If you could create your own incarnation of the TMNT

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

My own incarnation of TMNT would be set in 1930s New York, with the Turtles being the Pet Turtles of Crime lord known only as 'The Shredder'. One day, the Turtles are washed up in an unfortunate accident at the nearest chemical plant, which mutates them into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Without a home and poor, they are taken in by a wise old Rat called 'Splinter', who turns out to be one of Shredder's followers mutated in the same plant as the Turtles. Splinter wants revenge on Shredder for leaving him. He teaches the Turtles all about Ninjutsu, which he believes is the only way to take down the Shredder.

The Turtles dress like 1930s gangsters with ancient ninja twists. Along with carrying their signiture weapons, also carry a gun with ammo. Shredder looks like a mob boss in a suit, but also has the ability to extend blades from armour he wears underneath his suit.

It's a bit basic and some things would probably change, but this is basiclly my own version of the Turtles.

[Commenter 42]

Mirage TMNT, on HBO, produced exactly like Game of Thrones.
Follow the comic, with some small revisions (expanding fights/dialogue to fill time)
Bring in Laird to write scenes and consult.
I would play out the Yoshi/Saki backstory in the first 2 episodes, lead off episode 3 with issue 1, and split it between episode 3 and 4.
Episodes 5-10 would be integration of everything leading up to city at war' which would lead off season 2.

No reimagining of origin. The fights would be as graphic as thrones. The humour would be bleak. All set in New York, in the early 1980's. No time shifting to 2014.
And yes, we'd see Triceratons. The goal would be to keep it as "camp free" as possible, even with Triceratons, or mutants, alien brains, space etc. This means no "SyFy channel" cheapness. Big budget, real sets etc. The Turtles are Ninjas, but also children. They are assassins, not cartoons. They have a quiet violence about them. They are unnerving, aggressive, and obedient. They are wild animals that have been trained, not tamed.
David Fincher directs episode 1 to set the tone.

[Leo656]

^^I'd dig that and would prefer it to a movie, honestly. Gets around all the quibbles like "A movie has no time for motivation, plot, or backstory." That'd be neat to see.

I had an idea for an origin that would tie into the universe of the fics I was writing back in the day, and I still kind of mean to do it one day, but it was more about explaining how the characters would fit into that universe (which was kind of a hodge-podge of various other comic universes) than specifically my own "ideal" version of them. I think it'd be good for its own thing but not at all as a "definitive" version.

[Commenter 42]

Originally Posted by Leo656

^^I'd dig that...

I guess I still think that first comic has soooo much potential, done right. I also think the turtles belong in the 80's, a time when New York was New York and gangs were serious, and you didn't dare go down a dark Alley. There was a mystery to the city. It was violent, expensive, corrupt. Unemployment was at an all time high, and people dressed like freaks.
The turtles can exist in this time, no camera phones, no security cams (of any quality) and a city that needed saving.
It's a time when, seeing a turtle in a trench coat, "ah, it's New York! What did ya expect?"
Oh, and they'd absolutely prefer a cold beer to over Pizza. Maybe with a pizza. Bah, now I want Beer and Pizza.

[Leo656]

Yeah, I do think being a product of its time is a big part of what made it strike such a chord. Kind of like how "Watchmen" only could have been set in the 80s during the Cold War for it to really work. Changing that detail changes the entire story.

TMNT obviously is much more fluid than that, but I'd argue the early-80s setting was the *best* place for it to work. Of course, saying anything was better in the 80s is kind of like, "Yeah, no sh*t, genius."

[Commenter 42]

Originally Posted by Leo656

Yeah, I do think being a product of its time is a big part of what made it strike such a chord. Kind of like how "Watchmen" only could have been set in the 80s during the Cold War for it to really work. Changing that detail changes the entire story.

TMNT obviously is much more fluid than that, but I'd argue the early-80s setting was the *best* place for it to work. Of course, saying anything was better in the 80s is kind of like, "Yeah, no sh*t, genius."

Lol. Truth!

