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Jester Talks: Turtles Forever on DVD

I’m not sure what to think of the DVD release of Turtles Forever. As tOkKa mentioned in his post on said DVD release…the “uncut” version was on the internet for a while, and what do we get for a DVD? A bare bones, TV cut of the movie with not one “special feature” or even decent looking menus. I probably could have made an equally good looking DVD…I’m just saying.

That said, it’s nice to see Viacom and Nickelodeon finally doing something with the franchise they bought from Peter so long ago. (When was it again? Wow…really…October 2009…that’s almost a year ago. Man) And to be fair the DVD transfer looks great. I even took the time while I was watching it to check out the pictures of the TMNT Multiverse. It was quite a nice little representation of  Turtles stuff from all over, Mirage, Archie, the movies, even the cube craft (didn’t know that was it’s own universe…but ok.) But as I come back to it, and having watched an episode of the 90′s series to do my guide, it just didn’t work for me. Let me tell you why.

The Original Series was lighthearted, sure. It was goofy, sure. It never took itself too seriously, sure, but I don’t remember the Turtles ever facing off against giant slices of pizza (and, yes I know there was an episode called The Case of the Killer Pizzas, but it’s not, as April says, the pizza, but “the creature that came with the pizza.”)

In Turtles Forever the 88 Turtles as they are called are useless, incompetent boobs. And yes maybe compared to the 2003 Turtles, they are, but that may just be it. This movie follows the 2k3 Turtles, they are the stars, the heroes. They are written correctly, because this is their show. But, to many the Old Toon Turtles are what brought us to the franchise. And the writing for them didn’t come off as an homage, it came off as a joke. “These Turtles are squishy and round and only crack jokes and eat pizza.” True that seems true of the OT Turtles, but there’s more there. Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but the OT Turtles despite all of that were competent. Here though they are painted as goofs who can’t step up when the situation calls for it…well maybe at the end, but by then they have been played for jokes for too long.

I know what you’re thinking, “Jester, this movie is over a year old. It’s not Viacom’s fault that it paint the OT Turtles with too broad a brush and makes them caricatures of themselves.” and you’re right. But now I have this on DVD. When it was a TV one off, I could forget about it, look at it warmly. Now I own it…I could watch it very day if I was so inclined…and it’s not as good as I remembered. Mainly because the only thing that works with the old Turtles is Raph’s 4th wall breaking…and it’s not even Rob Paulsen.

NICK NOTES n’ ‘Turtles Foverever’ DVD out –

–>> .. NICK news bits thanks & via Toon Zone & ラビット帽子. ::

** With the complete director’s-cut of “Turtles forever” having been available on the 4kids site having been available for almost a year now, a bare-boned cut of the film having been hobbled n’ cut down out of the edited 73 min. T.V. version, all this DVD stuff is tough to swallow and justify.

However, it prolly is best to try to keep as positive an outlook on this as possible. Viacom does have to start somewhere..
*** perhaps T.Z.’s Michael Lachman’s review of Paramount’s first TMNT release will help give some perspective.

Street Date: August 24, 2010
Catalogue: 896034
DVD SRP: $16.99
DVD Running Time: 73 Minutes

Style guide art-arrific .. ****Amazon has the price of the disc clocking in at $12.49 from a list price of 16.99 for the disc.
Prices at stores will prolly be even lower than either of those.

**Contact Paramount Home Entertainment to chime in on the situation, POLITELY letting them know your honest feelings about this release.**

Some “Nick” releases are known for their odd cuts and edits, this could be one of those situations and by no means that a future; special-edition of T.F. could not be warranted.
But letting them know how you feel is the best way to keep letting them know that the fan-base is out there and that we really do care about quality regarding our favourite TMNT incarnations !! But again, be nice about it !!

o yeh.. ::

NICK and MORE:: Nick at Nite will air the Back to the Future film trilogy three nights in a row starting Monday, August 23 at 8PM ET/PT.

Nickelodeon will also premiere the movie Turtles Forever on Sunday, August 29 at 1PM ET/PT, marking the first airing of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the network. As you may know, Nickelodeon bought the franchise rights last October (including the 2003 4Kids series).

~ t

Sideshow Michelangelo Shipping!

Hey gang!

Just wanted to let you know that the Sideshow Michelangelo’s are shipping. I just got mine in today (my place is about a half hour drive away from the warehouse, so expect yours soon). Click the pic for more pictures!

Art Marcum and Matt Holloway (IRON MAN) on board for TMNT reboot..

–>> Hmm ,,

Spinoff ::

Paramount Pictures has hired Iron Man writers Art Marcum and Matt Holloway to reimagine a live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with an eye toward creating the studio’s “next huge franchise, like Transformers,” Deadline reports.

Paramount parent company Viacom bought the rights to TMNT in October from The Mirage Group for a reported $60 million with immediate plans to develop a feature film from Paramount and a CG-animated TV series from Nickelodeon, both in 2012. According to Deadline, the studio is fast-tracking production to meet that target date.

Platinum Dunes, the company run by Michael Bay, Andrew Form and Brad Fuller, is producing the film along with Scott Mednick, Galen Walker and Marina Norman.

