comment #1

Rich S. says ...

But, more importantly, how do the Iranians feel about it?

comment #2

jeffmcm says ...

What's a 'kid-friendly hour', 3 in the afternoon? God forbid you see a movie in daylight hours.

comment #3

Earl Hofert says ...

Gee, that's strange. Out here in the profoundly unhip Midwest, land of shabby thread counts and whatnot, we had a press screening of the film on Monday at noon. Maybe they are doing it that way in the real world because of that tendency among people in hip film circles to show up an hour late demanding to be let in.

comment #4

christian says ...

TMNT?

talk about desperate branding. i was a fan of the comic and i have to keep looking at that and go, huh?

comment #5

D.Z. says ...

This looks like it should go straight-to-video, not the big screen. TMNT hasn't been big for over a decade. Though at least it looks like less of a bastardization than Transformers.

comment #6

jeffmcm says ...

Heads are gonna have to roll at New Line when this one comes out. They just seem to have flop after flop - is Rish Hour 3 any kind of a savior?

comment #7

Josh Martin says ...

What does New Line have to do with this? The publicity only mentions The Weinstein Company and WB proper.

This looks like it should go straight-to-video, not the big screen. TMNT hasn't been big for over a decade.

It's certainly not as big as it was in the early '90s, but the new animated series and the associated merchandising (toys, video games, etc.) have done very well. But I do think the ship has sailed (this movie should've come out 2-3 years ago) and the animation looks almost sub-Hoodwinked.

comment #8

Undercover Brother says ...

Mr. Wells actually acknowledged this movie as existing. I'm stunned. Now all he has to do is watch it. That will be the real fun part. Jeff, where do you stand on the original Mutant Turtle Trilogy? I'm sure you love them all. Tell of us your fond memories of the Turtles.

comment #9

MovieBob says ...

"The obvious motive in giving Kevin Munroe's new-age digital Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle flick the title of TMNT (Warner Bros., 3.23) is that it sounds less odorous and sloggy."

Er... the MORE obvious motive is that "TMNT" has been the fan's shorthand for this franchise prety much since it's inception. Ironically, the title is "supposed" to sound odorous and sloggy: Back when the first TMNT comics were coming out, it was a popular indie-comic in-joke to refer to any given Marvel character as a "Teenage Mutant Ninja [insert actual character trait here]" because at the time nearly ALL of the "Marvel Universe" was awash with ninjas and mutants spilling over from the popular X-Men and Daredevil books. (Also, spelling it out like that is kind of a winking nudge at Japanese "team hero" books from which the Turtles take a lot of inspiration, which always have long-translating titles like "Science Ninja Team Gatchaman.")

comment #10

jeffmcm says ...

My mistake, the original TMNT movies were all from New Line - the original is still their 10th biggest hit of all time. So I assumed this one was produced by them as well.

comment #11

Alan Cerny says ...

"Heads are gonna have to roll at New Line when this one comes out. They just seem to have flop after flop - is Rush Hour 3 any kind of a savior?"

TMNT isn't going to flop. Just watch. Parents (albeit young ones) grew up on it and will take their kids. And kids are very aware of it; if you've flipped the various kid channels recently, there have been a ton of commercials. Hell, my daughter's been pestering me for a couple of weeks about it.

Granted, I may be wrong. But I don't think so.

comment #12

D.Z. says ...

Alan:

Why would parents go to the latest installment of a franchise they gave up on, because the second film just had to include Vanilla Ice? Though I will admit I'm surprised the series skews to any girls. Still, I have a feeling The Hills Have Eyes 2 will be the winner for that weekend.