Pac-Man: The TV Series

According to Namco Bandai's Japanese Website Marvel exec Avi Arad is developing a Pac Man TV Series for release in 2012. The series will be set in the 21st century (because obviously everything is better if we modernize it) and will feature Pac Man as a high schooler who must save the world with the help of his ghost friends; Inky, Blinky, Pinky and Clyde.

Why oh why do we need to do this to Pac Man? The original game was simple, you were a yellow ball that ate things and the ghosts chased you. So how does that equate to you being friends with the enemy, being in high school and saving the world? Well Avi Arad had this to say:

“We wanted to keep Pac-Man the same lovable guy he has always been, but (put him) in the 21st century, we (also) wanted to talk about real stories and … see how they can relate to our lives, being in high school and being a teenager. At the end of the day, it’s the story of a reluctant hero.”

... If you want to tell a story about a teenager who is a reluctant hero why don't we tackle some other property where these parallels would make sense, such as... Oh I don't know... Spiderman??

Although trying to move Pac man from the interactive media of a video game to any sit and watch media has never really been an unbridled success. The original TV series stunk of a bad smurfs copy, it revolved around Pac man and his extended family (here playing the role of the smurfs) fighting off Mezmaron (here playing Gargamal) and his henchmen the ghosts (as Azreal). The show didn't last more than 2 seasons (which isn't something to be proud of when you're being run by Hannah Barbera).


Is it so hard to find simple ideas for a feasible Pac-Man movie/TV series. I say it isn't and present you today with 3 ideas to bring us the Pac man movie we deserve:

1. GHOSTS

It is half past the future and a mad genius working for the government has managed to create a creature whose blood has lead to a cure for cancer and other diseases, but as usual the creature has become self aware and broken free killing everyone inside the underground bunker. A group of 4 soldiers known as GHOSTS are dropped in to search for survivors and recover research notes which would allow the authorities to recreate this experiment. It would be a tense thriller as the GHOSTS become the prey in this labyrinth.

2.ARCADIA

In the present day arcade video games are slowly losing their war against the consoles, the Arcadia generals learn of more troops joining their enemies as remakes of their former selves everyday. Sealed away from the end of the war in the a time locked space invader ship Pac man, Frogger and an entity known only as PONG-ball reawaken to find themselves in a Dystopian world where FPS's have crushed everyone's free will and ground all video games into a constant state of boring. it is now up to our rag tag bunch of heroes to build and lead a glorious rebellion to victory.

3.A Pac Knight

In the far distant past, Pac man a brave warrior from the future has been teleported back by mediocre wizard Murray (younger brother of Merlin (obvious joke haha)) to save a bandit who has been kidnapped by a princess, in what will be a HILARIOUS role reversal. So using the magical power of the pellets Pac Man sets out to complete this task.