I just came up with a theory as I am watching this film... do you think at some point this was meant to be a TMNT/Usagi Yojimbo crossover film during some point in development? I mean in a way it makes way too much damn sense.
Nyeaah, you were expecting maybe the Addams Family? ;)
Nah, there were already a few time travel issues of the TMNT comic so there's precedence there. This movie was made on a budget and even though licensing Miyamoto Usagi wouldn't be astronomically expensive, it probably wasn't on the books to do another animatronic suit considering they only had the turtles/Splinter and no other mutants, and Usagi's world would require a bunch of them.
>>154180407>do you think at some point this was meant to be a TMNT/Usagi Yojimbo crossover film during some point in development?What makes you think that?
>>154180513FEUDAL JAPAAAAN
>>154180522Pretty sure that's just because of the Ninja part of the franchise name.
>>154180508And consider those were done incompetently, I shudder to think how they'd hamdle the Usagi cast.And it's not just budget, the team behind those costumes only did robot robots like the one in Short Circuit and mechanical effects like in Demolition Man, not anything that would be more in the wheelhouse of the Hensons.
>>154180618Samefagging, but forgot to add. Those effects guys were also explicitly chosen because the producers wanted them specifically. It's largely New Line and Golden Harvest's fault we lost the Creature Shop.
>>154180407No it never was.But it was meant to have Renet/Savanti Romero/Lord Simultaneous
Feldman as Donatello in this movie, does it work after 2? I always liked him and Adam Carl in the first two films.
>>154180407it's just as likely to say it could have included Renet. Eh. maybe.>>154180508>>154180618they were competent, they just had a much, much lower budget. their Splinter was basically a hand puppet, but they worked hard on him. I've seen behind the scenes stuff. They really did their best.. but when you're being chosen because you work cheaper than Henson, well...>>154180662yeah. but in fairness, there was no way on EARTH this was gonna make its money back, even if it was hailed as brilliant (no critic at the time would dare). TMNT was on its way out, this was a desperate squeeze.>>154181110I like Carl's more thoughtful Donatello, but I also dig Feldman's kinda chill bro Donatello. They both have their merits.you know what though, Usagi with a midget in the costume might actually work. He's stocky.
>>154180407No? Turtles in Time has always been a mandatory thing since the original Mirage comics. And from there every TMNT media does time travel with the Ninja Turtles. Its honestly weird whenever there's no time travel shenanigans in TMNT media.
>>154180489Help, I'm a turtle and I can't get up!
>>154181628I liked the 2k3 stuff, finding out Ch'rell is super old but then the original Shredder and Oroku Saki are even older.. I wanna say at least one of those was only fake time travel though, simulated.>>154181721>never support bad mediathey celebrate 2012
>>154180513Yojimbo made a cameo on the cartoon and was already popular
>>154181592That's what I'm getting at. The team who made the puppets for III weren't the worst out there. Especially not for the TMNT franchise. The problems were inexperience in trying to replicate the Henson tech (something even they admitted was a hail mary), and according to interviews, the insistence of using that team specifically. The producers had to be talked into doing the usual bidding war, and still ended up with that team anyway.They were genuinely out of their comfort zone, and if All Effects did a another film with characters prior to Turtles, I don't think they'd have gotten as much flack as they did. I'm also of the belief that Jim Henson and his company set the bar so high that no one, not even guys like Rick Baker or Stan Winston would have been spared the wrath of the fans.Oh, and Splinter was always a hand puppet.
>>154183398pretty muchthough I will say, Henson got lucky with the Turtles, since their design makes the whole costume thing a LOT easier. The central shell means the suit can be broken up into six pieces with ease, and the pads mean you can break it up further into a total of twelve. then the reptilian nature means A) latex skin is more acceptable and B) neck wrinkles where the animatronic heads attach are more acceptable.that, and the fact that the characters were already humanoid, short (so asian stuntmen can be used), and have three fingers and two toes (something easily replicated on a human actor with gloves and tabi boots). Like it was delivered to them on a platter. The main thing they had to change is giving the turtles rather LONG heads, since they were, in essence, wearing VR goggles (the eye and mouth mechs need space), but even then.. real turtles have decently long heads with short faces at the front, so that didn't stand out as odd at all. Oh, and the masks allow eyeslits to peek out.Splinter was probably a MUCH harder challenge, hence his not doing much.
>>154180407Unlikely as it'd require an astronomical number lf suits. Or just the one, meaning there's an enormous Bunny strolling around Tokugawa era Japan cutting down fuckers front, left and center; appropos of nothing.
