BATMAN / TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES Crossover Being Adapted as Animated Film

[Leo656]

I'm a little excited. I mean, I'll probably buy it more than likely. But I know 8-year old Me would be about a hundred times more excited. He wouldn't have cared about anything other than the fact that two of his favorite things were colliding. He expected all things to be Reese's Cups, and hadn't figured out that sometimes you just got a pickles-and-mac-and-cheese disaster if the mix ain't right.

Grown-Up me skipped the comic version because frankly, it objectively looked like it was pretty cheesy and lame, not enough to make it terrible, but enough to make multiple 40-minute round trips to the "local" comic shop kind of a bullsh*t hassle, given I knew I wasn't really gonna be in love with it.

This totally doesn't look like it's to my taste either, but at worst it's $20 on something I'll drunkenly chuckle at once or twice and can pick up on the way home from work. I can think of about a dozen better ways they could have teamed these characters up, but this'll have to do.

I'm a little excited. But I'd be a lot more excited if they did it just about any other way than how they did... if that makes any sense.

[sdp]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Uhm... OK. I doubt that's a very typical reason for wanting something.

I don't think I explained well, I mean that even though I don't care for these two franchises meeting each other I think it's cool to get this animated project and even a sequel. It's a breath of fresh air to see another company handle these characters and it could lead to other projects if successful either from WB or Viacom.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Leo656

But I know 8-year old Me would be about a hundred times more excited. He wouldn't have cared about anything other than the fact that two of his favorite things were colliding. He expected all things to be Reese's Cups, and hadn't figured out that sometimes you just got a pickles-and-mac-and-cheese disaster if the mix ain't right.

Grown-Up me skipped the comic version because frankly, it objectively looked like it was pretty cheesy and lame, not enough to make it terrible, but enough to make multiple 40-minute round trips to the "local" comic shop kind of a bullsh*t hassle, given I knew I wasn't really gonna be in love with it.

The same, sort of. 8 year-old me would be freaking out. 37 year old me goes, "Huh. Well I guess it's good that they're doing that" but knows that I will probably hate it if I watched it.

It'd be one thing if it was the actual TMNT -- whether it's the IDW TMNT, Mirage TMNT, or 4Kids or Fred Wolf TMNT -- crossing over with the actual Batman (i.e., Batman as he is presently represented in the comics OR even the straight up BTAS Batman)... but it's not.

It's one made up TMNT universe crossing over with a made up Batman universe. And that seems hard to get too excited about, in my book.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

It's one made up TMNT universe crossing over with a made up Batman universe. And that seems hard to get too excited about, in my book.

That's a fair point and I guess you're right, that it's harder to feel as invested in it if it isn't existing versions that people are already familiar with. I don't tend to give the multiverse thing much thought, so I suppose I'm a little less turned off by that, but I can see where some people are coming from.

[CyberCubed]

If you told anyone just 5 years ago we would have FOUR different official Batman/TMNT crossovers in comics (3 with IDW TMNT/Batman universes, and 1 with Nick 2012 TMNT and B:TAS), and a movie cartoon adaption of it, people would have said it sounded like fanfiction. This along with the Turtles playable in Injustice 2 as DLC was great.

The fact that this is happening at all is mind blowing. Go tell yourself this would happen back in 2010 and you'd laugh it off as someones random fanfic ideas.

[sdp]

It's a mix of crossovers being "cool" now by the mainstream since Avengers and DC clinging to anything for relevance.

[Chet]

Certainly the idea of a crossover is not something that by itself excites me, but when it looks like a lot of fun, and/or the writing is great, then it's exciting to spend time with these characters.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Chet

Certainly the idea of a crossover is not something that by itself excites me, but when it looks like a lot of fun, and/or the writing is great, then it's exciting to spend time with these characters.

I know very little about you, but so far I've determined that we have vastly differing opinions on what "great writing" is.

We good, homie, we good.

[Slade]

I'll get it for the collection, watch it once and that will be it. Tend to do that with all the DC animated films.

My kids on the other hand will probably wear the disk out.