Created Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles debuted in 1984 as a parody of Cerebus, Daredevil, New Mutants and Ronin. However, thanks largely to the efforts of licensing agent Mark Freedman, the property soon spawned animated TV series, movies, video games and endless merchandise. In March 2008, Laird completed a buyout of Eastman’s interests in TMNT and Mirage Studios that began in 2000. More than a year later Laird announced the sale of the property to Viacom.

“KRANG – Remix” – print signed by Alex “Toon” Deligiannis (( 2010 ))

.. signed by Fairly Odd Parents’ BIG TOON ‘ D ‘ – - comic powerhouse n’ and now up & coming TMNT animation legend !! !!

Such an honour & inspiration as usual, Alex !! !! !!

~ t

SH!T I ♥ :: BFF; 8″x10 edition size # 02 of 100 by BERNARD GÜMZ (( 2010 ))

☠ ☠

“The technodrome can get lonely…good thing these two have eachother!”

** BERNARD GÜMZ of SCABFARM

BERNARD’s RAT FINK-ish Steroid style OOZE’s f Mutagen, boogers, and puss. Part of the Scabfarm collective COMIX SNOB, & Merch designer, for famous-shmamous muzik acts like System of a Down, My Chemical Romance, Mindless Self Indulgence, and MC Chris .. the dude’s a wonderous freek and a mutant of a whole other breed n’ biological hazard.

This particular pukey-putrid, n’ pretty beautiful print had a run of only 100. SCABFARM stuff is pretty hawt so hell if i know if any are left for you brave Dimesnion-X connoisseurs.

**You will have to inquire with the SCABFARMERS directly to see if any are left !!

~ t

Tokka n’ Dave Garcia swap ‘General Kumo’ art !!

TMNT Treasures: Barbaric Fantasy and Ten Penny Funnies

Every day, people ask me, “Stephan. Why don’t you show us some Peter Laird work that hasn’t been seen in over 30 years?!”

Ok…That is a lie. However, if you asked me that today, I would oblige you!

It is no secret that I have an undying passion for the work of Turtle artists created before they worked on the Turtles. I find tracking their careers backwards through time both fun and rewarding. Over the years I have been lucky enough to acquire many early works from artists like Kevin Eastman, Ken Mitchroney, Mike Dooney, and Rick Veitch. However; my collection has been sorely lacking in the work of Peter Laird. But no longer!

It is my honor to present to this community, Issues 1-8 of Ten Penny Funnies and Issue 1 (of 1) of Barbaric Fantasy. As I said previously, this is really the first time in 30 years that these books have been publicly shown. Peter himself has posted small bits of cover art, and spoken breifly about them via his blog, but nothing of substance has surfaced until now (go ahead and google Ten Penny Funnies and see what you find!).

Now for a breif history lesson. While Barbaric Fantasy #1 is not dated, Peter once spoke about it on his blog saying:

“Back in college, I did my first self-published black and white comic book titled “Barbaric Fantasy”. I was heavily into the “Conan” comics being published by Marvel at the time, and this was an unabashed “homage” to them. I had it printed and side-stapled (500 copies, if memory serves) at the campus print shop for not much money, and tried to sell them at a table set up in the Campus Center. I think I may have sold fifty in all over several days.”

He goes on to say in the comments that:

“It was while I was at UMass, between 1972 and 1976.”

With that information we can conclude that Barbaric Fantasy is the earliest self published Peter Laird Work in existence. Unfortunately, as the book is side stapled, I was not able to scan the book without damaging it, so I scanned the cover and took photos of the rest.

As for Ten Penny Funnies, here is what Peter has said about them on his blog:

“Back in the late 1970′s, while I still had my tiny used book and comic store in Northampton, I tried my hand at self-publishing minicomics. There was a copy shop right across the street, so it was convenient to bop over there and get the 8.5 by 11 inch copies made. They had a cutter which could slice big piles of these copies in half, so it made it easier for me to put together the 5.5 by 4.25 inch comics. I think I did about five issues of “Tenpenny Funnies” which — coincidentally — I sold for ten cents apiece. (I’m not going to say I sold very many of them — in fact, I probably never recouped the printing costs.) It was a lot of fun.”

Well, we are lovingly able to correct Pete about part of his story. While he states there were 5 issues, we now know there were atleast 8 issues made. Publication dates for these are kind of interesting. While the first 5 issues were published in May-September of 77, 6 and 7 didn’t release till Jan-Feb of the folliwng year, and then 8 released in September of the same year. As the issues progress, Pete allowed guest artists (including Laird family members)and ad space for local shops. My favorite is an ad in issue 4 which simply says “Vote Jon Roache for Mayor – Sept 20!”

So how did these impossibly scarce books fall into the GoGreenMachine collection? Well, I was actually approached a few weeks ago by a man named John (now 48) that frequented the Little Used Book Shop as a kid. He had googled the books, and happened upon my name in the comments section of Pete’s blog (crazy luck, huh?). As his story goes, he and his brother would go into the store to buy Science Fiction novels. On a lark, John purchased the books as well. When Pete “made it”, John put them away for safe keeping, until passing them to me today.

So, once again, it is my extreme honor to share these books with the community for the first time in over 30 years. Click the cover below to read each one!