What if the Summer Shorts their own series?

[victory_angel]

The summer shorts were all interesting in their own way, some more than others. Some of them almost felt worthy of becoming their own series.

These shorts were similar to the World Premiere Toons, Cartoon Network had back in the day. World Premiere Cartoons were little cartoon shorts that they featured for entertainment. But also as test pilots for shows they felt could work on their network. This concept would be called Cartoon Cartoons in later years.


In a way, these shorts had the same mindset. They were little bits of TMNT related entertainment that were being presented as experimental ideas. But aren't as of yet their own sanctioned incarnation in the TMNT Lore.

So if any of the shorts were to become its own series, how do you feel it should be approached as a concept for a story.

Boulangerie might be hard to see as anything beyond a single sketch.

Strike Hard and Fade into the Night and Don Vs. Raph also have intriguing animation styles that I would like to see more of, but the plots they offer may not be enough to give a solid towards anything beyond.

Pizza Friday also doesn't offer enough of a plot for a series, but the concept of the Turtles creating human holograms of themselves so they and act like normal human teenagers is an intriguing concept. Yeah, I can hear the naysayers saying it's stupid to have them as humans. And yes the way they are presented in this short doesn't exactly sell the concept as a good idea.

But if done properly, the Turtles would be able to actually experience and interact with how life is for normal teenagers. They also would be able to access places and experiences they never would as regular mutants. It also would be an updated version of the Rubber Masks, April makes for the turtles in 87 series so they didn't stand out as much as mutants.

TMNT Team up could be a collection of Robot Chicken-esk TMNT sketches.


Turtles in Time I felt could work as we do see the Turtles somewhat younger then they are normally depicted.

While the Mecha Turtles short is more of a Batman Beyond sort of storyline.

[IndigoErth]

Eh, the shorts are the kind of thing I'd rather see as just fun random crap that's done and put online now and then, but not as a series... That would get old too fast without a real series (a good one) to balance it out. As something I'm suppose to watch, laugh at for two seconds then not care about it again, okay... but personally I need a series to be something I care about.

I liked the tone Strike Hard was going for, though it's not the kind of art style I'd want long term.

[victory_angel]

Originally Posted by IndigoErth

Eh, the shorts are the kind of thing I'd rather see as just fun random crap that's done and put online now and then, but not as a series... That would get old too fast without a real series (a good one) to balance it out. As something I'm suppose to watch, laugh at for two seconds then not care about it again, okay... but personally I need a series to be something I care about.

I liked the tone Strike Hard was going for, though it's not the kind of art style I'd want long term.

The shorts as a whole don't need to be a series.

But if you could see any of them actually becoming a series that would be something. For example, I liked how Turtle's in time was presented.

All the Turtles appear and act 13 at best which is younger than their normal 15 years. That itself is a different twist from the norm.

The premise of the short is April finds a time staff at a flea market and brings it to the Turtles. Leo discovers it once belonged to Abu no Seimei. Donnie states that Abu no Seimei was the Japanese equivalent to Merlin.

(It's actually believed Abu no Seimei's mother was a kitsune named Kazunoha. But that is only according to legend.)

The staff activates sending the turtles to various points in time, they eventually lose the scepter and wind up in the lair of the 87 turtles. So the question left is how are they going to return home to their Universe without the scepter.


Making that concept into a series you would keep some silly events because they are kids. But instead of having them go from place to place to place randomly. They could due this in the first episode, but after they lose the scepter in the time stream they could do something like the "World Tour arc" in Gargoyles where the scepter doesn't send them where they want to go but rather where they need to be. Eventually, they encounter Simultanius and Renet who tell them that they were trying to find them so the turtles don't mess up the time stream. But of course, it's revealed the scepter has a mind of its own and it had been the one sending them to those times because there is a purpose they need to fulfill there.

