The following was sent by Joel:
The first time I heard of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I loved the farfetched absurdness of the concept. The dark, rough, black and white drawings by Eastman and Laird were aimed at young adults. Not unlike The Mask, TMNT was made into a more light hearted live action movie and then “kiddified” into the cartoon series Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. Now, as some of you probably know, TMNT is getting the CGI treatment. John Woo was mentioned as the director, but that of course, never happened.
Now the teaser is out (I call it a teaser as it doesn’t reveal any plot) in HD over at Apple Quicktime Trailers. All the bright pastel colors are gone, replaced by dark earthy tones. Of course it’s impossible to tell whether this will be a good movie, but the teaser is well worth a watch.
I do hope that movie dares to to be as dark as the original 1984 comics.
After watching the TMNT trailer a couple of times, here are my (John’s) thoughts:
1) The design and lighting of the characters and environments are AMAZING. I really like the feel they create.
2) The animation is a bit iffy. Some of the movements are a bit choppy and don’t flow very well.
3) The ending of the trailer ruins it. For most of the trailer I was letting myself get my hopes up that we may be returning to the older and darker Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles before they got bastardized for Saturday morning cartoons. Then the guy falls in the trash can at the end. Ha…. Ha…. F*cking Ha. i guess it’s back to Satuday morning.
If they’re aiming at my buddy’s 5 year old son as their audience… then I guess they’ve done it.
But who knows right? One of the best things about movies is that they can surprise you sometimes.
