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

Its Donnie

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Batman TAS was not as dark as some people are making it out to be ether. No one ever died on screen in it ether. Not until Mask of the Phantasum which does not count since it was a theatrical movie.
 
Possibly, they may even opt to produce another CGI movie, considering they are making a CGI TV series. They could simply transfer the models and other assets from the movie to TV show.
 
Why would Nick care about the 4kids show? They'll probably sweep it under the rug because it would compete with their new CG series.

At least Lionsgate can still release DVDs of the original series.
 
B:TAS still had greatly defined characters and villains. All the villains had a motive or a reason to be doing what they were doing, they weren't your, "villains who are evil for no reason" nonsense other cartoons had at the time.

Truly the best thing about Ninja Turtles is that you can do anything you want with them. Keep it realistic, make it sci-fi, make them dark or make them funny, it works no matter which way you do it.
 
Wow this is quite the shock. 4Kids must really be desperate if they're selling such a major property off.

I'm amazed Mirage is selling off their rights though. That means the end to the comic book series completely I would think, since they were the ones releasing that, which also means Eastman and Laird are out of the picture for good now.

This is better than WB owning it at least, considering how many incompetent boobs seem to mishandle any animated properties they own, but I hope this doesn't mean the return of the cheesy 1980s-styled Turtles. I did kinda prefer the closer to the comic version the 4Kids stuff was, but if this is airing on Nick proper and not Nicktoons, I can see them amping up the comedy and bringing down the action.

Has me thinking that's what we can expect.


If "new direction" means stupid humor and yet another retelling of the Turtles origins and not actually doing anything new, then that seems right :sweat:
 
It's pretty crazy to see this turn of events, but hey, 4Kids had a good run, abnormally so. I just REALLY hope Nick will actually release the entire 2003 series in proper boxsets before concentrating on their new show.

As for Laird and Mirage, this should give them a chance to create another great universe for us to love and buy stuff of. :p
 
Because it can still make them money. There are still three seasons without proper DVD sets, and given how bare bones the season sets that do exist are, they can probably get away with releasing seasons 1, 2, 5, 6 with ''new'' extra material and make a buck of that, if they wanted to. Plus, when the series becomes vintage, they can make a buck out of people who watched the show as kids and feel nostalgic for it.
 
You're correct in terms of television, but movies are a different ballpark. Look at Star Wars, Batman, etc. It's possible that Viacom may be gambling more on the live-action Paramount movie than the TV series on Nick.

Disney bought Marvel which screwed Paramount in a big way. Paramount signed a distribution deal with Marvel when they evolved from a production company to an actual studio. And Paramount will continue to do that for a few more years. But that's the problem. Eventually the rights will expire and Disney will take over. So, atleast now they have TMNT, which if done right, could be a very successful franchise. The 1990 movie was a big hit. And they might be able to pull that off again. Also, since Paramount has Star Trek it's a one-two punch against Disney and other studios.
 
Because you don't buy a single franchise for 60 million bucks just to sweep it under the rug, especially not a 25-year-old well-established perennial hit as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which has had two successful cartoon series and a number of hit films under its belt. It's more than likely going to replace the Marvel Shows on Nick's networks and the movie will be promoted by Paramount, not Nick.
 
Well, I guess this puts a rest to any doubts about whether the current TMNT cartoon was going to continue. I would definitely check out a new version of TMNT in the future. But I think the current 4Kids version will be the definitive one, for me anyway. I've never been a huge fan of Nickelodeon cartoons though. I just don't think "action cartoons" when I think Nickelodeon. But like I said, I would definitely give it a chance.
 
You're confusing violence with darkness. B:TAS was a very psychological show. That's where the darkness is coming from. Violence doesn't always have to be serious. Looney Tunes had violence!
 
So wait a minute! What TMNT 2003 Series is it going to be licenced to 4Kids after the change?

:confused::confused::confused::confused:(Because they have finished the series have yet to release Seasons 3 4 and 7 on DVD also Turtles Forever)
 
Actually I've heard (I forget where but it doesn't really matter at this point) that Next Mutation did not infact bomb but Fox wanted to focus on Power Rangers. Considering Next Mutation was made from the ground up rather than spliced with stock footage like Power Rangers it was probably more expensive to produce than Power Rangers as well. Granted it was rather cheaply made.

Regardless of if it did well or not... it wasn't a very good show only good for a laugh or two IF that.

You're asking for a lot with 150 episodes as most American cartoons don't run as many seasons as the 4kids series did much less the number of seasons the 80s cartoon did. It shouldn't be considered a failure if it runs for less episodes than that but exceeds quality expectations. I don't anticipate more than 52 to 78 episodes but I hope they can make it to 100.
 
They really should include characters in this show who were never animated before, like Armaggon. He was the shark mutant in the Archie comic series and TMNT: Tournament Fighters for SNES.

Its a travesty we've never seen such an awesome character in the cartoons.
 
...

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I'm glad we're getting more Ninja Turtles stuff. On the other, I'm not sure I'll like Nickelodeon's approach.

I, too, hope that the new stuff will be closer to the comics than the eighties series. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
 
Whoa. I need to lie down.

So what exactly does this mean? If I'm reading this correctly, Nickelodeon would, once the process is finalized, be where 4Kids has been in the past several years: they'd be able to do (almost) whatever they want with the property, with actual ownership still actually residing within Mirage--otherwise, the article would actually say ''TMNT sold to Nickelodeon'', and would probably be worth much more than 60 mil. Or is Matt right, and Nickelodeon does now own the TMNT lock, stock, and barrel?

And what does this mean for the 4Kids' series? Given that whatever agreement they'd had with Mirage apparently left stuff like the old toon out of bounds, does this mean that the 2003 series will be similarly out of bounds to Nick, barring further agreements?

And if we're getting a new series in 2012, I guess that yes, Turtles Forever will be the end of the current cartoon incarnation of the turtles. I'm cautiously optimistic; if Nickelodeon can mix the sort of writing the 4Kids' show had with the production values of something like Avatar, then there's no reason why it shouldn't be awesome. Still, given how well the last cartoon brough the Mirageverse to TV, I'm wondering just what they'll do to make this new series stand out.

Of course, the big question is what this means for 4Kids. If they do retain the rights to everything having to do with their version of the property, then this is a good move--they've probably taken all they can from the show. If on the other hand, they're out of the loop entirely and own nothing related to the series, then the decision makes a lot less sense.
 
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