TMNT Sold

Sunday, October 25th, 2009

Michaelangelo is a party dude…As many probably already know, the 1980’s classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been sold to Nickelodeon Studios (Viacom). And in classic internet ferver, the fanboys came out in droves to protest. I just don’t see what all the fuss is about. “But it’ll never be the same!” Well of course it won’t, stupid. It hasn’t been the same since the 80’s and (hopefully) neither have you. The comments that have been posted about the topic are about as ridiculous as you can get. Accusations of Peter Laird being pushed into a sale, Viacom destroying the franchise, new TMNT movies! Oh the humanity! In case you had all forgotten, there have been a few TMNT movies since the early days of the comic.

Laird posted his reaction to the “fans” on his blog Saturday which you can read here. He really owes nothing to the nay-sayers as he’s already dedicated over two decades of his life to TMNT but instead left a tasteful explanation as to why he’s selling. I’m happy for him and the rest of the people involved and I hope things move in exciting and new directions. One thing people often forget in times like these is that in reality this is a business. No one is taking the old stuff away either. All those books you still have, the VHS Tapes, comics, coloring books, folders, that’s all still there for you to enjoy. This just marks a new era, among many, for the Turtles. One thing that I’m sure is a bit odd, as one commenter had already posted on Jim Lawson’s blog: it must have been hard keeping this whole thing private from the staff at Mirage and hopefully there isn’t any bad blood. Especially with guys like Jim Lawson who have been with Mirage since the beginning. So good luck to everyone at Mirage in this giant transition.

On another interesting note. A new CG TMNT film is slated for release in 2012 which will be distributed by Paramount (also of the Viacom family). It would also seem that Dreamworks and Paramount have had an exclusive distribution deal since 2005. While that doesn’t really mean anything since Paramount isn’t required to use Dreamworks as their sole means for content creation (it’s not a two way deal) it is an interesting prospect. Dreamworks has been pushing those new 3D projectors as well. All just me speculating, but it would make for some juicy nerd-like gossip.