Interview With Michael Bay: Talks About Problems With TMNT

[Cipher]

Originally Posted by Leo656

As I've been discussing in another thread, while there's absolutely a lighthearted element inherent to the very concept of TMNT, there are ALSO a great deal of very real, very powerful themes/issues, that have presented themselves in every single version of the material, from Mirage to Archie and everything else that's ever been done with it.

Ah, yeah. There's an inherent comic-book silliness to it even Mirage at its most serious never drops (because that wouldn't be engaging with that question in the way I meant above). But it massages it into a tone of alienating strangeness, or a platform for allowing the kinds of anything-goes, occasionally winking stories they need to get at real pathos.

But, yeah, the best strikes somewhere in that balance, in the way that it uses both sides to actually grapple with that underlying question. It has to acknowledge, 1) Yes, this is silly, but 2) Here's why it's set up this way and here's why you should care. And there are great answers for that second bit if the creators behind the project choose to care/engage with their material in a way that goes beyond coasting on recognition.

No creator going into a Turtles project who doesn't stop to ask, "Okay, in a vacuum, why would I choose to tell a story about four mutant ninja turtles?" is ever going to produce anything great.