Thursday 22 March 2012

I love being a turtle!


I have just read the shocking news that Michael Bay is working on the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film and that the turtles will be aliens...

Words fail me.

He has defended this decision after a backlash from angry fans.  It’s brave of him to want to change the back story of the turtles.  Wait, do I mean brave?  I might mean stupid. 

The turtles have a special place in my heart and I grew up watching the cartoons and original films.  It was one of the first things discovered in common with my other half.  My favourite turtle has changed throughout the years and still differs depending on my mood.

If you don’t know about the turtles (where have you been?) here is a quick back story.  A rat escaped from his martial art expert owner as he was murdered.  The rat ended up in the sewer where he found four baby turtles and some radioactive ooze.  The ooze mutated the five of them and made them big, walking on two legs and intelligent.  The rat (Splinter) taught the four turtles, raised them, taught them martial arts and named them from a book on Renaissance art that he found in the sewer;
  • Donatello (the intelligent one)
  • Raphael (the angry one!)
  • Michelangelo (the dude)
  • Leonardo (the leader)

Their arch nemesis is Shredder, the man who killed Splinter’s owner.

Then of course there’s April, the reporter who discovers the turtles existence as they fight crime under cover of darkness.  And of course Casey Jones, another vigilante. 

The original films are amazing and I grew up with them (don’t watch the third film though, it’s no match for the first and second films) and they are available on DVD right now!

When I met my lovely other half, we watched the new TMNT film.  I wasn’t sure at first; it’s an animated film which is fine but the turtles have no eyes!  You have to remember that these guys may be hard core fighting ninjas but they’re also teenagers who love pizza.  I needn't have feared, the latest TMNT film is just as good as my old childhood favourites.

I believe they recently introduced a sister into the turtle clan.  God knows why, probably for the same reason as getting rid of Christopher Robin and making Winnie the Pooh’s best friend a girl!  Completely unnecessary and political correctness gone mad.

See?  What’s wrong with the turtles as they are?  Aliens, indeed.  As a child I never once questioned the turtle’s back story and I’m proud that so many people are so passionate to keep the turtles as our own.  Don’t fix something that isn’t broken. 

On the right is a new list of my childhood favourites – what are yours?

2 comments:

  1. I was a huge (and still am) batman fan! To the point where I wouldn't respond to anything other than Bruce or Batman. I wanted to name my rabbit batman....my mum made me call it violet though! :-D

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  2. That is awesome! Surely your mum could have let you name the bunny Bruce? Bruce the bunny Batman?!
    Can you do the deep voice? :)

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