As if Toy Fair 2008 wasn’t reminding us enough about the intermingling of Hollywood and the toy and game industry, Hasbro and Universal had to go and announce a six-year partnership, which will result in at least four (mostly) board-game-inspired feature films. It wasn’t that surprising, considering the success of Transfomers and the anticipated success of G.I. Joe, both of which are based on Hasbro properties, and the still-shocking news from last summer that Ridley Scott is developing a Monopoly movie (not to mention that Hasbro had previously announced its intentions while switching from CAA to William Morris last year). Plus, this comes as a perfect follow-up to the recent Mattel/CAA team-up.

Personally, I’m wondering why the deal is so exclusive against brands that aren’t board games (Stretch Armstrong being the exception). I would love to see movies based on Mr. Potato Head, Lincoln Logs and Easy-Bake Oven. And as far as the games that aren’t getting any love, I’d be interested in movies based on Guess Who, Mouse Trap, Jenga and Risk (the Australians take over the world!!). Like me, the rest of the blogosphere has gone ga-ga for alternate ideas. Also, a lot of bloggers have been overly critical of the deal and have had some harsh responses to the list of properties that were optioned for the partnership. Check out some of my favorites after the jump.

John at the MovieBlog made no effort to conceal his fear of what might be the Battleship movie:

“How the fuck are you going to pull off Battleship the movie? Are you going to have a film about 10 boats that launch missiles at each other till one remains? You know at one point when a captain is going down with the ship he will proclaim: “you sunk my battleship”. If video game films always suck, I can only imagine the type of films we are going to get that are based on classic table games.”

Kristen Anderson at Snarkerati compares the whole deal to Disney’s success and then failure with theme park ride adaptations, such as the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise:

“But to show how vital it is to get these kinds of things to people who know how to take an idea and run with it, look at the disastrous other Disney theme park ride movie–Haunted House [she of course means The Haunted Mansion]. The key is to give something like Candyland to a writer and director who see it as a starting point, not the whole story.”

Silas Lesnick at IESB.net is on the same sort of track, but with the first intelligent thing said regarding Ouija that doesn’t have to do with Exorcist comparisons:

“In all fairness, it did sound ridiculous when Disney turned to theme-park rides for inspiration and it’s hard to argue that didn’t work out in their favor. Still, I don’t think I can take a Ouija-based film about a ghost who loves to spell things.”

A commenter on the New York Times‘ The Lede Blog called “sylas” clears up some confusion:

“For the record, Stretch Armstrong does not ooze toxic goo. He’s actually full of corn syrup, which is non-toxic and actually edible.

With this in mind, I think his movie should focus on cannibalism.”

Best Week Ever’s blog listed it’s top ten favorite Hasbro toy movie ideas. At #3? Play-Doh:

“A loose remake of 80s sci-fi horror “The Stuff“, “Play-Doh” involves a mysterious, seemingly harmless alien substance that attempts to multiply by tricking curious children into eating it so it can eventually take over the world. Its plan is foiled when kids keep leaving it on the table without the lid on and it all just dries out.”

At Cinematical, Scott Weinberg made a whole list of additional game adaptations and the directors who should be attached. The most easily imaginable:

“Paul W.S. Anderson’s Boggle vs. Yahtzee: Die — A group of stupid teenagers mix all their Boggle and Yahtzee dice together, resulting in the creation of a new language that unlocks a dimension filled with monsters, strobe lights, and bad editing.”

The strangest thing to come out of all this, though, has to be all the Jim Carrey love. So far I’ve seen his name suggested as the star for Stretch Armstrong (obviously and obviously) and Monopoly (what? oh, as the car?). And I swear I saw a comment about him starring in Candy Land, but I can’t remember for the life of me where.