Has the "it's for kids' mentality been holding TMNT back?

[Davetello]

Yes. Of course it has. How could it not?

There's nothing wrong with writing or creating stuff that's aimed at young children. Slapstick and light-hearted is fine. But why can't we have different iterations targeted at different demographics? These kids will grow up one day too, and many of them will wish to see a more serious interpretation of the TMNT. I don't buy that there's no market for a more mature version of the turtles. Not only would many of us long-term fans embrace it, but if marketed well it would pull in adults who don't currently have an interest in the turtles.

If it was distributed via something with a reputation for quality and given free reign- HBO television or Vertigo comics, for example - the things that could be done with this franchise are almost limitless. There's so much untapped potential there. There is a lot that can be done to make these guys and their story a transcendent property in many ways. If it were to happen they could finally shake off their 'childish' stigma.

We have a clandestine ninja clan led by a ruthless master warrior. On the other side of the fence we have four animal outcasts trained by a rat - a rat who just so happens to be an enemy of said ninja master and is hell bent on obtaining vengeance for his own dead master.We have one guy who is level-headed and has incredible levels of focus. Another who's filled with almost uncontrollable rage and anger against the world. One more whose more serene and friendly personality is the antithesis of the previous guy's. And a final turtle whose intelligence and genius seemingly knows no bounds. Four stereotypical, but very untapped, personalities. Infinite layers of meat could be put on these bones. Imagine the character development that the heroes and villains could go through? Heck, like all good shows there wouldn't even be such a clear dichotomy between villains and heroes. The show would blur the line and challenge the viewer to see the good in the 'villain' and the bad in the 'hero'. The potential character development for this property is incredible: flashbacks to Saki as a child, and his inability to really get over Nagi's death - cool-headed lethal warrior on the outside, but full of rage, hate and spite on the inside. Splinter's similar flashbacks to his life with Yoshi and Tang Shen. After the turtles' initial failure to kill Shredder on the roof, they begin to feel that insatiable quench for revenge through Splinter and his pain. And so forth.

The things that could be done with this franchise are incredible. More creative minds than mine could come up with all sorts of ideas - it's what they'd be paid to do. Imagine an HBO or Netflix series of 7 seasons of 13 eps. The first two or three seasons could adapt and follow the main parts of Mirage - the first few eps could set the stage and develop the origin stories, and by the time it gets to the season 3 finale we could be watching City at War. & after that it could evolve to new stories and interpretations.

I don't buy into the claim that "they're turtles so the property is too unrealistic or immature to be taken seriously". The X-Men are unrealistic, Spider-Man is unrealistic. Heck, Martian Manhunter is even more unrealistic than the TMNT. It just takes a little open-mindedness between creators and consumers alike to do this franchise the justice it is so desperately waiting on.

Seriously, a Netflix or HBO inspired mature TMNT TV series would be the greatest thing of all time. It will never happen, but I fantasise about it daily. What an incredible ride it would be, if done with quality.

We all grow up eventually. These guys are perpetually 15 or 16 and it's high time that they became adult ninja turtles.