Could the IDW series be successfully adapted to silver screen?

[Tarris Vaal]

Much as the title asks...

There's often call for a more adult take on a ninja turtles series and it invariably always boils down to three options;

1: ) A series based heavily off the mirage comics - with the added implication that those who would want that would want it as animated.

2: ) A fresh iteration with a more dramatic and 'realistic/bloodier/consequential' take - Often what a lot of people who ask about 'adult aimed series' think of and often shot down.

3: ) Being told that if they want an slightly more mature themed iteration, they should go read IDW.


Now I'm not saying that any of these are wrong necessarily, but it poses an interesting question. Could IDW be successfully adapted if it were to be made almost directly into a TV series?

It does suffer from a few problems -

* the reincarnation plot point is somewhat convoluted and although it works in comic format, its a big question how much a TV audience could accept that.

* Its LONG. 87 issues + micros and with the presumed aim at getting to 100 issues. Even looking just at the Initial Kraang arc of 1-50 that is comfortably 3 seasons worth of TV episodes (presuming standard 40min runtimes). Its a lot of stuff to adapt and squeeze in.

* There are a few plot threads that go weird places and don't really add all that much - The Pantheon being the notable one here.


This all said, it is a strong contender for that golden grail of a more mature themed TV show.

What do you guys think? Could IDW be adapted well? Or would it be a better option to make a fresh iteration with TV in mind (probably taking heavy inspiration from IDW/Mirage)

[Utrommaniac]

I could see something for a trilogy, but even that would be really tough to adapt since IDW plays the long game.


Now, I could see it for a TV/Netflix series and then having a "special event" theatrical movie (maybe on the Technodrome - Vengeance arch), but I don't think it would all work for one big movie.


Maybe a movie like that could squeeze in some scenes the comic could not. Maybe a scene of Krang in the stasis chamber for the last time (maybe dropping hints at Ch'rell and Ma'riell), or more scenes developing Donatello coping with being in the Metalhead body and the trauma of his attack.

[Tarris Vaal]

Kind of similar to a compressed MCU then?

A trilogy of movies dealing with the main plot threads and a netflix series of 'micros' dealing with the smaller satellite plot points?

[CyberCubed]

No, the IDW comics have 100+ different storylines in them and there's no way to condense them into a movie or a series of movies.

[Tarris Vaal]

No, the IDW comics have 100+ different storylines in them and there's no way to condense them into a movie or a series of movies.

What about a TV show? I agree, it would still be horrendously difficult to compress that much into a TV series, but I think it might be much more doable

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

No, the IDW comics have 100+ different storylines in them and there's no way to condense them into a movie or a series of movies.

Not all storylines would be adopted, just the most popular and well-written.

[pferreira]

Probably better to do it as a TV series.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Probably better to do it as a TV series.

Definately, also we're living in the age of television series (even if more and more of them are now over streaming services like Netflix).

[LevyB]

I can totally see it being adapted, its not really that ”confusing”, just very deconstructed which is common in comics today. Even shows/films which try to be faithful to the source material will change and condense things to make the plot flow better on screen. Anime does it all the time.

Anyway, I hope next time they do a live action film/show Nick goes a route similar to IDW...seriously merge the best parts of canon while giving the screenwriters some freedom to explore.

[Andrew NDB]

Anyway, I hope next time they do a live action film/show Nick goes a route similar to IDW...seriously merge the best parts of canon while giving the screenwriters some freedom to explore.

Who should determine what the "best parts of canon" are? And why? And what canon?

I'm fairly against TMNT jambalaya. Because where does it end? If, say, cartoon or comic reboot #6 in 10 years is just recycling what the last 3 shows did, which in turn were recycling what the shows and comics before it did which also mixed together elements from other shows and comics before it... you're just getting the snake eating it's own tail, or the dog eating its own poop. It's creatively bankrupt.

Go full on adaptation of Mirage (or even Fred Wolf since that seems to be the modus operandi of forever, but just own it and don't pretend it's something that it's not) + a director's vision and flair, or try a completely original take on TMNT.

[Tarris Vaal]

Assuming you went down a tv route then - and again assuming focus on adapting just the IDW series - would it be possible to do as Live action or would it require so much CGI as to make it impossible?
Given the amount of special effects involved, I suspect an animated series would work best, but I guess the question there becomes whether you'd get the audience you really wanted. Would Execs push for the younger demographic then?

