teenage mutant ninja turtles Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Us consumers of pop culture all know that there are secrets and there is ooze and that there are also secrets in the ooze that bring about man-sized, crime-fighting, Foot-stomping, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but that little fact isn't exclusive to us fans born before 1993. Sure there was TMNT, the recent attempt by Warner Brothers to reboot the franchise for the big screen by swapping out bulky men-in-suits for streamlined CGI, but it wasn't the renaissance resurgence many were hoping for. Enter Nickelodeon, the kid-friendly network, who have just purchased intellectual ownership rights to the sewer-loving franchise from combo owners The Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment.

The deal, according to The Hollywood Reporter, went down for some $60 million, and includes plans for a new computer animated TV series as well as a new feature film. The latter will be the result of a team-up between Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures, both owned by Viacom, with an expected release date sometime during 2012 (assuming the world hasn't fallen into the oceans by then).

Read the rest over at SciFi Squad

It's all about combat at the cinema this weekend: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (live action toys vs. bad guys, studio vs. critics, movie vs. our critic), Julie & Julia (legendary female chef vs. chauvinistic men, blogger vs. cookbook), A Perfect Getaway (lovers vs. psychopaths, logic vs. thrills). Personally, I haven't seen any of those yet, but I'm hoping they'll exceed my expectations for entertainment. In the meantime, in the spirit of combat, Topless Robot presents their picks for "The 7 Most Implausible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Vehicles."

Think about the possibilities. What if you could head into battle behind the wheel of a tank that launches pizzas at the enemy? What if you could vanquish the villains by tossing them into the Flushomatic Slime Pit (a self-described "high tech toilet bowl")? Coolest of all: what if you could stealthily, yet gracefully, silently sail over enemy lines, thanks to the Ninja Turtle Blimp?

Sure, G.I. Joe has all the latest, futuristic geegaws and gadgets, and Julie & Julia has its kitchen utensils, and A Perfect Getaway has its kisses and hand weapons, but if I could stride into battle atop a "Thrashin', Bad Boy Bashin' Skateboard" (AKA Cheapskate Motorized Skateboard), I think the fight would be over before it even began. You can check out all seven implausible combat vehicles at Topless Robot. Feel free to let us know: what are your picks for the most implausible combat vehicles -- from real life, movies, cartoons, or toy shelves?

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?

I'm in the camp of people who enjoyed the recent big-screen CGI version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but some fans complained it was too kiddie and cartoony, while others demanded a return of the live-action heroes. Good news is everyone might just to get to have their cake and eat it too, as MTV spoke to TMNT co-creator Peter Laird who claimed they're close to making a deal to create a "hybrid" film -- meaning part CGI and part live action. Remember Alvin and the Chipmunks? Yeah, like that ... except more pizza and more kick ass.

Laird explains, "As it stands now, there is no intention of doing another live-action film like the first three, with actors and stuntmen in actual Turtle suits, contrary to what was said by Kevin. We have pretty much decided that the next "TMNT" movie should be what we've been calling a "hybrid" - that is to say, live-action humans and sets combined with very realistic CGI Turtles (and possibly some other CGI characters)." Check our more over on MTV's Splash Page.

This seems like the best way to go about things, because you have to admit that guys in turtle suits just won't work today like it did back then. A combination of live action and CGI could look cool assuming the right budget is in place, and while old school fans will want a more serious and adult storyline, there's certainly a way to give everyone a traditional TMNT story that's equal parts strong, slick and silly.

What do you think? Ideally, where would you want to see the TMNT franchise go?

I have a very clear memory of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's "arrival" in pop culture. Although I'd never read the original comic by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, it was some time in 1987 that I caught the animated series, and while I thought it was tongue-in-cheek amusing enough, I figured I was just a few years too old to get well and truly "geeked out" by the animated amphibians' adventures. I chuckled when I came across all the TMNT books, videos, toys and video games, but I never really felt a connection to the green guys. (OK, I played the arcade game a whole lot, I admit it.)

And then came the live-action movies (1990, 1991 and 1993), two of which I actually saw theatrically, and a third one that I've managed to avoid for the last thirteen years. (Let's just say I'm not a big fan of the flicks.) So while I'm certainly not a "know-nothing novice" when it comes to the cash cow that are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I definitely wouldn't call myself a huge fan, either. I exist in that "live and let live" gray area, and it's there that I neither love nor dislike the pizza-chompin', skate-boardin', slang-slingin' crime-stoppers ... who are also giant, mutated, kung fu tortoises, of course.

Folks, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are officially back ... and with them come a new look, a new enemy and the best film of the franchise by far! It's taken 27 long years to capture the look and feel of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's original comic book (which they self-published back in 1984 with money from a tax refund) on the big screen. Originally intended to parody other comics (like Marvel's New Mutants), the Ninja Turtles quickly found a massive fanbase; kids searching for something a tad different, a tad more exciting -- something that was a whole lot of fun. Even after three live-action movies, an animated series, toys, lunchboxes and pez dispensers, the Turtles still somehow managed to stick around -- but not without criticism.

