Who owns the Fred Wolf Show?

[FredWolfLeonardo]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Programming a robot to carry him around still means he had enough agency to operate machinery to some extent. It's arguably even worse because then he could just order the robot to build the body for him, which still means he has no use for Shredder.

And the idea that the factory can only create robots if it first scans a pre-existing prototype is really weird. It would imply the machine is able to build all the parts from scratch and assemble them automatically, but can't do so unless someone else did it first. Factories in real life don't really have that limitation, why would a fictional factory using advanced alien tech have it? If Krang had the blueprints to build his robotic body and Technodrome had or could construct the parts needed, then the factory should suffice.

The programming of the Foot Soldiers was obviously done by Shredder, as they were made after Krang's exile, lending him incapable of complex programming with only his two tentacles.

And the factory replicating the robot only because it had a physical model isn't my idea, its in the episode itself where we are shown the laser scanning the mouser and only then they can be replicated. Even if we assume that a blueprint is enough and the Technodrome could do the job, it still needs someone in the operators seat, and Krang's "hands", while enough to untie a Knot, are clearly still not enough to operate all that heavy machinery.

[sdp]

I was thinking of a feasible way of actually making this project a reality. With how fast AI is becoming better and faster in perhaps only a couple of years we'd be able to get AI to copy the voice of actors and just have the AI say the lines. I think it's the only way of making this project actually happen.

[frank_one]

In 10 years AI will be so advanced that not only we could use it to make new shows but we could also force it to watch them

[Sumac]

Originally Posted by frank_one

In 10 years AI will be so advanced that not only we could use it to make new shows but we could also force it to watch them

And this is how war between humans and machines will start.

[Panda_Kahn_fan]

Originally Posted by neatoman

What I'm a little worried about is what happens to it after Fred Wolf, the guy himself, dies. I seriously doubt his estate cares about keeping the rights to those shows he made and might just sell them off to some holding company, like how Dreamworks bought one of those holding companies that just ate up the Filmation, WEP and Harvey Libraries. Whatever holding company ends up getting that show will likely "grow fat and juicy" to attract an actual production company to buy them out. Now what has me worried here is that I know there was some kind of loophole attached to the Masters of the Universe cartoons made by Filmation, which lead to Hasbro and Dreamworks having some weird independence in creating new iterations of the franchise.

I doubt such a loophole is attached to the Fred Wolf TMNT cartoon, considering character rights does not appear to have been a problem for either Nickelodeon or IDW. And while I would not get upset if such a loophole was found and it turned out that, let's say, Nickelodeon could not use the Technodrome or Dimension X again if WB or Disney got the rights to it, there might be other unforseen consequences.

And Viacom gets it... Ugh, we've already seen them be obnoxious in pretending they own the rights to it, I don't want to see what they would do if they actually did. In a weird way, I wish that the rights to the TMNT franchise itself and the rights to the Fred Wolf show will never ever be under the same umbrella.



As in the quality of the show itself is low or that it is poison to the future of the franchise? Because I can make a solid argument for both.

Viacom owns the characters, concepts, designs, and stories of the OT TMNT lock, stock, and barrel. There was a court case where fred wolf tried to assert control of the tmnt elements original to the cartoon. The court awarded total control of all OT designs, characters, and stories to mirage. Those rights were sold to Viacom with the entire IP. The only rights fred wolf retains is to the classic TMNT is the airing/streaming rights of the original series and it's music. So anyone who buys fred wolf only gets the rights to air the OT, along with the music, which Viacom has to license every time they use the theme. This is nothing like the mattel/dreamworks situation with he-man; Viacom owns everything but the airing rights to the show and the ot music. Fred wolf nor anybody else can make TMNT officially without viacom's say so.

[Tuxedo Moroboshi]

I see a lot of people here talking about the buying of the FW cartoon and why hasn't Viacom done it or thought to do it or some such, but... who says it's even up for sale? Honestly, LionsGate has got it pretty good having the distribution rights for it, so I doubt they're in any hurry to sell it off. And you can't forcibly buy something that's not for sale.

[oldmanwinters]

Well, I guess this could be a strange new chapter in the ownership of the show.
https://twitter.com/tmntnft

It seems we are entering into the NFT era:
https://medium.com/@tmntnft/official...t-a125370a95b4

[Originally posted March 31, 2022]

Official Statement
In the world of decentralized projects, we understand there are those that have been less than honest. Due to this reason, we wanted to write to our community and clarify this project’s legitimacy. We have received a deeply passionate fan response in just the first few days after the announcement. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have grown up with millions of kids that are now savvy adult investors. After practicing our nunchuck skills and ordering some pizza, we bring you the official TMNT Non-Fungible Token 1987. In this statement, we will explain to you a bit of backstory involving this IP and why we can completely prove our involvement.

But how did your turtle friends jump from the sewers to the streets? That’s a good question with an answer so simple Michelangelo can follow along.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was originally created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1984. The world’s favorite turtles started as a comic book series.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was then adapted as an animated television series, produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson and the French company IDDH Groupe.

What is the story behind the IDDH Groupe? It all starts with a man named Bruno Huchez.
Bruno Huchez was employed by the Japanese company Marubeni, he got Marubeni to acquire the European rights to some animation programs from Toei Animation’s catalog.