The Watchmen comparison is exactly my meaning. Sure TMNT can be set when ever, but, why? In a post 9/11 New York, there's no hiding. It's sanitized, not that it's a bad thing, but, if the turtles were created today, they would make way more sense in, say Detroit? Outside the US, like, say, Rio? Or Caracas? How about Fukushima for radioactive waste? I think the story is rather time dependent, at least from my viewpoint.

[Leo656]

If someone came up with it today it would probably be an entirely fictional city, I think, just to make it easier to tell the story without it being nailed down to one time or place, or having to be too tied into "reality". Kinda like how in the first few stories, Batman's base of operations was explicitly "New York", then quickly changed to "Gotham City" a few issues later. It's tough to tell a fictional story in a real-life, contemporary setting. Especially when bad guys in your story are always trying to blow it up and stuff.

Kinda why I'm not huge on Marvel being based in the "real world". It makes no sense, that isn't "realistic" at all. You can have a story where, I'unno, Dr. Doom or someone blows up the Statue of Liberty... but you look outside, it's still there. You do an issue where all the heroes and villains are reacting to 9/11, because they all live in NY in the comics... so, you mean to tell me, these guys combined have stopped a couple hundred alien invasions, dimensional collapses, and even terrorist attacks, yet somehow, 9/11 still happened in their reality? How? Was Spider-Man on vacation in Aruba? Was Captain America taking a sh*t? WTF?

I kind of prefer the analogs that DC and other comic book fictions use, because you can avoid those pesky things but still be topical. Like whenever they want to do a story in the Middle East, but don't want to piss off the people who actually live there, they just use "Qurac" or "Pokolistan" or some other made-up city. You can blow up Coast City and wipe it off the map to tell your story; you can't do that with Los Angeles, you know?

So, I think if they were just creating TMNT for the first time today, I honestly think they'd set it in some kind of "Delta City" or "Metro City" kind of deal, just to make it simple.

[Commenter 42]

Originally Posted by Leo656

If someone came up with it today it would probably be an entirely fictional city, ...

I totally see your point. I feel the same when the laws of physics or reality are broken. It's the thing I really enjoy about Thrones. People die, and don't come back. When someone is hurt, they rarely heal completely.

Too many films and shows have punches thrown, cars explode, gunshot wounds, etc...with no lasting effects. How many times has a guy been shot, only for the hero to say, "you okay?" For the requisite "yeah, now go get that S.O.B" from their partner. LIKE HELL. Some one gets shot, they scream like a bitch

I think a grounded reality ups the stakes. It's compelling when you know that everything that happens will have lasting consequences to the story.
I guess that's what would set my version apart. The violence isn't just gratuitous. It would have a real impact on the turtles and supporting characters..

[Lightjump]

My incarnation would be a little closer to the nick story line with a bit of mirage and my own twist. With the Utroms being responsible for the ooze, but my idea is for the ooze to be a coolant for a machine that the Utroms are trying to make to make earth their new home world. The ooze we know is coolant that has been exposed to radiation and was dumped. However Hamato Yoshi(he was banished from the foot clan by Oroku Saki for harboring feelings for Saki's bride to be Tang Shen, but she joins Yoshi in exile and dies on the trip to America) a worker at the Utrom's factory, falls into the waste and washes up into the sewers while they were dumping it. Rats crowd around him, clawing and scratching at him, and he is mutated. Once he is mutated he finds four turtles that had been exposed as well, and takes them in. At first he doesn't teach them to fight, but he decides to after an incident on the surface. While an angry Shredder searches for Yoshi in New York, Splinter hides in the sewers with his sons, ever vigilant.

[Davetello]

Turtles on HBO Mirage-style sounds incredible.

[Netkeeper]

If I could create a TMNT incarnation, I'd just create a sequel to 2k3 done in the same animation style as season 1, dismissing anything after season 5 as non-canon.

And I'd just hire the same creative team and let them do what they do. This is all hypothetical anyway, and I can just say in this hypothetical scenario that I'm the one funding it.

