Yes, the Ninja Turtles are heading back to a theater near you on Christmas Day, 2013, and Michael Bay’s involvement is already (shock!) rubbing fans the wrong way.
In fact, Robbie Rist, the former child star who provided the voice of Michelangelo in the first Ninja Turtles flick, has publicly displayed his outrage on Facebook, telling the fans their childhood memories are about to be sexually assaulted.
Bay already went on the ‘Net to try and calm everyone down, and now he’s had to do it again over another change to the Turtles lore.
First, the change was made that the Turtles would now be aliens, then word came down the title’s gonna be shortened to just Ninja Turtles, one of those brilliant Hollywood moves you know some studio executive chucklehead thought of.
It would had obviously made more sense to just have Ninja Turtles in the ad campaign, or the other Hollywood standby, making your title a stupid acronym, TMNT.
According to Collider and Bay’s official website, the title is indeed now just Ninja Turtles, but he promised, “The characters you all remember are exactly the same, and yes they still act like teenagers.”
As Bay claimed on his website, “Paramount marketing changed the name. They made the title simple.” Now knowing Bay, if he wanted to raise a fit, which he’s very capable of, I bet somebody over there would actually listen, especially considering he’s now doing Transformers 4.
Bay continued, “Everything you remember, why you liked the characters, is in the movie. The script is being developed by two very smart writers, with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles. They care VERY MUCH about making this film for the fans. Just give them a chance. Jonathan [Liebesman], is a major fan of the whole franchise. HE’S NOT GOING TO LET YOU DOWN.”
Whether the new Turtles are going to deliver, or if this is all one big shell game still remains to be seen, but as Bay’s seen so far, the geeks will be all over him. So do right by the Turtles, or you’re going to get flipped over on your back in a hurry.
