Official Info on the Nick TMNT Series

[Master Splinter]

JoeGro was fortunate enough to be invited to the TMNT even at Nick. He does not have a blog or anything like that so he sent me his write up on the event to be posted here so it can get the same love (or hate) that others who have attended received...

-ms

Joe Gro's trip to the Nickelodeon TMNT fan preview event:

I arrived at LAX in California early on Tuesday (the 29th), it was about noon. I was picked up at the airport and brought to the hotel. When I entered my room I found a nifty little gift box full of surprises, a nice sentiment on Viacom/Nickelodeon's behalf, not to mention the room wasn't half bad and had a big flat screen TV. Later that afternoon I finally got to meet quite a few of the goers of the Technodrome forum, I enjoyed meeting everyone and had a blast that evening. The next morning we were all driven to the Nick animation studio where breakfast and Nickelodeon staff members were waiting. After breakfast, an introduction by everyone and a tour of the studios, we were treated to a sneak peak (in animatic form) of the new TMNT series. Though the repeating them throughout this whole event was "Mutation in Progress" I can only hope that more progress is made before the release of this series. I'll save my comments on that for the end. We were also treated to a display of Playmates toys' collection of TMNT toys from over the years as well as a look at prototypes of the new toy line. Later we were treated to a table read by the working voice cast, which was pretty entertaining. Afterwards we had lunch with the cast, everyone in the cast made sure they spoke to everyone there. So a lot of great stuff. When we were broke up into focus groups, things got a bit harry on my end. Though I think many had issues with things like; April being sixteen years old, and the Turtles with an extra front toe, those things were but the tip of the iceberg for me. There I was stuck in a painful situation. I wanted to love this new series more than you can possibly imagine, I was pumped especially with all of the build up prior to the event, being around so many other Turtle fans, we were getting to experience something before anyone else. Such excitement. Then..... the heartbreak of a lifetime.... I hated almost all of it. With the exception of digging the voice cast, and thoroughly enjoying what we were shown of the designs of Shredder....it tore me apart watching it. Though I love Jason Biggs' voice as Leonardo, the way he was written was, well, simply put, goofy....not the heroic, skilled leader as I've come to love him as. Raphael was cool, but crude (or rude, depending on how your ears heard the theme.) Though I liked Michelangelo's voice, his character seemed dumber than has ever been....the biggest disappointment was Donatello. Voiced by my most favorite voice actor of all time, Mr. Rob Paulsen. Rob did an amazing job, I wasn't quite sure how he'd pull it off, but I knew he would, and he did. However, the appearance of Donatello vexed me. He was quite a bit taller and lankier than the other Turtles, he was head over hills for April, and I wasn't feelin' it. The biggest hearbreaker for me out of everything was the way Splinter was portrayed. He was monstrous, much taller than the four green brothers and he came off as younger than his previous incarnations (though some will argue with me on that.) Splinter is small, almost frail, old and wise. He gained the respect of his disciples and his opponents because of how skilled he was. Splinter is intended to be much like teacher characters from the past such as Yoda from Star Wars. Nickelodeon's explanation for the change was to make him a better match for the Shredder and to be a more intimidating father figure to the Turtles. Size doesn't always equal might in the world of martial arts.
When our group was broken up into focus groups I mentioned all of this bluntly and with emotion. It truly bothered me and I felt terrible having to do it. The folks at Nick were so nice and generous and I was greatly appreciative for that, but I felt like they messed up my family and I had to let them know. I know a lot of folks that attended will probably look at me like I'm nuts, that maybe I'm looking into things too much, or that I'm griping about minor things and thinking I should just be grateful that TMNT is continuing on and I totally understand that. However, TMNT is no longer Eastman and Laird's TMNT, I'm having trouble dealing with that, but I was willing to give Nick the benefit of the doubt and brace myself for changes I might have to get use to or deal with, but this just went too far (in my opinion). This isn't dismissing the amount of talent, fine artwork, writing, etc. I would have considered it beautiful if it would have been a different show, but this was my (and our) TMNT they were dealing with. Despite all the passionate, negative emotion that I felt when viewing the sneak peak, I had an amazing time, I enjoyed meeting everyone and I'm very thankful for the chance to experience something such as this. Was it worth going? Absolutely!