TMNT: Mutant Mayhem

[neatoman]

That's what mental gymnastics are…

Still, I wonder what they'll do Baxter if his role isn't to be turned into a fly? Yes, I obviously know that Baxter isn't really the "turns into a fly" character and that's reductive/incorrect to think of him as such, as do you reading this message considering where you are. I'm just surprised that anyone making this movie knows or even cares about him beyond the stupid fly thing.

Then again they do at least know the mutants are the bi-product of something called "Utrom" from something called "TCRI", and they are also (quite literally) the first people to recognise that Bebop and Rocksteady don't need to have started out as human. So I'll at least give them props in realising there are… Some parts of TMNT that didn't start with FW or Playmates and that you don't need to rigidly stick to what they established (despite strangely using the toys as the basis for the Turtles' designs).

[CyberCubed]

I'm just glad one of the Turtles said, "maybe get a girlfriend" in the trailer instead of "maybe get a boyfriend."

Man, we really dodged a bullet here. The Turtles talking about being normal teenagers in school is bad enough, but at least we know (at least so far) they like girls. I'm scared out of my mind one of the Turtles will be hinted as gay, probably Donatello.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Even though it looks like both are in the movie as separate characters played by wildly different voiceactors?

Which I'm fine with that. I prefer him as a human than a fly mutant. Still, Superfly's existence is weird.

[Andrew NDB]

I'm still betting Baxter will be the overall big bad. You don't hire Giancarlo Esposito for just a throwaway cameo character.

[TigerClaw]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

I'm just glad one of the Turtles said, "maybe get a girlfriend" in the trailer instead of "maybe get a boyfriend."

Man, we really dodged a bullet here. The Turtles talking about being normal teenagers in school is bad enough, but at least we know (at least so far) they like girls. I'm scared out of my mind one of the Turtles will be hinted as gay, probably Donatello.

What surprised me was Leo saying about getting a girlfriend, Raph should've probably said it, Since he does canonically always get a girlfriend, Be it a mutant or alien, Even Mikey had a girlfriend at one time who was an alien.

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

What surprised me was Leo saying about getting a girlfriend, Raph should've probably said it, Since he does canonically always get a girlfriend

Leonardo literally had a girlfriend in the source material in Mirage.

[LeotheLateBloomer]

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

What surprised me was Leo saying about getting a girlfriend, Raph should've probably said it, Since he does canonically always get a girlfriend, Be it a mutant or alien, Even Mikey had a girlfriend at one time who was an alien.

Haven't you already mentioned this two times in this thread already?

[CyberCubed]

Baxter being the main villain makes sense I guess, although it's weird there are no mousers? I wonder why the original scripts had Rat King as the main villain but then cut him from the movie? I guess saving him for a sequel if it happens.

[TigerClaw]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Baxter being the main villain makes sense I guess, although it's weird there are no mousers? I wonder why the original scripts had Rat King as the main villain but then cut him from the movie? I guess saving him for a sequel if it happens.

You are forgetting who the real villain actually is, There's a character called Cynthia Ultrom in the movie, She could be an Utrom that provided Baxter with the mutagen.

[TheLabRat]

Maybe some of turtles would repel this kind of Interspecies love because it's no different than bestiality.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

You are forgetting who the real villain actually is, There's a character called Cynthia Ultrom in the movie, She could be an Utrom that provided Baxter with the mutagen.

Her role in the storyboards is that she's a TCRI scientist who put mind control devices on the mutants and made a cure for the mutagen, then she is put into a cage by Superfly while proclaiming all she did was in the name of science and Superfly saying that she killed his "father", not to mention how she also claimed she wished she had squashed him as a baby.

It's not exactly difficult to figure out what the missing puzzle pieces are here.

[Autbot_Benz]

here is Leatherhead's figure

[TigerClaw]

Originally Posted by Autbot_Benz

here is Leatherhead's figure

https://i.imgur.com/phheVou.jpg

Can't wait to here what Leatherhead will sound like, Since this version will be female voiced by Rose Byrne.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Autbot_Benz

here is Leatherhead's figure

https://i.imgur.com/phheVou.jpg

… Out of all the (non-turtle, non-rat) mutant characters having such questionable designs and the confirmation that nearly all of them will just be turned into regular animals, presumably to not return for any sequels or the cartoon show, this is the one that actually bothers me. I don't care that Bebop, Rocksteady, Wingnut, Mondo Gecko, Napoleon, Ray Fillet or Scumbug fall victim to the unappealing art direction and will just be here to fill screen space. They were toyline filler trash, not really intended to be taken serious as "actual" characters, the fact that anyone bothered to use them at all after their initial action figures were taken off the shelves in the 90's is quite frankly more veneration than they ever earned. The mere fact that the franchise has never had a standard origin or alignment for most of these losers is testament to how little they matter beyond some vague nostalgia for their toys. Wingnut in particular alternates between being an alien, a mutant, a good guy, a bad guy, a mindless beast and was even depicted as a fictional character turned real. If that's not evidence that nobody ever cared about the character beyond the idea of a humanoid bat creature, I don't know what it.

But Leatherhead… Leatherhead was more than that, an actual character designed with a real role in mind. So just seeing this ugly homage to what the toy looked like and basically discarding him by the end seems less appropriate to me.

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

Can't wait to here what Leatherhead will sound like, Since this version will be female voiced by Rose Byrne.

Technically, we just know that the voice actor is a woman, not the character. Or I suppose Bart Simpson and Goku are girls?

