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Mutant Ninja Turtles (not teenage anymore)


Yantelope V2
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I'm so confused by this whole thing. There's a follow up article here.

 

http://www.grantland.com/blog/hollywood-prospectus/post/_/id/46536/michael-bay-must-be-stopped-ninja-turtles-drop-%E2%80%98teenage%E2%80%99

 

I hate it when Directors and Writers think they know better than the source material and butcher it into garbage film. See every videogame movie ever.

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I think its so funny that people are upset over this, especially because I'm also upset. I mean we are talking about human shaped and sized ninja turtles, it really doesn't matter where they came from, but that means that making them aliens is a pointless change. Why change something that will make no difference? Is humanoid ninja turtles from space any less outrageous than mutated ninja turtles? No it's not.

 

It's Michael Bay, and he wants it to be his movie, not a movie made from a product that got popularity by a kids show to promote kids toys. For some reason though, he keeps making those kind of movies.

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I think its so funny that people are upset over this, especially because I'm also upset. I mean we are talking about human shaped and sized ninja turtles, it really doesn't matter where they came from, but that means that making them aliens is a pointless change. Why change something that will make no difference? Is humanoid ninja turtles from space any less outrageous than mutated ninja turtles? No it's not.

 

It's Michael Bay, and he wants it to be his movie, not a movie made from a product that got popularity by a kids show to promote kids toys. For some reason though, he keeps making those kind of movies.

 

You're missing the point, completely.

 

It's not an issue of, "Oh, how outrageous is this?" but that "Teenage Mutant" is the very descriptive of the turtles. "Ninja Turtles" is, as you're saying, could be anything... and that's the problem. It would be like turning Transformers into cyborgs from Japan rather than "robots in disguise" from Cybertron. You're completely taking a dump on the very plot of the series as well, because believe it or not, them being mutants rather than aliens makes a megaton of differences.

 

Much like Shredder being a frickin' alien in the last animated series. <_<

 

Oh, but it's just outrageous. Call me looney, but I do care a bit about the turtles, whether they're the ones from the source material (comic book) or animated series.

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I'm on your side. I'm in no way defending Bay at all. I am saying that the reason behind changing the turtles origin and taking out the Teenage Mutant part is pointless and silly.

 

I'm also saying that you could make them from space and change very little about the story, but any reason to changing it would be pointless because making them aliens doesn't make them any more realistic.

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Well, here's what gets me:

 

Alien + Ninja = ???

 

With superhero series, and particularly 90's animated shows featuring mutation (i.e. Street Sharks, Spider-Man, X-Men), having mutated turtles (of a teenage age) who were taught ninjutsu by a mutated rat seems more digestible than an intergalactic turtle-humanoid species developing ninjutsu and landing on Earth, for whatever plot.

 

Yeah, they seem about equally absurd, but we've been condition to accept mutation as a reasonable plot device for the last few decades.

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I wouldn't say mutation is any more acceptable as a plot device than aliens. I mean we have Green Lantern, Super-man, Captain Marvel (Marvel Comics).

 

But for teenage humanoid turtles learning ninja arts in a sewer from a giant rat, in my opinion, have a better origin being on Earth than outside of Earth. So mutation makes more sense.

 

Still, don't get me wrong, I prefer them to be the way I grew up with, which are Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who skateboard, eat pizza and have a crush on the local news woman.

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Surely it depends on what the character development is going to be. The 80's toons were very much about the immaturity of the Turtles, their impetuous, hot headed nature, selfishness, fits of moodiness and feelings of being isolated. If Bay's version is not going to have that sort of character development (let's face it, it's not going to have character development) then changing it from Teenage Mutants to Grown Up Alien is, if anything a necessary change. If his story is not going to be about how the turtles have spent their formative years underground and now that they have come of age they want to join the world at large (an analogy for how many teenagers felt) then it should not be called TMNT.

 

I completely understand the change, the original TMNT audience (me) is knocking on 30 now. I don't want to see teenagers running around shout "hiya". I don't really want to hear the word "cowabunga" or "radical" either. I'm all about reinterpreting the classics, growing them with their audience.

 

I think the film will be "alright" I will probably go to see it at the cinema and enjoy it for the expensive, flashy, Bay-fest that it will inevitably be.

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I don't want to see teenagers running around shout "hiya". I don't really want to hear the word "cowabunga" or "radical" either. I'm all about reinterpreting the classics, growing them with their audience.

 

He's a witch! BURN HIM!

 

*Edit* - Seriously though, this is ridiculous. You can reinterpret it without changing the entire backstory. I mean, it doesn't have to be exactly as explained in previous iterations, but the broad strokes need to be there.

