Famous Five get makeover

By Andrew Hough

LONDON (Reuters) - One of Britain's best-known children's book series, Enid Blyton's "Famous Five", has been turned into a 21st century cartoon -- to a mixed reception from purists.

The "lashings" of ginger beer and cream buns have gone, replaced with mobile phones, laptops, iPods and pizza, as the five teenagers follow in their parents' daring footsteps.

As the children of the original heroes Julian, Dick, Anne and George, the new adventurers set about catching fake environmentalists, rather than kidnappers and smugglers -- along with Timmy the dog.

Almost seven decades after Blyton created the child detectives, the characters are being revived in a new Disney Channel cartoon, "Famous Five On the Case", along with a book series.

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Critics have long branded her books sexist, racist and overly simplistic, but Blyton's stories are still hugely popular, selling more than 10 million copies a year, drawing readers into a bygone world of carefree kids and "beastly" grown-ups.

The new series, in association with Chorion which holds the titles' rights, was given the green light by Blyton's eldest daughter, Gillian Baverstock just before she died last year.

But Vivienne Endecott, from the Enid Blyton Society, said she was "wary" about the makeover.