Toon Zone Talkback - NYCC2009: TMNT Animation: 25 and Going Strong

There are no new eps being produced at this moment, which means there is nothing planned for Fall 2009. If they aren't starting work on new episodes NOW in February, there is no way they can have 13 episodes ready for the Fall.

Don't these eps take 8-12 months to finish production? How can they have a new season ready if they haven't started on one?

And if they haven't started on one, then they obviously aren't sitting there twiddling their thumbs...there's no new work. They have nothing to do besides the DTV.
 
The panel was pretty cool, a lot of staff from the show talked about what they did and the huge process it takes to make a show like TMNT. A good majority of the staff was newer though (most started working on the show on season five or after), which accounts for the change in style and writing in the later seasons.

They also hinted at the DTV where "past characters meet present characters" but they couldn't say much more than that. Llyod Goldfine also expects to do another season, though so far he's unsure about the details.



It's obvious that there were no plans to make a new season for fall 2009. At the end of 2008, they were still working on new Back to the Sewer episodes, and now they're working on the DTV.

Besides, as was mentioned at the panel, most of the staff on TMNT also work on other 4Kids shows, so it's not like the TMNT staff will be fired or anything. There will always be the option of doing another season as long as 4Kids exists.
 
As Lloyd said in the interview, they usually start a new season right after they finish the previous (except for business changes, like the FF/BTTS direction), but this is the only time they don't know if they're getting the funds to continue.

Plus, a DTV is only 90 minutes long, give or take. How much time can it take to make that? Its like 3 episodes put together, how can that take up all their time from another season?



This is true, but what about TMNT's timeslot? Is 4kids expected to air reruns for a year until new eps come in 2010? Doesn't 4kids have new shows coming on the pipeline? Where will TMNT fit in their schedule?
 
I would imagine that doing a DTV would take a bit longer than three regular episodes. I'm not at all sure of the process of either making three regular episodes or a DTV, but I think that there is still a fairly large difference between the two, especially if they want to go for a higher amount of quality in the animation in the DTV than they would for three regular episodes.



It could be possible that they will keep TMNT's timeslot for the time being, considering it does pretty well with ratings. The ratings aren't as large as Sonic X, but they usually go over a 1.0 or so. Even if they do take it off the lineup, I think that it is possible for them to put it back whenever they wanted to. They did the same thing with Sonic X on 4KidsTV and then they moved it to the CW4Kids. While there are differences between the two situations, I could see 4Kids doing that as well.
 
The article is now up. Harley did a great job writing it...she got pretty much every significant detail mentioned at the panel.



From the panel, it sounded like they want to make the special a lot more than three episodes stiched together. I imagine it's going to be a very high quality production, much like the new DTV movies that DC and Marvel are putting out.



Well, it's happend before. Several shows on 4Kids TV have dissappeared from the block and then come back with new episodes.
 
I do hope the DTV has better animation, but what I mean is, why can't they be working on scripts for a 13 episode season at the same time?

The way it sounds is as if all of 4kids work is on the movie, and they don't have the ability to do regular episodes. That doesn't make sense to me.

4kids has this strange "wait and see" approach...and I am confused as to what they're waiting for.



But never TMNT. Its been a consistent on their block since 2003 back on the FoxBox. It even aired on 4kidsTV and the CW at the same time.

There was even one time when 4 episodes of TMNT aired every Saturday morning, with 4kidsTV and the CW.

And this is what is confusing. Does 4kids still like this show or not? They appear to give it "star treatment" yet at the same time are unsure of what to do with it?
 
Come on, CyberCubed, we've been through this several times already. You know they can't make another season if there's no bread and butter (aka, toys from Playmates). It's been that way from the beginning and now we're finally seeing the consequences as toy sales are reaching an all time low.
 
NinjaTurtles.com Was nice enough to put my video up on their main site. Head on over there to watch the entire thing, including the Mirage Panel.

I'm TRYING to make plans to head on over to San D to cover that event, but it all depends on whether or not I can find someone to go with me.

Don't know if this was put in the article, but they also mentioned the following:

Fast Forward was done to get a new audience in. It was mostly Playmates decision to go with this change, and 4Kids and Peter Laird where not for it. However, Playmates almost back stabbed them by focusing toy sales away from the show it was trying to 'improve' and putting them toward the movie. With no income coming in from the toy sales, now the future of the show is in doubt? Way to go Playmates.

There's more back stage drama, but I won't get into that here.
I REALLY have high hopes on this DTV project, especially considering an old school fan has written it.
 
^ Does it matter to Playmates whether the toys are for the show or about the comics/25th anniversary? As long as people are buying the toys, does it really impact the series otherwise?

Is Playmates cancelling the toyline? If not, then why aren't they helping with another season of the show? What is the point of producing figures otherwise?
 
Does anyone have any links to any info on the DTV? I know that I did read somewhere about it. But I'm really not finding much info on the internet talking about it.
 
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