TMNT CGI Pilot 2001

[Gyt Kaliba]

This is probably old news for everyone else here but this was the first time I ran across it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmrLh6QFvB0&feature=related

Isn't 2001 about the time that the 4Kids series was started? So was this concept dropped in favor of the 4Kids toon? Either way...I'm kind of glad, in a way, that we didn't see anything come from this. It looks really, really rough, and I really do not like the voices. Still a cool enough little watch but I don't think I'd have liked a series like this.

[(DC)]

I could see where they were going with it and it was okay. Sure it looks rough, but it is just a test, like a CGI storyboard about how the look and feel of the show would be.

[Gyt Kaliba]

True, an actual show from this would have looked better, and probably would have had different voices to boot, so I guess that gripe of mine is mute. And I did like a few of the jokes near the end, in particular the 'We talked about this!' and the Cowabunga.

So if this was 2001 like the vid says though, when was the WB toon that was in the works pitched too, was it before or after this? It's looking like there was quite a bit of trial and error before we ended up with the 4Kids toon.

[gobo]

I think the WB show was pitched the same year as this CGI pilot. Personally, I liked the CGI pilot, and would have been happy with a series based on it. As much as I've never been a fan of CGI, this just seems like it would have actually kept me entertained. It had the right balance of humor and crappily-paced CGI action (no worse than what we were used to back then). However, there's no reason to think that a full episode of this wouldn't have been plagued with just as much absurd logic as most of the prior videography of the franchise. Still, considering 2K3, I'm glad Pete passed on this one. It might have been nice, but 2K3 made me proud to be a fan again.

[discordiatookie]

Although not too big on some of the designs, there's a certain tone to it that I really like. I'd be pretty happy if the upcoming show went in a similar direction...

[Spacebabie]

First time I'd seen this. Here is to also hoping tht the new toon would be something like this.

[sdp]

Yeah its kind of old news but I still think it would have been awesome. Obviously we got the better deal but I wouldn't have minded this one. Obviously the voice actors would have been different and the CG better, this was just a pilot.

[Gyt Kaliba]

Yeah, for some reason I didn't take into account that this was just an early, early test, so the voices really threw me at first.

Did anything else come of this at all before it was canned? Or is this all we ever heard of it, and then the 2003 series came out?

Also, any idea what those robots Leonardo found in it were? Were they just generic robot things, or some sort of Mouser? For some reason the sound effects reminded me of Mousers a bit, but they looked nothing like the traditional mousers I've seen.

[gobo]

Did anything else come of this at all before
Nope. That's all she wrote.
Also, any idea what those robots Leonardo found in it were? Were they just generic robot things, or some sort of Mouser? For some reason the sound effects reminded me of Mousers a bit, but they looked nothing like the traditional mousers I've seen.
I believe those were the disc robots that plagued the NES version of the Arcade Game.

[jalexbrown]

That first fight scene with Donatello was pretty sweet for being such a rough draft. Oh, and I can't help but point how much more more I like the human design in this than in TMNT 2007.

[shuriken]

That first fight scene with Donatello was pretty sweet for being such a rough draft. Oh, and I can't help but point how much more more I like the human design in this than in TMNT 2007.

I concur. When news of this came out back in mid 2001 I was so syked. But I think it would have been interesting to at least see a pilot of the thing. At least as far as TMNT were concerned after the next mutation there was nowhere to go but up.

[lethrhd]

I concur, not a big fan of the humans in tmnt.

I also remember getting syked seeing this on the official nt page back in the day but man, looking back, how corny can you get?

[jalexbrown]

I concur. When news of this came out back in mid 2001 I was so syked. But I think it would have been interesting to at least see a pilot of the thing. At least as far as TMNT were concerned after the next mutation there was nowhere to go but up.

I actually didn't see Next Mutation until well after it was canceled. When it came out, I'd gotten some naive impression that Turtles had sort of gone way-side, so I wasn't keeping up and didn't even know it came and went. I watched it for the first time...I want to say three years ago, probably right around the time TMNT 2007 came out. It truly might be the single most revolting thing I've ever seen to have the TMNT brand attached. Unfortunately, because I wasn't up on the times with the property, it led me to believe that I'd been disconnected from the rest of the fanbase; little did I know at the time that all of the other fans also thought it was garbage.

[odupianist]

Not all the other fans thought it was garbage. It could have been a lot worse. I didn't think NM was that bad. Was it the greatest? Definitely not, but it had some cool ideas with it. It just wasn't executed as well as it could have been.

[jalexbrown]

Not all the other fans thought it was garbage. It could have been a lot worse. I didn't think NM was that bad. Was it the greatest? Definitely not, but it had some cool ideas with it. It just wasn't executed as well as it could have been.

