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

[Drtooth]

Yogi Bear doesn't take much. At least they got the animated characters right. But they went for such a cliche storm of a plot with a bored actor slogging his way through Ranger Smith and an equally uninteresting Mary Sue romantic plot tumor. I mean, you want romance in a Yogi Bear movie, where the heck is Cindy? Not to mention how slipshod everything was. Random song placement that makes no sense... They shoulda just did a live action remake of Yogi's Great Escape or something. Say what you will about this film, at least it will suck because of "creative decisions" and not being a dull kiddy movie.

 

[Mynameisdean]

Hey drtooth, you're still not gonna see the new TMNT movie, are ya? Guardians of the Galaxy probably WILL be better, and I don't like superheroes either.

 

[Drtooth]

I am, only for Will Arnett as Vernon.

Like I said, they got one thing right.

 

[Mynameisdean]

I am, only for Will Arnett as Vernon.

Like I said, they got one thing right.

Still, do you think one little casting decision makes you want to see it? I have a feeling he will be a relatively minor character.

 

[Drtooth]

On the positive side... the toy line is out. And unlike the 2K7 movie, Playmates didn't shoo off the current cartoon toy line and completely replace it with movie merch (yet). In fact, they still had far more Nick TMNT pegs full of merch than BayMNT figures. And they're also relatively the same price point, almost like the original TMNT II and III figures (which were part of the overall line completely, these are still a separate thing onto themselves).

And hopefully they also learned their lesson from last time, flooding the toyline with irrelevant, unsellable movie based variants that actually destroyed the toy line. Spirit of the Jungle Leo and Monster Hunter Raph were great (and perfectly related to scenes in the movie) but the completely idiotic slime fighting alien hunters crap effectively killed the toy line, and Playmates hasn't made any TMNT stuff until the new series. Seriously. They had plans to make comic book style Turtles and even whined and moaned and chucked a temper tantrum Mirage/4Kids for daring to license out the characters as collector figures to Neca, dooming that line as well only to not release them because Terminator Salvation toys were a gold mine, apparently. Sorry... tangent.

In toy form, the character designs don't look terrible mainly due to the complete lack of detail on the paint apps. Except Splinter. That one's just... shudder.

 

[Drtooth]

The more advertisements I see, it seems they did get something else right. Seems they at least got the personality of Mikey down... well, at least according to the last and current cartoon series. I'm sure Donnie's pretty down, considering the Gadgeteer Genius thing was invented for the cartoons (I'm pretty sure of, anyway) and has been part of the character ever since. But...uh... Raph's turned into the Hulk that talks even more over the top than Christian Bales's Batman voice. Shame. The current series made a wonderful balance between brooding, angry teen and sarcastic jerk.

Of course the director swears we're going to love it just like Kevin Eastman keeps saying. It does, however, remove one of my biggest complaints pre-movie. (SPOILER, I guess)....


Shredder isn't a white guy, and the white guy's actually a different villain who's connection to the Shredder hasn't been exactly disclosed yet. But HEY! No reverse Race-lift on ol' Chrome Dome, so I'm more willing to give this a shot now.

 

[JJandJanice]

Honestly make no mistake, this movie is going to do VERY well. I would be willing to bet the farm that it will out gross Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy. But even if this movie did somehow do poorly, the Nick cartoon is still going strong and the toys are selling like hot cakes. There is NO WAY, the franchise is dying, in fact, I would say it's as strong as ever. Plus, FYI, TMNT was created in 1984, not 1985.

 

[Drtooth]

I'm worried about GOTG, due to the franchise's relative obscurity and completely offbeat enough to scare off an audience that can accept radioactive spiders giving teenagers super powers, alternate planets that somehow inspired Norsk mythology, but a talking Raccoon and a talking plant?!?!

But yeah, TMNT will hit the same audience that Transformers get. People who grew up with it, and hate the movies so much they have no choice but to see the films to confirm how awful they are. That said, the previews have softened me up, and I'm willing to give it a chance and prove Kevin Eastman right about how we're all going to love this.

And optimistically, it seems that Playmates has learned its lesson from the last time. And if they didn't, Nick has complete ownership of the franchise, so they're not going to goad or control certain aspects of the turtles. That's why we got Fast Forward after season 4, instead of Season 5 which had blatantly toyetic concepts that Playmates didn't even bother with. Mainly because they destroyed the toyline with crappy variants. The movie is thankfully not influencing the franchise one way or another, at least in terms of merchandising. In fact, other than the movie toy line and a soda tie-in, I see more and more cartoon turtles stuff. So yeah, the cartoon is safe, thank Glob.