Fuse #8

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Disney Done Bought My Baby

My baby, in this particular case, meaning my best beloved Three Investigators series. Less than 3 days after I mentioned these books in passing, the movie blog Cinematical took it upon themselves to offer up this little tidbit of delicious delights:
When I was growing up, Jupiter Jones, Peter Crenshaw and Bob Andrews were my Harry Potter, Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger. And I guess that would make Alfred Hitchcock my Dumbledore. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably never read Robert Arthur's "Three Investigators" series of books. The young adult novels followed three boy detectives and originally featured Hitch as a supporting character (he's since been written out of all the books due to a lack of participation by his estate). After finishing all the "Encyclopedia Brown" books, and before I began my Agatha Christie phase, I spent a few years attempting to read all of the "Three Investigators" books, which was difficult since they weren't as popular as some other youth detective novels, and there was no such thing as Barnes & Noble (as it exists today, at least) or Amazon. I wonder if any kids appreciate the library today as much as I did back then.

Come Easter, Disney will be releasing the first in a planned franchise, The Three Investigators and the Secret of Skeleton Island, which was the sixth book of the series (they weren't as chronological as the Harry Potter books).
In answer to Cinematical, yes. Kids do appreciate the library. Sometimes.

I took a closer look at the IMDB page the site linked to so as to learn more about the players. The kid playing Jupiter Jones is actually named Chancellor Miller, so he'll probably welcome the relatively less silly name. On the other hand, he is NOT fat, which pisses me off royally. Nick Price, who plays Pete Crenshaw, is perhaps best known for his role in Because of Winn-Dixie. As for the kid playing Bob Andrews, Cameron Monaghan was Winthrop in the Matthew Broderick version of The Music Man some years back. What happened to that odd made-for-TV movie musical craze, by the way? Did reality shows kill it? Should we be grateful?

Thank you, Dan, for the link.

2 Comments:

At 3:52 PM , Blogger J. L. Bell said...

Cameron looks like he should play Jupe, Chancellor Pete, and Nick Bob. At least according to their old photos on IMDB.com. Of course, being thirteen does something to a boy.

 
At 12:27 PM , Blogger Mikalroy said...

If the Jupiter Jones actor isn't overweight, how can he have the whole "Baby Fatso" thing to live down?

Sigh.

Grew up on these books and checked them all out multiple times from my local library. At the time, there were about twenty titles. I've been too afraid to go back and reread them now. Along with the Mad Scientists' Club, these were my favorite books.

Still wish I had a secret RV buried in the heart of a junkyard. Seems a necessary thing.

 

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