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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

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.

Turtles Forever Update

TvShowsOnDVD.com has given us our first look at the cover art for the upcoming Tv movie and a few details about the release.

The recent telefilm, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Forever, comes to DVD on August 24th from Nickelodeon and distributor Paramount Home Entertainment. This TV movie served as the post-series finale for the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, where the modern Turtles crossed dimensions and met the Turtles from the original ’80s series! Poking gentle (and loving) fun at the differences in the styles of the shows, we also see how these incarnations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles must fight together for survival against their ultimate enemy, with the ultimate plan for eliminating ALL of the Turtles. And we DO mean ALL of them!

Information that these studios have provided to retailers show that the DVD will be a single-disc release, running approximately 70 minutes long, and presented in full screen video. We know fans are curious about widescreen home videos for this production, and even high-def Blu-ray Disc releases. We can only say that the studios are ONLY announcing a full screen DVD here. The cost for this title is $16.99 SRP, but you can pre-order it from Amazon at a discount using the button link below. Audio format for this has not been revealed, nor extras (if any). It is, however, going to be closed captioned.

Mikey’s two cents: While I am happy that this is getting released, I’m not happy that they didn’t use the amazing poster art for the box art and that it is not in widescreen. Also this is the tv edit and not the 78 minute uncut version.

Turtles Forever Coming to DVD August 24th.

According to Best Buy, Turtles Forever is finally coming to DVD August 24th. If you have not done so already, you should go preorder it to show Viacom what a good start they are off to.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Teenage+Mutant+Ninja+Turtles%3A+Turtles+Forever+-+DVD/18667496.p?id=2120665&skuId=18667496&st=Teenage%20Mutant%20Ninja%20Turtles&lp=1&cp=1

Thanks to Michele Ivey for the tip off.

(Rumor) Bay to Head Up TMNT Re-Launch?

I’m labeling this a rumor because it is new news, and I don’t want to get you guys all crazy if this turns out to be nothing. Via The Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon have brought Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes partners Brad Fuller and Andrew Form on to produce Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the live-action film that reboots the film series launched by New Line in 1990. Bay, Fuller and Form will produce with Galen Walker and Scott Mednick.

The producers will begin meetings with writers in the next few weeks. The deal puts Bay in the center of two Paramount franchises, as he started production May 17 on Transformers 3, and is zeroing in on Rosie Huntington-Whitely to replace Megan Fox as love interest for Shia LaBeouf. TNMT, a co-production between Paramount and Nickelodeon, is an outgrowth of the $60 million acquisition made by Nick last October for global rights to the entire Turtles franchise. Right around the same time, Paramount made a first look deal with the Platinum Dunes partners, who will generate genre projects but also want to expand their scope. While they’ve already set up several projects including a Rob Cohen-remake of Fright Night, the Turtles film puts them into new territory.

Thanks to Ioz of thetechnodrome for the tip off!

Random Legal Battle!

Something weird popped up in my tmnt news filter the other day…thought I’d share it! via Courthousenews.com.

LOS ANGELES (CN) – Two writers and the estate of the producer of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” say Singel Films owes them a total of $280,000 for their share of profits from the hit movie.

Todd Langen and Bobby Herbeck were the two credited writers on the film. They are joined as plaintiffs by Anna Cottle and Peter Jacovich, co-executors of the estate of Graham Cottle, producer of the first “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” film.

Defendant Singel, of the Netherlands, is successor in interest to Golden Harvest Films, and in 2004 was assigned all money payable by New Line Pictures, the original domestic distributor of the film, according to the Superior Court complaint. New Line’s rights and obligations have been assumed by its corporate parent, Warner Bros., from whom the plaintiffs demand an accounting and money.

Langen says his contract gave him 2.5 percent of the film’s net profits; he says he rewrote Herbeck’s first draft. He says the defendants have refused to pay him since the early 1990s. He believes he is owed about $200,000.

Jacovich’s estate says it is owed $80,000.

Langen and Herbeck say the Writer’s Guild was awarded $110,000 on their behalf in arbitration. They want that too.

The plaintiffs are represented by Richard Rosen of Woodland Hills.

—————————

Weird huh? Something tells me if nothing has come of this for the last 20 years…nothing probably will.

-Steph

Update on the Mystery Mask!

Just got an e-mail from Kevin Coll, Executive Editor over at Fusedfilm.com, which is one of the sites that got ahold of the alleged new turtle sculpt (Go Check them out!)

I wanted to let you know i just got an email from someone who claims thatthis image belongs to someone that did as a design for his for make-upschool. Here is a quote from the email we got.

“Has NOTHING to do with the next TMNT reboot. It is in fact a student’sclass-project, done at Tom Savini’s make-up school, in South-WesternPennsylvania. If you’d like to contact the actual artist who made thismask, you can contact him here: (edited, sorry, I don’t release e-mails without permission -Steph)

Please! Next time, do some basic fact-checking, before posting “Anonymous”photos claiming it to be something it’s not. It will save you a TON of liability, and embarassment.”

Thanks for sharing Kevin!

So there you have it folks. Looks like a false alarm. Sorry…or…you’re welcome….depending on who you are

The Rumor Mill is A-churnin’ !

I am not one for rumor mongering, so when this started floating its way around the inter-tubes, I was reluctant to post it here. HOwever; after the metric-butt-ton of emails I have recieved on the topic, I have decided to mention it.

About a week ago, rumors started a-flyin’ around the interwebs that this is a photo of a sculpt for the turtles for the next movie. Reception of this “news” have been very mixed. Some people hate the piece as it is such a huge departure from the “classic” turtles. Others love it, assuming that this is a solid sign of an edgier film.

Personally, I think it is unlikely that this is a head sculpt, as it has been noted on MANY occasions that the next movie will feature facial replacement technology (i.e. PotC’s Davy Jones).

I’ll work on trying to get some sort of confirmation from the studios, but until then, take this with a giant grain of salt.

Here are some sources:
http://www.latinoreview.com/news/1st-look-at-new-ninja-turtle-9812
http://www.fusedfilm.com/2010/04/net-crawl-possible-new-look-for-new-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles/
http://www.geekologie.com/2010/04/tmntwtf_the_look_of_the_new_tu.php

20th Anniversary of TMNT 1

Yeah so I’m a couple hours late on this. Sorry!

As many of you already know, yesterday (March 31st) was the 20th anniversary of the first Turtles movie. Peter Laird created a tribute post on his blog to mark the occasion, with some (to my knowledge) never before seem photos (and some you have seen ). Anyway, go check it out!