This doesnt meet the excitement of the Transformers Movie for me, but its still pretty damned sweet. I am actually looking forward to this movie. The original trailer had me all goosebumpy and giddy until the last 10 seconds, but still it looks good. Hopefully it wont be TOO aimed at the kiddies. We now have news of some of the voice actors signed on.
Sarah Michelle Gellar (The Grudge, and TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer) has signed on as the voice of April, the human researcher who serves as the Turtles’ tech-services worker and mother figure. Fantastic Four’s Chris Evans is the hockey-stick-swinging Casey Jones, and Clerks filmmaker Kevin Smith also voices a cameo as a greasy-spoon chef.
Now this is groovy cool. It might be the first thing with Sarah Michelle Gellar involved that I have liked SINCE Buffy, and I can hear the hothead attitude that Evans can bring to Casey Jones. Kevin Smith having a cameo is just awesome too.
Patrick Stewart is being reported as the head of the new opposition in this movie, which means no Shredder. Zhang Ziyi(Memoirs of a Geisha) voices the villain Karai, who leads an evil army known as the Foot Ninjas. Karai was the leader of the Japan Foot Ninjas in many incarnations of the Turtles Movies. After Shredder’s defeat she comes to New York and takes over the Foot Clans. Also, I havent heard any news of a Splinter.
The article continues to say that the Turtles themselves will have no famous voices to them. So maybe Corey Feldman IS involved.
Mestestopheles, I dont know why or what point you were hoping to make about ranting that they sold out, but like it or not, the movies are going to be based on the most popular and widely received version of TMNT.
Bringing Lucas into it was pointless. That cat’s dead. Stop beating it.
Cory Feldman might suck at life, but so did James Brown and he is hailed as a legend anyways. So that line is out too.
Every movie comes from a script. Every script is a written work. Comics are written works, most movies these days are “based” off a book or a novel.
Declaring a written work that spawns a movie is bs because of the medium and fan base of the content is a straw man argument. All the superhero movies that are making hand over fist while still appeasing their fan base clearly didn’t work because they are making them. The oldest comics that are still making money and didn’t “sell out” their roots: Superman and Spiderman; the newest Blade, X-men and Sin City They “sold out” Batman and what happened? They went back to their roots and are basing the latest series off The Dark Knight series by Frank Miller. The 2005 batman with a relatively unknown actor made 8 million more then the 1989 version even after suffering to huge losses on the previous movies.
The graphic novels were the only content in this whole franchise that had any redeeming value, started the success and helped revive it.
The orginal black and white graphic novel was published by Mirage Comics (the first ones were on newsprint) and ran from 84 – 01. Archie comics version existed from 88 – 95.
The animated series started in 87 and wasn’t as successful as the “comic” until 89. It destroyed everything of substance from the graphic novel and became watered down for mental midgets and children and that success was short lived compared to the comic. It ran all of 2 – 3 years before it went to USA to become re-runs.
The creators bailed on the comic in 01. The real success came from TMNT 1 when the hype reached it’s height. It was followed by two huge flops. The series was revived in 2003 by Fox and is much closer to the graphic novel after Mirage Studios decided maybe they should go back to their roots while desperately trying to retain their kid appeal.
Laird and Eastman compromised their artistic vision with the help of Mark Freedman to make millions off of one movie and pennies to the dollar on merch.
George Lucas catered to children in his last four movies and they don’t compare to A New Hope or Empire Strikes back. The character development is horrible, the dialog is terrible and Jar Jar was the worst idea and character……..ever.
Pet rocks, Bell Bottoms, Jams, and Chia pets were really successful but that doesn’t mean that they were any good , just that people are lazy cattle who buy into hype.
Cory Feldman sucks at life. Always has, always will.
Miles, I wont go long on this since others have already clarified this for me. I WAS one of those kiddies who made this franchise a success. In my youth, I read the gritty comic. Then watched in amusement when it was turned Saturday morning.
This movie is aimed at a demographic like me. Those who are old enough to appreciate the grittiness and nods to previous movies and toons. While still making it fun enough that I can bring my two boys to it and we all enjoy it.
And Godfather. Feldman is not involved. Apparently sarcasm my witty gag at Corey’s vast expense went over your head.
Miles: In a way, I agree with you in that the new Turtles film will be geared towards kids. The source material was more of a ‘mature’ nature but watered down for the spinoff mech, games, cartoons and movies. It’s a tough hurdle to jump. But your dismissal of the origal graphic novels is off base. It is what the “real” fanbase wants to see. But in my POV, it’s just too tainted.
