Wednesday, September 10, 2008

TMNT Upadte!


Apparantly, talk of a new live action Ninja Turtles movie has gone sour. Sort of. The other half of the creative team behind TMNT, Peter Laird, told MTV that they're at work on a "hybrid" TMNT movie. In other words, it will combine real actors and sets with CGI Turtles and most likely CGI villains. This should hopefully please fans of the original live action series, who hated the CGI film because it was too cartoony. There's also talk of bringing Steve Barron, director of the original, back for this installment. Everyone at slashfilm seems to hate this idea, but I don't know why. I frequently go back and watch this movie as it was the first movie I ever saw in a theater, and I like to see how my opinion of it changes as time goes on. I am always pleasently surprised and impressed with this movie, as it takes the premise seriously and sets it in a noir esque New York. This is the perfect world for the Turtles, and Barron really nailed a great color scheme with some awesome shadowy, grainy shots. I don't see why everyone thinks its a bad idea to get him back, when he was the one that made the Turtles into relatable, real characters.

What do you think? I'm all for more Ninja Turtles, and I really think Barron could succeed here.
(check out the slogan on the poster, hilarious!)

3 comments:

Dustin said...

I really think the whole cgi/live action hybrid thing is ridiculous. Especially nowadays. What would make this like the original ninja turtles film if only the human characters are real?

My thoughts are either make it completely CGI or Live action. After seeing what was done in hellboy 2 in turns of that whole troll market scene, if the intent was to make creatures, as well as the turles look that good, go for it.

I liked the cgi version. It was the first time i noticed that each turtle had a different body type. They weren't all bulky with the only identifying characteristic was their weapon and their bandana color.

The film's flaws fell more on the budget than the creative team. If you look at the studios' quick clip of Gatchaman, you see what the success of TMNT did to help push the quality of their new films. Here's hoping their astroboy knocks it out of the park.

G.Rett said...

i don't think TMNT was unsuccessful, in fact I think most people would agree that that was a damn good looking movie. The animation was pretty slick all around, and the voice acting was decent (again, something the original live action film did much better). And I would love to see them do a fully live action adaptation again, with guys runnin around in big bulky jim henson suits. But the reality is, we live in the age of digital technology, and that means a hybrid. It will always be a hybrid from here on out. If you think about it tho, the original star wars was a hybrid of practical effects and very early digital effects. And that movie looks great. We need to get back to combining the digital with the practical. Some CGI monsters AND some real ones. Textured and detailed blue screen backgrounds WITH actual sets for the actors to interact with. You have to ground the digital effects in reality for people to believe them, and I think that it could actually be done very successfully with the Ninja Turtles. In fact (although I doubt they'll give them enough money to accomplish this) Ninja Turtles could be groundbreaking in its use of interaction between digital and practical.

Dustin said...

Oh i wasn't saying that you hought it was unsuccessful. There's just quite the majority of folks who believe, and still do, that it should be live action only. There's certainly room for both.

Nowadays, the idea isn't to bridge the gap, it's more about breaking the mold. And a lot of people who want to do that are quaified to do so. This could be due to lack of talent, or lack of experience in both mediums.

I'd rather them make it practical too, but when the time comes for cgi effects, use them when necessary.

I just hope that some of the style that was brought to the series visually from the new film be transferred over to the impending live action/cgi sequel, reboot, whatever.

The last film to really blend the digital with reality that was good was transformers. But I don't remember there ever being a big threat in the TMNT universe that would warrant the use of a lot of pecial effects. maybe krang may need to be a cgi/puppetry hybrid. Who knows?