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

If the new Nick CGI series is similar to the 2007 movie, it could definitely become my favorite Ninja Turtles series. I still feel like that movie might be my favorite incarnation of the turtles, possibly even better than the 2003 series at its best.
 
Yeah you're completely right. Competition is what makes things better. With less companies on the playing field the bigger companies are free to be lazier. Which is why i'm not a huge fan of this move. I gotta think that TMNT will eventually be forgotten at a huge company like Viacom (i wonder how many titles have been forgotten at Time Warner)

So yeah, i think this is bad change. There is good change too, but how would less competition every constitute good change? It just lets people / companies be complacent.

I would rather see TMNT in the hands of a smaller company that is so desperate for it to work that it creates a great product (which is what i think 4kids did in 2003) than a company who can just experiment on it and feels no sense of urgency.

I think that maybe mirage and tmnt should have sold the tv rights (licensing? i mean marvel does this all the time) instead of the entire product.
 
The thing is, Peter Laird no longer holds any creative control over the TMNT franchise, so he can't stop her from resurfacing.

Then again, Venus was a Saban creation, so she's stuck in legal limbo most likely which thankfully means she won't resurface in any form in the new Nick cartoon.
 
Well it looks like Nicktoons Network has it's replacement for when they lose the Marvel shows.

To be honest i did not see this comming.

I\I h\guess we have to wait and see.
 
Wow. I could never get into TMNT, but I always knew it was a popular property enjoyed by generations.

What I'm most concerned about is Mirage Studios, since TMNT was their only big property. What will the creator(s) do now? Will they retire?
They sure as heck can now, with 50 million dollars in the bank.
 
Unless they get inspired by Venus and make a new female turtle.

Just imagine: Rosa (Bonheur), the turtle all the way from France!

Eek.
 
They brought the property from the previous property holder.I think the old show is owned by a different holder and that's why the old show releases on DVD in boxsets didn't have 4Kids anywhere to be found. It's like with various film or television libraries. Certain companies own back catalouges of a certain property while another company owns another part of the exact same property. That's why certain episodes of Looney Tunes or Tom and Jerry can't be aired because certain groups own various episodes. In order for Nick to own the old TMNT they have to buy the rights or wait until the rights expire from it's current owner.
 
Wow....end of an era I guess for Mirage. Well Peter and Kevin are businessmen first and foremost, so of course it was likely they would cash in, but still just weird.

Btw, what about the three live action movies and TMNT (2007), does Viacom get them or do they stay with Warner Bros.?
 
I'm glad to heard that this show will be airing on Nick and not just exclusively to Nicktoons. I'm sure more people would be able to watch the series. It's also nice to hear that Mirage can still continue on with the comics.

It makes sense that Nick would want to have their series more like the 80's version. Other than Avatar, Nick focuses a lot more on comedy than action. Though, I could see it being like a combination of both previous series. It could have the humor of the 80's series with some seriousness aspects to it that were in the 2K3 series. I could definitely see something like that working quite nicely for Nick.
 
I see this as a suprising move by Nick to just outright buy the TMNT license, I didn't see this coming and I don't think anyone could have predicted something like this to happen. I think it's kind of cool and hopefully the series airs on Nicktoons and not regular Nickelodeon, but that's just my hopes.
 
So now TMNT fans now know what Power Rangers fan felt like in July 2001, when the Fox Family Worldwide deal that gave Disney both Fox Family (now ABC Family of course) and the rights to Power Rangers. The two were featured in a team-up episode of Power Rangers in Space ("Shell Shocked"), but now they look to become permanent rivals of each other. I just wonder if the two episodes of PRiS that the TMNT were featured in (Save Our Ship was the other one) will be allowed to air again since they were based on The Next Mutation, which I believe in currently in Disney's library via the Saban acquisition in 2001.
 
Which means the comics are on hiatus for awhile, until Peter Laird gets to them again.

Man, for the first time TMNT is not going to be known as a comic book franchise. Obviously the cartoons were always more popular than the comics, but its really weird to see TMNT without Mirage and Peter Laird at the helm.
 
Since Mirage and 4kids didn't have the rights to the 80's series, Viacom didn't get it during their buyout. If they want the 80's series, it looks like they'll have to buy it from Fred Wolf Films.

Unless they want to own everything related to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I can't imagine them doing much with the 80's series, since most of the series has already been released on DVD. I guess they could always re-release the DVDs through the Paramount label, or give Lions Gate permission to continue handling the DVDs. If they do want to own everything Ninja Turtles related, I wonder if they're also planning to buy the movies from Warner Brothers.

Speaking of DVDs, I hope that Viacom will re-release the 2003 series on DVD, someday.

As for the Nick series that will be coming out in 2012, I guess I'll wait and see if it'll be any good.
 
As Jeff mentioned earlier, this is just Viacom's response to Disney buying Marvel. They need to compete with them. I think this TMNT purchase is just the beginning. They'll probably buy more stuff while also using some of the stuff they already own. Like I wouldn't be surprised to see a new animated Star Trek show.
 
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