Basinger on Lassie’s Comeback

Dreamworks Animation is hard at work to give Lassie, America’s most beloved collie for more than three-quarters of a century, a comeback. They’re not planning any new Lassie movies or TV shows, but are getting ready to debut a new line of Lassie merchandise: dog food, dog accessories, dog grooming, dog beds and dog training.

“I would love to believe that modern children would sit down and watch lovely Lassie frolic with Timmy in the meadow,” Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies Jeanine Basinger told The New York Times. “But I fear they would get awfully bored unless she turned into a superdog that blows things up, and that would be sacrilege.”

“Lassie was always a bit of an acting lightweight anyway,” she added.