T M N T

[PangQuan]

i just got back from seeing the movie.

the animation for the humans reminded me of the incredibles.
the animation on the turtles and stuff close up looked really good.
the story was good.
the movie i wasnt expecting much, but i thought it was awesome.

i say the movie is awesome. go see it.

and pangquan I remember those turtles best, but i doubt we will ever see that kind of turtle comic again. image tried in the late nineties but it didnt last past issue 30.

ya, i cant wait to see it. looks totally fun.

the only way i could see the old turtles resurected would be on the screen. dark high flying bloody to the max mutant domination.

i think its beyond that point now though.

[Oso]

PQ: Thanks, I'm crying in my beer now....


I was lucky to get in at the very beginning, had all the comics, every one...they were awesome.

had the rpg...kinda sucked as an rpg.

the live action movies sucked.

alas, I moved to another town in 89 and ended up parting ways with all my comics to make the truck payment.



but, hey, if this is going to be the year of the ninja...I may have to finally come in...

[The Willow Sword]

I certainly remember G-FORCE. I have a great G-Force Tshirt and silkscreen poster of the characters. Would be neat if they made a really decent film of it.

As for the TMNT. i dont know why they are ressurecting this cartoon. Not a fan of it at all. I preferred Cartoons like HE-MAN and THundercats, why the hell didnt they make a feature of Thundercats? I mean the HE-MAn movie was cr@p. The thread i started that showed one artists view of the He-man characters was way cool i thought. i will link the forum board here, you have to scroll down a 1/4th of the way and see the artwork. ...................EDIT,,cr@p they took the sketch photos down, sorry about that guys. thought they would stay up. Anyway they were pretty cool, a very dark aspect to the HE-man series that gets rid of the 1980's gay bodybuilder look in the cartoons(hey when you are a KID you dont think of those things)
CHeers, TWS

[Zenshiite]

I certainly remember G-FORCE. I have a great G-Force Tshirt and silkscreen poster of the characters. Would be neat if they made a really decent film of it.

As for the TMNT. i dont know why they are ressurecting this cartoon. Not a fan of it at all. I preferred Cartoons like HE-MAN and THundercats, why the hell didnt they make a feature of Thundercats? I mean the HE-MAn movie was cr@p. The thread i started that showed one artists view of the He-man characters was way cool i thought. i will link the forum board here, you have to scroll down a 1/4th of the way and see the artwork. ...................EDIT,,cr@p they took the sketch photos down, sorry about that guys. thought they would stay up. Anyway they were pretty cool, a very dark aspect to the HE-man series that gets rid of the 1980's gay bodybuilder look in the cartoons(hey when you are a KID you dont think of those things)
CHeers, TWS

Here's the thing... they aren't really resurrecting this. There's been a cartoon series and toy franchise running quite successfully for about 4 years, and with the cartoon then went a little different by depicting the turtles in a manner more akin to their Mirage base with proper sashes and the brown elbow and knee pads. Thus continuing the look from the live action flicks. This past year they even took them 100 years into the future or something, which sucks. But the previous four years were great. Something like 3 or 4 video games and all types of other merch... it's no surprise they have a new movie. Still got the kid appeal, but it's far more gritty than the original cartoon series ever was or TMNT III.

I don't think a Thundercats live action feature would work out very well without it being turned into a goof like some other cartoons being turned into movies. Besides, I recently rented Thundercats season one... sucks way more than I remember it. Way more. I'd rather see a Voltron movie. Better yet, Voltron vs Power Rangers... I want to see the Voltron Force own the imitators.

I think Mirage Studios currently has a TMNT series going on by the way.

[GeneChing]

...but I've only seen that, Shrek 3 and Bee Movie. Shrek was ok. Bee Movie was more of a D- movie.

Two Asian films enter Oscars animation race
Written by Patrick Frater
Friday, 09 November 2007

SANTA MONICA – Two Asian-made films have entered the race to win the Oscar for best animated feature.

Japanese crimer "Tekkonkinkreet" and the Hong Kong-made "TMNT" are among 12 movies that have been submitted to the Academy of Motion Pictures . These will be screened and the Academy announce nominations on Jan 22, 2008.

The Academy noted that three of the other pics -- " Alvin and the Chipmunks," "Beowulf" and " Persepolis " -- have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. The submitted features must fulfill the general release requirements and meet all of the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process.

The Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2007 will be presented on Sunday, February 24, 2008.

Full list of films submitted for 2007 best animated movie Oscar
" Alvin and the Chipmunks"
"Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theaters"
"Bee Movie"
"Beowulf"
"Meet the Robinsons"
" Persepolis "
"Ratatouille"
"Shrek the Third"
"The Simpsons Movie"
"Surf’s Up"
"Tekkonkinkreet"
"TMNT"

[doug maverick]

my pic would be beowulf for the oscars the animation is simply stunning.

[GeneChing]

A quarter century already? Man, that makes me feel OLD....

