Michael Bay's Ninja Turtles: RIP TMNT 1985-2014

[beaker]

Well looks like they tossed out some of the dialogue and are replacing all of Splinter's lines with actor Tony Shaloub and Leonardo is now Johnny Knoxville

Meanwhile a fan using photoshopped made what the turtles SHOULD look like

http://www.blastr.com/2014-4-2/fan-takes-it-upon-himself-fix-bays-ninja-turtles

I personally think fans should boycott this monstrosity by simply not seeing it. Even tho I was huge into Transformers, Bay's ruining of that magic doesnt bother me as much as this. I hold TMNT much more sacred.

That said...rumors abound that TMNT will be delayed.

http://www.blastr.com/2014-3-31/rumor-day-michael-bays-tmnt-delayed-again-extensive-reshoots

The folks at Geeks of Doom are reporting the film, directed by Jonathan Liebesman, will be delayed at least a few months beyond its anticipated August release to make time for some extensive reshoots that will be personally overseen by Bay (Transformers), who is producing. According to the report, as much as one-third of the film could be re-shot, and Bay's increased role could cut into his time editing Transformers: Age of Extinction.

Dear Michael Bay...when EVERY SINGLE PERSON who viewed that ugly awful trailer had the same "ewwww, no thanks" reaction to the Turtles faces...you got a major problem dude. That, plus the editing/cinematography is of the annoying stutter jumpcut variety.

 

[Drtooth]

You know what complaint about this movie is ticking me off?

The fact that it's supposedly "dark and gritty" and not some campy 1980's style version of the characters.

Face palm.

The turtles were dark and gritty and parody of dark and gritty at the same time. The original comics had few, if any, light comedic moments. When it did, it was taken to extremes with Hedden and McWeeney and the more darkly satirical Mark Martin. The comics actually went stark raving dark with Michael Zuli's amazing contributions. Not to mention Rick McCollum's bizarre pieces. THOSE are some dark TMNT stories right there.

This movie isn't dark. It's boiler plate massive action stuff. And as much as this Michael Bay thing sucks (though he's only producing), I'd HATE to see a crappy remake of the 80's cartoon in live action. It would probably treat the characters worse than TMNT Forever did.

I personally think fans should boycott this monstrosity by simply not seeing it. Even tho I was huge into Transformers, Bay's ruining of that magic doesnt bother me as much as this. I hold TMNT much more sacred.

The sad thing about Transformers is, they at least tried to get some fanservice in the films by casting as many of the original VA's possible, and throwing in as many little hidden background bits as possible in the first one. It seems that people were okay with the first one, and only really turned on them on the second one (which everyone involved in the film felt sucked anyway). Plus, no matter what, the low point of the Transformers will ALWAYS be the 3 anime series we got after Car Robots (at least that one was kinda fun), plus Kiss Players... oooh... not even Bay would come up with something as disgusting as Kiss Players.

While I can't say this film's going to be as low as, say, We Wish you a Turtle Christmas (even these turtles look better than the creepy, emaciated monsters in that one), it doesn't look like anything that would end up good or even, generously saying, remarkable. As long as it doesn't derail the cartoon series or IDW's comics (which get better and better with each issue), I'm fine with an icky movie. As long as Nick has more say in the franchise than Playmates. I'd hate the movie figures to overtake the cartoon ones like last time.

EDIT: Thought you were kidding about Johnny Knoxville and Tony Shaloub. You aren't. At least Tony's a little better than Mickey from Seinfeld. If anything, they should track down Sab Shimono. He would have made a pretty good Splinter.

 

[CensoredAlso]

The whole "dark and gritty" thing is just a bunch of buzzwords PR people always use to justify a reboot or remake's existence. Plus there's always some fans that mistake dark with deep and think a movie like this will allow them to feel less embarrassed about liking talking turtles.

I almost see it as the inevitable result of our failure to liberate men in our society. Men are still so terrified of looking silly, childish or (God forbid) girly that everything must be grim and dark 24/7.

Darn I wish I was still in college so I could write a paper on this!

 

[Drtooth]

I almost see it as the inevitable result of our failure to liberate men in our society. Men are still so terrified of looking silly, childish or (God forbid) girly that everything must be grim and dark 24/7.

The Turtles were plenty grim and gritty without a movie. Heck, the first film is real dark and gritty, thanks to the fact they shot it on a budget. Marvel's films have been gritty and dark, but they at least managed to do so right and make it fun too. I'd HATE to see a TMNT comedy movie more than this. They'd make it some Robot Chicken-ish/Family Guy Cutscene/Brady Bunch movie that would make the Turtles Forever appearance look solemn, respectful, and dignified.

Actually... know why we never got a follow up to 2007's TMNT movie? Warner Bros insisted that it be a pure, raucous comedy, and Mirage (pre Nick Buyout, remember) flat out refused a silly script. It went back and forth until the rights expired and Imagi was doomed to bankruptcy anyway.

