The designs of the Turtles is proof to never trust Kevin Eastman
 

I love Eastman as a person and some of his contributions to the franchise are great, but man, he does not know "quality control" for anything.

I know he has no control over the franchise anymore, but the fact that he's so excited about bizarre designs for the turtles with nostrils and human clothing, white Eric Sachs shredder, and everything else is just sad.

I wouldn't be surprised at this point if Venus shows up at the very end of the movie to set up a sequel.

All a matter of opinion.. How many threads do we need to see of people slagging the new look off....

Just wait until we see it or some actual pictures...

Im loving them all :D

I like them. :-?

maybe Kevin Eastman just has a different taste from yours?

we can't all like the same thing.

You just repeat yourself over, and over, and over, and over again.......

Firstly, maybe Kevin Eastman's opinion is just different to yours . Remember, history has shown that he's generally quite open and accepting of new ideas and new takes on the TMNT.

Second, even if he isn't thrilled with the new designs he's currently a paid employee of Viacom, working on the IDW comics and consulting on the Nick series and the new movie (though we don't know how much real input he gets in the last two), he can't come out and say "they look terrible" in public even if he's saying it behind closed doors.

He just rolls with anything that's TMNT
 

His heart isn't in it anymore.

Why is Kevin Eastman the guy to "not trust" when we're discussing a MOVIE that an ENTIRE TEAM OF PEOPLE WORKING ON are the ones responsible for what will hit the screen?
And Eastman is just a consultant who had a day or two to shoot a cameo. Do you think he was on-set and "Ok"ing the sculpts and everything like Bryan Lee O'Malley being on set, everyday and working along side Edgar Wright on Scott Pilgrim?
Do you think Stan Lee is the guy the Marvel Cinematic teams go to for changes to the costumes and so on?

The point is that Eastman constantly raves about it like its going to be awesome. He did the same thing with Next mutation.

Oh be serious. From what I've heard he's a kind man with a lot of time for fans. Are you actually calling the co-creator out on his integrity because you don't like the designs? That's low.

Again, that's all just matter of opinion.

Just watch the series and ignore the films than like those Transformers fans did, imagine how much they hated those films they had to deal with? Ironically enough, Megan Fox was the female lead of that series, she's sure making herself well known with big time fandom's, so far not in a good way but yah know :lol:

I think the designs are amazing and completely trust in Kevin Eastman! They were exactly exactly what I expected when he said they're looking to Rise of the Planet of the Apes for inspiration and it has a whole 'Avengers' feel to it. :)

Someone needs to teach the difference between facts and opinions to CyberCubed so we won't have pointless threads like this one in the future.

Welcome to our world.
Sound advice, at least there is the (awesome) Nick show that I wouldn't mind betting will end up being more popular than this movie anyway so hopefully not everything TMNT becomes BAYTURTLES like TF's :P

So long as the Nick cartoon and IDW comics don't get forced to add hints of things from this new movie unlike the Transformers franchise has slowly been degrading into looking more and more like the movie appearances as time has moved on.

I prefer Eastman's approach to Laird's approach. Laird's view is narrow and keeping it close to the Mriage comics while I grew up with the '87 cartoon and that is what I see as the Ninja Turtles to this day. Without the willness to expand the view and explore the franchise we would not be here today. Just a few comic book readers that found it in the back issues bins of a few comics shops and liked the random pick up. Granted I much rather ignore Next Mutation and Image as opposite ends of distaste, we would be given great avenues and great characters and concepts we would not othersie have. With Kevin we get Krang and Dimension X AND Triceratons and Fugtioid. With Laird's selling the intellectual rights to Viacom it was bittersweet. The bitter part is I like the careful nurturing of the characters while the sweet is the characters not original under him alone or Mirage based are ignored while a significant number of great characters are overlooked and affect quality and potential. Kevin's view may run into a brick wall i.e. the almost simultaneous crap shots called Next Mutation and Image it still has opened the door to much more good than bad. I am glad that once Peter stepped out Kevin stepped back in. Not nearly as Peter but it does give me a sesne of comfort that someone is carefully sheparding the franchise.

Well, they do look like Fugly apes with ugly ass nostrils. So no wonder he mentioned Rape of the Apes.

Looks fine to me.

I thought I could live with the designs from the maquettes, but the mock poster has me a bit worried. I don't like how the color on some of the turtles faces becomes beige around the mouth area. OOTS had something like that, which really annoyed me. Leo is the only one who is spared from this... but from that small picture of the maquettes, Raph and Mikey (unlike the poster) seem to be more green around the face...

This. While the designs aren't perfect they are pretty decent and different in a good way. I'll wait for a trailer and the movie before I judge the movie fully.

That is a very good point. I've thought the same thing about him thinking the Next Mutation was good. It was not btw.

I think they look awesome.

