While the idea of a new live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie may have had fans of the comics, the TV show, and the 1990 film both excited and terrified in equal measure, the announcement that producer Michael Bay (now best known for his critically panned, commercially loved, Transformers franchise) was planning to alter the infamous origin story, and have the Turtles presented as aliens, was met with a huge fanboy backlash; leading the action-movie-mogul to speak out and defend the decision.
Changing the famous origin story, of the hapless (ordinary) Turtles who wandered into some radioactive ooze and became the crime-fighting heroes-in-a-half-shell we so know and love, was always going to scare people (including Robbie Rist; the voice Michelangelo in the 1990 film; who’s been quite vocal about his objections to the changes; letting the world know that Bay is continuing to “rape our childhood memories”), but Bay insists that the new Turtles movie will show “turtles who are from an alien race, and who are tough, edgy, funny, and completely loveable.”
Bay’s also stated that “when we’re done with this movie kids are going to believe, one day, that these turtles actually do exist”, and said, quite equivocally, that “fans need to take a breath, and chill”, because “they have not read the script” (which at last count had been written by the pair behind Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol; Andre Nemec and Josh Appelbaum) and that in working with one of the original Teenage Mutant Turtles‘ creators they’re “just building a richer world” and still “including everything that made you become fans in the first place.”
So, whether or not you agree with the decision to forget the ooze, and make Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael alien turtles, rather than sticking to the story we know so well, it appears as though Bay isn’t backing down, and still going ahead with the alien plan. The only question is, has Bay’s hit-back actually convinced anyone it’s a good idea?
Matt Wheeldon.
Source: Michael Bay.
