The recent success of retro toon stars like the Transformers, G.I. Joe, and Scooby Doo (to name just a few, see 'Top Movie/TV Merchandise Stories of 2001') is spawning a series of ever more unlikely revivals.  Last week brought news of Warner Brothers optioning the rights to the Wonder Twins (remember the rather bland alien twins Zan and Jayna from the Planet Exxor who worked their cartoon magic on The All-New Superfriends Hour starting back in 1977?), as well as the announcement that Jerry (Boom-Boom!!) Bruckheimer was bringing his explosive brand of filmmaking to a film starring the Micronauts, which originated as toys with interchangeable parts and introduced much of the world to the compact and wonderful world of 3 and 3/4 inch action figures.  Both of these films are in the early stages of development and both might end up being quite different from their twentieth century originals, if they do get made.

With Batman, Superman and all the other great DC Comics superheroes available from a sister company, it may seem strange that Warner Brothers is reviving the Hanna/Barbera-created Wonder Twins, but then thanks to Ted Turner, the rights to Hanna/Barbera characters are also controlled by Warner's parent AOL/Time Warner.  And don't forget that the 'powers' of the Wonder Twins -- Zan could turn into any form of water while Jayna could morph into any animal -- are a perfect fit with today's computerized special effects.  Warner's is probably also banking on the property's nostalgic appeal to folks who are now in their twenties and thirties, and who do appear to be supporting revivals of the youth entertainment staples of their era.  Given the bland nature of the original Wonder Twins cartoons, it should be interesting to see what approach to the material Warner Brothers will take if the film does get made.

Meanwhile the Ain't It Cool Website is reporting that bombastic producer Jerry Bruckheimer (Bad Company) is working on a live action version of the Micronauts, though according to Ain't It Cool's Harry Knowles, the Micronauts in Bruckheimer's film will be soldiers who have to shrink in order to escape a building in which they have been cornered, which sounds more like G.I. Joe meets The Incredible Shrinking Man than the Micronauts.