Would you openly say a project you were involved in was crap if you trying to sell the product? If you are no longer involved in it and had nothing to lose you might speak more openly but not out right blast it. Kevin is being diplomatic. His job is to sell his and Viacom's product. Just@because he says its great does not mean much one way or another in quality. What it does show is his continued love of his product after his interest was devoted elsewhere for so long.

Of course -.-
 

Cause this move has soooo much to do with the nick series right?(sarcasm) It was only a matter of time before someone brought it up. This is about Eastman. And it's not really a matter of opinion, it's just using this as an example f things he raves about and supports but doesn't really care about as long as a new tmnt thing is out there.

What makes you say that?
 

Meh, I reckon that when he sold his shares of TMNT to Laird in 2000 would be when his 'heart wasn't in it'. Looks to me like it got rekindled a bit with the IDW issues that he's been working on, and that he seems to have fallen back in love with his characters...

As for never trusting Eastman? Bit extreme, maybe he does really like the designs?

I'm sure he loves his comics and is really into that
 

I don't doubt that at all. I didn't say I never trusted him, I just take his opinions now with a grain of salt. Because he is on boar with EVERYTHING. He gushed about anything turtles related. So you can't expect things to be good just cause he says he's all for it.

Nope sorry just like transformers it will be a huge hit and make loads of money. Sorry dude but fanboys don't make up the majority of viewers that will be watching these movies.

Why would u want these movies to fail it just means more stuff for us fanboys. some fanboys make no sense some times..

This is all strange. Cybercubed makes a big deal about the white shredder, Megan fox as April and the design of the turtles and how this movie is going to be awful.

I'm fine with all this. There isn't anything about this movie that makes me want to not see it.

Yeah, just because Kevin is on board with the movie in some form doesn't necessarily mean he had anything to do with the Ninja Turtles designs. Remember We Wish You A Turtle Christmas, Turtle Tunes, and the Coming Out Of Our Shells tour were all produced when Eastman and Laird owned the property, meaning they had to okay the production of these things. I doubt they were involved much more than giving the companies producing these works the rights to do so.

Just out of curiosity, we heard about Kevin Eastman talking well about the 2014 movie's direction, did Laird ever get a chance to look over it as well? If not, why not? ;) ...Now that would be interesting since Laird has a more strict preference of how he envisions the Turtles. I mean their opinions contrast greatly with each other if we consider The Next Mutation.

Personally for me, the Turtles (especially with their clothes) just scream an ostentatious display of how "cool" or "tough" they are, and yeah I understand they are teenagers, but as I mentioned in another thread, it's visual stereotyping to an absurd extreme.

For example... take a look at Leonardo's armor:
http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/att...3&d=1390959830
They're going to make Leonardo wear some form of ancient Japanese armor (as seen in the pictures of the models), yet Shredder is going to wear a futuristic style form of blade armor (rivaling close to a Transformers costume)? Where's the practicality in that? For all of Leo's tactical wisdom, wearing ancient armor isn't necessarily logical then, but visually I guess they have to tell the audience he's the "traditional" one. Okay... as if his personality couldn't have expressed that in the film... :roll:

Yet ultimately as "cool" as their designs may be for some, it's all going to boil down to the quality of the storywriting (plot and characters) which of course is the most uncertain aspect of this entire film.

Thinking of changing my signature quote to "A forum without Cubercubed might not be such a bad thing..."

My thoughts exactly, another great example that hits pretty close to home is when Megan Fox decided to bad mouth a movie she was promoting, and Bay took offense (Rightfully so) and canned her (only to bring her back).

These people are hired to sell a product, and yes Kevin may actually think they look really good. There decent at best, and when you consider where Kevin is standing in all of this seeing something he made for a good laugh between him and buddy this has to be to cool for words to see how this has grown and transformed in front of him.

Now that we've seen the designs, I have no trouble believing Kevin Eastman digs this. Maybe he really dug aspects of TNM. Why shouldn't he? The dude has seen the franchise go every which way, like we have. We all like different things. Some of us love this. Why wouldn't he? Does he have to be Kevin Eastman: Super-Purist #1, just because he co-created the series? Now everything different has to be worse, in his eyes? At least he's not butthurt all day, every day, like some of the people here.

Yeah but the thing is
 

He is fine with everything. He is on board with seemingly everything. I never hear him say anything negative. Maybe he just wants to expand his brand and rightfully so, but at some point you want to step in and say hey what are you Doing here?

Its this kind of thing that wrong with fans today there so entitled feel that they should and forever always have the last say in anything to do with there fandoms but the thing is every one has a different opinions one fans love is another hate But un like know they just had to have faith the let the creators do what they do. what bugs me now is that creators will go against what they truly feel is right to appease fans ans most times this can lead to a less then positive turnout

I guess he's just living it up, like Stan Lee?

I guess I just don't see the big deal. It looks nice to get his blessing, but he's just a person, like us. It's not like we don't know the turtles, and we need his opinion on things. I guess I never would've put much stock in is opinion, or Laird's.

