Donna Ward/WireImage/Getty
How many times a day do you or your kids think, “You know what we really need? More Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!” In my house, that thought occurs about as often as the inclination to do homework on Saturdays.
But Nickelodeon is among those who think it’s time for a Turtle resurgence, at least to expand its boy base. The Big Orange recently snapped up worldwide rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in a deal valued at about $60 million. The CW will air the current TMNT animated series until August 31, but look for a new TMNT CG-animated TV series in from Nick later in 2010. Meanwhile, Nick’s Viacom cousin Paramount will stick its neck out in 2012 with a TMNT movie release.
Is it just me or is the whole teen mutant turtle thing just played out? Having come and gone in various mutations in the '80s and '90s, it was always a little much to begin with. Give me talking turtles. Give me ninjas. Give me Italian-named teenagers. Give me mutants. Give me pizza. Give me crime-fighting. But don’t give me all of the above in some kind of pureed turtle soup. (At least not in TV and movies. In comic books, anything goes and often does).
Producers are constantly looking under old rocks for kids entertainment concepts—Land of the Lost, The Harlem Globetrotters, G.I. Joe, etc. Surely all those creative geniuses toiling away in thoroughly air-conditioned office buildings can come up with something new for kids to chew on.
Note to those suits: “Adolescent Genetically-Enhanced Kung Fu Platypuses” does NOT count as a new idea.
