TMNT!

[PeeDee]

I just found out, much to my jubilation, that they're making a CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. I had not known this. The new cartoon is not...bad...but it's not particularly brilliant. In my irritation, I went back and watched the old cartoon, and found that it was not particularly brilliant either.

There's a trailer for the movie here. (http://tmnt.warnerbros.com/)

This is a pleasant surprised for early next year. I'm extremely happy now. :D I hope it doesn't suck.

[K-Mark]

Way better than the Vanilla Ice Movie.

[ChaosTitan]

The original film was brilliant, because it took itself seriously. The sequels were just plain camp ("Ninja Rap" is one of those hellish songs that gets stuck in your head and doesn't go away).

The trailer is impressive. I'm crossing my fingers.

[PeeDee]

The original comic book turned into one of the best-written comic books ever. I think that was the last time I had any respect for Todd MacFarlane, when he did his brief run on the series (not to spoil a fifteen year old comic for anyone, but when the storyline involves Shredder gouging out one of Raphael's eyes on his spikes, and you're sitting there with tears in your eyes, you know the writing is strong).

The original movie was good.

I have a lot of hope for this one. I grew up on Turtles. I adore the Turtles. If they mess this up, they will have an angrier me than when they've messed up many other childhood super-heroes of mine.

[ChaosTitan]

The original comic book turned into one of the best-written comic books ever. I think that was the last time I had any respect for Todd MacFarlane, when he did his brief run on the series (not to spoil a fifteen year old comic for anyone, but when the storyline involves Shredder gouging out one of Raphael's eyes on his spikes, and you're sitting there with tears in your eyes, you know the writing is strong).


Dude. Now I need to find those comics. Raph's my favorite (from the movies and the first cartoon). I wonder what's available on eBay....

[moth]

Ah, TMNT. Such memories! *sighs* I too grew up on them, the animated cartoons. I never read the comics -- sounds like I missed out big time! Leo was always my favorite.

I totally concur about the new cartoon, it's all right but it just has no sparkle. And...I haven't re-watched the old cartoons for fear of the exact thing you mentioned, PeeDee -- that they won't be as stellar as I remember them. That particular phenomenon has happened already with too many other things, and I'd like the Turtle toons to stay as I recall them, if possible...

I am interested to see the CGI movie when it comes out though, thanks for the heads-up on it. :Thumbs:

"Ninja Rap"...man, I actually had that whole thing memorized. :rolleyes:

[PeeDee]

I the thing that happened when I sat down to watch the original cartoon was, the first thing I said was "Oh my god, this is manga! I never realized it was manga!" (because when I was younger, I didn't know what that was.)

And the writing was....oy.

Start here (http://cgi.ebay.com/TEENAGE-MUTANT-NINJA-TURTLES-1-MIRAGE_W0QQitemZ110009477737QQihZ001QQcategoryZ77Q QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting). Then work your way through. It's a very well written and under appreciated read.

[writeperch]

I kept hearing rumors about this movie and about the turtles being CGI. I didn't know it was this far along ... and I had assumed that it would be live-action, except for the turtles being CGI. Looks cool.

At one point, John Woo was attached to direct. That might have been interesting. But they ended up with Kevin Munroe (never heard of him and IMDB has him with just a few directing credits. However, writing credits go to Munroe, but also Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird (the comic book co-creators of TMNT)).

[moth]

Manga?! :Jaw: What? Really? ... Now that I think about it I guess I can see that (and like you I didn't know what manga was before), but...hoo.

Thx for the link, I might go read those. :Thumbs:

[PeeDee]

It was honest-to-God manga. The dialogue was terrible. I was really crushed. I haven't watched an episode since that fateful show... :)

It was like going back and watching The Tick cartoon, which was funny when I was younger...and suddenly realizing that The Tick and Arthur are brazenly, flamingly gay. Except they weren't realistically gay, I think they were meant to be jokingly-gay, the result of which was that the whole cartoon bugged me. It was like the SNL cartoon The Ambiguously Gay Duo, you know? I haven't watched that again either.

[moth]

Oh the Tick! I loved that one. Short-lived, but hilarious...again, hilarious when I was younger. :rolleyes:

One that's actually kept its hilarity is The Family Dog. Not the godawful blink-and-you-missed-it series they made it into, but the original half-hour ep of Amazing Stories. Brad Bird wrote The Family Dog, the same Brad Bird who wrote The Incredibles and works on the Simpsons. There's actually a little prototypical Bart doll in a Christmas stocking in that original cartoon, a little touch I didn't discover until about last year or so. That's part of why that one stays good -- the you-notice-cool-stuff-you-never-saw-before phenomenon.

[PeeDee]

No way! I knew Brad Bird did The Incredibles, but I had no idea he did the Family Dog! Cool!

[PeeDee]

That's part of why that one stays good -- the you-notice-cool-stuff-you-never-saw-before phenomenon.

Except when it makes things go sour, like with TMNT and The Tick... :)

Although I have gone back recently and started watching the wonderful wubbulous Batman cartoon again. The original one, not Batman Beyond, not The Batman, not the latter-day episodes when it got Robin and Batgirl in it too (and got too weird) but the early brooding stuff wiht the gorgeous animation and drawing.

I'm always impressed when the writing holds up, like it did there. It makes me very happy.

[moth]

The thing I always liked about Batman was that he was the only 'superhero' without superpowers. At least that I knew of. Just a guy who wanted to make a positive difference (and had the damn-near limitless resources to do it..;) ). That's prolly partly where the strength in the writing got its foothold -- stricter rules for exploring the same sprawling themes.

That's part of why that one stays good -- the you-notice-cool-stuff-you-never-saw-before phenomenon.
Except when it makes things go sour, like with TMNT and The Tick... :)
Hehe. Tell me about it. :rolleyes:

[PeeDee]

The thing that frustrated me about Batman (and which they made very clear in the new Batman movie) was that, despite all the realism in the world, it all falls apart when it comes to building his equipment and having him actually fight the bad guys. The realism fades. Some comics (Batman: 100 years; The Dark Knight Returns) handle it with a fair amount of grace (go read 100 Years, it's amazing) but like Batman Begins (which I really did enjoy immensely, make no mistake) it falls apart when you have to get into the business of being the super-hero.