A new look for Sid Squirrelly. All images ™ & © Franchise Entertainment Films Co. & Studios Inc.

Around the world companies are finding new and innovative ways to revitalize franchises and classic characters. Franchise Entertainment Film Co. & Studios Inc. (FEFCSI) is making a bold move in this area by combining famous characters from its own library with well-known cartoon stars from other companies around the globe.

FEFCSI is part of Shanghai-based conglomerate Wee Ra Lu Enterprises, which has its fingers in Middle East oil, West African diamonds, industrial manufacturing, Myanmar Centricom Wireless, cosmetics and cheap promotional toys. If you’ve seen “Made in China” on an action figure from a fast food joint it probably came from a Wee Ra Lu subsidiary.

Due to its success in this field, the company felt it would be natural to move into the entertainment business, where they could invest in, control and exploit intellectual property. This is when it acquired FEFCSI, a rights holding company. The small studio only has four employees in its Beverly Hills, California world headquarters — an executive, her assistant, an accountant and a part-time masseur — but it outsources work to co-production partners in Bangkok, Mumbai and Toronto.

After several unsuccessful attempts at launching a new 3D studio in Singapore, mainly due to internal arguments over the caning of animators for sneaking pencils into the studios, FEFCSI started acquiring well-known companies. With the purchase of U.S. firm, Imaginary Rabbit Prods., the company gained the rights to the famed Franchise Follies characters, which will serve as the basis of FEFCSI’s new creation - Franchise.

FEFCSI ceo/chairman/cco/creative director Mahatma Kane-Jeeves said, “Our company hopes that by giving a fresh new look and spin to classic cartoon characters, we can attract a new generation to these properties as well as elicit renewed passion in older fans.”

Asked about the heated complaints from fans about changing well-established characters, she said, “We want to elicit renewed passion in older fans.”

The most famous of FEFCSI’s characters would definitely be Sid Squirrelly. The wisecracking rodent has long befuddled his adversaries since his debut in the short, Sid Squirrelly Shows his Nuts. Sid’s catch phrase of, “What’s cookin’ babe,” has become a household term around the world. His W.C. Fields-like antics often aroused the ire of censors around the globe, having been banded at various times in Saudi Arabia, North Korea and Tennessee.

However, much like The Simpsons, Sid has grown into an institution of family values. Recently, Rev. Les Hope of the Institution for Advancing God’s Policies commented, “Though bumpy, Sid Squirrelly’s 60-year marriage to Sally Squirrel has become a model of marital unity. It’s a shame they never had a child together.”

In his new version, Sid will don the mantel of Samurai Squirrel, a kung-fu weapons expert who leads a band of misfit heroes, funded by The Franchise Corp., as they fight an invasion of alien demons that wield the power of karuta oroka, a deck of mystical ancient playing cards. Sid’s catch phrase has been updated to “What’s cookin’, beotch.”

Commenting on the changes, Kane-Jeeves, formerly an exec at Bechtel, Tyco and Harvey Ent., said, “Sid Squirrelly has been brought into the 21^st Century as a hip samurai warrior who can kick butt and still leave his adversaries in the dust with a well-timed quip. Sid in now part of the anime age!”