So they're bringing Dilbert to TV as a prime time animated series. I'd say the jury is still out on this decision - right now all we have to go on are those Office Depot commercials (which I have seen) and the various corporate motivational videos Scott Adams sells (which I have not). I guess it's funny hearing Dilbert "talk" for the first time when he doesn't have a mouth...but I guess that's really no different from Beetle Bailey walking around with "no" eyes...or Union doing nothing with no "eyes" or "mouth."
If I recall correctly, when UPN (or was it WB?) first announced plans for running the show, they advertised it as a live action version. I'm very glad and grateful they changed their minds. How would you do a live action Dogbert or Ratbert? Or would you not even bother with the animal characters, which would make it just another lame office sitcom? Or even worse, pull some sort of "Dr. Doolittle" crap with animated lips?
Generally converting comic strips or animated cartoons into live action anything has proven a travesty - look at the "Flintstones" movie. Or "Boris and Natasha," which went straight to HBO without ever hitting the big screen as intended (and I'm not even sure how they handled "moose and squirrel"). Or that Doonesbury stage show (well, it doesn't help that Doonesbury sucks to begin with). The only example which remotely approaches the popular and critical success of the original would be "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown." But how many people have seen that?
Does that mean I would be adverse over seeing a live action Unions show? Hell, yeah.
Now, will the animated "Dilbert" be any good compared to the print version and to others which have become Saturday morning TV shows, commercials, or prime time specials like "Cathy," "Outland," or "Mother Goose and Grimm?" Well, even the short-lived weekly "Peanuts" show, which lives on in reruns on the Disney Channel, just regurgitated old storylines from the strip, which made it kind of dull for those who have already read it. But given that "Dilbert" uses fairly short storylines that seldom last more than 4 days anyway, this may give Adams and company a chance to stretch their narrative legs and do something longer. If they can pull it off, more power to them.
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