"Why my Turtlez has lips?" - An Explainer

[turtlefanforever]

Originally Posted by hitmonkey

They're giant talking mutant turtles who know martial arts and fight a clan on ninja based out of Manhattan. Why does that concept need to take realism so far that we analyze the science of their ability to speak? The lips look dumb on a Ninja Turtle.

Exactly what I'm saying!

[AquaParade]

I've never really felt like I was the odd man out here when it came to judging the quality of most tmnt productions.

The Fred Wolf cartoon was my first love yet it's just nostalgia to me now.

I love the Mirage comics and dig the IDW ones enough to keep following.

The first movie is a classic to me while the Next Mutation/TMNT Fast Forward are sort of embarrassing.

I'm totally looking forward to this movie and the design's are daring and full of potential.

[Aelia]

Originally Posted by MsMarvelDuckie

Personally, I think he'd go for a darker shade, probably more of a plum or a dark wine. Mikey's pretty savvy when it comes to what's cool and trendy, plus he would want a shade that brings out his eyes. Since we all know he's the "pretty one".....

A nice warm purple to contrast. I approve.

To be serious for a bit though, I'll wait until I see the real designs in motion before giving it a miss. The Halloween costume is hilariously bad, but most movie costumes are.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by hitmonkey

They're giant talking mutant turtles who know martial arts and fight a clan on ninja based out of Manhattan.

Crisler's Law rears its ugly head once again.

Never fails.

[psychturtle]

there are some suggesting that the costume may not look at all like the final product. I think recent history suggests otherwise. Either way, I bet we see them lipping off to shredder on few occasions.

[Refractive Reflections]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

We don't need realism. It never bothered me the way the turtles mouths moved in the live action movies, or the CG in the 4th movie, or the Nick show.

The Turtles don't even look like the turtle anymore. They literally look like humans with green skin and a shell on their back. Between their human faces and that clothing, you can tell what they were going for. It has nothing to do with how they would speak.

But then again we still have to deal with white man Shredder, so this all boils down to an epic disaster.

At this point I'd welcome Venus de Milo back into the fold, she certainly couldn't make this movie any worse. Perhaps Megan Fox will get mutated into her.

So ironic the use of "realism" is applied here for the Turtles' visual design. If they were so concerned about realism, maybe they should have applied that to the script and scenes instead of that gaudy Turtle Van, the conspicuous, trenchcoat design in covering those massive Turtles that anybody could see from a block away, and with...

I could go on and on about the contradictions...

[CyberCubed]

This movie has me shocked and appalled. As well as flabbergasted and traumatized.

I guess this is what it feels like to have one of your childhood franchises completely torn apart and sent back at you with a dagger in the heart. Oh boy.

[Eterniandreams]

Lizard in the Spiderman Movie didnt have fat lips and he could speak fine..

[Kendamu]

It might just be the quality of the costume, but the lips seem kind of creepy to me. I ended up making a joke about it on my video regarding the whole thing. Skip to 1:45 for said joke.

[AquaParade]

Perhaps we will also get a look at some type of "Shredder" costume. I can only imagine how silly it might look.

Still, I'm one of the few on here who think's this design is bold and carries a lot of potential. It's all perspective. A few points to keep in mind...

- Currently, the biggest piece of the Ninja Turtle franchise is airing on a children's network.
-The last several TMNT movies were terrible toddler romps compared to what they could have been, yet were still financially successful enough to warrant more of the same.
- There is probably due pressure to sell tons of toys/licensing deals to go along with this film.

Despite these facts that we've been fairly aware of since the selling of the turtle franchise to Nickelodeon, they are apparently still attempting to give us something a little more edgy or outside the box than what we are used to when we mix Hollywood with our favorite green comic characters.

I know it would be great to get that type of Batman Begins thoughtfulness and reverence for the source material up on the screen. But, what we may get is the most daring TMNT film since the first and a huge step in acknowledging that Ninja Turtles have an adult audience out there.

[Kendamu]

Going from that perspective, I'm actually somewhat curious about the fight scenes in this film. Will they actually approach something deserving of a group of Ninja?

[Refractive Reflections]

Originally Posted by AquaParade

Despite these facts that we've been fairly aware of since the selling of the turtle franchise to Nickelodeon, they are apparently still attempting to give us something a little more edgy or outside the box than what we are used to when we mix Hollywood with our favorite green comic characters.

I know it would be great to get that type of Batman Begins thoughtfulness and reverence for the source material up on the screen. But, what we may get is the most daring TMNT film since the first and a huge step in acknowledging that Ninja Turtles are not just for young children.

I wish this same amount of energy in making these Turtles look flamboyantly "bad ass", was put toward its storywriting and characters (which miraculously could happen, but I'm not holding my breath or anything). I mean the first movie had cartoonish looking Turtles, but the depth and darkness of the storywriting was able to transcend the cartoonish looking visuals, and it was received fairly well for its premise and movie censorship rating.

But I guess we can only wait and see how things develop, right?