So the first episode could start with the Turtles hanging in the lair, Donnie is reading a book on Japanese history that belonged to Splinter. When he notices something he then shows his brothers a picture of a wall scroll that has images that look like them and April. All of them are confused about why they would be in an in depicted in an ancient Japanese wall scroll, though Raph just brushes it off as coincidence. Leo flips more through the book and sees other moments where they are depicted. Getting a feeling he picks out a few different history books and finds images of them as well. Leo is confused and says he's flipped through these books multiple times and had never seen them depicted in any images before.

April arrives and says she found an old Japanese Scepter at the local flea market. Raph notices some Japanese writing on it and is able to translate them to Abu no Seimei. Splinter comes in and states that Abu no Seimei was a powerful wizard in Japanese Lore.

Hearing that Mikey wants to use the scepter to see what it would do, but Splinter just tells him that mystic objects are not something to be played with as if it were a toy. He takes the scepter with him and says they wouldn't speak of it again. Mikey is still interested in seeing how the scepter worked and what it did, so he sneaks into Splinter's room and takes it. His brothers and April catch him with the scepter. Raph is with Mikey in not seeing any harm in seeing what the scepter did, while Leo and Donnie are in the camp of "don't play with things you don't understand." April is in the middle and is trying to appease the brothers before something bad happens. The scepter activates just as Splinter enters the room and witnesses his sons and April vanish.

The turtles find themselves in another time and place and realize the scepter must-have scent them there. Raph, of course, blames their predicament on Mikey. Donnie assesses where they are and realizes that the scepter's taken them to another point in time. Realizing this the Turtles and April use the scepter to return them to their time, which takes them to a different time and place. They are confused but figure they didn't use the scepter correctly and try again only to end up in another place. Raph starts to rant that the scepter must be broken which is why it isn't returning them to where they belong. April, however, speculates that maybe the scepter is taking them where it wants to go not where they want it to take them.

This keys the turtles back to those history book images where they were depicted and realize they were depicted because they actually were in those times. However, Donnie points out he didn't remember seeing the time scepter in their possession in those images. Raph brushes it off and figures that if the scepter says they need to be in that place and time they might as well look around.

While exploring they run into conflict and use the time scepter to narrowly get out of the situation alive, unfortunately, they lose the scepter in the time stream and wind up in the time where Splinter's wife had been killed. The turtles and April realize that even if they could never go back to their time, they could change events in time so things will be as they should be.

They try to prevent Tang Shen's murder but are unable to. Just when they feel they are going to be left trapped in the past for the next couple of decades they find themselves being surrounded by the power of the time scepter and whisked to another time.

Then the next episode could start with the Turtles and April winding up in a different time and wondering how they were able to do this since they lost the scepter. Donnie speculates that the power of the time scepter must have chronological residue on them and that is able to take them to other times. (It is later revealed that the Time Scepter has chosen them, that is why it is able to send them to different times.)
Throughout the series, the Turtles and April will go to various points in time where they are involved in the issue at hand. But occasionally there are times where they would be separated so they would be involved with two different issues or on two different sides of the issue.

[sdp]

I'll take the mecha turtles mini as a 13 episode mini series.

[victory_angel]

Originally Posted by sdp

I'll take the mecha turtles mini as a 13 episode mini series.

Perhaps more then that, the bulk of the series could center around Michelangelo's students. But the rest of the story could center around turtles or Mikey's memories of them.

So if it's a 13 episode mini-series, in Mikey's mind his brothers are gone. So there a heavy implication that Leo, Raph, and Donnie are dead or at the very least missing and assumed deceased.

I know it's always possible the turtles would go their separate ways eventually. It's something that normally happens in the comic book incarnations and loosely implied in some of the televised versions. As much as it would be great for each of the Turtles to have a quartet of students of their own, that would be too large a voice cast. Besides the Turtles stories are at best bittersweet so it would be unrealistic for them to be all alive and/or whole when they are around 95 years of age.

So if Leo, Raph, or Donnie even had students, only one of them would have students at all and it would be 1 maybe 2 students at most.

So logically if the other Turtles are alive at all, one has been training all this time by himself, one maybe is either gravely wounded and no longer able to fight or just has given up on being a ninja, and one is definitely lost and likely dead, but will make an appearance as something unexpected (I.E. Maybe he has become the main villain)