On the other hand, if you made a live action version, would it be doable with a sensible tv budget? At least to a good degree of quality?


I guess an anime style route might work, but that itself begs the question - would it be best as a tv series or something more akin to animated movies (think DC) focused on each of the comics arcs?


Personally I think that would be the best option - take a leaf from DC's animated movie book and adapt IDW that way with less fear of having to censure it for younger audiences. Even if it was just straight to DVD I imagine it would do pretty well.

As much as I'd like to see live action turtles, i just think the cost would make it near impossible to look good over such a long term thing. Especially when you consider that several of the antagonists would need CGI as well.

[LevyB]

Who should determine what the "best parts of canon" are? And why? And what canon?

I'm fairly against TMNT jambalaya. Because where does it end? If, say, cartoon or comic reboot #6 in 10 years is just recycling what the last 3 shows did, which in turn were recycling what the shows and comics before it did which also mixed together elements from other shows and comics before it... you're just getting the snake eating it's own tail, or the dog eating its own poop. It's creatively bankrupt.

Fair points. Who decides? Well...the writers obviously...which in all fairness might not be to everyone's taste.

We know what bad TMNT jambalaya looks like *cough* the Bay films *cough* *cough*

I do feel that IDW has mastered the difficult art of making "turtle soup" with Waltz and Eastman. The secret seems to be to keep the "core" ideas and personality of the series alive (most of which are in the Mirage series) while seasoning with parts of the other canons.

IDW's Casey is a good example: he still has the whole "anti-hero" vibe about him and his still pretty complicated, and prone to violence, but there's definitely touches of the more down on his luck, likeable guy from the first film. They then folded in and re-rigged some of the 2003 canon (like Hun and Angel) and created a newer tragic backstory to give his behaviour a more believable origin - it rounded him out pretty well as a character.

In the end, all franchises evolve - the X-Men of a few years back is totally different from its 1975 incarnation or it's 1992 version. One thing is pretty clear though when the series wanders too far away from its core principles like during the Aaron/Bendis era the wheels come off in a bad way.

Go full on adaptation of Mirage (or even Fred Wolf since that seems to be the modus operandi of forever, but just own it and don't pretend it's something that it's not) + a director's vision and flair, or try a completely original take on TMNT.

I could live with this - a proper R rated Mirage movie could be all kinds of awesome crazy, but I feel as time passes that's less likely. Older fans like us might have fond memories of the Mirage era, but can you convince a studio to make that film? Unfortunately, most people only know TMNT as a kids cartoon from the 80s. But yeah…the Wolf stuff - like the colour coding and the more pronounced personalities are here to stay.

[victory_angel]

A lot of shows that have been favorites in the past are becoming Netflix or Showtime originals. Such as there is a new Sabrina the Teenage Witch series that is now Netflix only.

With Movie streaming being a thing, Movie theaters are slowly being phased out. But with Netflix or showtime they are able to use content that wouldn't make it into a made for TV series or theater production for moral or logistical reasons. Such as only so many F-Bombs and be dropped in a film before its considered too obsine. Or shots of certain body parts must be kept to a minimum even in a Rated R film.

The Reincarnation thing could work if it's explained better in a TV series vrs. The comic book.

For example, start the first episode with Hamato Yoshi and his sons being executed. I haven't read far into this, but I remember one issue Kraang took interest in the executed family so have that explained further or part of an involvement in their reincarnation.

Such as have Krang and his forces desecrate the graves of Yoshi and his sons so DNA samples were taken of each of them. Then centuries later when the Turtles and Splinter are experimented on, they are injected with a serum that contains the DNA samples of the Hamato Family. Due to the experiments performed on Splinter his consciousness as Hamato Yoshi awakens, while his sons awaken after their mutation. This mutation doesn't turn them into teenagers from the start, they start out as kids from the beginning, not babies, they are about three or four years old in human years when they mutate. Raph is lost early on and gets raise as an agent of the Foot Clan or as one of the Purple Dragons, or maybe Old Hob and his gang. That way they are impressionable, but at the same time can still feel a that they don't really belong.