My Orwell reference? When Rodney puts up a post and I agree with his comments, go on, move along, meh. Nothing to it. But I disagree with him, and I am revealed to be none other than the Antichrist incarnate and will sadistically stamp the number 666 on your foreheads. At least, that was the implication. I am usually singled out even if others give Rodney all sorts of mudslinging far worse than me. So when you made your comment, I made the Orwell nod, and come back later, to see if anyone would read you the riot act.
They have. Welcoome, False Prophet!
:p
DAMN!!! You had me all excited when you said “voice casting” as I thought it was going to be an open audition.
BLAH! Sarah M Gellar and Corey Feldman? WOW! Big woop!
:D
varun:
1. i don’t think i was ‘flaming’ rodney.
2. frankly i think it is a huge mistake to anticipate a film being succesful based on a demographic that may or may not exist after 15 years. i think the studios realize this. i also think the majority of us tmnt fans realize that the series is and will always be targeted at children.
this kind of reminds me of star wars where no one but the person who makes the film wants to admit the target audience is children. people see it as a negative reflection on themselves.
3. yes. the comic was small. if it was the comic book’s following that went to this movie then it would probably make about 50,000 bucks at the box office. that is plainly unacceptable.
4. because i think that he and many many people on the old interwebs should just make peace with the fact that they are just children in adult pants. i think people should take the series for what it is, not for what they have grown to want.
I am sorry this is off topic, but I am on my Wii right now browsing the movie blog, and I thought I will leave a comment.
MILES
1. There is no reason for you to flail out like a flamer, so just calm down if you don’t like Rodney’s opinion and try to express yourself without yelling.
2. NEWS FLASH! The Kids who made this series a success are now 17-27 years old, meaning that the large majority of hardcore TMNT fans are older now and that may be a reason to target them.
3. The comic was small, but it was pretty popular among comic book readers. The first issue became extremely valuable before the animated series even released. Don’t denegrate the comic books by saying no one read them just because you didn’t.
4. It is not unreasonable for a franchise to be grittier or different when in starts up. So why blast Rodney for something he wishes had happened or thinks could be a cool idea?
FIGHT ME, SEELEY!
/lol, seriously though. what does that mean?
Big Brother Is Watching.
know what bugs me?
rodney bitching about how he dosn’t want this to be for the kiddies.
news flash!!!
KIDS MADE THIS SERIES A SUCCESS. THAT IS EXACTLY WHO IT IS TARGETED AT AND WHO IT SHOULD BE TARGETED AT.
and don’t give me that ‘the comic books!’ bs. nobody read those things for a reason.
my advice? make peace with the fact that you enjoy something designed for children and don’t try to justify it or look mature by putting yourself at a distance from it. just embrace it!
Well luckily we wont actually have to see Sarah Michelle Gellar’s face as she acts. Less painful that way.
Mako was announced as the voice of Splinter and after he passed away, the director announced that he had indeed finished the work on the film for the voice.
You can get the full trailer at http://www.tmnt.com
Ok, so a couple of weeks ago, i posted that I was pissed off because it seemed like they screwed the pooch on the new Turtles movie and I was such a big fan of the original (john + transformers fan big, HUGE!) But I thought it was a mistake making it CGI.
This voice casting is great! I’ve almost switched completely on this movie, I’m actually looking forward to it. Not so much because of the voices …..
But because CASEY JONES is in it!!!!!!!!!!! Fuckin Right!!!
… And April, that’s a bonus!
I thought it might be a whole revamp without the aforementioned two. This news has made me happy as a pig in shit!
This will be my last post for a few weeks as I’m going country for Xmas and no internet at all! I know .. A dry spell.
Merry Xmas & A Happy New Year to everyone!
Keep doing the Audio Edition John & Doug & Friends, congrats on the 200th the other day. Waiting for the 300th.
Signing off ,
Koko
PS. It’s true, I miss Corey Feldman (his voice anyway)
The voice casting sounds perfect. I wish Corey would return for Donnie.
I don’t think for one minute that this incarnation will be in tune with the Eastman/Laird creations; those last few seconds of the trailer made that perfectly clear. Now, had someone took some gutspa and did a trailer like,oh, say TMNT invades Sin City…only then might I be swayed. But this will be more kid friendly than Gellar’s Scooby Doo flicks.
Mako is voicing Splinter. No idea if he was able to record all his dialogue before he passed away. I believe he did record some since apparently he did narration of the comicon footage.