Toon Zone Talkback - Nick Acquires Rights for "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"

Does this mean Mirage will no longer be publishing the comics too? I hope we get a full breakdown on what this deal will bring for all aspects of the TMNT franchise.
 
After reading the statement a few times now, I'm reading it as Nickelodeon is the full 100% owner of the TMNT. Meaning, they can do whatever they want with them. They don't have to answer to Mirage.
 
That 5 year break between the last two shows was pretty bad though. No TMNT, and I wound up sucked into the Pokemon craze at the time to fill the void.

3 years is still a long time, there are only a handful of comics coming out next year and once those are done there won't be any new TMNT stuff besides some toys.

Its a shame to see Turtles die a second time, even if its not as a big deal as when they died the first time since we know there's another revival coming.
 
Man, guess that's it for TMNT 2K3. :sad: At least the comics will still be printing, and at least we are getting a new show. I just hope nick doesn't mess this up - I really wouldn't want to see TMNT die out completely.



We can only hope... :p
 
I wonder what will happen to the video game rights? I mean UbiSoft has put out some crappy Turtles games like TMNT (Console/PSP/DS) and Turtles in Time Re-Shelled, but they've put out decent stuff as well Smash-Up! and TMNT (GBA). I would hate to see what happens if THQ (They do all of Nick's games) get their hands on it.
 
Yeah, Nick owns the TMNT, they can do whatever they want, revive Venus and add even more female turtles and theres nothing Laird can do about it.
 
Well, we all know Peter Laird hated Venus, mainly because she went against his vision that the 4 Turtles were the only mutant ninja turtles in the world. A 5th long-lost mutant turtle negated that premise.

My personal theory regarding why Venus was so disliked is that she simply arrived on the scene too late in the franchise's history; by the time Venus came along, the Turtles had already completed an entire TV series and 3 movies. By that time, it had become bible that there were only 4 Ninja Turtles, and nobody was willing to accept otherwise. It also didn't help matters that Venus was introduced in the infamous Next Mutation, a show in which the Shredder had been replaced by a dragon Muppet villain who wanted to eat the Turtles, a talking gangster gorilla in a Zoot suit and a bunch of humans whose words never completely matched their lips. If Venus had been introduced in say, season 2 or 3 of the Murakami/Wolf/Swenson cartoon show, people would've had more time to get used to her and she might have been better received.
 
A female Turtle was always a bad idea from the getgo.

In any case, Next Mutation is such an obscure series now from over 12 years ago, and it has never been released on DVD in the U.S., so more than likely it'll be forgotten outside the hardcore TMNT fanbase.

TMNT fans will remember the original cartoon, the 2k3 series, and the four theatrical movies, and that's it.

Next Mutation was truly the only Turtle show that should have never happened. At least it was swept under the rug quickly enough.
 
So Mirage can still make TMNT comics? That's a relief. I didn't want to see TMNT leave it's comic book roots behind for good.

Focusing on the 80s/90s TMNT makes sense for Nick, it's more their style right down to epic 4th wall breaking humor but I think we can expect something along the lines of Avatar though probably not quite as serious as that show could be.

I'd enjoy the old toon characters in a new setting but I hope they really flesh out the story of that universe oh and it's a minor thing but I'd prefer for Hamato Yoshi to be a human and for Splinter to be a rat before he mutates.
 
You really think Nick paid $60 million dollars to just make a 65 episode series and call it a day? Unless the show bombs in the ratings or something, I doubt it.

The standard run for a TMNT cartoon is 150+ episodes. I can certainly see the Nick show running as long as 2k3 did.
 
I'm not sure if I would say that the turtles are dying. That feels a bit harsh to say when one series is ending. I don't think that having a few years in between a new series is problem either. It gives a chance for a new staff to work on their take on the turtles. Plus, making a new series does take time, especially since they're going to animating it in CGI.

Besides, there are plenty of DVDs of both previous TMNT series, so anyone interested in the franchise could buy/rent some of those sets in order to get a feel for the characters. There's also four movies out there. Just because TMNT isn't going to have a series on for about three years doesn't mean that no one will be into the franchise or that no one will watch anything TMNT related. I'm sure that Nick will hype up the new series when they're getting ready to premier it.
 
I'm not sure, could we see the old toon characters but in the same tone as 2k3? Remember how we never expected a company like 4kids to allow TMNT to be as dark as it was (for a kids show), and it happened?

There's no reason to assume Nick will make TMNT into a kiddie show. Especially since Nick purchased the 2k3 series to air as reruns, they will probably be fine with that kind of tone for their series.
 
IMO 4Kids got the best deal out of this, they had the rights for merchandising and everything else until 2012, however they weren't going to make any new cartoons, and without cartoons they wouldn't get money from merchandising mostly until the 2012 movie.


Also in the short term this is great news for TMNT fans, 4kids wouldn't have made a new cartoon not even with the new movie and now we have a new show confirmed.



It will not look as good as the fourth movie but CGi cartoons can look pretty good. Look at recent CGi shows and with each year shows keep getting better by 2012 it wouldn't surprise me if it was close to the fourth movie.

And you know I think it was very likely that the next TMNT cartoon would have been in CG even without the buy out. Mirage had two different pilots/test footage for a cg show that was never picked up, its obvious they wanted to go that route.




No, thats Disney. Nick does have their episode rules with their Nicktoons that after they reach 52 its cancelled no matter what. Of course that doesn't count Avatar which had a longer run, not to mention a great story, action, fight scenes etc. Not to mention Rugrats and Spongebob also had/have huge runs.

I don't think Nick would spend spend 60 million to buy TMNT, make a one season show and if it doesn't make them happy with its returns put it in a vault, this is a commitment. It was done since Disney bought Marvel they wanted their own piece of the pie when it came to superhero cartoons especially since they are losing their Marvel cartoons.
 
WOW! Why would they sell this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? It's such a good show! Are they declaring bankruptsy or something? :sad:
 
With this purchase, maybe now someone will finally take Leonardo off the banner at the top of the Cartoon Network Forum. When was the last time an episode of the 2003 TMNT cartoon actually aired on Cartoon Network anyway?
 
To each his own, I guess. However, the original fanbase was getting pretty old at this point. And we all know how most people are in regards to cartoons. "That's kids stuff," they say. So, it didn't matter either way. As for those who were children at the time, well, kids are always gonna prefer their cartoons. They may have enjoyed it, but Pokemon would be their choice. So, atleast the wait made the series seem fresh as opposed to a dead horse.
 
Back
Top