As they grow all the Turtles would occasionally have visions or dreams of their lives as humans (human names included) this confuses all of them. They feel there is some connection to this family, but they don't understand what sort of connection it is given the time period they are from. Mikey brings up the idea of reincarnation, Donnie, of course, reacts to it by saying that is BS and that there is no scientific proof that reincarnation is possible. Leonardo's on the fence, with reincarnation being too dubious as a possibility, but yet that's the only explanation that makes sense. Leo also points out that the family had four children, and he remembered there being a fourth turtle but they were lost long ago.

In the meantime, Raph is having visions of his former human life and while he doesn't understand what the visions mean they do make him feel like he doesn't belong with whoever he is with. But being with that group is the only thing he knows so he doesn't know where he truly belongs. Then one day when they are in their teens Raph sees his brothers for the first time and he feels a connection to them. At first, he is an enemy to them but gradually the desire for familial connection is too strong so he ends up approaching the turtles not for a fight but to understand. The people he serves follow him and demand his loyalty by destroying the Turtles. Raph finds he can't do it and demands to know what made them the enemy, why couldn't the Turtles be allies to them. Splinter who is with the Turtles tells Raph to look into his heart and he will know where it truly lies. Raph searches his heart and realizes that Splinter and the Turtles are where he really belongs and says he's going to be with his real brothers from now on.

[pferreira]

Definately, also we're living in the age of television series (even if more and more of them are now over streaming services like Netflix).Yeah I think there's enough IDW to adapt as a TV series.

Who should determine what the "best parts of canon" are? And why? And what canon?I agree. Best thing to do is take one iteration and adapt it, preferably for TV as you are not constricted by a running time.

[Andrew NDB]

I could live with this - a proper R rated Mirage movie could be all kinds of awesome crazy

An R rated Mirage movie would be awesome but there's no reason it needs to be R. PG-13 pushed to the limit would be perfectly fine for a Mirage movie. The Bay movies were PG-13 and didn't even take advantage of that... and all TMNT movies before that were PG.

[TheShredder777]

I've always really wanted a straight-to-DVD mature TMNT film like DC does with it's features. The IDW Universe would be a great fir for this, I think.

[Kendamu]

I could see something for a trilogy, but even that would be really tough to adapt since IDW plays the long game.

I was thinking the same thing, but if a talented enough person comes along they can adapt a bunch of key issues of the series into a movie sort of like how the 1990 film was written.

A lot of stuff would have to be cut away if it's a movie trilogy, but I could roughly see one version of it going like this:

- Part 1 can adapt Stuff from the first 12 issues up through the Turtles' first big fight with the Shredder

- Part 2 can adapt "City Fall"

- Part 3 can adapt "Northampton" and "Vengeance"

Of course, that's just one possibility that only focuses on the Foot. The 1990 film is an example of how a lot of all three of my films could be made into one film. That'd make more room for doing other stuff like "Krang War" or "Attack on Technodrome."

You could even go like the Thor movies did and go pretty serious-ish (for a Marvel film) for the first two and then finish it off with something colorful and fun like "Bebop and Rocksteady Destroy Everything" as the TMNT equivalent of Thor Ragnarok.

There's so much story with everything IDW has put out there that a TMNT movie trilogy could be a lot of different things. Honestly, no matter what they do, I'd absolutely love to see Issue 37 get adapted. The cool plot twist while Shredder and Krang sit across from each other is super rad and one of my favorite parts of TMNT. Also, the Turtles' plan that Splinter wasn't let in on in Attack on Technodrome is something I'd love to see adapted as well.

So many possibilities! I couldn't handle being responsible for only doing three movies about all this stuff. I'd have to have an entire Marvel MCU worth of movies for me to tell everything that's done on in the first 50 issues of IDW.

[Sabacooza]

If not something for the silver screen then maybe a web series would be better. That way you can cover a lot of ground assuming it does well enough to have multiple seasons.

[80gmrp]

It’s an interesting idea, but honestly, I think it would be best as a web series. If it’s a movie, there would likely be too much left out like most movie adaptations of anything, and a web series allows more room for budget and the possibility of failure (though I hope that doesn’t happen) than a cable-based program.

[CyberCubed]

It'd either be a mini-series or nothing at all.