Had they taken out Venus and not seemed to have been going for the goofy, over-the-topness of the OT, I'd agree with that. As is, though - flaws intact - I thought Next Mutation was a pretty big, steamy pile.

[Gyt Kaliba]

Venus, I think, could have been kinda cool, done right and not so Mary Sue-ish - however, as we all know, that's not what we got.

The ideas of NM that I DID like were seeing the Turtles when they weren't teenagers anymore, especially since that's what a lot of people crave (based on how many stories of that there are), and I liked each turtle having a different kind of mask in addition to color. I dunno why, but I liked that extra design quirk.

[jalexbrown]

Venus, I think, could have been kinda cool, done right and not so Mary Sue-ish - however, as we all know, that's not what we got.

The ideas of NM that I DID like were seeing the Turtles when they weren't teenagers anymore, especially since that's what a lot of people crave (based on how many stories of that there are), and I liked each turtle having a different kind of mask in addition to color. I dunno why, but I liked that extra design quirk.

Television history has pretty much proven that any time you add a new character to an established roster, you're basically jumping the shark and asking for a failure. Venus was an attempt to bring a fresh feeling to the series from people who weren't creative enough to think of any better way to make it feel new again.

[Kendamu]

Did anything else come of this at all before it was canned? Or is this all we ever heard of it, and then the 2003 series came out?

There's a rather rare video out there where a CG studio did an animation test for a CG TMNT show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YAGbYWqqQaE

Obviously, while the majority of the concepts in the CG pilot/trailer made their way into the show for the most part, in the end 4Kids went with a 2D toon.

I would've preferred the Turtles looking more like they did in the WB toon pitch, I'm glad we got what we did and what we got stemmed from concepts in both the CG pilot/trailer and the WB pitch. They're essentially early versions of what became 2k3.

[Cipher]

Not all the other fans thought it was garbage. It could have been a lot worse. I didn't think NM was that bad. Was it the greatest? Definitely not, but it had some cool ideas with it. It just wasn't executed as well as it could have been.Hey, I dig NM: The Story Pitch.

But I decidedly do not dig NM: The Television Series.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

This is probably old news for everyone else here but this was the first time I ran across it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pmrLh6QFvB0&feature=related

Isn't 2001 about the time that the 4Kids series was started?

It started in 2003.

[sdp]

I find it interesting how you can see a few things from the KidsWB pitch in the CG pitch like Shredder having the same design.

And as far as more information on the CG pitch we never got Roseangelo of the forums won a book on ebay about it and she said there was nothing earthshattering in it. Though I do wish VaughnMichael had won the auction since we'd have gotten scans and I'd love to see more from that show.

[Gyt Kaliba]

It started in 2003.

I realized that a while after I posted it. You'd think I'd have remembered from the get-go, what with '2K3'. ^_^;

And thanks for that vid Goongasnootch, I never saw that before either. I quite liked that one too, though I mainly really like that song they've got playing in the background heh.

The planned WB series was going to be CG too though? I saw some of the designs for that and it looked more traditional animation styled.

[gobo]

The planned WB series was going to be CG too though? I saw some of the designs for that and it looked more traditional animation styled.
From MikeysTMNT.com, once upon a time:
Thursday, November 21, 2002
Yes, TMNT fan art is heading to every venue imaginable... Here's an awesome 3D animation (http://www.icepond.com/Ninja_Turtles_Test/turtles_web.mpg) directed by Floyd Bishop (mailto:[email protected]) and his production team at Ice Pond Studio (http://www.icepond.com/). He had this to say about it: "Here you can see a quicktime of a test we did for Mirage Publishing and 4Kids Entertainment. The test was completed from start to finish under the unbelievable constraints of just two weeks."
So, no. That wasn't the WB's thing. The WB series was going to be traditional, cel animation.

Also, in case you aren't aware, that song is one of White Zombie's *ahem* hits.

[Gyt Kaliba]

Ohh, ok. So this was just early groundwork for 2K3, literally. Someone said that and I didn't get it I guess...*bops head*

These both would have been kind of cool to see one still of in the multiverse shot, I never would have known what they were from heh.

[Casey]

Here's a working link in case anybody's been looking:

http://youtu.be/TXSRMZbfMfg

[mikey22]

darn shame this never made it

i was super excited back in high school finding out about this!

great fight scenes, and i loved that metalish music!

[thundermaster612]

just in case that Ice Pond link thing didn't work, I found a video of the test animation on youtube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17n5IRvwk4E

[TurtleGuy]

This takes me back. I think I was in High School when I first saw this. Kinda disappointed that we didn't get a show based on this, but we did get the 4kids cartoon so I guess it was a fair trade.