[Chet]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I know very little about you, but so far I've determined that we have vastly differing opinions on what "great writing" is.

We good, homie, we good.

I'm not judging the quality of the writing. How could I? I haven't seen it. But I do think it looks fun, which is one of the two qualifications I laid out.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Chet

I'm not judging the quality of the writing. How could I? I haven't seen it. But I do think it looks fun, which is one of the two qualifications I laid out.

You kind of can. It's based on the first comic book crossover... which was horribly written (conversely, drawn beautifully).

[sdp]

There have been some good movies based off bad comic arcs in the DCU animated line for the past decade.

[Leo656]

Indeed, it'll most likely be Fun, if not terribly well-thought.

The bit about the writing just jumped out at me because, although I haven't read it yet, I've seen very few people have anything truly kind to say about the comic book version, as Andrew pointed out. And the few pages I have seen - which were admittedly presented without context - were absolute cringe. So I kind of expect more of the same for the animated version. Probably worse, since these things HAVE to be 88 minutes for some reason, and thus any "plot" that goes deeper than "Somebody Hit Somebody, Right Now!" always has to be shoved aside. Like I've said elsewhere, the entire animated DC line is a mixed bag, with several gems, a few good ones, a few "eh" ones and a couple of popcorn farts, but they've been on the down for several years and the writing, itself, has been generally mediocre across the board, with a few notable exceptions.

Like, I watched "Reign of the Supermen" a few days ago, and was entirely underwhelmed. It wasn't BAD, exactly, and I knew they were gonna change and streamline things, but absolutely none of the changes improved the story one bit, and all it really did was make a Very Big Story into something Very Small, with much lower stakes and far less emotion than the comic book version. Full Disclosure, the comic book Death/Return of Superman story is probably my favorite of all time, so I was always going to have a critical eye, but I really thought the "Death..." animated film did a very good job of telling a streamlined-but-faithful version of the comic book story. The "Reign..." storyline, though, was oft-derided as "Just One Big Fight" even in the original books, but the animated version removed EVERYTHING from the story that wasn't Guys Punching. They removed anything dramatic or emotional, just about everything with Clark's parents, they skipped over the world's "mourning period" completely... It's just a series of fights, and then One More Fight, and then Superman's Back and they do a post-credits stinger to immediately set up the Next Big Story to make you forget the last two movies you watched even happened. They didn't really seize the opportunity to "sell the drama" of a story that originally had a ton of emotional peaks and valleys and some Very High Stakes. To be fair, the comic book story is HUGE, but the thing is, 1. Who the hell ever insisted these things have to be 88 minutes? If ever ANY of their stories deserved a full two hours, it's this one and the "Death..." one. And 2. They could have easily streamlined things without completely reducing it to Just One Big Gauntlet Match. "Death..." was good, but they really botched the landing. I liked "Reign...", but not half as much as I expected or wanted to.

It's disappointing because if that's how they bother to adapt a GOOD story, it's kind of scary to imagine how they'd do a less-good one. Or a bad one.

I'm with those who can say I'd be infinitely more interested if it was, like, a cross-over between two solidly-defined versions of the characters. Like Mirage TMNT meeting Frank Miller's Batman... Incredible! Or say, the 2K3 TMNT and the TAS/JLU Batman? That'd be great! Some weird new made-up TMNT and Batman that only exist within this one story? I have a lot less attachment to the story because now everyone is by definition a cardboard cut-out version of themselves in service to the project. It's not Mirage or FW or IDW TMNT, or Frank Miller or JLU or New 52 Batman... they're just some weird fanfic mish-mash versions that don't look or feel quite right.

I'unno, I'll watch it but I'm not expecting much beyond a series of "wink/nudge" jokes and fan-service. But it probably won't be boring.
-------------

Y'know what was a really, REALLY good and fun little Batman cross-over? Batman/Planetary. Track that down if you can. It's only a one-shot, but it hits the spot. I'd love to see that get the animated treatment.

[Ninjinister]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

The same, sort of. 8 year-old me would be freaking out. 37 year old me goes, "Huh. Well I guess it's good that they're doing that" but knows that I will probably hate it if I watched it.