[victory_angel]

I was thinking the same thing, but if a talented enough person comes along they can adapt a bunch of key issues of the series into a movie sort of like how the 1990 film was written.

A lot of stuff would have to be cut away if it's a movie trilogy, but I could roughly see one version of it going like this:

- Part 1 can adapt Stuff from the first 12 issues up through the Turtles' first big fight with the Shredder

- Part 2 can adapt "City Fall"

- Part 3 can adapt "Northampton" and "Vengeance"

Of course, that's just one possibility that only focuses on the Foot. The 1990 film is an example of how a lot of all three of my films could be made into one film. That'd make more room for doing other stuff like "Krang War" or "Attack on Technodrome."

You could even go like the Thor movies did and go pretty serious-ish (for a Marvel film) for the first two and then finish it off with something colorful and fun like "Bebop and Rocksteady Destroy Everything" as the TMNT equivalent of Thor Ragnarok.

There's so much story with everything IDW has put out there that a TMNT movie trilogy could be a lot of different things. Honestly, no matter what they do, I'd absolutely love to see Issue 37 get adapted. The cool plot twist while Shredder and Krang sit across from each other is super rad and one of my favorite parts of TMNT. Also, the Turtles' plan that Splinter wasn't let in on in Attack on Technodrome is something I'd love to see adapted as well.

So many possibilities! I couldn't handle being responsible for only doing three movies about all this stuff. I'd have to have an entire Marvel MCU worth of movies for me to tell everything that's done on in the first 50 issues of IDW.

I can see more then just a trilogy, if played right it could be quintology or a septology.

First entry Hob and Stockman will be the main villains. In the film, the Turtles are introduced to Casey and Harold. There would also be small appearances from the Foot Clan.

Film begins with April arriving at work at Stockgen, when Rat Splinter startles her. She notices he has a cd in his mouth when she takes and starts to examine when she notices movement reflected in the surface. She moves just in time to avoid being decapitated. Splinter sets off the alarm setting off enough of a distraction for April to escape. The ninja that attempted to kill April starts to go after her, but the others tell them to leave her and just grab what they came for, which of course are the four turtles being used as specimens, Splinter, and mutagen.

During their escape a stray cat gets in their way. The bag is dropped and the ooze vile shatters and splashes on the Turtles. The ninja attempt to retrieve the bag but the police sirens force them to leave the bag behind. Splinter wriggles out of the bag with Raphael also comes out behind him. Both of them are splashed with mutagen. Splinter doesn't notice Raph at first as he begins to drag the bag to a sewer entrance. The stray cat starts to eye Splinter but picks out Raph as the easier prey. Splinter attacks the cat clawing out its eye, but is unable to save Raphael as the cat runs off with him. Splinter pulls the bag into the sewers leaving the missing turtle to his fate.

One year later Stockman is talking to General Krang about the theft. Krang is less than pleased about this, but Stockman assures them that he has someone looking for the specimens.

The turtles are looking for their missing brother. Both Donnie and Mikey express that maybe they should accept their brother is gone for good. Leo chastizes the two of them by saying that "Father" insists he's alive and they couldn't rest until he was found. Donnie tries to take the logical high road and says it's been a year, even in a city the size of New York, if there was a brother to be found they would have found him by now. Leo, however, insists they keep searching. Unbeknownst to them, two groups are watching them, one being Hob and his group, the other being the Foot Clan.

Raph in the meantime has been living out on the streets, he feels he belongs somewhere but doesn't know where that place is. While he's walking about looking for something to eat he sees a college-age boy trying to collect his drunkard father from the bar. The dad is belligerent and then starts getting rather hostile towards his son. Raph sees what's going on and jumps in, when the man turns his ire towards Raph, Raph, in turn, shows he is actually quite the brawler. The drunk man just leaves all the while he tells Raph that he only went easy on him this time, next time he sees his face he won't be so generous. The boy Casey befriends Raph and the two go off together to go commiserate.

Someway's into the film Leo gets frustrated with the lack of success in finding Raph, between Hob picking fights with them and the lack of effort on his brothers part. He storms away from the lair to go calm down when he is suddenly attacked by an unknown ninja assailant who taunts them about how weak he is during their battle. The assailant bounds away he mockingly tells Leo to become stronger for his own sake. The assailant then meets up with Karai who says the fight was impressive enough to be of interest to her grandfather.

