Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Thread

[Scooterforever]

I joked about Shia playing Donatello, but then I remembered Corey Feldman voiced him in the original, and Feldman was sort of the Shia Lebouf of the 80's. Anyway, I can't see why Bay is so opposed to using the original origin. I had the same problem with the new Spider-man film; the original origin is great, and if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Instead Uncle Ben gets killed over the take-a-penny, leave-a-penny system.

 

[Drtooth]

Instead Uncle Ben gets killed over the take-a-penny, leave-a-penny system.

I prefer it. It makes Peter's actions all the more petty and regretful. The cashier was a jerk, sure... but the wrestling box office guy was a much larger jerk, and the audience was with Peter Parker in thinking he got what he deserved. For the most part, the origin was the same... radioactive spiders and all that.

Seems that the rewrite and rebrand of the movie has restored the TMNT origin... or at least dropped the regrettable they're really aliens bit. While the TMNT origin has always changed, it always had the same story of the turtles being real turtles and getting mutated through some alien mutagen (Krang developed it in the old series and the IDW comics, it was radioactive runoff from an Utrom transporter in 2k3 and the original comic book). To take that away and make them aliens all along would have ruined it.

Though, to be honest, I think Michael Bay (who's just the producer, but even his money is poison) purposely ruins these things to troll 1980's media fans.

 

[Scooterforever]

I prefer it. It makes Peter's actions all the more petty and regretful. The cashier was a jerk, sure... but the wrestling box office guy was a much larger jerk, and the audience was with Peter Parker in thinking he got what he deserved. For the most part, the origin was the same... radioactive spiders and all that.

Seems that the rewrite and rebrand of the movie has restored the TMNT origin... or at least dropped the regrettable they're really aliens bit. While the TMNT origin has always changed, it always had the same story of the turtles being real turtles and getting mutated through some alien mutagen (Krang developed it in the old series and the IDW comics, it was radioactive runoff from an Utrom transporter in 2k3 and the original comic book). To take that away and make them aliens all along would have ruined it.

Though, to be honest, I think Michael Bay (who's just the producer, but even his money is poison) purposely ruins these things to troll 1980's media fans.

I imagine that's how he gets his kicks anymore. I'm waiting for the day when they make a casting announcement for this film that doesn't make everyone groan and roll their eyes.

 

[Scooterforever]

I finished reading "The Three Musketeers" a few weeks ago, and I wouldn't be surprised if Eastman and Laird drew inspiration for the characters of the four turtles from Dumas's classic novel. As far as their main traits go, each of the four turtles matches up pretty well with one of the Musketeers.

The pure and courageous leader- D'artagnan/ Leonardo
The hotheaded rogue- Athos/ Raphael
The intellectual- Aramis/ Donatello
The fool- Porthos/ Michaelangelo

Watched "Secret of the Ooze" yesterday. Pretty good sequel to the first film, with all its goofiness and charm. I loved the designs for Tokka and Rhazar.

 

[Drtooth]

Those are all old tropes they always had.

Though there was that episode of the old series where Leonardo gets bonked on the head and thinks he is one of the Musketeers.

And HEY! Same voice actor of Leonardo was in the English dub of Dogtainian and the Muskehounds.

 

[robodog]

According to Topless Robot Michael Bay is Nerd Satan.

Honestly, I like the Transformers movies while admitting most of their detractors have quite a few valid points. Most fans of the films dismiss the critics as haters. But they're right about a lot of things. The movies would be a lot better by removing the stupid humor and giving the robots more screentime.

I'm not quite sure how I'll react to the new TMNT movie but from everything I'm hearing about it it doesn't sound like it'll be very good. But at least they aren't aliens anymore.

 

[Drtooth]

The movie sounds better than the original concepts, but the casting makes me angry. Mickey the short guy from Seinfeld as Splinter? Perhaps the most poignant and tragic character in the turtles mythos... so much so, he's the only character in Turtles Forever that wasn't caricatured in 80's form... with a thick Brooklyn accent played by a comedic actor? I keep hearing people whining about race lifts Marvel films get... where's the complaint that they aren't even trying to make Splinter a Japanese actor or even remotely Japanese.

And really... Megan Fox has to be April? Why did she have to reconcile with Bay? There are millions of other, better actresses that can give us some fan service as a Hot April... why her?

 

[Scooterforever]

The movie sounds better than the original concepts, but the casting makes me angry. Mickey the short guy from Seinfeld as Splinter? Perhaps the most poignant and tragic character in the turtles mythos... so much so, he's the only character in Turtles Forever that wasn't caricatured in 80's form... with a thick Brooklyn accent played by a comedic actor? I keep hearing people whining about race lifts Marvel films get... where's the complaint that they aren't even trying to make Splinter a Japanese actor or even remotely Japanese.

And really... Megan Fox has to be April? Why did she have to reconcile with Bay? There are millions of other, better actresses that can give us some fan service as a Hot April... why her?

Maybe Bay felt bad and wanted to throw her a bone. She doesn't have much of a movie career post-Bayformers, being a terrible actress and all. I don't like to dwell on a Bay-helmed TMNT film too much anymore; either it'll happen or it won't, either way there's not much I can do about it. The first two live action TMNT films from the 90's were pretty darn terrible in their own way, but I still loved em' (the involvement of JH's Creature Shop didn't hurt). I could see a movie exec watching the 80's cartoon and the 90's films and thinking "This is right up Bay's ally." It's a little harder to reconcile that image with the gritty B&W comic (although the 23K show came close). If Bay could get past all the racial and humping jokes he's so fond of MAYBE his TMNT film wouldn't be the worst thing ever?

 

[Drtooth]

The first one was one of the most brilliant comic book movies I've ever seen. Doing it low budget just to afford Henson's puppetry for the suits made the film dark and gritty, and it looked just as good, if not better, than big budget super hero films. Other than a couple changes to make the plot more convenient (giving April her cartoon job vs. a more complex backstory of being a scientist, making Raph the one that gets knocked unconscious rather than Leo), it's probably the truest to comic story I've ever seen.

The second one was a goofy toy commercial spoiled by Vanilla Ice's Big Lipped Alligator Moment.

It's so disheartening that just being a producer, Bay screws up another franchise. I really hope it doesn't overshadow the TV show in terms of marketing, like what happened last time.

 

[Scooterforever]

Yes, the first film was an all-around good movie, and lifted scenes straight from issue #11 of the original comics, such as the big fight in April's antique shop. Certain parts felt kind of cheesy, like the After-School Special message of The Foot recruiting children. Still, as I mentioned before, I can't imagine a better Casey Jones than Elias Koteas. Loved Casey's fight with Tatsu.

On another topic, I hate how IDW's recent TPB reprints of the classic TMNT stories are completely non-sequential, just because the creative teams change. I would have to get maybe five to seven TPBs just to have issues 1-20? C'mon, man. I'm lucky I have Mirage's "The Collected Book Vol. 1" from 1990, which collects issues 1-11, as well as all four solo one-shots.