Were the Red Sky seasons (and maybe more) produced as part of a Fant4stic scenario?

[neatoman]

So... I've noticed that not only were the Red Sky seasons """Darker""" than the previous seasons, they were also absurdly short and the episodes still seemed to have the same shoestring budget as before. Not only that but the proper season 7, season 6 and season 5 were also fairly short...

Was this a Fant4stic scenario? In case you don't know, Fant4stic is a movie that was made for literally no other purpose than to make sure FOX retained the rights to the Fantastic Four because they were afraid Disney would make a profit with the characters (which was pointless in retrospect as Disney and FOX would merge 4 years later). The movie's official budget is 120+ million, but it's likely inflated by counting magic to appease some contract obligation and was probably made for way less. It has a bunch of no name actors and the writer who would later go on to shitdump all over Death Note. The director kept showing up drunk and... Look, the production was a shitshow, alright.

Anyway, considering that Fred Wolf attemped to take control of the IP through lawsuits like cowardly parasites and that the Next Mutation debuted 10 months after the show ended, it's pretty clear that:

1. The license was going to expire pretty much right after the show officially ceased production and both parties likely knew this.
2. The disgusting tactic of trying to steal copyright through lawsuits meant that Mirage would never want to renew the license.

So while I guess it'll never be officially confirmed, this was probably a Fant4stic scenario.

Which would mean that at least 24 episodes at a minimum were only made to prevent a loss of license. And it's possible that up to 74 were.

[Leo656]

I think you'd need the paperwork to be able to prove it in court, but that's an intriguing scenario you propose, Councilor. I'll allow it. It's definitely a possibility.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by neatoman

they were also absurdly short and the episodes still seemed to have the same shoestring budget as before. Not only that but the proper season 7, season 6 and season 5 were also fairly short...

By 1993–1994, the TMNT were no longer as popular as when the interest peaked around 1989–1990. So, producing less episodes for each year made sense.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Original TMNT Cartoon Fan

By 1993–1994, the TMNT were no longer as popular as when the interest peaked around 1989–1990. So, producing less episodes for each year made sense.

The typical standard for a cartoon season is 26 episodes. Short ones are usually 13 episodes long. 8 is really rare.

[CyberCubed]

By 1992 Power Rangers was the new kid fad so TMNT which was already fading in popularity hit hard. After they saw how popular Batman: TAS was which also came out in 1992 the show was re-tooled to mimic it. Of course the show ended by 1996.

Had the original cartoon managed to go on longer, by the time Pokemon came out in the west in 1998 it would have destroyed what was left of TMNT by that point anyway.

[ZariusTwo]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

By 1992 Power Rangers was the new kid fad so TMNT which was already fading in popularity hit hard. After they saw how popular Batman: TAS was which also came out in 1992 the show was re-tooled to mimic it. Of course the show ended by 1996.

Had the original cartoon managed to go on longer, by the time Pokemon came out in the west in 1998 it would have destroyed what was left of TMNT by that point anyway.

Look also at the damage Pokemon did to Spider-Man when it tried to bounce back after the cancellation of the 90s series. Spider-Man Unlimited went up against it and got soundly trashed, and there wasn't a new Spidey cartoon until 2002 to tie in with Raimi movies.

[Sumac]

Who knows, but given the "quality" of the Seasons 8-10, I wouldn't exclude this possibility.

Though, personally, I believe, they just wanted to retool the show into "darker and edgier" to match Batman TAS.

[cammy85]

I always assumed it had something to do with James Avery being busy playing Uncle Phil in person on Fresh Prince. He voiced Shredder 12 times in Season 2's Saturday run and 11 times in the extra episodes; the amount diminishing each season until he was replaced in Season 7, where Shredder appeared 10 our of 14 timed in the main season and 10 out of 13 times in the Europe thanks to a different VA most of the time. The change was inevitable.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Sumac

Who knows, but given the "quality" of the Seasons 8-10, I wouldn't exclude this possibility.

Season 8 is very well animated, by the standards of the show up to that point. Seasons 9-10 had a noticeable downgrade in quality. Of course, that usually owes to the animation studio, but maybe Fred Wolf Films went with a cheaper option after the first set of 8 episodes.

I've always thought the shift in animation style was an attempt to keep the TMNT brand relevance in a post-Batman TAS landscape.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

By 1992 Power Rangers was the new kid fad so TMNT which was already fading in popularity hit hard. After they saw how popular Batman: TAS was which also came out in 1992 the show was re-tooled to mimic it. Of course the show ended by 1996.

Had the original cartoon managed to go on longer, by the time Pokemon came out in the west in 1998 it would have destroyed what was left of TMNT by that point anyway.

Mighty Morphin Power Rangers debuted in August 1993

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mighty..._Power_Rangers

That said, there were other franchises gaining popularity by 1992.

[PizzaPower1985]

Originally Posted by neatoman

So... I've noticed that not only were the Red Sky seasons """Darker""" than the previous seasons, they were also absurdly short and the episodes still seemed to have the same shoestring budget as before. Not only that but the proper season 7, season 6 and season 5 were also fairly short...

Was this a Fant4stic scenario? In case you don't know, Fant4stic is a movie that was made for literally no other purpose than to make sure FOX retained the rights to the Fantastic Four because they were afraid Disney would make a profit with the characters (which was pointless in retrospect as Disney and FOX would merge 4 years later). The movie's official budget is 120+ million, but it's likely inflated by counting magic to appease some contract obligation and was probably made for way less. It has a bunch of no name actors and the writer who would later go on to shitdump all over Death Note. The director kept showing up drunk and... Look, the production was a shitshow, alright.

Anyway, considering that Fred Wolf attemped to take control of the IP through lawsuits like cowardly parasites and that the Next Mutation debuted 10 months after the show ended, it's pretty clear that:

1. The license was going to expire pretty much right after the show officially ceased production and both parties likely knew this.
2. The disgusting tactic of trying to steal copyright through lawsuits meant that Mirage would never want to renew the license.

So while I guess it'll never be officially confirmed, this was probably a Fant4stic scenario.

Which would mean that at least 24 episodes at a minimum were only made to prevent a loss of license. And it's possible that up to 74 were.

Definitely a possibility BUT... if they were just episodes made for retaining some kind of rights, they did a pretty good job considering several factors:

1) These were far more serious shows than previous seasons.

2) TMNT were not as popular by 1994 as they had been during turtlemania.

3) They didn't have to change anything as dramatically as they did, especially if FW knew the license would expire. It's surprising because changing direction in the middle of production generally means spending more $$$ for different character designs, hiring new writers (which they did until Wise came back) etc.

It's definitely an interesting scenario. Wish we could confirm it.