My son has recently become enamored of graphic novels, because they appeal to both sides of his personality. On the one hand, they appeal to his inner smartypants because they’re nice thick books with an ongoing story arc; and on the other hand, they appeal to his love of comic books because they’re, well, comics.

And that’s precisely the point, you know, and why graphic novels are so great for kids. (They’re not bad for adults, either, come to think of it.)

Well, my son’s favorite so far has been Jeff Smith’s Bone series, which we’re reading thanks to Scholastic. We’ve even visited Boneville, because once my kids are interested in something we have to learn it all. Immediately.

And so I’m sure you’ll understand when I tell you that I will not be telling my son (yet) that Bone may be headed to the big screen:

Warner has scooped up rights to Jeff Smith’s comicbook series “Bone” for Dan Lin to produce through his lot-based shingle.

Deal is a mid-six-figure option against seven figures for purchase. Property, described as Bugs Bunny meets “The Lord of the Rings,” likely will be developed as a CG toon for a broad family aud, but could turn into a live-action pic, depending on the director it eventually attracts.

Ummmmmm. Wait. A live-action picture? Do you see our protagonist, up there? Can you think of an actor who looks right for the part…?

So, needless to say, I’m hoping for a CG toon, myself. Live action would just be… weird. Or perhaps I should say, weirder. But done right, a big-screen version of Bone could be awesome. (Hey Warner—don’t screw it up!)

Ahhhh, Speed Racer. I remember Speed Racer! In fact—being a girl, and all, when it was popular—I was never a huge fan. So my memories of it aren’t all that nostalgic, or anything. It was… well, it was Speed Racer.

(Want your blast from the past? Here ya go!)

So when I heard that they were making a Speed Racer movie, I was unmoved. Oh, look; another movie based on a retro cartoon. How novel.

And then we saw a trailer for the upcoming film. And my interest was… interested, a bit. And then I read that the movie will be shown in IMAX, and I became a bit more interested.

Yesterday, I came across two new trailers for the movie, and I watched them. And then I watched them again. You know, I’m not usually someone who gets all excited about special effects, but… well, take a look for yourself.

Tell me you watched that and don’t want to go see that movie in all of its IMAX, CGI glory. Go on. Try to tell me that with a straight face.

Go, Speed Racer, go indeed.

First of all: There’s still plenty of time to take part in Ty’s Easter Egg Hunt to win a giant stuffed Miffy doll! All you have to do is browse around Ty’s Toy Box and find the hidden Easter egg, each day, for your chance to win. (Congratulations to last week’s winners!)

Next, I want to tell you a little bit about two exciting new lines here at Ty’s which you may or may not have noticed, yet. I don’t know about you, but oftentimes I find that Ty’s is bringing in so many cool new things, I can’t possibly keep track of them all without a spreadsheet. Seeing as how most people are not going to resort to a spreadsheet to keep track of things (okay, it’s possible I’m a wee bit compulsive about this stuff), consider me your crib sheet.

If you haven’t met Noddy yet, you can learn all about this great PBS show for preschoolers over on their targeted site. They characterize Noddy this way:

Noddy is a little wooden boy who lives in his own little House-for-One in Toyland. Noddy got his name because his head is on a spring and when he gets excited his head just can’t stop nodding!

(In France, Noddy goes by the name Oui-Oui, which I know means “Yes Yes,” yet my inner 10-year-old boy finds it hilarious. Just sayin’.)

And then once your child becomes completely hooked on Noddy and his pals, come check out the Noddy Store here at Ty’s.

In addition, you may have noticed the new Mr. Men and Little Miss Store here at Ty’s, dedicated to all of those quirky little personalities starring in the book series and Cartoon Network series of the same title. (Oh, look! They even make a tote bag with my daughter on it! That was awfully nice of them.)

And you can of course learn more about the Mr. Men and Little Misses on their site, although they’re pretty self-explanatory, I think. (Hmmm… I wonder what Mr. Grumpy is like….)

Anyway, we’re excited to welcome Noddy and the Mr. Men gang to Ty’s, and hope you’ll enjoy them, too. And who knows—you might find one of those giant Easter eggs while you’re browsing!

There are modern inventions I love, and there are others which I feel have negatively impacted our lives. The worst, though, are the ones that are somehow both. To wit: I love our DVR. I whisper sweet nothings to it when no one is around. When I’m busy or just spaced out and therefore miss or forget about a favorite show, it’s no problem! My beloved DVR has remembered to record it for me, and I can view it at my leisure!

But I also hate our DVR, because it has ruined something absolutely fundamental about childhood for my kids—there is now no reason to get up at the crack of dawn on Saturday to watch cartoons, because they can watch their favorite shows whenever they feel like it. That just seems… wrong, somehow.

Not that we don’t do Saturday morning cartoon marathons around here, obviously. It’s just that the kids are just as likely to fire up some back episodes of their favorites as they are to actually do the live television. And really, they can’t win, because if they watch live TV I give them a hard time about the insipid commercials (you know, those things they can fast forward over when they’re using the DVR).

Regardless, I predict we’ll be doing live TV this weekend—how could we possibly resist when it’s Super Hero Saturday?

Toon Zone has all the details:

The back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back heroics start at 9:30am (ET/PT) with the new Legion of Super Heroes episode “In the Beginning,” which details the Legion’s formation.

[…]

The premiere of The Spectacular Spider-Man will follow at 10:00am with “Survival of the Fittest,” in which high school student Peter Parker must face both The Enforcers and Vulture.

[…]

As Spider-Man begins, The Batman will end with an hour-long event, “Lost Heroes,” in which Batman, Robin and Green Arrow battle The Joining after it has kidnapped the Justice League members and transferred their powers into alien androids.

