Would 4 Kids-inspired films work?
 

Does anyone think it would work to have a TMNT film series, which instead of being directly Mirage-based, borrows a lot of plot elements from the 4 Kids series, whoch aired between 2003–2009?

I wouldn't really be opposed to it. We still see the influence of 4Kids' show 9 years after it ended, several of it's original characters are in use and there's just something about the writing style that seems to have stuck. Not to mention how lot Mirage Studios concepts seem to have been permanently filtered through it.

To me, it felt like that the 2007 film was inspired by the 4Kids series to a certain extent.

YES YES YES. hahaha I'd love to see some 4Kids storyline get taken to the next level. I.e. Ninja Tribunal? Fast Foward?

Its the cloest mirage adaptation we've got.. thus far. Except for maybe the first live action movie.

Yeah that definitely felt like an amalgamation of the 4Kids and also previous live action movies. It was probably purposefully vague...

I always felt the 2007 movie was like a big 4kids episode.

So ya it’d work fine. Lots of material you could use from the series.

Make shredder human, allow for a slightly darker story line and allows characters to be killed- and YES! This would be the best approach.

I wouldn't be in love with the idea but it'd be a whole lot better than any other movies. Just remove the camp, unnecessary characters, toy pandering and take advantage of a PG-13 rating and I'd be aboard. I wouldn't even mind Saki being an Utrom as long as that's the only concession needed to be made (i.e., no Beebop and Rocksteady and Krang and numbskullery).

I think as a sequel using Bishop as an antagonist would work. Also having Hun as a Shredder henchman and/or Purple Dragon leader. But really not too many other 2003-specific elements that I can think of would work.

Maybe a Ninja Tribunal thing as like movie 5 when they've already exhausted anything worth showing, lol

The characters, except for the turtles, Splinter and April, who can carry such a film are:

Shredder

Purple Dragons

Baxter Stockman (not alone)

Triceratons

John Bishop

Utroms (good guys)

I'd rather see a film at least attempt to do Utrom Shredder "better". There's a way, 4Kids just did badly. It's part of the package of the 4Kids show.

Just avoid making him a Villain Sue...like the plague.
Give him some aspects to one-up on the Utroms - give them some areas of major "Woah guys, that's messed up, you're sure you're in the fight here?"
Let Karai put her foot down on Leonardo's "but your honor!" lectures; he should lose that one against her, if he's going to lose at anything.

Overall, just...tighten the leaks that 4Kids had.

Probably being my favorite incarnation, there's still a few things I'd rather not see. Shredder as an Utrom isn't ideal, but can and has worked before. 2k3 seemed to lean too heavily towards the sci-fi stuff for my tastes at times as well.

I really liked how Saki was a public figure in this series, so that'd be fun to explore in a future movie. I also liked the slow physical abuse of Baxter play out over a trilogy or more.

Overall, yeah, it can definitely work. But considering Nick's distancing from the series I never see it happening.

Yeah I liked how much they had Saki just being SAKI. Like he wasn't Shredder 24/7, he was out doing stuff as a person and even just chilling back at Foot HQ as himself.

(Kind of. I mean obvs he was really Ch'rell, but you know what I mean)

We saw something like this in the first issue of Mirage where he was doing some biz when Raph threw the note through the window. But then he kinda died.

In short, Saki should be the guy who is also Shredder, not just the guy who became Shredder.

Not against it but wouldn't interest me much. I feel the TV series did as much as it could with that iteration.

Especially if he is also a businessman.

Yeah, I'm going to agree on building up Saki/Ch'rell beyond being the Shredder. And while there was a lot of time focused on "Saki", there really wasn't a ton of what he did when he wasn't scheming.

Or any examination of Ch'rell basically mental state of needing to be a little Matryoshka doll of secret identities. That was quite the missed opportunity, I think. Maybe would have helped him be a more rounded character. But nah. "Take over all the things" default. Sure, guy.

By 2020 something, early-2000's nostalgia will kick in, including the 4 Kids series.

It has pretty much been proven that it works since the original 1990 movie took a lot of inspiration from the Mirage comic and added some Fred Wolf in there.

So yeah, another question we could think about is if it would work best as live action movie, a classic 2D animated movie or a CG movie?

This.

Wouldn't sell.

They already tried that in 2007. Sucked.

Do we know that the Turtles Forever movie did badly financially?

I would like to see them tackle a new CG movie. I mean live action can work but I'd rahter see them go full CG. Not doing it in the style of the 2012 cartoon but maybe find a nice balance between Mirage and the IDW comic.

Turtles Forever wasn't a theatrical release as far as I know.