Mikey and Donnie have gone out to find Leo when the two of them are jumped by Hob and his goons. They give a valiant fight but both are overpowered and are taken to Stockman. Stockman tells a scientist named Harold Lilja to prepare them for the experiments. When Stockman leaves Harold begins to grumble about how he's forced to be subservient to a pompous jerk like Stockman. Donnie recognizes some mannerisms in Harold and begins to ask questions such as was he a member of such and such science forum. Mike at first questions why Donnie is becoming chummy with the guy getting ready to do who knows what to them. Donnie explains that he thinks he knows who this guy was and then says the name of Harold's screen name. Harold is taken aback by that, Donnie explains he's on the same forum and says he goes by the handle "Dozmachines" The conversation, however, is to stall for time as he had activated a trace on his t-phone.

Leo gets Donnie's signal and heads of in the direction of Stockgen, when he notices Raphael and realizes this is his missing brother. Leo appears to them, Casey points out to Raph that Leo kinda looks like him. Leo tells Raph that the two of them are brothers and that their family had been searching for him for a long time. Raph doesn't openly accept Leo and resentfully says that they should have looked harder. Casey, however, reasons with his new friend, tells them they were out looking for him he has to give him that effort at least. Leo points out the rest of their brothers are in danger, he could really use his help on this. Raph agrees but insists Casey comes with.

The group go to Stockgen face off against Hob and Stockman and save their brothers. The episode then ends on with Hob being supposedly shot dead by Stockman, but when Stockman takes off in his helicopter Hobb's eye opens and we see he had been concealing a vile of ooze in his shirt. Getting up we see him walk to an abandoned building and telling someone he had said he would require him one day. Well that day has come first they will deal with those turtles and their allies, then they would deal with the human scum of the city. Hob then says "What do ya say...Slash." Then a figure of a large monsterous looking turtle appears and roars.

[Panda_Kahn_fan]

I think out of all of the Versions, I do believe the IDW series has the most potential to appeal to the largest number of people. The 'jambalaya' approach allows for elements to be brought in fro mall versions, and retooled to fit the middle of the road, halfway between 'grim and gritty' and cowabunga' that I think works best for TMNT.

And yes, IDW can be adapted to film. Events would have to be moved around heavily, and characters and subplots would have to be condensed or dropped, but it really could work. But the biggest thing is the core of the ninja turtles cannot be lost in the adaptation. They have to look like most people think the turtles should look, have the traits we associate with the turtles, and fight like most people believe the turtles would fight. I believe IDW would be able to win people's trust back.

[Leo656]

I kinda think you're already asking people to swallow a lot with the "mutant Turtles who talk like Bill and Ted" angle in a live-action setting. People have shown they'll buy into it, but reluctantly, and only if it's super-goofy ("Because the entire IDEA is super-goofy! Talking Turtles, canyabelieveit?!?"). Throwing in reincarnation and all that jazz would probably be too absurd for people to buy into on a mass scale. Especially nowadays when most people are either atheist, agnostic, or violently anti-anything religious/spiritual, and are totally willing to allow those eprsonal beliefs to push them away from a work of total (and obvious) fiction.

Case in point: Many people resent the modern Superman films (starting with "Superman Returns") for pushing the parallels his character shares with Jesus (and Moses), based on their own personal hatred of Christianity and their feeling that it "perverts" the Superman character by association, despite the fact that those parallels were part of his very creation. People are nonetheless willing to avoid the movies, and even call the creators all kinds of names, because what they put into the fiction goes against the viewer's own personal spiritual feelings or beliefs, despite it always being there and simply not being put in the center of attention until more recently.

My gut tells me having the Turtles and Splinter all be reincarnated would be a bridge too far for a lot of people, and more than they'd accept in a live action TMNT film, but I could be wrong. I don't think so, but who knows.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

I kinda think you're already asking people to swallow a lot with the "mutant Turtles who talk like Bill and Ted" angle in a live-action setting. People have shown they'll buy into it, but reluctantly, and only if it's super-goofy ("Because the entire IDEA is super-goofy! Talking Turtles, canyabelieveit?!?"). Throwing in reincarnation and all that jazz would probably be too absurd for people to buy into on a mass scale. Especially nowadays when most people are either atheist, agnostic, or violently anti-anything religious/spiritual, and are totally willing to allow those eprsonal beliefs to push them away from a work of total (and obvious) fiction.

