Why the spots?

[Coola Yagami]

Why did the movies (first 3) felt the need to give the turtles spots to begin with? They never had em in the show, action figures or the original comics.

I know you all might mean I'm reffering to movie III where the costumes were horrible and they had spots like... everywhere (Mike- even my spots hurt!), but they also had spots in the first 2 movie, though they weren't so many and kinda hard to see, especially in part 1 since the turtles were hardly ever completely visible (out in broad daylight, always in the sewers or other poorly lit places).

So... why the spots, and what's your opinion of em?

[Dragnskull]

personally i think it was just to give them some detail, i mean if they were to have made them the same as in the cartoon, those would have been some highly poor quality costumes....

[Sage Ninja]

hmm, I never really noticed any spots in the first two movies to be honest with you. However in the third movie I thought that the spots where added to make them more turtle-esh to compensate for the drop in quality in the costums.

At any rate I don't think the turtles had any spots in the new 2007 movie. They looked like they had very smooth skin with no blemishes...although ive heard it stated that Mikey seems to have freckles in the new movie (however I did notice any( which I guess was done to make him look more innocent.

[Scandia]

I did not notice freckles on Mikey either. I can imagine him having light red or strawberry blond hair if they were human. But had I not wore a sun hat on my trip to NY, I would have many freckles in my face right now. In northerly latitudes I freckle rather than tanning.

[Masked Ninja]

Their skin is covered with little spots and detail in the new movie, to keep it looking more like skin and less like plastic... looked nice to me. I never understood the spots in the live-action movies, but since you hardly notice them in the first film I have no problem with it. It's just skin detail, and well-done. They were slightly more obvious in the second movie and painful from the screenshots I've seen of the third. I guess it's the difference between making it look like it should be part of the skin, versus making it obvious that it was just painted on.

Though my dream version of the TMNT wouldn't have spots, I don't mind them in the 1990 movie, at least.

[Coola Yagami]

I saw some of those old movie figures on the TMNT site. Ironically enough, even though the spots weren't that visible in the first 2 movies, considering that the figures were based on such, they were really covered in spots something awful... the worst being Leonardo...

[Roseangelo]

Yeah, poor Leo ended up with yellow spots...

I think the spots started out as just a way to give the Turtles' skin texture, but the team that made the movie 3 costumes took it just a bit too far...

[Sage Ninja]

I did not notice freckles on Mikey either. I can imagine him having light red or strawberry blond hair if they were human. But had I not wore a sun hat on my trip to NY, I would have many freckles in my face right now. In northerly latitudes I freckle rather than tanning.

in my head I've always pictured the turtles if they where human with this hair color:

Leonardo: dark brown or black

Donatello: light brown hair or sandy/dirty blond

Raphael: russet colored or dark red (some how I just picture him with some sort of red hair to match his firey personality)

Michaelangelo: chestnut colored brown or medium brown with lighter (goldish) high lights from the sun.

Some how I know any one would say blond for Mikey if he where human but some how...meh, I can't picture it.

And as for freckles in the new movie...I can't see some faint spoting across Mikey's face, but I can also see some of that on Donatello's as well. ANd I think Raphael had some kind of spotting on his shoulders and neck (although those could have been scars I couldn't really tell)

[Buslady]

Why did the movies (first 3) felt the need to give the turtles spots to begin with? They never had em in the show, action figures or the original comics.

I know you all might mean I'm reffering to movie III where the costumes were horrible and they had spots like... everywhere (Mike- even my spots hurt!), but they also had spots in the first 2 movie, though they weren't so many and kinda hard to see, especially in part 1 since the turtles were hardly ever completely visible (out in broad daylight, always in the sewers or other poorly lit places).

So... why the spots, and what's your opinion of em?


The spotting in TMNT1 was less obvious, they looked great. *looks at cute Raph pic on the wall, which is the same as my avatar* It was blended with many colors of the green rainbow and it all looked natural. Then #2 came along and it was okay but not like 1. And 3, well that wasn't henson so they turned them into frogs with shells.

Some species have a little mottling like that but most are striped, some are highly spotted like European Ponds-which is more speckling than spots, but there's just one species - Clemys Gutatta -with the common name of Spotted Turtle. ( and I'm hoping to get two of these in the fall from a breeder friend Woohoo!)

[Mr. Leon]

Personally, I dig the movie 1 spots best. They seem just right.

[Sage Ninja]

I really like the way the turtles came out in the CGI movie. Their skin looked smooth and...skin like...like that of a human instead of all scalely looking. I know some fans would like a more reptilian look for the turtles skins but some how I think more smooth unblemished skin like that of a human is nicer.

I did however wish the movie had incorporated the New Toons trend of the turtles all having diffrent skin tones. I really enjoy the turtles uniqueness of being diffrent shades of green. Not to say the turtles in the 2k7 movie didn't have a nice green skin tone its just they where all the same shade.

[Buslady]

I really like the way the turtles came out in the CGI movie. Their skin looked smooth and...skin like...like that of a human instead of all scalely looking. I know some fans would like a more reptilian look for the turtles skins but some how I think more smooth unblemished skin like that of a human is nicer.

I did however wish the movie had incorporated the New Toons trend of the turtles all having diffrent skin tones. I really enjoy the turtles uniqueness of being diffrent shades of green. Not to say the turtles in the 2k7 movie didn't have a nice green skin tone its just they where all the same shade.


Raph's skin was a tad darker, it was subtle though.

[Revan]

And I liked how they switched Don from a Brownish Green to a much lighter tone. It was nice to see a new version of Don. That brown stuff, especially on the toys was always a bit of a bummer for me. I loved the switch.

[Scandia]

I think it was Donatello the Turtle that my brother was holding when this other relative said "what an ugly thing" upon looking at it. I wonder how much did the old brown coloring had to do with it. I prefer the NT coloring for Donatello as well.