The green curtain has lifted. And as promised, I am ready to talk about what we’ve all been so secretive about for the last few weeks. However there is a ground rule. While I am happy to talk about the event that transpired today, I cannot and will not discuss any particular elements of what we saw, or how I felt about specific elements of the material that was shown.
Today, Nickelodeon hosted a fan event at their Burbank CA animation studio for a small group (about 20) of fans that they hand selected from various sources. As I want to get this information out as quickly as possible, I will get down to brass tacks about the event. Our schedule went like this:
-We arrived at about 9am, where we were served an ala carte breakfast.
-We were then taken to a large decorated conference room where we introduced ourselves and were introduced to the Nickelodeon Executive Team.
-Next we took a guided tour of the entire studio.
-We then returned to the conference room where we screened an animatic of a pilot episode (essentially storyboards with voiceovers).
-Playmates made a presentation about their new toyline and showed a large cross section of the first wave of figures, vehicles, and playsets.
-After the toy presentation we returned to our seats and observed a live reading of part of a script; meaning the voice actors were in the room with us, reading from scripts. This included the voice talents of Rob Paulsen and Jason Biggs.
-Lunch/Social Hour
-We were broken up into small groups to discuss our feelings and opinions about everything we had seen today (this was the focus group portion of the event)
-We ended the day with a Q&A session with the writing and production team.
Again, while I will not give any particulars about content, I will say that the event was amazing. I have never seen a company go through so much effort to involve their fanbase with a product.
As for how I felt about the content and products, I will say that I was impressed with everything I saw today; and for the first time in a long time I will be buying the toys and watching the show because I am genuinely interested; as opposed to simply feeling obligated to do so.
Our boys are in great hands with Nickelodeon, my brothers and sisters.
I take it that you have some sort of schedule as to when you’ll be able to start releasing specifics?
It really isn’t our place to discuss specifics. You’ll learn more when Nick distributes that information.
Really the only thing I needed to hear was the last sentence. I know how much this franchise means to all of you, so if you have that much faith in Nick I can follow suit and thank you so much for the lovely picture included with the story!
I figured that it would be the place of those who have TMNT news sites to spread TMNT news. That’s why the group at least partially consisted of people who run TMNT sites, right?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m super happy that what has been posted is up, but it’s also a big letdown that Nick didn’t give you any specifics that you’re allowed to release. I think that’s the one big mistake of this whole thing.
That simply wasn’t the purpose of the event.
That’s what I’ve seemed to have picked up on my own over the past several minutes. My mistake for thinking that people from TMNT news sites being invited to an event would lead to TMNT news.
Like I said, it’s the only mistake Nick’s made in this whole process so far. Ever since the first pizza image went online, it’s felt like this was all leading to something amazing for all TMNT fans to get behind soon after.
I’m grateful to everyone sharing what they can and I’ll quickly get over this, but the false finish line really feels like a kick in the gut after the excitement of the past week or so after such a long dead period.
So can you reveal anything about the selection process, stephen? Such as how you were contacted? or what kind of questions they asked you when they interviewed you?
Live table read….with ROB PAULSEN!!!!
*head esplode*
That is so cool you and other fans got the chance to see what the future holds in store for the green machine! 2012 feels like such a long way away. I don’t know if I can wait that long!
It was great to see you at the breakfast event and I was really surprised and happy you guys crashed my recording session for Fanboy and Chum Chum. Sounds like we all treated you right and I hope you liked what you saw. Lord knows I did. Cowabunga!
Very glad to hear that the brand is in good hands. I can always use a new set of turtles to stand on my desk, so hopefully Playmates will be able to improve on their movie figures (which I think were their best effort to date).
I’ve never been a fan of CG animation, especially on TV, but I’m excited to see what is done with the new show, and will set my DVR the second the schedule is announced.
It was so fun getting to meet Stephan, Rose, MikeyQM, and Ken and Rob.. 🙂
–>> Some of what was revealed in the past few days will be made public very. Patience is recommended highly to those unable to attend the event. IT ALL will be revealed in due time, and this stuff really is just around the corner.
~ t