It’s another slow day in the film news world, so I’m going with the usual standby, complaining once again about another beloved bunch of classic characters being reincarnated as CG poop-eaters. I never like to use phrases like “is nothing sacred,” but I was awfully close to shouting the words after reading in The Hollywood Reporter that Paramount is planning another film out of Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH using a blend of live-action and animation (probably CG).

It’s not just the comparisons to popular CG-rodent movies like box office champs G-Force and Alvin and the Chipmunks that hurt me most. Nor was it the dreaded premonition that Fievel will be next. The worst thing about this is that it comes so soon after we lost Dom DeLuise, who provided the voice of Jeremy the crow in Don Bluth’s great adaptation The Secret of NIMH (as well as its direct-to-video sequel). And if that’s not enough, Bluth probably nearly died when he heard the news, too. As long as Hollywood is going after something of his, couldn’t it at least be one of the video games, instead? Either a Dragon’s Lair or Space Ace movie would be really cool. Even in CG!

Oh well. I guess we don’t have to watch, right? Let’s see what the rest of the film bloggers are saying about their childhoods being ruined after the jump:
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Yeah, it’s that kind of day where the teaser trailer for Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel is the most interesting thing to talk about. Well, honestly, it’s not the most interesting thing I’d like to talk about (though I realize I should have included the first movie in our “Creepiest Kids’ Movies” list), but not enough blogs are commenting on the latest racism evident in Disney’s upcoming 2D-animated film The Princess and the Frog (heck, hardly enough blogs are commenting on this). So instead of a discussion of racism in a kids’ movie, here’s a discussion of highly sexualized chipmunks in a kids’ movie.

Karina kind of foresaw the Chipette-debuting sequel “appealing to a young male audience’s latent lust for a trio of tarted-up little girl chipmunks” a year ago, and now this teaser is proof that the Alvin and the Chipmunks franchise has gone from being influenced by Pink Flamingos to being influenced by Porky’s (or some other horny teen comedy). But while we actually had to see shit-eating in the first film’s trailer, at least we didn’t have to see any chipmunk erections in this spot. Meanwhile, some concerned people are fearing that this movie will encourage more lookalike couples. Really? Are lookalike couples that bad? Or is the real concern that the movie somehow will inspire kids to dress in drag? Is the tagline “Munk Yourself” some kind of reference to a transsexual narcissism fetish?

Check out the film blogs’ reactions to the trailer after the jump:
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• Johnny Depp has officially confirmed he’ll be returning as Captain Jack in a fourth Pirates of the Caribbean installment. Additionally, at a special Disney event, in which the studio showcased it’s slate for exhibitors, Depp confirmed his role as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton’s 3-D performance capture Alice in Wonderland and announced that he’ll play Tonto in Disney/Bruckheimer’s The Lone Ranger. Hopefully he’ll still have some room for more mature roles throughout his commitment to the Mouse House.
• Other announcements at the Disney event included the moving up of Cars 2 from 2012 to 2011, at which time “Cars Land” will open in part of Disney’s California Adventure amusement park. Also, Nic Cage is on board for National Treasure 3 and Oprah Winfrey is voicing the mother of “the first black Disney princess” in The Princess and the Frog.
• More returning franchises: Warner Bros. has officially announced the I Am Legend prequel, which will detail the “last days of humanity” section that you wished had just been in the first film.
• I’m beginning to think Guillermo Del Toro has cloned himself. In additon to having literally a million film projects on his slate, he’s also found time to co-write a trilogy of vampire novels for HarperCollins.
• At least Del Toro’s not also signed on to write and direct the remake of Tomas Alfredson’s new Swedish vampire pic Let the Right One In for returning horror producers Hammer Films. That would be Cloverfield’s Matt Reeves. By the way, Hollywood: can we take a break from the bloodsuckers soon? Vampires are starting to seem more over-employed than superheroes.
• Oh, and finally, speaking of overdoing things, Steven Spielberg will possibly direct another movie about a boy and his alien friend. This one will be based on the 1968 sci-fi novel Chocky and sounds more Drop Dead Fred than E.T.

Poor Disney. The studio tries to do good by finally producing an animated movie featuring a black princess (The Princess and the Frog, out Christmas 2009) and it’s still called out for being racist. Since this past weekend’s debut of the teaser trailer for the film, a return to traditional 2-D animation (can the new computer-assisted techniques still qualify these films as “hand-drawn” or “cel” animation?) after a five-year drought, blogs such as Vulture and Defamer have noted possibly offensive stereotypes in the movie.

Well, what do you want? A return to traditional Disney films or racism-free films? As displayed in the montage featured as today’s clip of the day, most of our beloved Disney classics unfortunately have their share of racist portrayals. And let’s not forget some of the more contemporary Disney films, like Aladdin, which can be seen in this other YouTube clip as also being racist. So, perhaps Disney’s return to tradition is about more than just 2-D animation style. I’m not saying it’s a good thing. I’m just not all that shocked by it.