It'd be one thing if it was the actual TMNT -- whether it's the IDW TMNT, Mirage TMNT, or 4Kids or Fred Wolf TMNT -- crossing over with the actual Batman (i.e., Batman as he is presently represented in the comics OR even the straight up BTAS Batman)... but it's not.

It's one made up TMNT universe crossing over with a made up Batman universe. And that seems hard to get too excited about, in my book.

All those universes are made up. That's how fiction works.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

As I recall reading, none of the writers that wrote for the IDW TMNT comics wrote these crossover comics, right? Which explains a lot if that is the case.

[CyberCubed]

It was written by a DC writer.

[bwwd]

So once again they underdesigned turtles for new audiences, i dont think we will get turtles looking like we used to in 80s and 90s, today art tutorials teach these guys that the angry one has to be biggest muscular like beast and the nerdy one is the skinnies with glassess , funny one is the youngest kid ,and its quite frankly pathetic because i knew a guy who was muscular and liked to draw was into nerdy stuf.
Life is not black and white template like the design tutorials books make it to be, it gets irritating after awhile seeing how they use the same formula over and over again.Turtles were most succesfull in late 80s early 90s and they all looked the same, they want kids to identify with the characters more so nerdy guys will like donatello etc, thats just cringy and pointless, theyre still turtles and kid can identify with hulk while noone looks like him, no need to trash turtles designs that a lot of people liked.
I was hoping they at least use 2k designs but nope.... i was hoping for batman animated designs and nope... so there you go , straight to dvd and bluray.
So... i have an idea , lets do nerdy hulk cinematic universe franchise , it will attract nerd audiences they love comic books and stuff , he will make millions of $ because they will identify with hulk even more , cause he looks like a nerd ! Amazing idea best brainstorming EVA!!!!!!

[TigerClaw]

The Batman vs TMNT Animated Movie to be released digitally on May 14 and June 4th on Blu-ray after. Plus a list of the bonus features.
https://toonado.com/movies/batman-vs...ase-date-a2318

[slingtheory]

Originally Posted by bwwd

So once again they underdesigned turtles for new audiences, i dont think we will get turtles looking like we used to in 80s and 90s, today art tutorials teach these guys that the angry one has to be biggest muscular like beast and the nerdy one is the skinnies with glassess , funny one is the youngest kid ,and its quite frankly pathetic because i knew a guy who was muscular and liked to draw was into nerdy stuf.
Life is not black and white template like the design tutorials books make it to be, it gets irritating after awhile seeing how they use the same formula over and over again.Turtles were most succesfull in late 80s early 90s and they all looked the same, they want kids to identify with the characters more so nerdy guys will like donatello etc, thats just cringy and pointless, theyre still turtles and kid can identify with hulk while noone looks like him, no need to trash turtles designs that a lot of people liked.
I was hoping they at least use 2k designs but nope.... i was hoping for batman animated designs and nope... so there you go , straight to dvd and bluray.
So... i have an idea , lets do nerdy hulk cinematic universe franchise , it will attract nerd audiences they love comic books and stuff , he will make millions of $ because they will identify with hulk even more , cause he looks like a nerd ! Amazing idea best brainstorming EVA!!!!!!
http://funkyimg.com/i/2SoD6.jpg

to each his own but personally I like the different body types for the brothers thing. I dont really see it as an attempt to get kids to identify with the characters through stereotypes but more like trying to accentuate character. And it's not even a recent idea either. the original movie was the first piece of media to give the turtles different body types pretty much along the same lines as what we see now.
The only difference is Donnie who in the movie they made slightly chubby as they considered he would get less exercise than the others. Now honestly I dont the skinny body type you see Donnie with now has anything to do with his personality but even on the off chance it does I'll take lanky Don over kinda out of shape Don

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by slingtheory

The only difference is Donnie who in the movie they made slightly chubby as they considered he would get less exercise than the others.

Which is dumb, if that was the thought. It wouldn't be like Donatello would be given a different workout regimen than his brothers by Splinter.