would any story arc from this series make a good film?
 

Hey, looking back on this series, are there any episodes/story arcs that are unique to this series (NOT MIRAGE ADAPTATIONS), that would make a good TMNT movie? Like, I think 'same as it never was' could be loosely adapted into a film, or the battle nexus could be a good movie? What about the ninja tribunal arc, or one of the Agent bishop storylines? Any other story arcs I missed?

Definitely the Agent Bishop plot.

Since there's like a billion movies about tournaments, the Battle Nexus arc would fit the mold. Think Enter the Dragon, only with aliens and mutants.

I've long said a Battle Nexus film would be great. Especially if you bookend it with GOTG-styled space romping, which you could pull from this series too, I suppose.

& yes, Bishop's a great character whose existence serves to create an abundance of intense high-stakes stuff with a lot of potential for drama/action, & that G-Man angle adds a dimension of "reality" to their enemy force that could keep things somewhat grounded. Him/the US government/army VS. the TMNT & Leatherhead/Utroms could be a dope ass flick.

I really like the Ninja Tribunal season but I wouldn't want a film of it.

You could make a really cool Netflix series about Casey Jones using his 4kids origin (which was later adapted to become his Mirage one, Pete liked it so much). Ya know, his pops being terrorized by the local thugs (Purple Dragons), his shop being burned down, Hun's iron fist over the community, Casey's rise towards vigilante-hood. Throw in the Raphael meets Casey story at its end for good measure.

John Bishop

Triceratons attacking Earth

Come to think of it, if the Battle Nexus plot somehow proves to be too thin, you could combine it with Uncle Augie's puzzle box. Say Drako is connected to hungry lizard people somehow, then you got yourself more motivation for him.

I'd say Casey's backstory with Hun and the Purple Dragons burning down his family's auto shop and the implied murder of his father would make a good feature in a TMNT movie and be the basis for why he's a vigilante.

You could have it like Tristan incorporated it in Mirage's Tales of the TMNT with Hun being released from Jail and re-establishing his leadership of the Dragons in City At War-esque situation and end in a dramatic showdown between Casey and Hun much like Dragon's Rising while the turtles battle the Foot and the other main villain.

Beyond that for my money Bishop if the only other villain who could creatively carry a movie. Have him and his black ops hunt down the turtles and/or Splinter for the mutagen in their blood. Heck it would have made more sense for him to be the villain in the 2014 movie given the story and the miltary aesthetic hard on they had if only Paramount and Platinum Dunes had done anything but skim through TMNT material.

And the Triceratons (but I know they've been around since early-Mirage).

I saw Bloodsport again a while back, and I instantly thought it would be interesting to see a Battle Nexus tournament style film with the TMNT.

I want to see Triceratons on the big screen so, so very badly.

We've seen Krang. Triceraton time now!

How about a film with Ch'rell as the main villain?

It would start off by us being shown the origins of Ch'rell before he crashes the Utrom ship in Japan.

Due to time constraints, certain characters like Hun and Karai would not appear and the plot encompassing the first fight with Utrom Shredder at the water tower, Secret Origins and Exodus would be compressed into one coherent story.

Wouldn't that ruin everything if the film begins with Chrell and we se him becoming Oroku Saki before the Ninja Turtles encounter him?

We don't have to see Ch'rell actually becoming the Shredder in the opening, we could just see the beginning of his story up until the crash onto earth (or even just Ch'rell's capture) and then cut to present day, saving the rest to be revealed in Secret Origins.

Why not just let the Ninja Turtles encounter the Foot Clan (with time for Karai), fight them and at the end it's revealed by the Utroms at TCRI? (with flashback scenes when Chrell's spacecraft crashes onto Earth)

I feel that establishing Ch'rell from the beginning would be better for a film format but I'm ok with taking the route of the tv series as well.

April O'Neil
 

How do you want April O'Neil to enter such a story?

How about a story that takes the first few episodes of the Mirage and introduce the Shredder. So maybe amalgamation of the Episodes: Things Change, A Better Mouse Trap, Attack of the Mousers, and Meet Casey Jones.

Extra points if Stockman is played by Samuel L. Jackson.