Case in point: Many people resent the modern Superman films for pushing the parallels his character shares with Jesus (and Moses), based on their own personal hatred of Christianity and their feeling that it "perverts" the Superman character by association, despite the fact that those parallels were part of his very creation. People are nonetheless willing to avoid the movies, and even call the creators all kinds of names, because what they put into the fiction goes against the viewer's own personal spiritual feelings or beliefs, despite it always being there and simply not being put in the center of attention until more recently.

My gut tells me having the Turtles and Splinter all be reincarnated would be a bridge too far for a lot of people, and more than they'd accept in a live action TMNT film, but I could be wrong. I don't think so, but who knows.

As a weird angle of approach, I think Dreamworks could do fairly well. They did pretty great with the Kung Fu Panda movies. Although 3 was pretty poor compared to the first two, IMO.

[Leo656]

...They made THREE of them? :teek:

...I didn't see them, but I'm sure there were truckloads of unanswered questions after the first one. And again after the second one. :lol:

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

...They made THREE of them? :teek:

...I didn't see them, but I'm sure there were truckloads of unanswered questions after the first one. And again after the second one. :lol:

Actually, they did a pretty good job of seeding plot points for the sequel and threequel. The threequel just dropped the ball. Every time I watch them with the kids, it makes me think of what a good CGI TMNT movie could be.

But nah, let kids watch Minions and Secret Life of Pets instead. :trazz:

[Panda_Kahn_fan]

I kinda think you're already asking people to swallow a lot with the "mutant Turtles who talk like Bill and Ted" angle in a live-action setting. People have shown they'll buy into it, but reluctantly, and only if it's super-goofy ("Because the entire IDEA is super-goofy! Talking Turtles, canyabelieveit?!?"). Throwing in reincarnation and all that jazz would probably be too absurd for people to buy into on a mass scale. Especially nowadays when most people are either atheist, agnostic, or violently anti-anything religious/spiritual, and are totally willing to allow those eprsonal beliefs to push them away from a work of total (and obvious) fiction.

Case in point: Many people resent the modern Superman films (starting with "Superman Returns") for pushing the parallels his character shares with Jesus (and Moses), based on their own personal hatred of Christianity and their feeling that it "perverts" the Superman character by association, despite the fact that those parallels were part of his very creation. People are nonetheless willing to avoid the movies, and even call the creators all kinds of names, because what they put into the fiction goes against the viewer's own personal spiritual feelings or beliefs, despite it always being there and simply not being put in the center of attention until more recently.

My gut tells me having the Turtles and Splinter all be reincarnated would be a bridge too far for a lot of people, and more than they'd accept in a live action TMNT film, but I could be wrong. I don't think so, but who knows.

I can see your point. however, people accept supernatural elements in their superhero films without much trouble, I don't think it would be much problem here. Also, I didn't mean they would talk like the FW turtles, I meant that they should act like people expect the turtles to act; something along the lines of the original movie, or the 4kids series.

And I think people could swallow the reincarnation angle, people accept a lot weirder things in films. It's all aobut how it is presented. Just my opinion, thoguh.

[Leo656]

I mean, it's possible, sure. I'm just basing my opinion on things I've heard/seen, as usual.

I've had a million people QUITE angrily insist to me, "Superman isn't 'Space Jesus'," even though he really kinda is, and always was, and the fact that nobody noticed until more recently is comical to me (and immediately tells you who's never read a comic book). I've seen how personally people take their make-believe characters, and when they feel "Such and such isn't right for what *I* believe ______ is," they'll argue it to the death.

Since most people can't even wrap their heads around the Mirage TMNT, because they're not pizza-gobbling goofballs, I personally have a hard time thinking that same audience would be willing to except the reincarnation angle in a live-action film. But hey, if I'm wrong I'm wrong. :) It's not for me, personally, but I can see why some people dig it.

[The Great Saiyaman]

I agree with the sentiments that the others already expressed: KEEP MICHAEL BAY AS FAR AWAY AS POSSIBLE!