In 1977, Marubeni decided to close its import-export sector and left the Toei Animation IP which includes TMNT, to Mr. Huchez. IDDH was founded in 1981 in direct relation to receiving these rights. They created the first 130 episodes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from 1987–1992. Bruno being one of the central creatives around the project. In fact, he wrote a few scripts of your favorite animated childhood show.

IDDH left the full IP to the original 130 episodes to Poly Productions. Years later, Poly Productions left the IP for our turtle friends to Squemme Productions.

Now that you’re up-to-date, these days, the TMNT 1987 TV show is actually owned by Squemme Productions and Fred Wolf Film (formerly Murakami-Wolf-Swenson).

What does Viacom actually own?
In 2009, Viacom (Owner of Nickelodeon/Paramount) has acquired the global intellectual property rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from The Mirage Group and 4Kids Entertainment. It therefore owns all the rights to TMNT except for the 1987 animated series, which belongs to Squemme Productions and Fred Wolf Films

Now that we have updated you on the history, where do we fit into this grand legacy?
Our company, Squemme Productions that acquired from Poly Productions/IDDH the exclusive IP of the first 130 episodes of TMNT 1987 recognizes that “TMNTNFT“ is related to us, and agrees with every form of communication including social media post, affiliation, and representation of our TMNT IP. We also recognize the legitimacy of “TMNTNFT“ to create unique NFT with assets based on the episodes named above.

Our legal firm Barnett has made an official statement here and on LinkedIn from Marc Olivier Deblanc (Founder). Our legal team is also working to get in direct contact with Viacom to keep things clear between all parties. This will prevent anyone from stirring up trouble for no reason. We are all one turtle team at the end of the day and want to make sure they are as happy about this project as we are.

Click here to see the original LinkedIn publication.

You can check our legal team’s official statement provided alongside this statement.

Turtles Fight With Honor
This project has quickly received an overwhelming abundance of positivity from the NFT community. Our mission is to defeat Shredder’s army by providing you the most amazing experience with high-quality and anticipated NFT.

Protecting others is in the DNA of the Ninja Turtles. From this day on, we believe that the NFT community could use some real protectors. We promise we will implement our time, energy and resources to clean up the NFT space from less than reputable projects. Once we are ready, you will absolutely know it, as we plan to follow through on our word.

I'd almost think it was an April Fools Day joke, but the Twitter account got a verified checkmark and was launched in February, with the first public post showing this curious image:
https://twitter.com/tmntnft/status/1508202256113577991

[Vegita-San]

Squemme Productions ?

Google shows nothing.

[neatoman]

From what I understand about this, some guy in France has gotten the rights to the show or at least the the first 130 episodes, because his company was involved with the show's production. And because of some loophole, this allows him to turn the show into NFTs without approval from Paramount.

Yeah, this seems really stupid.

[Jester]

I'm surprised they didn't just call them TMNfTs.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Jester

I'm surprised they didn't just call them TMNfTs.

"Terrible, Manipulative, Non-Fungible Tokens"

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

Squemme Productions ?

Google shows nothing.

I was a little amused that it appears the official statement made a typo in identifying "Fred Wolf Film" rather than "Films" (assuming that is still the studio's legal name).

FYI, the official statement exists because of this Twitter exchange:

Spoiler:

[Vegita-San]

so, now i'm confused. it seems to be a scam?

[neatoman]

What I think is being alleged here is that because Paramount does not own the Fred Wolf show in particular, the company that does has the rights to do something new with it, in this particular case it is NFTs. However, Paramount was able to make those crossovers with the 2012 show on their own, which makes the notion that this other company can just make the NFTs seem sketchy. Not to mention that the whole concept of NFTs is itself sketchy. If they do in fact have the rights to create further derivatives of the FW show, why not make another season or specials instead of this dubious thing? Assuming there is nothing illegal going on here, I guess the reason they went for NFTs instead of something more traditional is because NFTs did not exist back when the show was still in production and is thus a right that did not transfer to Mirage upon cancellation, a weird loophole in the copyright but that's just a guess.

Regardless, it's NFTs, they're basically a scam that hasn't been legislated against yet. It's the the sketchier little brother of the already somewhat questionable art market.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Regardless, it's NFTs, they're basically a scam that hasn't been legislated against yet. It's the the sketchier little brother of the already somewhat questionable art market.

I just hope they don't end up making reproductions of animation cels and flooding the market to the point where it becomes hard to distinguish real from repros.

[sdp]

There's nothing sketchy about NFTs, I'll research into this to see if it's real and if it is I'll definitely buy some TMNT NFTs, let's see what I can get my hands on.

Edit: checked it out and project seems to be legit and yeah it's definitely some loophole they're using but it's legit. Definitely getting a few, depending on their price, i think they'll be expensive.

[Sumac]

Now you can buy TMNT NFT and throw them into shredder.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by sdp

I'll definitely buy some TMNT NFTs, let's see what I can get my hands on.

But NFTs, by their nature, are intangible. How will you lay hold of them?

Originally Posted by Sumac

Now you can buy TMNT NFT and throw them into shredder.

I approve of this pun.

[red1981]

i really wish they would leave tmnt out of the nft scam

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by sdp

How exactly an NFT a scam?