Start with the Turtles hanging and training in the lair. This gives us some time to be introduced to them first. Maybe add in that the Turtles are interested in seeing the city outside. Leo is a little more objectionable to this and reminds his brothers the world outside their dwelling is dangerous. Splinter also agrees to this and says that the world outside is only going to fear and hate them because of what they are.

Stockman and his assistant April O’Neil are demonstrating his new invention the MOUSERS. They are one is first shown in a maze and April opens a cage with several rats into the maze. The rats are then systematically killed by the MOUSER Robot. Then a group of them, 10 or so are then launched into the sewers and told they would hunt down any rodent in the city large or small.

The MOUSERS are hunting rats in the city sewers when their sensors pick up the a big rodent and rush of to catch it. They chew their way into the Turtles lair and promptly start to attack Splinter. The Turtles jump into action to defend their Sensei. Unfortunately the MOUSERs have made the walls of the lair unstable causing it to collapse. Instead of just being separated from their Sensei, the Turtles are also seperated from each other. This could be done in various ways. But lets make this easy and say Raph is cut off completely from his family. The same is true for Mikey. Maybe one of the Turtles either Leo or Donnie is nearly crushed by the rubble. They all yell to one another and agree to meet at a safe point.

Majority of the MOUSERS were destroyed so April goes to inform Stockman that several out the MOUSERS sent out are now offline for an unexplained reason. She over hears him telling the Purple Dragons that Phase 2 for the MOUSERS should be underway soon. Hun who is also in the Room tells him their benefactor will be pleased. April returns to her desk, Stockman comes out and notices also that several MOUSERS have been destroyed. He demands to know why April didn’t inform him of this immediately. She covers and says that she tells him she heard him talking to someone so she didn’t want to interrupt. Stockman becomes suspicious and tells her to take the rest of the night off.

Then things progress from there. Leo and Donnie are traveling through the sewers, they hear someone yelling for help. Donnie wants to go see what the problem is, Leo tells him the person is a human he would see them as monsters. Donnie retorts that doing nothing also went against Splinter’s teachings. This is how the Professor is introduced to the Turtles.

Mikey wonders through the sewers when he hears a scuffle over head and sees the Purple Dragon’s attacking April. He comes out of the Sewers to fight them off. April screams in fright and then faints at the sight of her savior being a giant turtle.

Raph finds his path blocked and he also wants to find the guys responsible for sending those Robot to their home. He has a piece of one of the Robots that has the logo for the company and goes outside the sewer to discover where it is. He climbs to a roof top and to get a good vantage point. Suddenly he senses he’s about to be attacked. He turns in time to avoid being hit by a hockey stick wielded by a masked man. Raph and the Masked man tussle until with the man calling Raph criminal scum. Raph knocks the guys mask off and tells them to leave the vigilantlyism to the comic books. The man swears revenge.

The Turtles manage to reunite. April is still weirded out by the fact there are giant talking Turtles in the city and even more weirded out by the fact there are four of them. The Turtles try calling Splinter but get no signal which gets them very concerned. They explain to April that their home was destroyed by a group of robots. April realizes they mean the mousers and explains that she helped create them. This of course sets Raph off and Leo is none to happy about it either, but is more open to letting her explain.

In the mean time the remaining mousers are picked up by Hun. He finds a seriously wounded Splinter with them. He reports his find to “The Boss”

The Turtles enter stockman’s buisness with April’s help. There they destroy the MOUSERS and defeat Stockman. Stockman makes it out he is collected by Hun and brought to “The Boss” which turns out to be Shredder. Stockman sees Splinter is a prisoner of the Shredder and mentions there are four giant Turtles in the city as well. Splinter just says “My Sons...” in responce. The Shredder demands these Turtles be apprehended as well. He then says in the mean time Stockman will suffer for his failure.

Nicely written, Victory Angel. I'm not sure how I'd feel about a theatrical film ending on a cliffhanger but I'm still all for a story like that. Perhaps as an extended tv special of sorts?

I'm not fully sure, but I thought it may be a good idea to start out by showing the turtles and April/Casey as friends, with their origin being briefly touched upon in a series of flashbacks like "Reflections" from the show.

It would have to be a sequel to whatever reboot they do, but I always liked the "Exodus" storyline.