Nickelodeon Unmasks New TMNT Animated TV Series

Cour­tesy of EW.com, Nick­elodeon has unveiled the first teaser for its new Teenage Mutant Ninja Tur­tle ani­mated TV show, which is set to air in 2012. Nick has ordered 26 half-hour episodes for the show’s first sea­son, and promises the new TMNT will be “fun­nier and ninja-ier.” (What­ever that means.)

Sharp TMNT fans should notice right away that Michae­lan­gelo and Donatello’s weapons are dif­fer­ent. Why the change? It makes me won­der about what other friv­o­lous changes Nick might make to the char­ac­ters. And I have to admit, I’m not super impressed with the ani­ma­tion style.

Here are some still images of each Tur­tle so you can get a bet­ter look at them:

As just one of the mil­lions of kids who grew up with the Ninja Tur­tles, it’s awe­some to once again see new life being given to this beloved fran­chise. With so many failed, embar­rass­ing incar­na­tions lit­ter­ing the annals of TV past (read: Hero Tur­tles: The Next Muta­tion), I just hope that Nick will be the net­work that finally gives TMNT the treat­ment it deserves.

TMNT Fans: What do you think of the direc­tion Nick is going in so far?

Live-Action Ninja Turtles Return for 2011

In geeky movie news this month that makes me feel like a fifth-grader again, TMNT co-creater Peter Laird con­firmed in Vari­ety rumors of another live-action Tur­tles movie planned for 2011.  The announce­ment comes on the heels of TMNT’s 25th anniver­sary cel­e­bra­tion.  Other than mak­ing me feel old, I’m also damn excited.  Because in Hol­ly­wood, every­thing I loved grow­ing up in the 1980s is sud­denly cool again.  The new Tur­tles film will be pro­duced by Scott Med­nick of Leg­endary Pic­tures, who is cur­rently pro­duc­ing the soon to be released Where The Wild Things Are, another live-action fan­tasy film (which hap­pens to be based on yet another com­pletely awe­some thing from my child­hood).  And if these screen­shots are any indi­ca­tion of what’s in store for the next TMNT, then color me green with excitement.

After the orig­i­nal live-action movie, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Tur­tles films went from bad to worse, though 2007’s ani­mated TMNT was OK.  Then again, I’m of the opin­ion that the first Tur­tles movie is one of the great­est if under­rated comic book movies of all time—but I may be a lit­tle biased.  I was obsessed with all things Ninja Tur­tles as a kid.  Like really obsessed.  If it had a TMNT logo on it, I owned it.  I could quote the movies word for word (prob­a­bly still can).

My wish­list for the new live-action Tur­tles movie:

• Darker, grit­tier, edgier Tur­tles truer to the orig­i­nal Mirage comic books.
• Curse words.  Most TMNT fans have grown up, and so should the movies.
• Sex (if only to sat­isfy my mor­bid curiosity). 
• Real­stic CGI that doesn’t look like CGI.
• Back to basics origins/roots sto­ry­line. (Think Bat­man Begins.)
• April O’Neil, and any­one other than Paige Turco to play her.
• Blood, weapons, and graphic violence.
• Moar Raphael.*

Things I could live without:

• Shell-tastic tur­tle puns.
• Any char­ac­ter who exists solely in the Archie comics series.
• No Venus.
• Ran­dom kid-who-meets-the-Turtles char­ac­ter (a’la Keno in Turltes II, and later Yoshi in Tur­tles III).
• Any sto­ry­line involv­ing time travel.
• A Turtles-themed rap song.
• A PG rating.
• Cow­abunga.

The sucky part about all this?  Wait­ing two years.

*Raphael is still the coolest tur­tle, and if you don’t agree with me, I’m not shar­ing my Ninja Tur­tles fruit snacks with you.