It is really easy to sit behind a keyboard and bitch. It is really easy to fling bile at filmmakers who make films that don’t match our personal version of the movies we want to see. This has been true for as long as there has been the internet, and will likely be true for our children’s children and their children as well.

There has been a disturbing trend in the general internet fan community that has played off that universal truth. It has manifested as one of the biggest problem facing Hollywood today, there is no trust anymore. There is no faith that the professionals, who are talented and/or driven enough to make this their career, can actually make quality cinema from our beloved franchises.

The most recent example of the internet’s pigheadedness is the backlash to Michael Bay’s comment that the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film will feature an expanded back story that exposes potential Alien origins for everyone’s favorite heroes in a half shell.

Kids are going to believe one day these turtles actually do exist when we are done with this movie. These turtles are from an alien race, and they are going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely loveable. – Michael Bay

Continue Reading →

Some days you just have to stand back and shake your head. The internet is a powder keg of misunderstanding and preconception. When a polarizing figure like Michael Bay makes an off hand comment about a beloved franchise that doesn’t meet perfect fan criteria, the whole things explodes in so much whiny status updates and forum threads.

Recently Bay, who’s Platinum Dunes is setting up a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle reboot, made a comment about the Turtles being of alien origin. He made the comments during the Nickelodeon up-fronts last week, and the internet has been all pissy about it since then.

Keen to clarify his original statement, Bay remarked on his official message boards about the subject:

Fans need to take a breath, and chill. They have not read the script. Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story. Relax, we are including everything that made you become fans in the first place. We are just building a richer world.

Continue Reading →

Later this year, Nickelodeon will be reinventing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon much in the way that IDW Publishing reinvented the TMNT comic line. While the core characteristics of the Turtles will remain intact, the creative teams behind these versions have gone in two very different directions. While IDW has gone for a more gritty and realistic (well as realistic as mutant turtles can be) version of the shelled foursome, Nickelodeon is going the other direction with a more kid friendly version much in the way the comics and cartoon series diverged over twenty years ago.

At Toy Fair, the Flickcast got to see some of these latest Turtles designs up close and personal. The first thing people will notice actually isn’t the turtles at all but the redesigns on Shredder, Splinter and April. Shredder’s redesign looks like it has some drastic anime inspired influences behind him. He has been beefed up in terms of muscles and has more exaggerated spikes on his armor than ever before. The same goes for the Foot Soldier’s who now have incredibly creepy white with red polka dotted eyes.

Continue Reading →

The Flickcast returned to Toy Fair on Monday to check out the newest figures, games and collectibles coming out in the next year. (Just in case you didn’t see last year’s gallery, check it out here)

Like the announcement last year of a new Thundercats reboot, this year was graced with a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line which we will talk more about in the coming days. We also got to take a look at the newest assortment of Skylanders coming out for this year’s Skylanders Giants. We also had the privilege to talk to the master scribe and artist Todd McFarlane about the latest lines he has coming out this year for Halo and the Walking Dead. Stay tuned for that later this week too.

There was tons of licensing going on this year, see the Dark Knight Returns Mr. Potato Head if you don’t believe us. LEGO also expanded on their licensing of the DC and Marvel franchises with life sized Hulk, Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman pieces as well as further expansion of their Star Wars line.

Surprisingly, Portal 2 had a huge presence on the show floor as well with Companion Cubes, Portal Gun replicas and even Cave Johnson Portraits.

Take a peek below at all this plus way more with our look at the show floor of Toy Fair 2012.

Continue Reading →

Welcome to this week’s On the Radar where we delve into all corners of the entertainment, tech and geek Internets for news, views and whatnot that may have escaped our regular coverage this week. Let is know if we missed something interesting. Otherwise, on to the links!

• Supercut: If I Told You, I’d Have to Kill You.

• National Lampoon’s Christmas Inception.

• LIST: 8 of the dirtiest Sexual Innuendos in children’s cartoons.

• Batman robs a Taco Bell.

• HBO cutting out the vampire middle-man (or woman) and making a show about porn.

• Chelsea Handler to host the MTV VMA’s. General MTV-watching public’s response: Who?

• The new promo for Dexter is pretty terrible, and we haven’t even seen the show.

Continue Reading →

It looks like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have a new place to call home: MTV Networks and more specifically, Nickelodeon. According to Reuters, the network, the world’s number one for kids, acquired the rights today to the globally recognized, and phenomenally successful, Ninja Turtles property for roughly $60 Million.

The network plans to develop a new CG-animated television series based on the shelled superheroes, which will potentially debut sometime in 2012. In addition, the network is planning the release of brand new feature films starring the Turtles in partnership with Paramount Pictures and will also continue to work Playmates Toys on merchandising of the Turtles.

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shares a comedic sensibility with the Nickelodeon DNA, with added layers of action and fantasy that have kept this property an evergreen favorite with multiple generations of audiences,” said Cyma Zarghami, President, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids and Family Group. “We are extremely happy to have the opportunity to be able to focus on this property and creatively re-introduce it to a new generation of kids.”

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a property that maintains a very passionate global fan base, is rich with opportunity for a tentpole movie, and is exactly the right property for us to work together with Nickelodeon,” said Adam Goodman, President, Paramount Pictures.

Actually, TMNT and Nick seem like a great partnership. TMNT has always seemed more of a kids thing to me and for it to be on Nickelodeon and then have a brand new movie from Paramount should continue to expand the appeal of these characters for a long time to come.

When originally announced, this title had a lot of buzz behind it. After the massive success of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles re-released on the Xbox Live Arcade as a $5.00 download, everyone began asking when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time would come out.

Hoping it would get the same treatment as the original players were rewarded when they found out it would be getting a “Re-Shelled” treatment with new 3D graphics. But then came the bad news. The game was going to be priced at $15.00.

Immediately, this lead to a massive outcry from fans who did not want to pay $10.00 more than they did for the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just because it was getting updated graphics. Before the game was released, the price was lowered to the more reasonable 800 Microsoft Points ($10.00) price tag. Part of the love for retro games is keeping the original graphics as games like Gauntlet, Robotron and Smash TV have shown.

Continue Reading →