The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Are 25 -- and Returning to the Big Screen
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There are franchises that make me feel young and giddy when I report on them -- such as anything to do with the X-Men or J.R.R. Tolkien. Then there are character franchises that make me acutely aware of how old and bitter I am. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of them. This is the 25th anniversary of the heroes in a half shell, and there's going to be a "Shell-ebration" tomorrow at the Tribeca Film Festival with a screening of the first film. They're also lighting the Empire State Building green in honor of New York's finest reptiles. They're also getting a new movie, as Variety reports that the Ninja Turtles are returning to live action for a new movie that will focus on their sewer-based origin story. It will hit theaters in 2011, with original creator Peter Laird as one of the producers. That's all there is for now, except that it may employ the same CG-face technology as Where the Wild Things Are.
25 years! That's what makes me feel old. The Ninja Turtles were one of my chief childhood obsessions. Every happy memory I have is wrapped up in them, such as my dad acquiescing to my tearful pleas and buying me tickets to their concert, and my grandma asking me what toy I would like most, and hunting down a Donatello for me. But I grew up. To be honest, I kind of forgot about them. To think that they've inspired enough industry and city devotion to light the Empire State Building green makes me rather guilty for forgetting, and for not being that excited about a new movie. Perhaps my nostalgia is just buried very deep in order to protect the fuzzy memory of that Donatello ... or maybe I've become a very bad person.
Do you think there should be another TMNT movie?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
4-23-2009 @ 11:00AM
terrymcbeer said...
Yes there should be another movie provided:
Vanilla Ice is on hand for the festivities.
Keno is back.
Casey Jones is played by Vin Diesel or Jason Statham.
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4-23-2009 @ 11:03AM
Commodorius said...
Absolutely there should be another movie, something in the spirit of the original (screw the live action sequels.) TMNT was okay, but it lacked the darkness as well as the heart that the original had. And by heart I mean Elias Koteas.
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4-23-2009 @ 9:52PM
Wexler said...
I'm going to save the time commenting and just completely agree with Commodorius.
4-23-2009 @ 11:40AM
filmsuki said...
I wish they would make a sequel to the CG version. The confrontation between Leo and Ralph was quite moving, and I thought the story held together rather well. I love the projects Imagi is working on (Astroboy, Gatchaman)...they tend to be more faithful to the source than most live-action studios.
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4-23-2009 @ 12:15PM
Wayne said...
Raph. Not Ralph.
4-23-2009 @ 11:43AM
Philboyd Studge said...
Oh, man, that concert was amazing! I never got to see it live, but I have the VHS and I still watch it; the Coming Out of Our Shells Tour. It's pretty awful, but, as the Shredder would sing, "It hurts so good." I also have the cassette that I bought at Pizza Hut.
Live action is absolutely the way to go. Darkness and heart are good. Oh, and can we get Corey Feldman again?
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4-23-2009 @ 2:23PM
Ryan said...
I'm turning 25 this year. This is all so very surreal.
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4-23-2009 @ 2:57PM
tester said...
I can't believe it has been 25 years.
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4-23-2009 @ 3:30PM
Batzarro said...
My crystal ball sees Wilmer Valderama getting the role of Donatello.
It kille dme that I never owned my own Technodrone.
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4-23-2009 @ 11:51PM
Joe said...
I hope the CG is some thing like Lord of the Rings. I could see the Turtles looking really cool. Plus Master Splinter would look cool too. Then you get to have real life people play April, Casey & Shredder. So you get to see Shredder in his suit and not.
Back on the CG like LOTR think what the Orcs look like and if that was applied to the Turtles I for one think that would be cool and hope that is the way the next TMNT movie will be like.
I wonder if the Triceraton's will play any thing in the movie.
I hope this will be good. I really would love to see what could be done with TMNT if the movie went PG-13.
I could see the movie doing really well if it went for the older rating you get the old fans of the series happy. Plus it will bring in more money because you get the teens who normally would pass on PG movies.
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4-24-2009 @ 9:51AM
djkorova1 said...
I was a huge Ninja Turtles fan when I was a kid. And when I watched TMNT, I really thought it was fantastic. I thought CG was totally the way to go with them. It freed them up to actually move and jump from building to building like they do in the original comics and the old cartoon. Like actual Ninjas.
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