April 20, 2009, 3:24 pm
Heroes in a Half Shell Turn the Big 2-5
By Jennifer 8. Lee
Original Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesMirage Studios The original volume of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, released 25 years ago, was a self-published black-and-white comic by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman, two struggling artists.

If you invented a martial arts-practicing pizza-loving reptilian crime fighter, where else would they live aside from subterranean New York City?

“We’d always heard the legends of the alligators in the sewer systems in New York City,” said Peter Laird, who dreamed up the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 25 years ago with Kevin Eastman when they were struggling artists living in Dover, N.H. “The sewer system is big enough and vast enough to hide alligators. It could certainly hide turtles.”

And the New York City sewer certainly could be a fertile place for radioactive ooze. (Do you really trust university labs to properly dispose of their waste?).

So it is not unfathomable that four little turtles could be dropped by a little boy into a sewer and get soaked in the mysterious ooze. Perhaps the conceptual jump is that the turtles adopt names of Renaissance artists (Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello), speak English, walk upright, eat pizza, adopt surfer attitudes and study martial arts under the tutelage of a giant rat.

But to two aspiring comic book creators in 1984, it seemed reasonable. Mr. Laird, then 33, and Mr. Eastman, then 26, had an admittedly offbeat way of looking at the world. “The whole concept sprang out of the strange sense of humor that I shared with the co-creator,” Mr. Laird said.

He observed that the rest of the world might look at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and react to them as “four really mostly unconnected words” but “for us, it just seemed to flow naturally.”

As Mr. Eastman, who has since sold his share of the property to Mr. Laird, described in an 1988 interview: ”We were sitting around the living room. We’d watched a number of bad TV shows — ‘T. J. Hooker,’ ‘The A-Team’ and ‘Love Connection.’ We got real punchy, and for some reason I did a sketch of a turtle with a mask. Pete did one, and another. Then I said, ‘Wait! Wait!’ and drew four turtles, each with a different weapon. I said, ‘Why not call them Ninja Turtles?’ Pete said: ‘Why not Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?’”

Their ambitions were fairly limited at the time. “We were looking to do comic books successfully enough that we did not have to work at Pizza Hut,” Mr. Laird said. The two had formed a company called Mirage Studios. “The name referred to the fact we didn’t really have a studio,” Mr. Laird said. They were working out of their living room.

Their original comic was a self-published black and white volume that quickly sold out across the country, spurred in part by a United Press International story. An agent heard about the turtles and approached them about licensing the turtles for toys and then sold the idea to Playmates Toys, a large doll manufacturing company, which was looking to get into boys’ action figures. “They had this great line: ‘Fresh from the sewers,’” Mr. Laird said.

The toys really took off after Playmate created a cartoon series to promote the series — a common technique to market toys. Group W Broadcasting commissioned a five-part animated Turtles mini-series, because that as much as the budget allowed. The five episodes were a success in syndication and Group W went on to sign a 65-episode run of new Turtles cartoons, which became a hit.

“It touched a nerve and took off like a shot,” Mr. Laird said. “It’s bit on this wild ride we’ve been on for the last 25 years — nothing I ever anticipated.”

The turtles went on to generate two separate cartoon series runs (the second which is ending this season), three live-action movies, best-selling toys, and video games. Mr. Baird and Mr. Eastman only penned 30 comics themselves, before passing it to other artist in their studios.

This week, the turtles are celebrating their 25th anniversary in New York City with a public “galabunga” (a play on the turtles’ “cowabunga” cry). The Empire State Building is being lit up green Thursday, and this Thursday, the Tribeca Film Festival is featuring the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, which despite mixed reviews went on to be the highest grossing independent film up until then.

That film was also inspired by New York City infrastructure. In order to design the underground sets for the first film, the film staff tried to gain access to a city sewer, but failed. Instead they were given access to a long-abandoned, Brooklyn subway system - originally built for steam trains - whose structural principle was the same as the sewer system. In addition, they were able to explore a water tunnel which had huge water pipes that were used to pump water into the Central Park Reservoir.

After New York, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are going on a national tour. Details are on the official Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Web site (which has got to be one of the garish official Web sites out there. Yes there is a turtle theme, but still: yellow text on green background?). The company has set up a separate 25th anniversary site.

* Philadelphia (April 30-May 2)
* Detroit (May 4-6)
* Chicago (May 21-25)
* St. Louis (June 4-6)
* Dallas (June 11-13)
* Denver (June 18-20)
* Phoenix (June 25-27)
* Las Vegas (July 9-11)
* Los Angeles (July 16-18)
* San Diego (July 22-25)

Looking back, the cartoons actually had a very different timbre than the original books, Mr. Laird said. The original books were adventure stories with humor. The first cartoons had reverse balance.

But the spiritual home of the turtles is still in New York City. “The setting them in New York City part was a no-brainer,” Mr. Laird said. The superheroes they read growing up lived in New York (or a facsimile of it).

Neither of them had really spent that much time in New York at that point. Mr. Laird had visited only a few times, including once as a child. “The New York that you see in our comics is really an imaginary New York — it’s a perceived New York,” he said. “The turtles were created in a small town in New Hampshire.”

