In case you hadn’t heard, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are set to return to the big screen with an all-new CG feature film being animated at Imagi Animation Studios in Hong Kong. The Weinstein Co. and Warner Bros. Pictures will release the film on March 30, 2007, but you can get your first glimpse of the animation now at www.apple.com/trailers/wb/teenagemutantninjaturtles/tmnt_medium.html.
Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman launched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1984 with a 40-page, black-and-white comic book. Three live-action feature films and an animated series soon followed. After laying low for several years, the toxically transformed terrapins made their return to television in February of 2003 on Fox’s 4Kids TV block in the U.S. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’Fast Forward, a new series that takes the characters 99 years into the future, is scheduled to join the 4Kids TV lineup this fall.
The new movie is being directed by animator/comic-book artist Kevin Munroe from a screenplay he wrote with help from Laird, who will serve as exec producer along with Francis Kao, Gary Richardson and Frederick U. Fierst. Thomas K. Gray and Galen Walker are producing the PG-rated feature toon, which appears to appears to offer leaner and meaner versions of the heroes on a half-shell. Munroe discussed the flick and showed exclusive clips during a TMNT panel at the San Diego Comic-Con yesterday. He likened the flick to Warner Bros.’ Superman Returns, calling it a rebirth film that picks up after the second live-action movie but also tips its hat to the animated series as well.
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