The Rape of Your Childhood is Over

Disney has finally, officially, pulled the plug on making straight-to-video sequels to all their animated classics. Several people have often referred to those sequels as being "a rape of their childhood."

Figured I should explain that right off the bat, lest people go, "What? RAPE? What?"

But yeah. The whole story...John Lassetter, the genius behind Pixar and the Toy Story movies and all that officially became the head of Walt Disney Animation about a year ago. Now, he's always thought that the sequels were a rape of people's childhoods as well, and made it his mandate to stop them.

It was always thought that The Little Mermaid III would be the last one, becuase it was around 80% finished by the time Lassetter took charge. It comes out in February of next year.

But then, a couple days ago, a report came out of Disney that Lassetter had just seen a rough edit of the upcoming straight-to-video Tinkerbell solo film called, appropriatly, the Tinkerbell Movie. Lassetter declared the film "an unwatchable piece of garbage" and "a threat to the Disney legacy." And he shut down the film. Pulled the plug completely. The film was 2/3 finished, and $30 million had already been spent on it.

That was the final bit of ammunition he needed, and the division that makes the straight-to-video sequels has been shut down.

So, looks will be spared The Lion King 9 and 3/4: Simba sits in for Meridith on The View