Motion Comics - WTF?

Inspired by the release of the Buffy: Season 8 "Motion Comic," I'm putting on my grouchy old man hat for a moment.

What's the point of Motion Comics? As far as I'm able to tell, their primary purpose is to move the panels for the reader, occasionally making some of the pictures blink/move their entire bodies like a badly-animated Speed Racer cartoon. If these things were fully-animated they'd have some reason for being, since they'd transcend what they already are and offer up an interpretation of the comic that's justified by (potentially) having better production values, a decent voice cast, etc. As it is, they're comics for the laziest subset of humanity I can imagine: people who don't want to do the "hard work" of moving their eyes across the page, or imagining the movement that artists are already paid to evoke through their pens.

Is someone glowing in the panel of a comic? The "Motion Comic" will make that glow literal, brightening and dimming the image for you. Is there a sound effect creatively juxtaposed over text? The "Motion Comic" will simulate that sound effect (poorly) so your mind doesn't have to do it for you. Are people talking? Why should you have to imagine what they sound like when a voice actor can half-assedly do it for you?

I'm being harsh, I know, but I'm bewildered by these things. Clearly there's a market for them - but why?

Someone younger/cooler than me, please explain the appeal of the Motion Comic.

Thanks for the thoughts, folks. Very much appreciated. Glad I'm not the only one bewildered.

I'm in no way attempting to be dickish with this response, but "Lean back and take in the comic while still appreciating the artwork"? Isn't that typically understood to be the process of reading an actual comic? Again: Just how much work does it take to move one's eyeballs?

Audio books are a good example to bring up, but I don't think they're analogous to these things. As you point out, the majority of audio books are meant to be listened to while you're driving/working out/commuting. They're an alternative delivery system for when you can't read a book. No one I know sprawls out on their couch, pops an audio book in, and sits there doing nothing while they listen (unless they're blind, which is another valid and awesome reason for their existence).

Motion Comics serve up the same content, consumed in (largely) the same way, with a few extraneous bells n' whistles. They have no reason to exist, sans said-laziness.

What nachos describes here is, to my mind, different from a "Motion Comic" as I understand it. Video games who employ this technique are not (as far as I know) taking existing comics and badly animating them. They're creating new content, then using the basic "Motion" technique to animate them cheaply. That's cool by me.

Not sure I get this, Nardo. I'm pretty sure everyone's got a couch and access to basic reading materials - especially in the Amazon age. If anything, I imagine it takes longer to "read" a Motion Comic since the pace is set (I assume) by the designer, not the reader. Am I misinterpreting you?

To be clear: Creating original content and animating it this way may look cheap and shoddy, but I've got no problem with it. I actually really like the notion that someone could get their passion project up and running utilizing this kind of format. What I still don't get are pre-existing comics transposed into this format. It's ugly, it's lazy, and it adds nothing to the experience.