Though the original comics established a dark tone and a powerful, multi-layered storyline, some folks couldn't get past the silly concept. If only the Turtles were a bit more family friendly (but still kicked ass), profits would skyrocket. And they did. Thus, a new generation of kids grew up with a lighter version of the Turtles -- the kind that entertain you stuffed amidst other shows during your Saturday morning cartoon line-up. Die hard fans of the original comics grew up, got jobs and occasionally entertained the wild idea of a big-screen Turtles revival. But they knew it was too late; the superhero market was too crowded. Little did they know at the time, but a guy named Kevin Munroe would show up. And this guy ... he would change everything.

We're jumping between a few different sites today, trying to bring you the coolest news to leak out of WonderCon. Over at FirstShowing.net, they sat down with TMNT director Kevin Munroe who alluded to a possible sequel that, unlike the version hitting theaters on March 23, might actually include the infamous villain Shredder. TMNT fanatics are a little skeptical about the new film, as it takes place after the defeat of The Shredder and includes a new crop of monsters. However, old favorites like April O'Neil and Casey Jones are making an appearance ... so all is definitely not lost. (Heck, the late Mako voices Splinter and Patrick Stewart will voice the evil Max Winters -- even Kevin Smith shows up as a greasy chef. Not bad, eh?)

But what about that sequel? Of course, it all depends on how the first movie does -- and, based on the trailers I've seen, the flick certainly looks a lot better than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Turtles in Time. Munroe did say that a sequel is set up at the end of TMNT with a very "not-so-subtle nod" and, in a perfect world, the next film could bring Shredder back. He says, "Yea, it'd nice, it'd be really cool. As a fan I'd love that. Because we now have these sort of better Shredder stories of how to bring Shredder back. But now if it works out well, and Karai coming to New York, that's a setup for a really good volume in The Turtes in the comics as well, it could work out to a really cool sequel."

Perhaps it's a bit premature to be talking Turtles sequel, but I have a really good feeling about this new film. In my opinion, this CGI look is the best yet; much better than the campy live-action versions and a bit edgier than the cartoon. If you ask any Turtles fan, they wouldn't be completely happy unless we were handed a super dark PG-13 Ninja Turtles flick -- but, you know that's never going to happen. So, we might as well suck it up and welcome whatever Turtles-related coolness is heading our way.

To be honest, I can't quite recall if I liked the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie or not. It's been quite a few years since it came out and almost as long since I saw it last. Consequently, I don't have a lot of nostalgic memories of it to taint my opinion of the new version being produced now and scheduled to hit theaters March 30th. That said, I can tell you that these pics from the film, posted the other day over at Comic Book Resources, look pretty cool.

Oh, in the interest of full disclosure, I also am a staff writer at CBR, just so you know. Ok, now we can move on. The pics, according to the article, are supposedly exclusive to CBR (although, I think I've seem them elsewhere) and depict the Turtles in various action scenes and situations including Leonardo squaring off for a fight, the turtles ready for a fight and getting a call for help from their intrepid sidekick April.

The article also mentions some other details about the production including some tidbits dropped by producer Thomas Grey and director Kevin Munroe that the new film will stick closer to the original vision created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book. In addition, they won't be infusing the new film with as much humor as the first films had. Instead, they will adapt a more serious tone for the film in the hopes of broadening it's appeal. Interesting. Enjoy the pics.

Cowabunga, dudes! 'TMNT,' the fourth 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' movie -- and the first one done entirely in CGI -- is less than four months away (it opens on March 23, 2007). Right now we've got not one but three, count 'em, three exclusive photos from the film. And that's right, by "exclusive" we do mean "can't see them anywhere else." Click on the photos for even larger images.

When this film opens, Shredder is dead (yeah, I know he's "died" twice now -- but rest assured, he doesn't show make a miraculous recovery in this one), and the Turtles, lacking a purpose, have gone their separate ways. Michelangelo's been entertaining at children's parties, for crying out loud. Talk about a fall from grace. In this scene, though, they receive an emergency phone call from their old pal April (voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar) that helps get them back on track. Note that Donatello looks pensive and Leonardo's ready for action, but Splinter and Michelangelo can't even be bothered to get up from the table. And what is that, one pizza for each? Looks like some of our heroes may need to start hitting the Stairmaster.

















Want more 'TMNT' photos? Keep reading.

I've never been a big graphic novel guy. Back in junior high, I remember someone turning me on to the TMNT graphic novels, and how much of a fun read they were. These books were very popular at the time -- I hope I still have them stored somewhere -- so dark and mysterious, they were nothing like the animated cartoon or the live-action films from back in the day. When I heard the Turtles were coming back, part of me was hoping they would tap into that darker feel -- something that's not as light, fluffy and comical, but more menacing and spooky.

In the 2007 version, the Turtles have gone all CG (personally, I like them better this way) and, with The Shredder out of the picture, there's a new nemesis on the horizon -- one that unloads an army of ancient monsters on New York City in an attempt to -- what else -- rule the world. MTV has your first look at the brand new trailer (annoying as it may be to view on their ridiculous website), and this one is definitely playing up the laughs. While I'm excited to see some familiar friends battle a whole new set of enemies, I sincerely hope the film doesn't pour on the cheese. There's only so much of Michelangelo's shtick a man can take before you want to literally reach through the screen and slap the dude. Yeah, cowabunga to that! Pic hits theaters (hey, at least we're getting a theatrical out of this sucker) on March 23.