Usagi Yojimbo DojoBoard

The new TMNT movie trailer is up at Yahoo

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/tmnt.ht ... dFCBdfVXcA

Parts of it looked cool, but it looks like it's infused with the same old tired TMNT movie slapstick. The human characters continue to look very Pixaresque (Incredibles, Toy Story, etc). The animation itself looks really good though...but then that's a given these days.

It's too bad they decided to continue along the same line as the first three movies. I thought for sure now that Peter Laird is at the helm 100%, they'd reinvent it all like they did with Batman. Start over again with a more serious perspective and move away from the "4Kids" mentality. Imagine a movie adaptation of the first few TMNT comics, without all the "cowabunga", color-coded masks, and pizza. Oh well...

I don't think it's going to be as "light-hearted" as you seem to think. I don't konw if you got to hear the director speak at San Diego, but I believe that he's managed to create a movie that will be a bit more grown-up-- but yes, it will have humor.

And it's too bad that you missed the unauthorized release of 160 pix from the film-- that was some excitement, let me tell you-- but I saw them, and it looks beautiful!

As for the humans not looking exactly real, I will point out that in the comics they NEVER looked exactly real.

The yahoo feed isn't as clear as if you go to the WB site and watch it there.

I can't wait for this film.

I too, was at SDC and heard Kevin Munroe present info that makes me hopeful this will be a fun and serious movie. They've put some work into the storyline. The trailer did put in a lot of the humor, but on the other hand, there's going to be some rather intense stuff. It's not all going to be pizza and cowabunga stuff. The pics of the Raph and Leo fight are very intense! And if you had seen the clips of Mikey in his party costume getting beat up by the kids--nooo, not funny at all.
I, for one, am sick of redone origin stories in general. I am glad they are continuing on with a new story, which is based on the first 3 movies, but going into a more mature direction. And pulling a little more from the comics and new Toon, such as Karai.
They are riding the line with the PG stuff, but won't go R. What all diehard original comic fans would want, is an R movie, and we're not going to get it. Hollywood won't support that because there's too much tied to the fact a lot of people see TMNT as geared to younger age bracket. Dollars and cents, is what is controlling this. That Kevin recognizes the older audience and is making a movie that works for us, but can still embrace kids, is quite a feat. (As opposed to a Foot. )
The quality of the animation is improving over the very early stuff I saw that had me thinking: "there's no way this will fly. It looks like a video game, it won't work on the big screen." But like I said, the animation work is not budget-less, but I think it's going to be fun. They have put a lot of effort into making each Turtle slightly different in looks and movement. They could have taken the cheap way out and animated them all off the same model.
It's no more stylized than any cartoon, comic book, movie latex suit was. I love anime, I love Usagi, and that's certainly not "real" looking either.
I'm really looking forward to the movie, and part of me is bummed to miss the opening because that is the day I will be travelling to Japan for another trip with my sword class. (unless they do actually change the opening day again.)

Also in 4Kids behalf, I thought those Toons a huge improvement over the 80s for more mature and complex storylines. With continuity, character arcs, and character growth! (At least until Fast Forward, but I haven't seen many of those so I can't fairly judge it.) They even had Leo behead the Shredder on a Saturday morning cartoon! Had an episode banned from being shown because they'd pushed a little too far. And made Usagi really cool (even if there were some mispronounciations by the VAs). I really did enjoy the new cartoon.

Well if you guys say it will be cool, then I'll trust you. But I'm going to use the free movies passes I got from work to go see it (if I can't get to a free screening) Perhaps the trailer was made to cater to kids a bit, to attract the existing cartoon/movie fans (I'm speaking mainly to the Mikey-the comic relief turtle stuff which really killed it for me in the earlier movies/toons). Peter is at the helm now, so I'd be surprised if it did suck. His vision for the turtles was always the better of the two.

Looking at the trailer a few more times, I did notice that overall the movie seems to have a lot of Peter Laird in it. Just the concepts and design..the feel (the motorcycle scene just screamed Peter). The fact that it looked visually dark was reminiscent of the original comics. I did catch the SDCC panel on this movie and remember them saying that Pete had a lot of influence on its production.

I honestly hope you guys can prove me wrong!

Although the first teaser didn't impress me, I must say this new one is quite a new turn of events. I hope it's way better than those live-action movies - the first one was fun though, but maybe I think this because I'm not a die-hard TMNT fan.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing how the movie development goes on. And of course: I want to see this in a big screen.