$Disney$ and the debasement of an icon.

Here is an article in the second-to-latest issue of Newsweek magazine. It is definitely a prime candidate for my "The stupidest things ever" list.

"Oh Bother! It's Darby.

The hundred Acre Wood had welcomed only one human: Christopher Robin. But fans who tune in to Disney's latest Pooh series, "My Friends Tigger & Pooh," will find the boy has been largely replaced—by a 6-year-old girl named Darby. In the new show, Tigger and Pooh don superhero duds and solve mysteries (who's stealing Rabbit's rutabagas?). Executive producer Brian Hohlfeld thought Christopher Robin was too old for such sleuthing, so he designed Darby. She was a huge hit in post production testing. But Pooh purists won't be pleased: Christopher Robin appears in only two of the 26 episodes. British journalist Hugh Fraser, who launched a "Save Christopher Robin" campaign on his blog, says Darby subverts A. A. Milne's vision. "For a girl to intrude breaks the spell of the story," he says. "They aren't her toys.

-Sarina Rosenberg"

Disney has shown its uglier, greedy, profiteering side before, but this one struck close to home, as the Pooh books and cartoons were a major part of my childhood, and of many other peoples'. Aaaahh!! It's so stupid!