Nickelodeon TMNT Fan Preview Event - Details on Story, Characters, and Designs

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Nickelodeon has clarified the non-disclosure agreement signed to be able to attend their Fan Preview Event held last week, and we can talk about almost everything that we saw! Woohoo! That said, it does need to be specified that everything seen at the event was a Mutation in Progress, and what we saw may not actually be part of the final product when it comes out in a year and a half. So proceed with caution, but here are the basics of the story, characters, and designs that we were told and shown throughout the day. If you have any additional questions that I haven't covered, you can either comment or send me an e-mail and I'll do my best to answer them. I'll have another post later that details the "pilot" animatic that we were shown, and yet another dedicated to the action figures.

Let's start with Splinter. His new design is COMPLETELY different from anything that's been done before. He is quite tall and wears a much more traditional kimono than he's ever worn before. Personally, I like it. And from the little tidbits that we were given, I really think Splinter's story has potential to be one of the strongest things about the new series.

Splinter's origin is based on him being the human Hamato Yoshi in Japan. Human Hamato Yoshi has/had a daughter (not clear on what happened to her). In Japan, he and Oroku Saki/Shredder were rivals and after a battle Shredder believes his nemesis to be dead. But Yoshi fled to New York, where, of course, his life got even more interesting. When Shredder learns that Yoshi is still alive, he comes to New York and brings lots of badness with him. Oh, and he looks completely badass.

One really cool part about the new design for the Turtles' Lair is that Splinter has a room with a "miracle tree." Basically, a small pinhole of light from the surface comes through and in this spot is growing a fantastic tree. Splinter also keeps some kind of scroll that has some sort of representation of his daughter on it.

While Splinter is the Turtles' father figure, their "mother" figure is the empty jar of ooze that transformed them. The jar is labeled TCRI. And just like in the original Eastman & Laird comics, there is a big ominous TCRI building in the city, and no one really knows what goes on inside of it. We saw designs for one (giant) room in the TCRI building, where Shredder has a big long mutation device. Basically, you put a person/whatever in one end, and get a mutant out the other.

The Utroms are now known as the Kraang. I think this is a good compromise considering Krang's legendary status as part of the original cartoon. Their design is much more "scary," for lack of a better way of describing it. They are very "squiggly" with long skinny tenticles and it sounds like they will move very spider-like. That is, when they're not in their skeleton suits. The suits serve a double-purpose. One, is because they can't survive in our atmosphere, and two is that the suits can project a holographic human form. As the series progresses, it sounds like these robotic Kraangs will become part of Shredder's Foot army (and since they're robotic, the Turtles can be more violent on them within the constrains of children's television).

Baxter Stockman is established as a character in the "pilot" animatic we were shown (more on that later). He is African-American, as he is in the original comics and the 4Kids cartoon series. We meet him as a disgruntled employee looking to exact revenge on the company that fired him (for being late, once). More on him when I put together my description of the "pilot" animatic.

April has been completely redesigned as a 16-year-old teenage girl. The Turtles meet her when they rescue her and her parents from being kidnapped by the Kraang (or Shredder? not exactly sure), presumably for their mutation experiments. This is from the actual first episode, which is not the "pilot" we saw, so we really weren't told any more details about how that plays out, but it obviously ends with April becoming a regular visitor to the Turtles down in their Lair. As the series progresses, she will be studying with Splinter to become a kunoichi - female ninja. Oh, and Donatello has a HUGE crush on her. HUGE. It is one part weird, and one part adorable. It sounds like this may be a short-lived crush and not an on-going part of the series, although - like with everything else - I can't say for certain.

And speaking of the Turtles... they are essentially the same TMNT we all know and love. (Yaaaaay!) Personality-wise and build-wise, they seem to be very much modeled on the 2007 TMNT CGI-movie. Michaelangelo is the goofy little brother, Raphael is well-built and gruffy, Donatello is kinda lanky and (of course) nerdy, and Leonardo is somewhere between Raph and Don in size and is actually the official leader. In the script reading we saw, which I believe was from the actual first episode, Splinter officially declared Leonardo to be the leader of the group.

Overall the Turtles' designs looked great. My biggest problem was that somewhere down the line they all grew a third toe. Not the exaggerated heel that has sometimes been referred to as a "third toe," but an actual third toe up front. None of the art we had seen before arriving at Nickelodeon had a third toe. And the walkway up to the studios had been decorated with a bunch of two-toed green footprints. So there were no early signs that something was "a-foot" (hah!) with the toes. When I started noticing it throughout the 2D animatic I thought this was just some weird mistake happening. But then I also noticed it in the 3D model we were shown. And then we were shown the action figures, which had three very distinct toes on each foot. Now it seemed clear that it wasn't a mistake. But really, it's kind of creepy. And considering how spot-on the rest of the designs are, I don't know why they would decide to go mess it up with something like a third toe. Nickelodeon seemed kind of defensive when asked about it, so I don't know what the chances are of them actually changing this. Sadness. :(

And while Casey Jones is not a part of the picture for the moment, expect him to eventually be. While it is not currently planned for him to be part of season 1, he will likely brought in for season 2. Although, Nickelodeon seems open to bringing him into season 1 if, while during the writing process, a particular need for Casey to be around comes up. And while we won't likely be seeing him, prepare to see signs from him, as it is planned to have graffiti tagged by Casey be part of the background. When we do finally see him, he is planned to be a bit older than April, 18-20, and due to the limitations of television CGI will have short hair.

That's what I've put together for now - Like I said, feel free to ask questions and I'll answer them in a future post to clarify anything that I can.