Teenage Mutant Nickelodeon Turtles: These Are the Reptiles We Remember
by A Real Person on June 22, 2012
The Michael Bay-produced live-action movie that may or may not have made the heroes in a half-shell into aliens has been put on hold for now, but that doesn’t mean no more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. On the contrary – here’s your first look at the new CG cartoon versions as they’re going to appear in a new Nickelodeon series. The bright colors and anime-style action shots, combined with computer graphics, is a new look that takes a little while to adjust to, but what with the Turtles sporting their familiar color coded bandanas, designated roles within the team (Donatello’s still the brains, Mike has not stopped being a party dude), and love for pizza, it’s clear there haven’t been many liberties taken with the ingredients we always knew.
Plus Shredder looks particularly intimidating, and the vernacular has even been updated to include newer slang terms like, ahem, “Booyakasha!” Even weapon-slinging reptiles dig Ali G., it seems.
not even close to the badassery of this … http://youtu.be/WDQzALOH9iU sorry.
Love the original 1984 Mirage comics (which were decidedly not for little kids, and no, did not feature color-coded masks). The 1987 cartoon, while good for a few laughs, was heavily watered down and altered (and never looked as good as its intro, although the Archie comics that spun off from the show were pretty decent – actually had much better writing than the show did). The first movie was closer to the comics than the cartoon, but didn’t go all the way. Movies 2 and 3 were mostly garbage, as was the Next Mutation series. The 2003 cartoon started out really good (adapting some stories straight from the Mirage comics), but eventually ended up ruining Mikey (by progressively dumbing him down and stripping him of dignity and depth) and the Shredder (by not letting him stay dead after what would have been a great end to a great character) and then (season 5 onward) getting really lame (via executive meddling). The 2007 CGI movie was okay, but nothing remarkable (Mikey and Don were terribly under-used, and Leo came off as a bit too arrogant, and the monsters-on-the-loose angle just wasn’t interesting enough to warrant a movie).
There are many changes in this new Nickelodeon show. Mikey and Don have been given bladed weapons (which goes against their personalities), April has been made much younger (which goes against her original role as a sort of mother figure), and from the promotional material it seems they’re playing up the Don having a crush on April angle, which is fanfic stuff and frankly kind of icky. Also they seem to have taken the (good) Utrom race from the comics and the (evil) character of Krang from the 1987 cartoon and crossed them into “The Kraang”, whatever that is. Also, the turtles now have six toes instead of four. A lot of arbitrary changes, and I suspect they’ll tonally go for something between the 1987 cartoon and the 2003 cartoon. Might be good if they get good writers, but I just wish they’d stop trying to fix something that wasn’t broken in the first place.
As for the Platinum Dunes Ninja Turtles movie, I don’t have high hopes for it (though there is a chance it might come out good – Michael Bay is not writing or directing it, so that’s something to hang on to). However, to be fair, nobody said they’re aliens. Michael Bay said they’re “from an alien race”, which is technically true. In the original comics (and 2003 cartoon), the TCRI ooze that mutated the turtles and Splinter is a byproduct of transmat research made by the alien Utrom people stuck on earth. I’m not saying that’s necessarily what Michael Bay meant, but it’s plausible.
the turtles i remember are the same bandana and harsher violence turtles. And then toss in a pinch of the old cartoon and i got a great combo of violence and comedy, seriousness and wholesomeness, duty and pizza!
Well, hey, this looks cool. Not the 80′s or the 00′s series, but something in between. I’ll definitely check it out. And as long as my buddy Rob Paulsen is ANY Turtle, he’s got my vote!!! (He’s Don, as opposed to his original Raph in the 80s.)
I am not a big fan of pure CGI cartoons. There is something raw and more realistic about hand drawn. But I love the voice actors they have for the show. Sean Asten (Lord of the Rings), Jason Biggs (American Pie), Greg Cipes (Teen Titans), and Rob Paulson as the turtles. I’m willing to give it a chance.
Bleh, this doesn’t look like the cartoon I grew up with.. epic fail…
Oh wait, it actually looks really good. Dare I say it… It might even look like a more fun show than the cartoon from when I was a kid. I mean, sure, I’m nostalgic for the cartoon shows from that period, but kids that grew up on yu-gi-oh have that same feeling for shows from that period and 15 to 20 years from now people are going to be nostalgic about shows like Adventure Time. That doesn’t mean that these reboot’s shouldn’t be made, or if they are made that everything should be the same as “back in the day”. If we kept remaking the same show exactly as it was, we’d still be watching the Honeymooners (instead of, say, the Simpsons). So what if they changed the weapons a bit or don’t follow the comics exactly, they are trying to take something we loved as kids and make our kids love it just as much.
Also, as a junglist (massive! boh, boh, boh! and all that) I like that they went with boyakasha…
Not usually a fan of the computer animated stuff (2D, as well) but these Turtles are really cute.
I’m tuning in.