family connections but have a wry comedic sensibility that isn't oblivious to the fact that they're bears," explained Levy. "The comedy comes from this bear family coexisting in a more recognizably real world."
The more I read about this, the more it sounds like Levy is planning a stranger-in-a-strange-land movie, in which the Berenstain Bears move into the human world, or something like it.
What's more, the CEO of Walden Media, who acquired the rights to the books, promised that the Berenstain Bears would get "a slight makeover to bring it into the three-dimensional style [...] It'll be a slightly modern spin on their look."
Prepare for a cringetastically hip-looking Berenstain Bears in 2011.
