Question about Laird.
 

Here's my question, does Peter Laird hate the original tv show and the Next Mutation series, and I mean HATE. Or is it because he's desperatly wants the new series to remain true to the comics he and Eastman wrote (Something that the old show seemingly failed to do, ie Splinter starting off as Hamato Yoshi, April working for Channel Six, Baxter Stockman being a goofy white scientist only to be turned into a fly, Dimension X and characters forgein to the comics such as Krang/Bebop/Rocksteady). Kinda like how EON's 007 films fail to be true to the Ian Fleming novels.

I don't see anything wrong with the Post-Flemming Bond movies, there good on thier own merits, but I would agree that "Die Another Day" is the worst Bond film PERIOD.

Peater Laird simply wants to tell people the story of the comics again

i would like to see bebop and Rocksteady, but not like in the old series.

Peter Laird has a more, "My way or the Highway" attitude about TMNT. That's why he's such an ass sometimes, when people react negatively about his work. He's shown utter contempt for the fans in his letters pages in the new books, on numbers of occassions. As for the old show and Next Mutation? I believe he does have a massive dislike for both of them. Especially next Mutation, for the existance of Venus.

Eastman was really the one that was willing to allow new interpretations of their characters and ideas. From what I understand, he's pretty much behind the original toon and even the next mutation being done. Probably why Eastman and Laird, sorta had a falling out and Eastman sold his part of the TMNT franchise and left. But Eastman loves talking about the TMNT still to this day at cons, including the old toon and TNM. He's a lot more easy going and willing to discuss TMNT, without treating people with a differing viewpoint as if they were an idiot.

Where as Laird comes off as very negative and rude to anyone that likes these different versions of his characters better then the ones that he created and nurtured. I can understand a bit, but if it really wasn't for the old toon, the archie book, and even the movies. The Turtles would have probably slipped away into the death of pop-culture a long time ago. I'm happy with the new toon, I just feel Laird really needs to lighten up on how he treats people who disagree with him.

I think many people fail to see that if the old show was redone today, and "upgraded" so to speak, it would be just as good as the comic oriented show. We would see the same old characters, like B & R, but they wouldn't be pushovers and actually get violent on the TMNT. A new, angrier Krang would be nice to see as well, because I'm certain he'd only add to the show and make the episodes more diverse.

Exactly, little plot details (Like THE TECHNODROME and Krang) would be great, but little else, give the new storylines (if any are added) time to develop

Yes DAD is the worst film. But if you compair most other films with the books, you'll notice the only thing they have in common is the titles, example the Moonraker novel had a man called Sir Hugo Drax, develope a nuclear missile called the "Moonraker". M turns Drax's idea down, but Drax vows revenge, he plans on launching his Moonraker into London. Bond saves London by reprograming the missile to fly into the sub Drax is escaping in. The film on the other hand, the only book aspects the film had was the name of the rocket, the name of the bad guy, and the bit where Bond and the girl are left in the blast pit. Instead of making a film about a mad-man bent on destroying London with a missile, they've made a sci-fi film about a man trying to destroy the human race from outer-space then repotulate Earth.

Back to the topic at hand.

Well I pretty much beleive the Americans wanted Drax's threat to be more...Global, I mean, the audience woul'nt care if one city was destroyed.

Another question, do Eastman and Laird still respect each other? What caused them to brake up?

According to Eastman: "Things just became different, not bad but different"

According to Laird: "We had some differences in opinion on the direction to take"

(Neither are exact quotes but both are very similar to ones I've seen in interviews)

I think we can assume that they just naturally grew apart. Also, Eastman became more involved in Heavy Metal. Eastman also moved to LA; while Peter remained in Mass. Hey things happen. Friendships come and go, it's a part of life.

Trust me, I know the feeling.

mabe later on down the line he will add some new Charaters. But not right now.

If I had created something as great as the TMNT, I would resent television networks for altering the original story so much. It happens all the time. I know I'm not supposed to bash the old 'toon, and I won't, but this is what happens. If I put myself in Laird's shoes, it would irk me just the thought of changing the bandanas different colors. I think without the different colors the turtles wouldn't have been as big as they were. Kids respond much better to colors. This is what you get for turning all the rights to these people, so he shouldn't complain. Plus, he did make money. For the benefit of the new cartoon, it's a good thing he was angry enough to make some demands this time around.

If you think about it, if the first cartoon would have been true to the comic, with some animation similar to The Maxx (if any of you remember that), it would have attracted mostly more mature audiences and the movies would have been much darker. Probably something more along the lines of The Crow. But that's hard to say. It would have probably been ahead of it's time and never flourished. It's kind of fun to think about though.

Correction, Eastman was no more invoved with the old cartoon than Laird. On the mail pages of Mirage issues they tell that beyond the first season, they had almost nothing to do with the series. Another thing, on Eastman's message board he said that his and Laird's view of the TMNT became difffrent, he liked it more Violent and gritty[IE Bodycount] and I guess Laird's view is what we see in Volume 4. Why was Eastman doing the Next Mutarion then? Beats me.

A Quote from an Interview:

So to answer the question on the topic, no, Eastman And Laird don't hate the old cartoon. But they aren't a big fans of it either. Can you blame them, If I created a dark and gritty comic book I might not be too fond of Children's version of it either. Both have said the old cartoon could have been a lot better. Next mutation is a diffrent story, I'd say Laird hates it.

he said the that as long as he lives venus wouldn't come back, and.................NEUTRINOS?????.............wha t were they thinking :x

Yea Laird hates it, and is insanely jealous hat he probably gets 100 questions a day about when are Rocksteady & Bebop coming back? And rarely if ever got questioned about Fugitoid, which is his pet project.

However, he should respect a lot more of the old series, especially R & B. since he did have a hand in creating many of the original characters. I know for a fact he created guys like Bebop and Mutagen Man...so why not take credit for them, re-write their bios and re-introduce them to the series? Surely they'd be cooler then "Stonebiter" and all those crappy random monsters.

You got a good point there, Newton. It's better to nurture a character rather than scrap him.

Because Bebop and Rocksteady were originally VERY different from the characters you know and love. In the first season, they were very violent and wanted to kill the TMNT BADLY. After that, they became the childish characters you know today.

they didn't even care about mutating, until shredder mentioned that if they mutated they would be able to have some revenge. In my opinion they weren't that different, but kinda were

woah! You do not flat out insult one of the creators of the great turltes. it is more than understandable that is attitude is as it is. he beleives in the turtles' true beginnings. the old show(not to insult it) and NM drastically changed what the turtles were. his vision of the turtles should remain true, because that's the way it's supposed to be. he is resistant to change now because os how the turles of the 90's lost the true voice of tthe TMNT. i personally, being a hard-core fan of the comics, feel you have to learn to respect such a great man.