He is the co-creator so he obviously has more pull than the average joe
 

I put more stock into his opinion than just a regular everyday man, but take it with a grain of salt because he's seemingly on board with everything. There's fans that are on board with anything too. I think the view of oh something new tmnt let's roll with it is wrong. You gotta actually care about the product and what's put out there and Laird does that.

I'm not sure why we need to "trust" Eastman one way or the other.

The guy seems genuinely thrilled any time the Turtles get attention and just isn't dogmatic about the franchise in anyway. Which, I think, is a fair stance when your goofy indie comic becomes a high-earning, evergreen phenomenon. It's as fair a position as Laird's serious-handed approach. He also doesn't have any control over the franchise at this point -- He still enjoys working with it, though, so why sh*t on it?

Certain elements aside (Donatello's glasses are the mother of all red flags), I like the designs. Had they been used in a different movie, I'd probably feel even better about them.

In the most SOTO Raph impression: "Do it!"

This right here. I agree.
The Turtles have proven they can work in any multitude of "genre". Where they fail is in the execution of the product. Generally TNM is a sore on the franchise and for the fans. It was meant as a kids show, like Power Rangers, and it has that look and feel. That would have been decent enough. But it's faults lays in the mary-sue and the inability to execute a quality product. Eastman MAY HAVE BEEN behind this IDEA but he had no control over the show or what the people working on the show were doing.
It's the same with this movie.
To get the go-ahead in Hollywood, a film needs to be pitched for funding and all of that. Sometimes this happens before casting has been done. Sometimes the writers/etc find actors interested and they use that to pitch it (Sam Jackson being on-board with Snakes on a Plane from the start. To pitch this you have a big name actor on board with a product, this makes it easier to sell in a pitch).
Movies and TV shows almost always start in one way but come out the other end totally different.

Lets look outside the franchise: The X-Files had a great run on TV. Then the spinoff came out for The Lone Gunman. This should have been really damn good based off the tone of The X-Files, the Lone Gunmen themselves being show-stealing characters, and the writing and quality. Instead, I was unable to watch the entire series due to poor characterizations, stupid exclusive characters (Jimmy Bond or whatever that idiots name was), and eventually potty and body fluid humor (puke, poop, etc).
Turning back on The X-Files and the later seasons were not living up to the quality standard in characters or writing as the previous sessions as well.

Star Wars in its original draft was called "The Star Wars". It was drastically different in characters and events than what we all know as. In it's subsequent edits, the original theater versions have a much different tone than the most recent re-edit. The most obvious being Han shooting Greedo first in cold blood. Edits after show Greedo shooting first thus Han's shot comes off as defensive.
Even in its sequels, there are parts that were written that got altered from previous drafts (Luke's father not being Vader) to being filmed and cut entirely, changing the tone of the film or characters (Yoda revealing that he had Obi-Wan withhold information from Luke thus altering character dynamics between these three characters).
The original 3 movies can be compered extensively from what could have been in the original drafts and edits, to what became in the theater releases, and what they have since become with all the additional edits, add-ons and various tweaks.

Even in a movie like 3000 Miles To Graceland, there exists two versions of the movie: one that's more dramatic and action orientated and the other plays more as a comedy. The 2 cuts exist because there were different views on how the film should be. In the end, the more "action" version was released. I'm not even sure the other cut has ever been released.

Or sometimes a studio will force a director and his team to alter the film from it's original intended version to something they feel would fit better.
See films like Blade Runner's original theater cut vs. "The Final Cut" or the updated Total Recall theater version vs Director's Cut. These two movies, off the top of my head, show drastic differences between what was intended and what the studio wanted of the film.

Again, Eastman may have LOVED the pitch, ideas and look of the film.
Question comes down to: Will the final product be the same movie he was so thrilled about at the start?
Will the film be edited smoothly so it's a fun, seamless ride or will it have odd cuts, things that should have been shortened or removed, excessive plot holes, or areas that dont make sense because something was cut in an edit.
How will the next few months of production and post production change the movie?
What will the studio want of the team to alter so it's closer to other similar films being released at the same time?

I agree about just not being content to have "new" TMNT. At Heroescon last year I asked an artist what he thought of the new Star Wars and told him I was HIGHLY skeptical of it and he said "man it's new Star Wars and that alone makes it awesome" but I don't feel that way at all. I see no need for a "dark" or "edgy" TMNT just for the sake of there being one. I would much rather have a film that is more in line with the original, which I feel like struck a perfect tone, that just tells a great story and captures the essence of the characters that we all love. I think it's possible to make a film that pleases the fans and still "appeals" to people that just want to watch a good action film. There's no need to alienate either side.

In a way, though, the original movie was "dark and edgy".
It was true to the comic book source... which was a bit more "underground". People knew the turtles as lighter characters thanks to the silly cartoon.
The movie was a tribute to the comic, not the cartoon and as a result, upset parents. This is why the tone was shifted for TMNT2.