They’re Making a Cartoon out of Pele

I was wondering if they were. I looked out the window this morning, saw a bleakness of snow looking back at me, and thought, “Maybe if an animated Pele were tripping through a world of fluid rainbows and brightly colored, fast-growing plant life, making a soccer ball do magical things in time with a carnival-funk-style children’s singalong.” And now it’s happening.

The film will be produced by Compact Disc India Ltd., the largest animation outsourcing organization in South Asia, according to its own website. CDI has also acquired the rights to develop Pele games and Pele merchandising. I’m picturing some sort of board game with a spinner and a little soccer ball that clicks through a chute of some kind, maybe a porcelain piggy bank with an enormous Pele caricature-head and a thick, hard-to-get-out plastic plug in the soles of his boots where the money can come pouring through.

The film, which is in the early stages of development, is tentatively planned for the first half of 2010. Pele has script approval, which means, I guess, that if he doesn’t want to fly to the Overhead Island to help the Pinwheel Orphans save their forest by winning the big game against Corporal Lurch and his underlings, he can demand rewrites until he gets special stretch powers and uses them to help the Wuffles save their meadow by winning the big game against Commander Crunge. I think one of the Wuffles might just learn a little something about friendship. I hope so. It’s still snowing.