Famous Five get make-over for Disney series

DISNEY is set to make a TV cartoon series of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five — featuring the children of the original characters.

Cole, Dylan, Jo and Allie will replace Julian, Dick, Anne and George to embark — together with a new Timmy the dog — on a raft of fresh adventures which will “remain faithful to the spirit” of Blyton’s classic 1940s tales but with a contemporary twist.

The young super-sleuths will still have to “rely on their own resources” in the 26-part series, which is being made with Chorion, a British company that owns the rights to the author’s books.

So while the good times will probably not be referred to as “gay” and the action will be set in the present day, the Five will not be able to fall back on modern technology to get themselves out of a sticky situation.

It was “unlikely” that one of the children would call the others for help on a mobile phone if he or she was marooned on an island by a boat-stealing villain, a Chorion spokesman said.

But he reassured fans that although their heroes would have “present-day sensibilities”, secret tunnels and buried treasure would still be staples.

The series will go into production shortly and will hit screens early in 2008.

Blyton, who died in 1968, is one of the world’s most successful children’s writers, penning more than 700 books — 21 of them about the Famous Five — which have sold more than 400 million copies worldwide.