As you most likely know by now, Michael Bay created a bit of Internet outrage last week with some comments he made about the new TMNT movie, scheduled for release Christmas 2013. Here's the entirety of the current controversy:
There are several possible interpretations, but "These Turtles are from an alien race," seems pretty straight forward. Although the Turtles have always been Earth-based, their origin in the original comic books and 4Kids TV series came from an ooze created by the alien Utroms. However, when taken at face value, Bay's comments really do seem to indicate that the Turtles themselves are now going to be aliens. What's a fan to think?
Well, let's keep some things in mind, especially before declaring that Michael Bay is ruining the TMNT. Even though he made this presentation, he is still only a producer on the project. He did not write the script and he is not directing.
Just a short while ago, on his official message boards, Mr. Bay responded to all the outrage:
Fans need to take a breath, and chill. They have not read the script. Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story. Relax, we are including everything that made you become fans in the first place. We are just building a richer world.
MichaelIt's safe to assume that the creator being spoken about is Kevin Eastman. Not only is Peter Laird absolutely not involved in any of the new projects, but Kevin mentioned having seen the script in an interview late last year during the Lost Angeles: 35 Days of Kevin Eastman event at Meltdown Comics in Los Angeles.
I think for the time being we all owe it to the involved persons to keep an open mind and give this thing a chance. Literally all we know about anything at this point is seven words. And the story and appeal of the Turtles is a lot deeper than their origin.
I also come from an alien race.
ReplyDeleteWe're called Canadians.
Sayonara.
I think the biggest cause of this epic freakout is that the casual fans who've only ever seen the 80s toon don't know much about the Utroms/Triceratons whole space/alien element of TMNT which isn't their fault, frankly, because it wasn't a big part of that series. But, for them, this must seem like the first mention of aliens being part of the origins. That's the only reason I can come up with for why everyone freaked the heck out so massively over this.
ReplyDeleteno... the reason why everyone is freaking out is because it completely disregards the title and its fans. Even the 80s fans know that they are mutants, i myself was born in that era. but to Turtles fans everywhere (be it Mirage, 80s, or 2k3), this is a total desecration of their origin. IDW did a fine job with reinventing the origin without totally rebooting it. The fans are right to outrage this. Despite how early it is in production, that statement alone (the fact that they're from an alien race, which implies that there are more turtles out there) is completely disrespectful to the brand. I only hope that Eastman puts a stop to this travesty before it gets the ball rolling.
ReplyDeleteSome people just need to calm down, no matter how passionate a fan they are.
ReplyDeleteIf Peter is letting this go down then he needs to recant all of the foolishness he wrote about the new and incredible idw series. This isnt Marvel or DC were talking about, us TMNT fans only get an opportunity like this every time networks want to recreate a know success for a little bit of cash because its easy. But then again were not gunna make a difference if we dont speak up loud enough. Where also not going to get the turtles the way we want if we dont pool together and do it our damn selves. With that said either we make ourselves heard loud and clear or we just boycott the movie. This comment was inspired by people like IDW and Dawn of the Ninja because they did the same thing we would all love to do which is take our childhood heros and expand on it while still keeping to some sort of guidelines. Look at it this way if the movie sucks we still have 1 & 2 to watch over and over again and the Hard Cover Classic Collection is going to be awesome too. You should put stock into these 2 comic strips, if not then we'll never get the right people to make what we want to see.
ReplyDeleteYou guys got to calm down. By alien I think he either means 1. They are kinda like illegal immigrants. 2. The Utroms or some other kind of alien made the ooze like in the comics. Though we are talking to the people who declared the new ninja turtle show garbage after seeing one picture.
ReplyDeletewhat part of "they are from an alien race" didn't you understand? pretty straight forward dude... nothing more, nothing less.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Michael Bay is involved in the first place scares the crap out of me.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteThis sounds more like a Tales of the TMNT story, if that´s so, then make the movie of the history where the Turtles are a superhero team with superpowers like the Justice League or Xmen.
ReplyDeleteI don't think that the fans need to calm down. We have every right to be concerned. Especially when we consider how poor the writing was for the transformers films.
ReplyDeletePersonally I would like to see the movie pick up from where the last one (TMNT) left off or even the old 90's ones. I think the there are enough origin stories out there about the turtles and they are easy enough to find. But introducing them as "alien" requires a completely new origin story which could take up to a third of the movie. By that I mean introducing every main-ish character, where they came from, and what side they are on. By the time that is over there isn't much time for anything else.
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to freak out over a comment because no one knows what the final product is. So I'm going to wait and see til I see a trailer or read the movie synopsis either here or the movie site.
ReplyDeletelo unico que espero es que no sea como la pelicula de Dragon Ball Evolution no podria afrontar otro fracaso/desilucion como esa :(
ReplyDelete