I love the IDW series, it's so accomplished and characters we know and love from previous incarnations of the series are done so much justice.

The danger we have with somebody trying to adapt it to movie format is that we end up with something like THIS:
j_qM4EG9VZw
Being a rabid "Avatar, the last airbender" fan I was totally looking forward to seeing that one but when I saw it I went "Really?"

The "Siege of the north" special of Avatar, the last airbender was by far one of the best animated specials I ever saw and I was so looking forward to seeing how it translated onto the big screen. What a let down it was.

No some things are better left alone and the IDW series is one such thing.

[pferreira]

The "Siege of the north" special of Avatar, the last airbender was by far one of the best animated specials I ever saw and I was so looking forward to seeing how it translated onto the big screen. What a let down it was.Or this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4_wHfz2qUA

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

It may be worth a try.

[Coola Yagami]

The main problem is the reincarnation story has way too much coincidences. What a coincidence that the kids and splinter reincarnate in the same time period and animals that all happen to be together especially for how rare it is that a rat was hanging around 4 turtles. Then the coincidence that those same exact animals happened to also mutate into talking sentient animals. It's too much to buy.

[BartAllen]

I'd love if the first 10 or so issues were converted into a movie. Hob alone would be worth the price of admission.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

I'd love if the first 10 or so issues were converted into a movie. Hob alone would be worth the price of admission.

Hell yeah he would be!

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Here's an alternative to reincarnation:

In 17th century Japan, Hamato Yoshi and Oroku Saki duel over leading the Foot Clan. One day, an Utrom spacecraft crashes on Earth and lands in Japan, breaking a hole in the wall spilling out mutagen box that breaks, mutating Splinter and the turtles. Some years later the turtles (still very young) and Splinter (in his 20's and 30's), chased by Shredder, infilitrate the spacecraft (no idea what they believe it is).

By accident, they all (turtles, Splinter and April) end up frozen after being hit by some gas that accidentally activates. While the Utroms try to repair the spacecraft and return to Utrominon, the spacecraft remains hidden somewhere in the mountains or woodlands of Japan.

Sometime during the late-20th century or early-21st century, the turtles, Splinter and Shredder wake up in modern Japan. The battle continues, and then takes them to New York City.

[Toxin45]

I think it would loosey take some elements of IDW

[victory_angel]

In a script I'm currently writing I have the origin story begin with Hamato Yoshi and his wife Tang Shen preparing to move to New York. Oroku Nagi (who had desires towards Tang Shen) and his brother Oroku Saki (who is 17 in this version, not 7) break into the Hamato household while Yoshi is in the Dojo meditating. Tang Shen is assaulted by both men and murdered. During the scuffle Splinter breaks out of his cage and runs to the Dojo to tell his master what is going on.

Yoshi realizes something is wrong and runs back to his house only to find he is too late. He faces off against the two men and manages to kill Nagi, but is mortally wounded when he is stabbed in the back by Saki. Splinter tries to avenge his master by landing a deep scratch to Saki's face. The next morning Saki spins the tale of what happened into making it sound like he and his brother were innocent victims in all this.

Knowing the truth as the silent witness Splinter goes to fend for himself in the sewers. A year a later a boy is riding by on his bike with a jar full of baby turtles in the rain. The boy loses his balance and falls, his turtle jar rolls away from him. The boy attempts to go retrieve it, but an oncoming truck has to swerve to avoid him, runs over the boys discarded bike loses control, and crashes. No one is hurt, fortunately, but a vile of ooze in the truck rolls out and falls into the sewers along with the Turtles. Splinter comes across the turtles and takes them to his burrow, not noticing he is becoming covered in the ooze as well. As days pass he realizes he had grown in size and intelligence while the turtles had grown to resemble human infants.

When the Turtles are around five years old, Splinter learns that Oroku Saki had gone to live in New York. Wanting to have justice for his Master and his master's wife he gathers his son and has them sneak aboard a cargo ship bound for New York. During the journey Donatello comments, he doesn't understand why they needed to leave their home in Japan. Splinter replies that he would understand someday.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

gathers his son and has them sneak aboard a cargo ship bound for New York.

I have also thought of the concept of the turtles mutating in Japan recently, and would like that.