I have no problem with a dark, realistic TMNT film in the vein of the comic book. An explodey action flick, doesn't a dark, gritty film make.

 

[beaker]

I thought the 1990 film, least for the time was 'dark and gritty', and to some degree the 2007 film. I hold both those films in very high regards, and was quite shocked at how much I loved the 2007 Imagi film. They went into production with Astro Boy and Gatchaman soon after(which never came out) and then folded. So a sequel to 2007 TMNT never coulda been even possible. The 1990 TMNT film to be is literally one of the best films I've ever seen, and I consider myself a serious film buff.

For the time, the campy TMNT 87-93 show was cool. I still get goosebumps hearing the theme song and seeing that AMAZING Peter Chung opening(too bad his team didn't animate the actual cartoon) The 2003 series was of course more serious/darker/violent, though did sometimes feel boring. Fast Forward was just scatterbrained. And I'll reserve judgement on the Nick cg toon as I just cant get into it, so I havent given it my time.

Now, I know they radically redesigned the Transformers into alien-formers for the 2007-2014 movies. But geez, there's no getting around how off canon and hideous these new turtles are. Again how does the entire world see this issue and not the production team? Mind baffling. They messed up the worst thing they could mess up on: the darn look. I dont care if the script was as bad as the vhs concert specials. But its unforgiveable to make them look like how they appear in the trailer. And why are they so hulking? Did they get the idea from the Jim Lee 1996 TMNT action figures from Image?

GI Joe there was nothing to screw up, so Im assuming it was as good as it could have been with both those films. But TMNT...this just isnt sitting right with me. I know they already have the figures and merch cast, but I wish theyd delay this thing by a year like GI Joe 2 and just redesign everything. They already have now tossed out a lot of the cg dialogue.

This trailer is seriously making me miss the days of The Next Mutation.

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah, no nostalgia goggles or bias... but the original 1990 movie was one of the best comic book movies ever made. And in an era where they were low budget jokes that no one likes (except for the camp value) or remembers fondly. Sure, they changed a couple things here and there, but it was pretty much a straight up adaption of the first comic book story arc. And while there was absolutely no way to get the comic book origin on film back then (Henson wasn't going to make hundreds of Utroms and Triceritons), the second one was a glorified toy commercial that was totally watered down because of some parental group. Tokka and Rahzar were cool, though. I'm the rare bird that actually likes the third one more, but that's a Casey Jones bias on my part.

TMNT flawlessly (and unintentionally) managed to import the current animated series to the big screen. Apparently Japan's crappy DTV dub of the film uses the same actors that dubbed the cartoon series at the time. You gotta hand it to them, we had a learning curve with the movies being more directly based on the comic versions of the characters. TMNT didn't even need to introduce Karai.

As for this one, I'm not so much offended by it as this was exactly my expectations for the film. Now that you mention it, YES... these look exactly like the Jim Lee action figures with a pinch of Zulli in them... but lacking the charm of either. Though, I'll admit it looks better than Scooby-Doo, Garfield, and Yogi Bear did. I'll give it that. Why do these things feel the need to make them how they would look in real life?

 

[mr3urious]

Apparently Japan's crappy DTV dub of the film uses the same actors that dubbed the cartoon series at the time. You gotta hand it to them, we had a learning curve with the movies being more directly based on the comic versions of the characters. TMNT didn't even need to introduce Karai.

There were three different Japanese dubs, the 2nd one that aired on TV Tokyo being the most fondly remembered. You know, the one with the screechy Krang voice. The 4Kids series only had one consistent dub, but it was a lot less popular for some odd reason.

http://tmntentity.blogspot.com/2010/03/confusing-history-of-tmnt-in-japan.html

 

[Drtooth]

I'm thinking Japan doesn't like it when our cartoons emulate theirs. You'd think Avatar:The Last Airbender would go over like a bang over there, but they really dislike it for that reason. And I guess little kids didn't watch because it wasn't Pokemon. That's why their new Avengers cartoon is essentially Yu-Gi-Oh with Marvel characters in it. They wasted perfectly good character designs, if you ask me.

 

[beaker]

Quick question: Why did Jim Lee's Mirage TMNT from 1996 lack Raphael? That never made sense to me. And YES, I love Tokka and Rahzar. The only redeeming thing of the 1991 bleepquel. (I loved how they resigned those two characters a few years ago)

Btw is there a single comment poster on AICN, youtube, etc that is in support of the Michael Bay Turtle designs?

 

[Yorick]

Since the 1982 film TRON got a sequel in 2010, the 1990's TMNT trilogy should have had a 2014 fourth film - set in 1994. Or if it must be set in the current time, then make it about the turtles dealing with old age - and still kicking butt. Either way it would be more original than yet another "restart". That's getting old.