Lion KingIf you're the type who follows the box office buzz, you might have heard that feel good family flick Dolphin Tale took The Lion King 3D down a peg or two this past weekend. Too bad it won't last. This two-week stint of having to repeatedly tell the kids that you could watch the same flick at home for a whole lot less is a sign of things to come, frugal moms and dads.

Hollywood has heard the roar of the lion. And they're adding to the cacophony by torturing parents on a budget, er, hitting up the archives to deliver a whole slate of movie re-releases. Get your wallets ready, Mom and Dad, or start arming yourself with excuses to protect your bank account!

They'll be playing off family nostalgia with re-tooled 3D versions of everything from Titanic to Ghostbusters, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace to Top Gun. And who knows what else is coming?

The folks at The Early Show spent a good bit of time trying to convince me that this was a good thing. And I almost bought it! Until I had to face down the 6-year-old who wanted me to pony up mega bucks for a SECOND movie over the weekend (we saw, laughed at, cried at, loved Dolphin Tale, and that was my limit) when we have the original sitting at home on the shelf.

Hellllloooooo, Hollywood! There's only so much we parents can take! I'm the parent who has the right and ability to say "no" to my kid, but that doesn't mean I like having to do it all the time. At the risk of sounding like an old fuddy duddy, they're bleeding us dry without offering us much more than some hard-to-watch remake that we could enjoy at home for less, with potty breaks!

Disney at least has had the good grace to follow up the short theater run of The Lion King with a Blu-ray edition of the 17-year-old classic to rescue you from parenting hell if you refused -- like me -- to waste the cash. A (free) copy from the studio arrived on my doorstep right after I started stewing about the piece on The Early Show, and it proves it's the best remastering of a Disney animated classic ever. Period. Because I'm a total sucker who bows to the power of nostalgia, I now plan on buying my daughter the soundtrack as my own (shudder) cassette tape version died long ago.

All the more reason NOT to buy this whole "movie re-release" thing, in my book! I love sharing my favorites with my kid. I'd just like a little value for the way Hollywood keeps preying on my kid!

Last I checked, a brand new DVD, even a Blu-ray one, runs around the $22 mark, and the whole family can watch as many times as they'd like. It costs double that to take an average family to the movies these days. Until Hollywood can give me something that's worth leaving my house for, I'll stick with the oldies that can be paused when the kid has to pee. At least she won't miss my favorite part. 

Do you hate all these movie re-releases as much as I do? Or does it make it easier to say no when you can share the DVD version with your kids?

 

Image via Amazon