Why all of a sudden?

You just said it yourself. Its basically a quickie cash tie-in to the character that Hot Topic has been capitalizing on.

The sudden obsession is just like all other instances where companies exploit the popularity of obscure characters. A few years back it was Tigger from Winnie the Pooh and before that it was Tweety Bird from Looney Tunes, now its Tinkerbell's turn. I shudder to think of whos next.

"A commitment to cinema means to lead a technically deviant lifestyle."

Not so much an "all of a sudden" as a long-range plan by Disney to cash in via four upcoming STVs and a lot of product merchandising built around those videos. This is a massive, longterm project to be aimed at the female "tween" market, the very same market most of Disney's prime time programming is aimed at these days. The Hanna Montana and Cheetah Girl fans. IMDb reports there will be a delay in the first cartoon due to a problem with how it's skewing, meaning the audience it is aiming for. It is currently skewing toward a very young female market, too young for Disney's purposes. Basically it is hitting the Wiggles age group, which Disney does not want. Disney has been doing this kind of thing for quite awhile now, only this is an experiment that bypasses theaters and yet aims for massive toy sales based on a series of home videos. Time will tell.