[Slade]

Originally Posted by Commenter 42

Mirage TMNT, on HBO, produced exactly like Game of Thrones.
Follow the comic, with some small revisions (expanding fights/dialogue to fill time)
Bring in Laird to write scenes and consult.
I would play out the Yoshi/Saki backstory in the first 2 episodes, lead off episode 3 with issue 1, and split it between episode 3 and 4.
Episodes 5-10 would be integration of everything leading up to city at war' which would lead off season 2.

No reimagining of origin. The fights would be as graphic as thrones. The humour would be bleak. All set in New York, in the early 1980's. No time shifting to 2014.
And yes, we'd see Triceratons. The goal would be to keep it as "camp free" as possible, even with Triceratons, or mutants, alien brains, space etc. This means no "SyFy channel" cheapness. Big budget, real sets etc. The Turtles are Ninjas, but also children. They are assassins, not cartoons. They have a quiet violence about them. They are unnerving, aggressive, and obedient. They are wild animals that have been trained, not tamed.
David Fincher directs episode 1 to set the tone.

Yep, yep, this all works for me. Though I don't know who David Fincher is, but whatever. It all sounds great.

[Leo656]

Whether or not it'd be my ideal TMNT, I'd watch the hell out of that show, for sure. I don't even really like Mirage but I think that a "Game Of Thrones"-style "mature" TV series based on it would be un-freaking-believable.

We'd probably get an April shower scene or two just for the sake of it, since those shows all do that now, so yeah, bring it on.

[Netkeeper]

There's a good chance I'd watch that as long as it wasn't CGI.

[Davetello]

Yep, shame it will never happen but then that's not the point of the thread.

^ Oh yea, defo live-action and not CGI. Doubt HBO would do CGI anyway.

I keep trying 'HBO' as 'HBK' and having to retype lol.

[Prowler]

Something like the 4Kids series animation-wise but with:

- Mirage Origin for both Turtles and Splinter
- Shredder being human
- More mature themes
- Blood and more deaths
- Better humor
- Raphael being closer to his FW persona
- Michelangelo having a brain
- Bebop and Rocksteady and both being fairly credible threats like in the first season of the FW series

...more or less this. Although I also like things such as April being a reporter, Shredder being an utrom, Krang and The Technodrome, etc. It's complicated to make an ultimate version of the TMNT mixing my favorite elements from each incarnation. Oh well, can't complain about the variety of the franchise, I guess.

[Davetello]

"Michelangelo having a brain"

Poor Mikey really does take a pounding sometimes I agree though, a less comedic, more intropsective version of him would be nice, e.g. like Mirage where he more more serious and eventually became a writer.

[Leo656]

I always wanted to see Bebop and Rocksteady done in a way that was like, just full-on Beast Mode. Giant, massive, 'roided-up, no-pain-feeling, smoke-breathing, brick-smashing, rampaging power-houses. They don't even need to talk. Just make them uncontrollable beasts who will literally smash anything and everyone in their way to pieces indiscriminately. Insane, frightening, just completely horrifying creatures. It'd be super-easy and I'unno why it's never been attempted other than people's minds being wedded to their insipid cartoon versions. A lot of people absolutely hate the characters, and I can see why, but I think THAT version would be able to win almost everyone over.

[Netkeeper]

I never understood why people cared about Bebop and Rocksteady at all, really. I've always found them stupid and boring.

And I also don't feel adding blood and deaths make a show more "mature". I like things that are watchable by anybody; the most I'm okay with is an occasional moment that'd bump a single episode up in rating from time to time.

[Davetello]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I always wanted to see Bebop and Rocksteady done in a way that was like, just full-on Beast Mode. Giant, massive, 'roided-up, no-pain-feeling, smoke-breathing, brick-smashing, rampaging power-houses. They don't even need to talk. Just make them uncontrollable beasts who will literally smash anything and everyone in their way to pieces indiscriminately. Insane, frightening, just completely horrifying creatures. It'd be super-easy and I'unno why it's never been attempted other than people's minds being wedded to their insipid cartoon versions. A lot of people absolutely hate the characters, and I can see why, but I think THAT version would be able to win almost everyone over.

I guess they're more hardcore in IDW, but yeah, still not as full-on mental as you describe.