Edited by TheMightyEthan
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I don't want to see teenagers running around shout "hiya". I don't really want to hear the word "cowabunga" or "radical" either. I'm all about reinterpreting the classics, growing them with their audience.

 

He's a witch! BURN HIM!

 

*Edit* - Seriously though, this is ridiculous. You can reinterpret it without changing the entire backstory. I mean, it doesn't have to be exactly as explained in previous iterations, but the broad strokes need to be there.

 

Exactly. I'm actually pretty excited about a new NT movie but I don't want to see it butchered. You can update a classic without destroying the source material. Of course, if they were current teenagers they might be emo turtles, that would be very very bad.

Edited by Yantelope V2
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It was the other way around for me. I loved Ninja Turtles but Transformers were before my time. Well, actually after my time to if you count the CGI ones like beast wars. My childhood was right on the tail end of Ghostbusters and TMNT was the majority of it followed by Power Rangers which I got tired of pretty quick.

 

The original TMNT movie was a big event in my youth. I was 7 when it came out. I remember my mom being very upset at just how much violence there was and all the times that Raphael said "damn". This of course made me love it all the more. I haven't watched it in a couple of years but as I recall it was a fantastic movie so the idea of recreating the whole thing bothers me more than it would another franchise that I was less connected with.

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For those old enough to remember the TMNT RPG, the Turtles (I am officially dropping the "T", the "M", and the "N") have a place in nostalgia, right next to the D&D books and the bag-'o-dice.

 

Since Bay is trying to feed from the audience it already has, does it make sense to alienate that audience? He really doesn't care about the history of anything. Look at the films with history he's butchered:

 

Friday the 13th

The Amityville Horror

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Transformers

Nightmare on Elm Street

 

In addition, he's going to add The Birds to that list (it's in the works still, way pre-production).

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Honestly, the last animated series of TMNT was the best. It took stuff from the comics and previous shows and combined it into something that worked really well. Frankly, the 'ooze' itself is alien in origin and the original comics jumped at sci-fi stuff the first chance they got. Shredder being an alien made perfect sense in the new series and made for a neat twist when he actually got beheaded like in the comics.

 

I'm not too bothered if they're not teenagers, mutants or technically even turtles. It's always about the characters and the dynamic between them. The last film captured this well. It's just unfortunate its main plot was a bit weak.

 

Not exactly the best sort of comparison, but it doesn't matter what ethnicity Nick Fury is; he kicks ass. And I'm not particularly bothered if Banshee isn't Irish; it doesn't make a difference beyond a 'token' role. Characters should be more than just basic descriptors.

 

That sounded way too serious for this topic. :P

Edited by Hot Heart
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For me, I was more into Transformers than TMNT as a kid. I had some of the classic toys, but my age set me up to begin with Beast Wars, which was a definite favorite of mine. Had a lot of the Beast Wars toys.

 

Of course, I did have a few TMNT toys. I had that Donatello action figures that would speak certain lines or something if you pull different speech "strips" through it, or something. Anyway, most of my friends were more into TMNT, and eventually after Beast Wars ended, I couldn't get into any of the latter series.

 

While I was fond of the Shredder-Alien bit in the latest TMNT series, I still enjoyed in a lot. But thinking now...

 

If the turtles will be aliens, how are you going to explain their names? Splinter named them after Renaissance artists. Are you going to have a, "Well our society studied your's, blah blah" or will they need "Earth names?" :wacko:

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Bay is already going with "aliens," so that covers a lot besides the martial arts bit I've already brought up.

 

But I swear, he's going to pull up a "Our names are difficult to pronounce, so hmm... look at these guys!" Or, you know, he could piss off fans further and give them different names. ^_^

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Why is anybody even bothering to give the movie the benefit of the doubt anymore?

 

1) They're not teenage

 

2) They're not mutants

 

3) It's Michael Bay

 

Is there really any doubt left that the movie is gonna be a humongous piece of crap?

 

But Michael Bay is the subtle misunderstood genius of our time.

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Why is anybody even bothering to give the movie the benefit of the doubt anymore?

 

1) They're not teenage

 

2) They're not mutants

 

3) It's Michael Bay

 

Is there really any doubt left that the movie is gonna be a humongous piece of crap?

 

But Michael Bay is the subtle misunderstood genius of our time.

 

Michael Bay is a lot of things, but I wouldn't say he's subtle.

 

"Michael Bay is the (BOOOM) (CRASH) (BANG) genius of our time"

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