Connecting the Show with Reality (beware): Landmarks

[Aska_Badoura]

I downloaded Google Earth the other day... and promptly got stuck for hours. It's not like I didn't have anything better to do, but I got distracted, and... this looks like I have too much time on my hands. I don't, I just made time anyway. :p Okay, some useless facts that might be interesting:

I was drifting around the various lakes and ponds in Central Park, just to see if the pond in the show is a real place. I discovered that the structure the Turtles are living under is Belvedere Castle, after I noted the name on the map and then did an image search for it. (Of course, I'd heard of it, but didn't know it well enough to recognize it by sight). The drawing is not completely accurate: it's grown some windows, lost others, and towers have rearranged themselves, but it's still pretty obvious it's supposed to be Belvedere Castle, I think. The castle is host to a weather station, and the Henry Luce Nature Observatory.



Now, I think they chose to put the Turtles in this location, because it's a cute reference: the name of the body of water is Turtle Pond!

The castle's on the upper left of the lake. The structure across from the castle is the Delacorte Theater, where they host "Shakespeare in the Park".


And I'm sure you'll want to know that in "Prodigal Son", the manhole they went down to get to the reservoir station was on 79th Street.

The only thing that bursts my little bubble: in every photo I've seen, there's been lots of people at the castle, and plunked out there in the grass surrounding the place: in the overhead photo, all those white dots on the shoreside are people's blankets. How the heck do you work the kinks out of, or even use, a blasted retractable helicopter pad without half the city seeing you?! They took a big risk, using it in midday to go fly to Area 51. Heh, never mind air-traffic control...

And if there's ever a drought, I think I read somewhere that the reservoir is the emergency water supply.. what a surprise to find the station lived-in.

I always did have a problem with the guys living somewhere that may have people in it any second... I thought the same of their subway lair in the movies/TNM. It's obviously based on the City Hall subway station (there aren't any others, in reality, that look like that), and, while it had been left alone for several years, they now have tours in it.

Oh, and for you Gargoyles fans: the 23rd Precinct Station of the NYPD is not a clock tower. Darn. Of course, it was rebuilt since the Canmores blew it up, so hey, maybe it does look like that now.

So much for realism. :p

[Doppleganger]

Oh, and for you Gargoyles fans: the 23rd Precinct Station of the NYPD is not a clock tower. Darn. Of course, it was rebuilt since the Canmores blew it up, so hey, maybe it does look like that now.

After you mentioned it you just KNOW I had to google that. And lo and behold you were right.



As for questioning the practicality of the turtles moving to a highly populated area such as this you'd be right. It was a pretty dumb move but I'm just gonna go with the standard, "it's just a cartoon" response to this one.

Well I could try...well...um, the city workers don't go to the turtles lair all that often and if they do, well Minnetonka Mutant (I forget that guys name) steers them away out of gratitude. And the coptor has um...um...cloaking technology from Foot Tech gear that Donatello probably stole and gleaned the technology from. Yeah...I dunno...I have to go with the "it's a cartoon" response for this. I plead the fifth!

All in all awesome pics.

[Raph's Girl]

I've been following Belvedere castle since it first appeared in toons (or rather since I first noticed it)

I first noticed it in the 1980's in the Ghostbusters toon. The castle had just been braught over from Scotland (in the story) and it was filled to the brim with ghosts. The Ghostbusters made a deal with the ghosts that they would only haunt at night so tourists can see it durring the day.

In Gargoyles the castle was used many times. It was at one point MacBeth's home.

It was also seen in "Muppets Take Manhatten" as well as other films and even in "Roseanne"

In my fan fic I have several chapters that either mention it or center around it (ironically enough like the turtles having a picnic near it )

I never realized that that was Belvedere castle tho in the toon.. huh!

[iris]

Originally Posted by Aska_Badoura

Now, I think they chose to put the Turtles in this location, because it's a cute reference: the name of the body of water is Turtle Pond!

Ha! That's great.

The only thing that bursts my little bubble: in every photo I've seen, there's been lots of people at the castle, and plunked out there in the grass surrounding the place: in the overhead photo, all those white dots on the shoreside are people's blankets. How the heck do you work the kinks out of, or even use, a blasted retractable helicopter pad without half the city seeing you?! They took a big risk, using it in midday to go fly to Area 51. Heh, never mind air-traffic control...

Dudette, this is the same city that's recently seen several waves of alien invasion, all-out gang wars, and hoardes of mutant monsters. You think anyones gonna freak, or even raise a brow, about a rinky dink helicopter going on its merry little way?

[KROW]

Artists do this all the time. They take a form of reality and place it into fantasy. There are a lot of artists out there who have books on architecture, and even tomes containing themes of 18th - 20th century landmarks famous for that respective era.

It's nothing new; definitely not a surprise that the background artists would pull that trick to make the story move along.

Great finds, though. It's nifty that you found the references they used.