DreamWorks Animation to Adapt LIDSVILLE for the Big Screen

DreamWorks Animation announced today that they will be adapting the 1970's Sid and Marty Kroft tv series Lidsville for the big screen as an animated feature length film. The movie will follow the premise of the original television series, about a young rebellious kid who falls into an alternate reality world of living hats and talking caps. 

I never watched this tv series, but it looks like a nightmare brought to life. Here's a detailed description:

The show involved a teenage boy named Mark who fell into the hat of Merlo the Magician and arrived in Lidsville, a land of living hats. The hats on the show are depicted as having the same roles as the humans who would normally wear them. For example, a cowboy hat would act and speak like a cowboy. The characters' houses were also hat-shaped.

The villain of the show was a magician named Horatio J. HooDoo (also played by Charles Nelson Reilly in a magician's costume and make-up). Among other notable characters were Raunchy Rabbit, Weenie the Genie, and Rah-Rah the football helmet.

The vain, short-tempered, but somewhat naive HooDoo flew around in his Hatamaran, blasting the good citizens of Lidsville with bolts of magic (referred to as "zapping") and keeping them in fear, demanding that they pay him their Hat Checks. Mark helped the good hats resist as he attempted to find a way back home. HooDoo, trying to reclaim control of the androgynous Weenie from Mark, often enlisted the services of four Bad Hats consisting of Mr. Big,Captain Hooknose, Bela the Vampire's Cowl, and Boris the Executioner's Hood. In his high hat home, HooDoo was besieged by the taunting music of the Hat Band, as well as all of his talking knicknacks (the parrot, Mr. Skull, the mounted alligator head, the sawed-in-half lady, to list only a few). HooDoo also experienced further aggravation at the hands of his aides, the dim Raunchy Rabbit and his two-faced card guard, Jack of Clubs (a walking deck of playing cards). HooDoo watched the action going on in downtown Lidsville from his hat home by using his Evil Eye, a device similar to a TV set, but resembling an eyeball. He also had a hot hatline phone. The show relied on an endless array of puns based on hats.

Many of the episodes were about Mark trying to get back home, but the evil HooDoo prevented him from leaving. Weenie, being a nervous bumbler, was, in fact, a genie, but many of the tricks and spells didn't work right anymore after being a slave to HooDoo for so long. In the show's final episode, scenes from some of the past episodes were featured, as HooDoo's mother had paid a visit to find out what has been going on in Lidsville. Unfortunately for Mark, he did not return home at the end.

Music was also a part of the show, with songs being performed by the characters in several episodes.

This should make for a really interestingly trippy movie. 

From the official Press Release:

Conrad Vernon (Monsters vs. Aliens, Shrek 2)--animation veteran and lifelong fan of the Krofft's work--brought the project to DreamWorks Animation. Brothers Sid & Marty Krofft will serve as executive producers. Vernon, DreamWorks Animation's head of development Alex Schwartz and development executive Chris Kuser are overseeing the project at the studio.

"Sid and I have had a longstanding relationship with Jeffrey Katzenberg and we're excited to bring 'Lidsville' to DreamWorks Animation," said Marty Krofft. "It's incredible to envision a high-quality 3D animated movie being made out of one of our favorite shows."

"The Krofft brothers helped define a generation with the wildly imaginative characters and worlds they created," said Alex Schwartz, head of development for DreamWorks Animation. "I am thrilled that Conrad is joining forces with them on the first animated feature film adaptation of their work."

"Over the past year I've had the privilege of working with and getting to know Sid and Marty and I thought their brand of crazy kookiness would work well at DreamWorks Animation," added Vernon.

Lidsville will take inspiration from the premise of the original television series, in which a young rebellious kid falls into an alternate reality world of living hats and talking caps. The Los Angeles public TV station KCET Kids & Family Channel recently announced that it will feature the "Lidsville" television series in an all-new "The Sid & Marty Krofft Hour" together with H.R. Pufnstuf during its weekend programming block on Saturday and Sunday mornings from 9:30-10:30 a.m.

Here's the opening sequence to the tv series.