[Matches Malone]

Originally Posted by turtlefanforever

If u want green humans just say so. Their lips are very prominent. You'd think for 150 mil you'd get a better product considering the first movie was made with only thousands

Wha? Thousands? This isn't Paranormal Activity. The budget was 13.5 million.

[Candy Kappa]

Giving the turtles lips in this movie, prominent or not they are most likely gonna be there, I just hope they don't stick out as a sore thumb like the child's costume's mask do.

You don't need lips on a cgi character to make it appear to be speaking perfect English, that is a silly and a unimaginative way of thinking.

[nimajneb]

I'm happy to reserve judgment, I just want to see the Turtles on the big screen - the mean green teens will hopefully rock regardless of a bit of clothing and some human qualities ie lips.
I'm so used to seeing them have some bit of clothing when they're moving incognito I can look past it - and in 30 years of turtles almost all the action figures are wearing some stupid costume anyway (Bar undercover Don, thats not stupid; he's just AWESOME)

[TurtleMikey]

Originally Posted by Kendamu

Going from that perspective, I'm actually somewhat curious about the fight scenes in this film. Will they actually approach something deserving of a group of Ninja?

Jonathan Liebesman, the director, said that they'd being using 'The Raid: Redemption' as inspiration for the fight sequences and stuntwork.

[Galactus]

Originally Posted by AquaParade

Despite these facts that we've been fairly aware of since the selling of the turtle franchise to Nickelodeon, they are apparently still attempting to give us something a little more edgy or outside the box than what we are used to when we mix Hollywood with our favorite green comic characters.

I know it would be great to get that type of Batman Begins thoughtfulness and reverence for the source material up on the screen. But, what we may get is the most daring TMNT film since the first and a huge step in acknowledging that Ninja Turtles have an adult audience out there.

I'm not sure how this is a sign of being "daring" or "edgy" to me it seems less like they're aiming for an adult audience but rather taking a juvenile approach. Like this is what Michael Bay thinks most teenagers dress like.

[AquaParade]

Originally Posted by Galactus

I'm not sure how this is a sign of being "daring" or "edgy" to me it seems less like they're aiming for an adult audience but rather taking a juvenile approach. Like this is what Michael Bay thinks most teenagers dress like.

I consider it daring and edgy because it is stepping way outside of the comfort zone that this franchise is used to when it comes to Hollywood. Say what you will but they definitely didn't go the "safe route" with this movie.

The fact that they are attempting to aim this film at a somewhat adult audience is huge for the franchise. Guys, girls, everyone here 15 years old and up...Producers behind tmnt films haven't even considered us a factor in the last two decades. I'm pretty glad to be part of the equation again.
This isn't me trying to be an apologist for the film by merely stating that is a stepping-stone to something greater, though. I am legit excited to see the product we will be getting.

[funksk8er]

First of all, this is my first post. After reading this, I just couldn't hold back. I needed to voice my opinion. I really wanted to wait and reserve my judgment on the designs until I actually saw the live action ones, but honestly, that is really difficult to do after getting an image like this. (It really makes me wonder how much faith Paramount has in these designs, waiting this long to show us anything. STILL waiting to show us anything.) So, unfortunately, I am basing everything I say off of this design. I understand its a kid's costume and it wont be "this bad," but for me, it doesn't change the fact that these turtles will have HUMAN LIPS.

There is absolutely no reason that the turtles should have lips. I think lips on, let's say, the Hulk from the Avengers movie, make sense. He is obviously Bruce Banner, a human, mutated into a Hulk. For him to lose those lips would look odd and silly, and at the end of the day, would make zero sense. If these turtles mutated from humans, it would make much more sense for them to have lips. (And maybe they ARE changing the origins to that story. If that's the case, we have way larger issues on our hands.) But for a turtle to GROW lips, it makes zero sense. Now I get it—they stand upright, and grow fingers and other human features. But they NEED those to function the way they do. They do not need lips to sell me on them being real. They are giant walking turtles talking with humans. It's something that is already unbelievable and something you don't see everyday. Them having HUMAN LIPS doesn't make me go, "Ohhh, okay. I get it! THEY ARE REAL."

Now, I get that doing lips via motion capture on the actors probably saves the animators a lot of time when it comes to doing dialogue. But you don't need that to make them realistic. The fact that these characters are a 100% CGI already will never make them as realistic as the physical Henson creations from the 90's. Yes, the Henson faces seem somewhat dated and unrealistic. But why not combine a Henson style body suit with a CG style face? I think Spike Jonze pulled this off nicely with Where The Wild Things Are. These creatures have some sort of lips (not all of them), but they are obviously not human mouths, and I believe every one of them when they talk. In my opinion, the studio and director should've gone this route. This, to me, would've sold the "REAL" factor. Not human lips.


Also, I know Michael Bay is producing this movie, and I am sure he steamrolls a lot of decisions on this film, but the end product, good or bad, lies with the director Jonathan Liebesman.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by Kendamu

Going from that perspective, I'm actually somewhat curious about the fight scenes in this film. Will they actually approach something deserving of a group of Ninja?

Considering that they took away all the Foot Soldiers' ninja weapons and replaced them with guns, I'm venturing... no.