Is anyone else bothered by the Fred Wolf designs for the same reason as I am?

[neatoman]

No I'm not talking about the belt buckles, the color coded masks or the stupidity of Leonardo carrying his swords around without scabbards, I'm talking about something I don't think I've ever seen brought up by anyone but myself.

The cartoon altered the faces of the turtles, presumably to make them more appealing to children. I can understand that, the faces in the comics tend to be drawn in sharp lines with blank eyes and gritting teeth, they probably though children might think it's scary.

Spoiler:

So for the cartoon it was decided to give them less intimidating faces, making them more rounded, adding pupils and having them smile more than gritting their teeth. Here's my problem with, they didn't really change their bodies, it's still the muscular build we see in the Mirage comics and it clashes with the altered faces. To me it kinda looks like when Jerry the mouse hit the roids.

Spoiler:

Doesn't quite match in my opinion.

[Bombshell]

I can't say that it bothered me enough to really mention it but I see your point.

The thing that bothers me the most is that so many versions of the turtles depict them with gigantic muscles ontop of muscles ontop of muscles when they're only supposed to be teenagers. I always liked the slim/muscular versions over the chunky body-builder type, but thats just me.

I can't say much about the animation of the first cartoon. The first episode wasn't bad but after that, the animation took a major nose dive into the grave. That annoyed me more than anything.

[TigerClaw]

It doesn't bother me at all, they look the way they do because of the art style of the show.

[Klunk1234]

They don't bother me. Both creators were in agreement about their designs. Otherwise they would not have been made.

[IndigoErth]

Nah, it's cute and meant to be for obvious kid-friendly reasons. Personally my fave images of them is when they're trying to be all tough and snarly looking... like, you're kinda badass and trying to look fierce, but even then you can't escape being adorable.

[METALHEAD]

i like the design of the first 5 episodes. after that, they became more kiddified.

[Bry]

The original designs and art style were a lot better. They seemed shorter, but tougher, and the facial design had a bit more "edge" and character to them. Even the implied sharp point on their beaks helped a lot there. The designs/style what came after were very soft, bland, and cheap-looking by comparison.

[TigerClaw]

The Fred Wolf design have become quite an influence on TMNT throughout the years, It was the first to introduce the turtles with different colored bandanas, and there facial features were used in other incarnations.

[Cryomancer]

Makes them look like living balloon animals or something. And total clones, too.

[Wolfie65]

I'm sure you all know that the color coding and belt buckle initials were introduced to help the adults making the show tell the otherwise identical turtles apart.
I like the way the current Nick 'toon made them subtly different physically, to the point where they could actually lose the color coding, at least the kids could still tell them apart.
The main thing that bugs me about the Fred Wolf turtles are the huge, rounded Jimmy Durante noses. Ain't no turtle looks like that.

[Whatswiththeheadbands?]

I don't think they were 100% against the mirage designs. A lot of the original merchandise packaging uses mirage styled turtles.

[BubblyShell22]

Nope, not bothered by them at all. I really liked them.

[Yabuturtle]

I like how one of the villains in planet of the turtleoids said this.

"They don't even look like REAL turtles! They look like someone drew them!"

Really I don't mind the design so much. I personally think the best design would be if you took the body type of the 87 toon, but make it so they don't have pupils like in the comic. And I was glad they all had different colored masks. It's more original for them to have their own color and it's easier to tell them apart.

[jenna]

The design doesn't bother me at all. I could live without the initialised belts but I do think that the multi coloured head bands were a stroke of genius - the selected colours worked beautifully and I think it's telling that they've stuck ever since. The only thing that's ever really bothered me about the OT turtles' designs is that Leo wears his katanas unsheathed. Very dangerous!

[Xav]

Originally Posted by Wolfie65

I'm sure you all know that the color coding and belt buckle initials were introduced to help the adults making the show tell the otherwise identical turtles apart.

No they weren't. They were done to sell toys, so parents didn't think they were buying their kids the same toys.

[pferreira]

So Neatoman did you like the Turtles designs in the 2014 movie?

[John Pannozzi]

Has anyone seen Ryan Brown's illustration from the 1992 TMNT Portfolio? I can't find an image of it online, but I'd like the Fred Wolf Turtles to look like it (except with pupils).