TITLE CHANGE: The New Season
 

Check out Murphy's blog entry about "TMNT: Overload"--

http://the-5th-turtle.blogspot.com/

Playmates shot it down. Thought it would be too confusing to CHILDREN.

Go check out the piccie.

Are they...wearing shoes? Somthing's up with Mike's (both of him) feet...

Thank you sweet God for letting that idea be shot down ...

I feel like that would have killed the TMNT. Imagine trying to attract an older audience with the Turtles taking care of kid versions of themselves. Ugh. Just ugh. I'm so glad Playmates did the right thing for a change.

I knew Rooish was going to say that. :lol:

While I find the concept to be rather cute, I do have to agree. I could stand that for maybe a two-part episode, but for a whole season? Yikes...

I just hope all parties can get on the same page and start real work on a new season soon... time's running out.

Oh dear, am I really negative and predictable? I thought it would be a bad idea if it was done for the good of the TMNT in general. Personally, I would find it cute, just as I find the new movie and Fast Forward and the old cartoon. But I guess I'm too concerned with what the public, in general, thinks of the TMNT, and that's why I cringe when I see "kiddie" aspects: because I worry that, although kids like it, people won't really respect the TMNT as something that adults can enjoy. I don't feel that way because I'm worried about what my friends will think; I'm just worried for the "good of the franchise." But I guess the franchise will always need kids to like it, because there's just not enough adults to sustain the TMNT by themselves, even if it got darker and less kid-friendly.

That being said, I like Fast Forward more than the darker Lost Season. I'm not quite sure why. But anyway, I wasn't trying to say that dark=good and light=bad.

:sick: That poster is gonna give me nightmares. The kid-turtles look so very ugly... with their tennis-ball sized, shinyshiny eyes.

And Mirage was ready to accept it? For once... thank you Playmates for shooting this one down. I don't want to deal with any more time travel, especially when we'd be stuck with the four kid-turtles, who'd probably reach Zach-the-5th-turtle annoyance levels.

I'm not entirely against the idea of revamping with a gimmick, so long as the gimmick's good. No gimmick would also be fine, heck.

I agree, it'd be good for one or two episodes, but whole season, no. I think Playmates logic for shooting it down was lame though. I know most kids are dumb these days, but would they really not be able to tell the difference between adult Leo and kid Leo? Gimme a break.

How hard is it to just make a TMNT cartoon? No time travel, collectable card games, chibi turtles or any other stupid gimmicks. Just a cartoon about the TMNT fighting new and classic villains. Like the first 5 seasons of the 2k3 series.

I think what really depresses me is that Laird and Mirage thought this was a good idea, only to have the toy company tell them otherwise.

Ugh. I have a feeling the show isn't going to be ready by Fall '08 if they haven't even agreed on a concept yet...

I agree.... the "Overload" idea would be really fun for a few episodes, and I think there's a huge fan following who like the idea of the TMNT having to deal with children--especially themselves as children. But I'm not sure it could be sustained a whole season. Anyway, what I really wanted to say was that I wish they hadn't totally trounced the idea of drawing on the Archies--there was some good, dark stuff in there in the Dean Clarrain/Chris Allan years, and while it would be difficult to make it match up to the 2k3 universe (Splinter was Hamato Yoshi, Shredder is a human, April's a reporter, blah blah), I think there are a lot of plotlines and characters that would transfer well to animation. Besides that, I would be having fits of unbearable excitement and happiness the whole time. The Archies rock my world.

Good God -- "minor revisions" aside, not only is that a horrible concept on par with Fast Forward, but... Mirage approved of it. How encouraging.

And how utterly foolish of me to hope for one minute that TMNT might be spared the sparkly sticker makeover for its next television incarnation.

Someone break the curse. Please. MN, if you ever make it big in animation, avenge the green team. I will do likewise if my fortunes ever allow it.

What frustrates fans further is the fact Playmates wanted to bring the show back to the older series and ARCHIE comics, and Laird and 4Kids turned them down because it wasnt what THEY wanted, not neccersarily their top merchandising supporters.

I noticed that, too.

How could Laird approve of something like "Turtles babysit themselves for a whole season!" and then give the thumbs down to something with nostalgic appeal for the original series and Archie comics?

I know he says he has no bias toward the old stuff, but things like this make me wonder if he's being entirely truthful.

At any rate, c'mon Laird...Mirage, do you even care about the integrity of the TMNT on TV anymore?

It may have been approved because the younger Turtles have been heavily focused on in several episodes, and he likely would have "wiped their memories" of their visit as seen in the Lost Season when they first encountered the Ninja Tribunal.

Good for a premiere, not a season. What else is there to learn about the younger Turtles anyway?

EDIT: Double post

Hmmm... Auotattack figures, idiotic "action feature" toys that do one thing and never get played with again, not having the FF line and the Movie line co-exist.... and NOW they decide to make a good idea?

This series would be absolute turtlecrap. Nothing more, nothing less. i can't even believe Mirage accepted it. This makes "Alien Hunters" sound like a great idea.

Why do they insist on NOT doing what they've been doing for 5 years just to make a cheap grab at merchandising? Why not just make new TMNT sculpts, and toys of new villains? that would sell. Only reason they feel they need a "Gimick" is to sell stuff they won't sell.

Think very very hard about that. Would you want an inferior copy of the older series with out the original actors doing the voices, and having a set of others imitate them poorly? I sure as shell wouldn't.

BY TOUTATIS!!! They've gone with stylizing and simplifying them into blocky angular styles again. Now they have hooves?

How many more revamps until the turtles look like this...


http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/b...ooth/ppppp.jpg

You know... TMNT has a gimmick. In fact, they have four. It's in their name.

Teenage
Mutant
Ninja
Turtles

That is their essence, is it not? They already have four gimmicks . Why paste time-travel or baby-sitting or alien hunting or paleo-patrol on top of all that?

Rhetorical question. Please do not bombard me with obvious answers.

The thing that is the most concerning is this show won't even HAVE a 2008 season at this rate if none of the companies can agree on anything.

I thought the next season was going to resemble the tone of the new movie, what the hell happened to that?

I just .. I just want the TMNT to be cool again. :cry:

Edit: Also, I think that the TMNT is seriously starting to become marketed towards girls. Because girls freakin' love toddler turtles.

So we have;

Superworld (card style battles) rejected
Overload (TMNT and their kid selves) rejected
Classic Style (OT and Archie based) rejected

How hard can this be?

Why can't they get whoever they need from Mirage, Playmates and 4Kids together (in a room, online, wherever) for a few hours to just decide what direction they want to take?

I know it's more complicated than that, but a good chat between the 3 parties could at least outline what they all want and don't want rather than waste time coming up with ideas that others just say no to as soon as they hear about them.

And why can't Mirage make a pitch? We've had 2 from 4Kids (and Murphy says they're about to make a 3rd) and 1 from Playmates, surely Mirage can make a pitch about the direction they'd like the show to go!

As others have said why does it need a gimmick? An overall arc for the season yes (all seasons have had this to some extent), but it needn't be a gimmick.

And home is now 2008? Considering they left in 2005 I'd say they missed a few years ;) But I guess that's a good enough excuse for April and Casey to have Shadow when they return (I can dream!)