>>154183630there's gotta be some meme you can make this into, about two old juggernauts, one 7 years older than the other, both at the absolute end of their watchability.
>>154183666I mean technically there are humans.
>>154183820Stuff like this felt like Sakai was originally building towards something before deciding he would rather run the comic the rest of his natural life instead.I kinda miss that element.
>>154180407IIRC the budget for the movie was minimal, milking the franchise as people were losing interest on the cheap. They wouldn't fork over the money to get Usagi and have another non-human character costume made unless they could pay in pastrami sandwiches. At best it could've been an old script with Usagi but then removed him when it was dusted off and used. Even then I doubt that could be possible.
>>154181592>>154180618What would the suit look like?
>>154183820First I'm hearing of it>>154183889Probably like Howard the Duck, realistically. But ideally, it would actually look good. If they could reduce the eye mech size a bit, hide it all in the beetle brow... thankfully his ears don't have to articulate. and most of him is covered by a gi and hakama, so that helps too.
Let's say this was the case.Would Usagi just be added or would other characters be there, even if by name only.
>>154184113Miyamoto Usagi (Puppet)Tomoe Ame (Human), maybe make her the person who April Switches with.Lord Noriyuki (Human)Lord Hebi (Puppet)I think you can keep Walker as the villain.
>>154183952>>154183889Honestly, unless they have him shirtless, they could just get away with the animatronic head and sone arm-length gloves.
>>154180407I recently watched all the extra stuff on the 4K and didn't really get an indication that anyone involved was into the turtles enough for that.
>>154184731that's not fair.. it's.. I mean.. they got Casey back...
3 at least tried to have some good action and not listen to shitty moms the whole timebut 2 is funnier, and has way cooler suits, so it doesn't quite beat it.. i was quite happy to get the movie III figures that came with angry movie 1 style heads to swap in in their place.
>>154180407I see where you're coming from here, but I doubt it.>>154180508>it probably wasn't on the books to do another animatronic suitNot just that, UY's setting has ALL the characters as animal people. It just wouldn't be feasable in Live-Action, even if the concept sounds be rad as hell now that I'm thinking about it.Great, now I'm sad we'll never get a Dark Cystal-esque Usagi movie.
>>154183845He was actually, in some notes shared in UY storytime last year the original plan was to merge UY with Nils Groundthumper and the story was about humans trying to kill off animal people. With Hikiji as their leader.
>>154185011i miss big budget high-animatronics movies about creaturepeople..
>>154185011>Great, now I'm sad we'll never get a Dark Cystal-esque Usagi movie.Shit, one of those AI guys on youtube should get on it, a trailer would be cool enough.
something about the founding of the foot clan and both splinter and shredder's ancestors would have been more interesting jesus christ they 100% dropped the ball with this movieto me it seems like this was a reworked old script they had lying around and just shoved the turtles into it
>>154187298But we do meet Splinter's (technically Hamato Yoshi's) ancestors.
>>154185069Don't we all, but it would be WAAAAY cheaper bugetwise to make a TMNT/Usagi Yojimbo crossover film as an animated film over a live-action movie with a fuckton animatronic suitmations.I don't have any Usagi pics so...
>>154187528Is that a guy or a girl?all rabbits look the same to me
>>154187611AI overview on the reverse image search says:"It features a character known as the "silly guy" in a mid-century art style."Comments on the tumblr post of it are 50/50 on the genderhttps://www.tumblr.com/possessedpasm/722597768949022720/the-best-computer-of-the-decade-vintage-ad
>>154184258>Tomoe in New York, do you think she would take it better than Kenshin
>>154186114According to chatgpt this is what Usagi would look like in TMNT.Realistically no.... no it wouldn't.
>>154180407Ready for "Straight Outta Feudal Japan" by N.W.A.
>>154187528Just had a though about prosthetic makeup, like old school planet of the apes style. Rabbits don't have that long of a muzzle, so it wouldn't use that much material. And the actor can make facial expressions himself, no remote control puppeteer needed. Would still be pricey, but not nearly as much as a full on animatronic heads and and puppeteer to make it emote....also there's a live action usagi yojimbo stage play out there.
>>154187338so many stupid decisions and missed opportunitiesthis movie hurts to think about
>>154188223Fuck, you're right, it could easily just be prosthetic makeup.
>>154188784And not all the characters will need the prosthetics either. Background characters with non speaking roles can be done with pull over masks. Much like planet of the apes did for the sequels.
Was the reason Tokka and Rahzar were used instead of Bebop and Rocksteady because of rights issues or because Laird hated the 87 show?