Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Thread

[Scooterforever]

Absolutely. It finds a better balance between comedy and action, and it gets surprisingly dark. It has the darkest origin of Leatherhead in any TMNT project. Teenage April wasn't nearly as cloying and ridiculous as anyone thought. And more over, the characters actually act like Teenagers. Leo actually has tremendous character flaws that come with the burden of being chosen leader. It's about as good as 2k3.

Leatherneck's always been one of my fav TMNT villains. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he debut in the original "Tales of the TMNT" comic? I'll definitely have to check out the new show.

 

[Drtooth]

I give the *&^% up on this TMNT movie.

I can't even just blame Bay. The script still sucks. Shredder's now a white guy. I'm guessing Splinter is too.

I keep hearing people whine about how Perry White, Electro, and Johnny Storm/The Human Touch are being race lifted and saying "why doesn't it go the other way?" Well it has. They've effectively taken the Asian influence from TMNT. And by which, I don't mean Shredder is just going to be some white guy going by the name of Oroku Saki (Shredder was performed mostly by African Americans in the old and current series)... Shredder's now a guy named Eric Sachs!!

"I actually play a guy named Eric Sachs [Sounds like Sachs? Hard to understand] in the movie," Fichtner told Screen Rant. "And then he goes through a few stages in his existence. … But Turtles is coming together very, very cool. There is a whole interesting dynamic that happens in the world of Turtles and all I can really say about it at this point while working on it is that the Turtle film, it’s not like anything that I remember about the Turtles before. I feel like this Michael Bay-produced movie is just gonna really be something else. I’m pretty excited."

WOW. Awful. Say what you will about the Transformers movies, but at least there was an effort to get some of the original voice actors back. And the writers of those movies made it up with Transformers Prime. This, they're throwing everything that made TMNT special away. And that freaking Christmas special is looking better and better.

 

[Scooterforever]

I've given up on BayTurtles. You're wasting your breath complaining about it; Bay's films make oodles of money, so there's no stopping it at this point, no matter how bad it sounds (and holy moley, does it sound bad).

On a different note, I just read the first TPB of IDW's TMNT reboot last week, and I was blown away. It's cool that they don't show or mention Shredder for the first 4 issues; I like that they're building up to him instead. I also like Baxter and Krang's prominent role in the Turtles' origin and transformation, and the new villain, Old Hob. Not to mention the fact Casey Jones appears in all four issues. After Donatello, he's probably my favorite TMNT character.

 

[Drtooth]

Well, I just read the latest issue, and it's even more exciting than that. Seriously... TMNT is in good hands with Nickelodeon, great hands with IDW... just poor hands as far as the movie goes. The script sounds even worse than the first draft. I can't believe I actually hunger for the Alien Turtles script.

 

[minor muppetz]

I've been watching the newest Nickelodeon TMNT series these last few weeks and it is great. Not as good as the original, but I doubt I can get myself to ever say any Turtles show is better than the original. But it seems to be like a darker CGI version of the original series. I only watched the 2003 series once or twice, and couldn't pay attention to it, so I can't say if this new show is more like the '80s show than the '03 show, but it's great that it has so much humor. I like how the characters eyes seem to change at times when reacting certain ways. It's also interesting they cast Rob Paulsen as Donatello instead of Raphael.

There are some oddities. Like April O'Neil being 16-years old. It's also a little weird seeing Donatello being the main one (if not only one) with a crush on her. On the series and movies they all had a crush on her a bit, and it seems Michelangelo had the biggest crush out of the four (or at least expressed it the most). And it's weird that April's father is shown. I also feel Michelangelo sounds wrong and Splinter looks wrong, but otherwise it's fine. I kinda like the little crack on the edge of Raphael's turtle shell.

It's also weird seeing Shredder with a daughter, though I think I know that he had one on the 2003 series. It's cool that they worked Krang into this series with The Kraang species (which combine Krang with the Utrons). Also interesting how on the original series Krang could talk to Shredder while his body couldn't, but on this show the Kraang's can only communicate in english when inside their bodies.

Have there been any video games for the new series yet? Another thing, does anybody know if Nickelodeon only got the rights to the characters and franchise or if they also got the rights to any existing TMNT productions like either of the two previous animated series? I doubt Nickelodeon has the rights to any of the movies.

 

[Drtooth]

It's also weird seeing Shredder with a daughter, though I think I know that he had one on the 2003 series. It's cool that they worked Krang into this series with The Kraang species (which combine Krang with the Utrons). Also interesting how on the original series Krang could talk to Shredder while his body couldn't, but on this show the Kraang's can only communicate in english when inside their bodies.

*Face Palm*

Karai is a character from the original comic book. She was also prominently featured in both TMNT 2k3 and the 2007 film. She's also in the IDW comic as his granddaughter (I don't know if they elaborated on it, since I missed out on Secret History of the Foot Clan). In the 2k3 series, it was explained that she was a homeless little girl that Oroku Saki took pity on and adopted her, leaving her to deal with loyalty to her father for saving her life and the Turtles for realizing Shredder was basically using her. She goes for the former through the end of the series. They haven't revealed anything about her past yet, though they hinted at something strong when April said her mother died (or was missing, I can't quite recall how they stated it).

As for the Utroms, there's no doubt that the Kra'ang are supposed to be a darker interpretation of the characters. Utroms in the old comic and 2k3 series were peaceful and just wanted to go home... in IDW continuity, they're at war with the Neutrinos (now older warriors rather than young teen beatniks) and lead by Krang.

As for Don's crush on April, that's an extension of the last series. It was very subtle, as April reverted to her real job of being a scientist that worked for Baxter Stockman, and Don found her a kindred spirit as he's still an accomplished scientist (ironically, he's one in every continuity except the original comics).

Seriously... that 1980's cartoon, while I can't say anything negative about it otherwise (except for those terrible European Vacation episodes), it successfully killed the legacy of the original comics for a generation. The comics are far more interesting than any of the animated continuities.

 

[mr3urious]

Seriously... that 1980's cartoon, while I can't say anything negative about it otherwise (except for those terrible European Vacation episodes), it successfully killed the legacy of the original comics for a generation. The comics are far more interesting than any of the animated continuities.

The Europe season seemed like an attempt to appeal more to Europeans.

 

[Drtooth]

If only Europeans didn't see the complete lack of research in the shows. But I did like the one about the Renaissance artists with the Aliens trying to steal the masterpieces.

 

[Scooterforever]

*Face Palm
As for Don's crush on April, that's an extension of the last series. It was very subtle, as April reverted to her real job of being a scientist that worked for Baxter Stockman, and Don found her a kindred spirit as he's still an accomplished scientist (ironically, he's one in every continuity except the original comics).

But Don's still a techie in the original comics. He plays an integral role in defeating the Mousers in Baxter Stockman's debut, helping April shut them down via the computer system, and figures out how to bypass TCRI's security systems. I don't know what you mean by "accomplished scientist," but outside of issue #1, Don was always shown to be a techie in the original comics. Of course, they make him a full-on egghead nerd in most of the cartoons, which at times overshadows the fact he fights as well as any of the others, if that's what you mean by "accomplished scientist."

 

[Drtooth]

Yeah, now I remember. They just never brought it up ever again. At least never to the levels as all the animated counterparts.