(See the full article for more details, obviously.)

I don’t know about you, but with a line-up like that, even I’m gonna be parked in front of the television come Saturday. Um, for nostalgia’s sake, of course.

It’s not that I’m not excited for Horton Hears a Who! to come out in a couple of weeks, because I actually am. Despite my well-documented curmudgeonry when it comes to favorite books being made into movies, I have high hopes for this one. C’mon—Steve Carrell! Carol Burnett, for pete’s sake. My hopes are high indeed.

And we just passed Dr. Seuss’ birthday, too. (Theodor Geisel was born on March 2nd, 1904.) In fact, allow me to recommend that you and the kids visit Seussville if you haven’t, before.

So this is not about hating on the movie or the book or the story or anything like that.

No, this is about egregious errors in marketing. Or—to put it more plainly—stupid things that make you go, “Huh?”

Are you lost yet? Well, it seems that IHOP and Horton Hears a Who! have formed a promotional partnership:

From March 3 through April 20, IHOP restaurants will add four new Horton-themed menu items — Beezlenut Splash, Who-Cakes, Mayor’s Breakfast and Jo-jo’s Kid’s Breakfast. The new film opens at theaters nationwide on March 14.

Sounds good, right? I mean, what fun! I actually own the Green Eggs and Ham Cookbook and the kids love cooking out of it, so I’m completely down with the idea of making some fun, Seuss-themed foods for the kiddos. If IHOP can get in on the action, so much the better for them.

And it sounds pretty good, here:

The Mayor’s Breakfast includes a clever play on Dr. Seuss’ legendary “green eggs & ham” — eggs scrambled with spinach, ham strips, hash browns and a choice of Who-Cakes or IHOP’s original buttermilk pancakes.

You might even be tricking some picky eaters into trying spinach with that one, methinks. But my genial attitude went out the window right about here:

Who-Cakes, named after the “Whos” who live on a speck of dust, are a colorful stack of IHOP’s shortcake pancakes in all shapes and sizes covered with real boysenberry and blueberry glaze, rainbow chocolate chips and a pink lollipop.

Seriously? Seriously? Who is going to buy that for their child? Pancakes covered in glaze, topped with chocolate chips and a lollipop? Would it not just be easier to pour out a sack of sugar and call it a day?

Maybe I’m just being a stick-in-the-mud (albeit a stick in the mud of nutrition), but that really feels like overkill to me. I’m pretty sure we can be excited about the movie without any diabetic comas, thanks.

It could just be that I missed the part of the story where all of the Whos don’t have any teeth left, I suppose….

In the fast-paced world of tween entertainment, it’s not enough to be good. You have to be the best.

As any parent of a tween can tell you, tweens have the attention spans of fruit flies. If you don’t have a hit on your hands, how far away could you possibly be from a total flop? Those fickle kids are determining your fate, after all.

So it’s no surprise to hear that the industry is tracking the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon like hawks:

“For the longest time Nickelodeon was the dominant player but there is now a real race,” Katz Television Group vice president of programming Bill Carroll said. “Nickelodeon has not gone down but relatively they’re not as high.”

Carroll acknowledged the buzz generated by Disney Channel’s Hannah Montana and two High School Musical movies, saying, “In perception, Disney leads by a head. And in the entertainment industry, perception is reality.”

Still, despite the perceived and real challenges Nickelodeon faces, it would be hard to find a healthier network, said Derek Baine, a cable television analyst at SNL Kagan Research: “The network still has a huge cash flow margin — at 67% it’s one of highest in the industry.”

The article tracks the development and strategies of both channels, and it’s really interesting to see how each network plotted their rise to stardom.

As for which one can be declared king? Keep wondering.

Still, neither network can be pronounced a hands-down winner.

Well, thank goodness for that, right? This way we can keep arguing about it. And if my daughter is any indication at all, we can have the Hannah Montana vs. iCarly discussion for hours on end. (I can hardly wait—just let me go find my earplugs.)

If you’re a busy mom like me, right about now is the time of year where you start saying things like, “Wait, what? It’s March already? How did that happen??” I mean, on the one hand—Spring is coming! Which is great! But on the other hand—there are so many things that need to get done, and February (even a February with an extra day) is just a tricky little month, winking past so quickly the way it does.

Hey, you know what would soothe the sting of a mile-long to-do list? A giant Miffy doll!

Hmmm… that probably sounds familiar. Didn’t we do this before? Well, yes and no. We have given away these cuddly plush 27″ Miffy dolls before, but this is a new way to get your hands on one.

Through March 17th, 2008, Ty’s Toy Box will be giving away a giant Miffy to one lucky shopper every single day. And entering is easy; do you see that Easter egg up top, there? It’s nice and bright and easy to spot. To enter to win a Miffy, all you need to do is spot the Easter egg somewhere at Ty’s.

The only catch is that it could be anywhere. It might be hiding in the Miffy Store. Or the Ben 10 Store. Or maybe the Charlie and Lola Store! Really, the possibilities are endless. (Um, okay. Not endless. But have you been over to Ty’s lately? There are a lot of stores there.)

So—find the egg, then click on it. You’ll be asked to confirm where you found it (they’re tricky, those eggs), and after you do so, you’re eligible to win that day’s Miffy doll. Somebody has to win each and every day, so why not you? And if you don’t win one day… well, keep entering! You can enter every day during the promotional period.

And if you have any concerns over what you might want to do with a giant Miffy doll, well, Kathryn (whose daughter won one in our prior promotion) has a few illustrated suggestions for you.