[TheCanadiandrome]

Originally Posted by Autbot_Benz

here is Leatherhead's figure

https://i.imgur.com/phheVou.jpg

Wow that looks bad

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

Can't wait to here what Leatherhead will sound like, Since this version will be female voiced by Rose Byrne.

Omg fr? Damn

[Zog The Magnificent]

Y'know, seeing all the people who are like "Wow, the animation looks cool, this movie will be awesome!":

Those people probably didn't see the leaked storyboards.

Even some of the people here are starting to be more optimistic, and we DID see the leaked storyboards. I think that optimism might be misplaced. Because those storyboards were awful, and even the coolest animation can't save a trash story, which, based on everything we know about the story itself, is exactly what this movie has.

And even with the animation, you can't honestly look at these character designs and say they look GOOD. Most of them are downright awful and over-stylized to the point of horribleness.

[Cowabung-Gal]

Originally Posted by Zog The Magnificent

Y'know, seeing all the people who are like "Wow, the animation looks cool, this movie will be awesome!":

Those people probably didn't see the leaked storyboards.

Even some of the people here are starting to be more optimistic, and we DID see the leaked storyboards. I think that optimism might be misplaced. Because those storyboards were awful, and even the coolest animation can't save a trash story, which, based on everything we know about the story itself, is exactly what this movie has.

And even with the animation, you can't honestly look at these character designs and say they look GOOD. Most of them are downright awful and over-stylized to the point of horribleness.

Well said, dude. Well said.

“Ignorance is bliss” really applies to people who aren’t actually part of the fandom.

[Shark_Blade]

I’m just comparing Mutant Mayhem and Into & Across the spider-verse visually and… it’s like night and day.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Zog The Magnificent

Y'know, seeing all the people who are like "Wow, the animation looks cool, this movie will be awesome!":

Those people probably didn't see the leaked storyboards.

Even some of the people here are starting to be more optimistic, and we DID see the leaked storyboards. I think that optimism might be misplaced. Because those storyboards were awful, and even the coolest animation can't save a trash story, which, based on everything we know about the story itself, is exactly what this movie has.

And even with the animation, you can't honestly look at these character designs and say they look GOOD. Most of them are downright awful and over-stylized to the point of horribleness.

To be fair, we do still have some missing puzzle pieces and there seems to have been some changes since that stage of production, but the core of the story just doesn't seem to be good. The fact that most characters that were advertised only appear to be there to sell toys and get a baby friendly equivalent of being "killed off", is rather awkward no matter what. Not to mention that the storyboards before this most recent trailer was bad but now somehow seems even more with more context, I mean, how does the revision make it worse?

According to the storyboards alone, April was tracking down the Rat King and Superfly didn't reveal himself to be evil until after they infiltrated TCRI and/or he had already tricked the Turtles into helping him, not really good story but at least I can see a way in which it makes sense. But now with the trailer it goes like this:

1. April is tracking Superfly himself.
2. Superfly explicitly commits murders to keep his identity secret.
3. The Turtles team up with him on the basis that he is another mutant.
4. Superfly may reveal his evil plan before the Turtles help him (it could just be editing in the trailer that makes it look like this).

By all implication, the Turtles will team up with a guy they know to be a serial killer and quite possibly also know he intends to commit global genocide… Our heroes ladies and gentlemen…

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by Zog The Magnificent

Y'know, seeing all the people who are like "Wow, the animation looks cool, this movie will be awesome!":

Those people probably didn't see the leaked storyboards.

Even some of the people here are starting to be more optimistic, and we DID see the leaked storyboards. I think that optimism might be misplaced. Because those storyboards were awful, and even the coolest animation can't save a trash story, which, based on everything we know about the story itself, is exactly what this movie has.

And even with the animation, you can't honestly look at these character designs and say they look GOOD. Most of them are downright awful and over-stylized to the point of horribleness.

Me personally, I did not look at that second leak of storyboards. I dislike how trailers often spoil too much as is, or show all the best parts of a movie and leave nothing good for the actual viewing, so for better or worse, I'd rather not see too much of the storyboards for the same reason. Even if the film turned out to be hot trash, I'd rather at least not be bored watching it, too, because I already knew too much.

As far as designs go... Leo I mostly like. Raph looks pretty okay...he just needs a regular mask. Donnie, obvious issue we all know. Mikey, still, that melon head is a bit much.

April... setting aside WHO is she meant to be and personal biases that affect opinions and just looking at the model, for what they chose to go with with she's a pretty solid design. Her face design makes me think of Pixar, which makes her maybe a bit generic, but that's also safe I guess. Goodness knows they could have gone more abstract with her design along with the general art style this movie is going with. (edit: Got myself stuck on the Tim Burton association and now I'm just picturing some bizarrely pointy-faced character as skinny and lanky as Jack Skellington. lol)

Splinter is more or less okay. The size of the ears bug me, to be honest. Not greatly, it's a minor thing, but in that recent trailer my brain kept seeing the texture of them as part of something behind him, not his actual ears. I think I was indirectly seeing the... remaining tufts of hair(?) or whatever that is on his head as "ears" when they clearly aren't.

The villain designs are mixed for me. I don't care for the choices of B&R's odd proportions. That blue-toned group shot of the villains gave me Tim Burton vibes though, which wouldn't be a bad thing with that art style.


I liked the Spiderverse art style once I got used to it, it's visually interesting to look at, and this is kinda doing the same for me in that regard.