Ahoy, squirts! Quint here with an update on the Warner Bros Animation panel from Comic-Con. Lots of news on the TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES CG movie and some footage from ANT BULLY. ANT BULLY will be in another report, this one just has Turtle Power. Let's get to it, shall we?
Directory Kevin Munroe took the stage and showed a trailer (which is supposed to be up on Apple.com right now!) and then showed a 5 minute piece. In-between he answered a bunch of questions. You can see the trailer, so I'll describe some of the footage we saw after these tidbits gleaned from the panel.
- Release date is March 30, 2007
- Mako is voicing Splinter!
- Wouldn't reveal the voices for the Turtles (When asked, Munroe said, "Robin Williams is doing all the voices... No! No! Just kidding! Don't go and blog about that!"), but said all 4 actors aren't celebrities
- When they recorded the dialogue they had all 4 voice actors in the booth, which resulted in a much more natural back and forth between these mystery voice actors, who Munroe said were very sharp writers themselves. Lots of improv and natural reactions.
- Peter Laird is the "Godfather of all things Ninja Turtles" according to Munroe and he had to sign off on Munroe's involvement and has been constantly giving advice on the film
- Munroe wanted a sense of family with the Turtles. Quarreling brothers, etc.
- A little like SUPERMAN RETURNS this film kind of fits in after the 2nd movie, but there will be nods to the cartoon and previous films (including 3), but will be a "rebirth" of a movie
- TMNT will be an action comedy, but Munroe was quick to point out that the comedy comes from the characters, not fart jokes
- No Vanilla Ice
- No Corey Feldman (but Munroe made sure not trash talk the Feldmeister)
- Shredder is NOT the bad guy
- The universe is a bit more realistic, set in a world most like the first feature film.
- Casey Jones and April O'Neil return and the movie builds on their romance
- One person asked about full turtle on human bestiality in the film. Munroe: "No! Security!"
- John Woo? As far as Munroe knows, Woo was never officially attached. He said he thought it was just a rumor.
- Marco Beltrami is scoring! And he wants to give Ninja Turtles a theme as powerful as Elfman's BATMAN theme.
The exclusive presentation wasn't a huge deal, but we saw lots of glimpses at stuff... Bat monsters, lithe ninja chicks, big armored dude (not Shredder). Saw some work on Splinter. He's less extreme looking than the turtles. Still a big rat, a little more furry than the cartoon Splinter, but not as bizarre and dirty looking as the movie version. Mostly the footage was lots of tests and unfinished shots of the Turtles jumping around. There were facial tests of all the turtles making different, funny faces, a cool looking "muscle test" that had Leonardo lifting something heavy up, showing the bulging muscles and straining veins.
There was a scene of Michaelangelo in a fake turtle suit at a kid's birthday party. His legs were his own, but there was a fake zipper down his middle and fuzzy big turtle head on his own. The kids beat the hell out of him and he said (to Donatello who was speaking to him via an earpiece) "Why can't I hit 'em back?" Then he got beat up by the rowdy kids. They were called away for "more sugar" by the mom and Mikey slowly curled himself up into a fetal position.
The final shot had grey-scale Raphael and Leonardo standing on a rooftop, facing each other down for some unknown reason. Raphael had his sais out, Leonardo has his katana out. The charge each other, seemingly very serious, and just as their weapons look to collide they cut to black.
Got a few more reports to finish up before my day's over. Check 'em on the main page over the next couple hours.
-Quint
quint@aintitcool.com