New York City played another indirect role in the creation of the ninja turtles. When he was in college in the mid-1970s, Mr. Laird decided he wanted to be a comic book artist. “I packed up a portfolio and went on a bus and located the Marvel Comics office,” he said. He walked into the Marvel offices and asked to show his portfolio to someone.

“I didn’t realize I had to make an appointment,” Mr. Laird said. “I was completely naïve.”

He was politely turned away. “I was very dejected.”

He had three hours to kill before his bus left. He wandered to Times Square, which was much more seedy back then, and he found a theater playing two martial arts movies.

“I remember, ‘Chinese Hercules’ and ‘The Way of the Dragon,’” he said.

“Chinese Hercules” was mediocre, he remembered. “But, he added, Bruce Lee just blew me away.” The actor’s athleticism and charisma just jumped off the screen.

“I became a huge Bruce Lee fan after that,” he said. “It probably had a lot to do with inspiring the turtles.”

[GeneChing]

I think Fusco will do an excellent job. He's a great fan of the martial arts genre and should be able to pen something fitting of the heroes in a half shell.

Check out my interview with John in Behind the Scenes of FORBIDDEN KINGDOM

'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Movie Taps 'Young Guns' & 'The Forbidden Kingdom' Writer
Posted 28 minutes ago by Rick Marshall in Mirage, News

Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesThe upcoming "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie finally has a writer -- and it looks like the Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman characters will have no shortage of fight scenes in their next big-screen bow.

According to Variety, "Young Guns" and "The Forbidden Kingdom" scribe John Fusco will pen the screenplay for the new, live-action film based we first brought you news about last year. The article claims that, along with penning several fight-friendly films, Fusco has been "practicing martial arts since he was 12, and continues to study Shaolin kung-fu."

And along with bringing his martial arts savvy to the mix, it appears that Fusco will also be returning to the characters' comic book roots for the film, too.

Variety reports that the new writer will include elements of the comics in the project, which is planned as a complete origin-focused reboot to the property. This confirms much of our previous information from "Turtles" co-creator Laird, who told MTV News that the film was envisioned as "a 'Batman Begins'-style 'reboot,' which would, of necessity, include a retelling of the Turtles' origin story."

"It is always exciting when you can come aboard a project that bridges the worlds of what you do with what you love," said Fusco of the deal.

The "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movie is currently scheduled for a 2011 release.

[SevenStar]

PQ: Thanks, I'm crying in my beer now....


I was lucky to get in at the very beginning, had all the comics, every one...they were awesome.

had the rpg...kinda sucked as an rpg.

the live action movies sucked.

alas, I moved to another town in 89 and ended up parting ways with all my comics to make the truck payment.



but, hey, if this is going to be the year of the ninja...I may have to finally come in...

I played the rpg too. the first movie was great. it was the following two that sucked. the kiddie cartoon sucked, except for episodes with usagi yojimbo. the newer cartoon is more dark, but not like the original comic.

I was very impressed by the new release. I wanted to see more of casey jones fighting tho. it looks like there may be another installment too.

[Oso]

maybe it will come back around to it's roots eventually like Batman.

[doug maverick]

was going to give this its own thread but figured gene would kill me for making him have to do extra work on top of his what i am sure is a crazy schedule...so i added this here, not only did they get the fighting down but the characters... michael bay eat your heart out.

[@PLUGO]

[GeneChing]

Pizza Hut Re-Teams with 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' (Video)
11:17 AM PDT 7/7/2014 by Graeme McMillan

Food chain announces new cross-promotional efforts with the Michael Bay-produced revival, including social media, augmented reality and "hidden menu" components.

It’s not just the Turtles themselves that are making a comeback as part of Jonathan Liebesman’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles big-screen reboot; a moment of 1990s cross-promotional genius is being revived as well with the Turtles re-teaming with Pizza Hut for a new ad campaign.

The new deal, which launches Monday, will see the return of the chain’s Cheesy Bites Pizza, social media contests themed around the Heroes in a Half Shell and a television advertisement featuring the new movie incarnations of the characters.

“There’s no denying the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ love of pizza, which is one of the many reasons it fits having our brand fuel their hunger in the upcoming film,” said Pizza Hut’s Chief Marketing Officer, Carrie Walsh in a statement. “Coupling the popularity of the Ninja Turtles to our pizza innovation, we’re thrilled to be bringing back a fan favorite in Cheesy Bites Pizza that combines the great pizza taste with a little ‘food fun’ for fans to enjoy.”

A large part of the new cross-promotion will be digital, including an online-only “hidden menu” featuring the “favorite pizzas” of each of the Turtles, as well as special videos and exclusive footage from the movie only available via augmented reality links on the pizza packaging. Pizza Hut will also be launching a #TBTMNT (Throwback Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) promotion on Twitter and Instagram, where fans can post pictures of themselves with classic TMNT merchandise to win gift cards and other prizes.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be released in theaters August 8.

Here's the vid AD - THR embedded it in the article above. I got this from Pizza Hut's YouTube channel