Seth Rogen, who is a producer on the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film reboot, stated that the newest installment in the long-running franchise would put particular focus on the “teenage” aspect of the titular heroes. TMNT started as a comic book series, created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1984, that featured the eponymous Turtles in their fight against crime. The original comics were relatively dark and gritty, but as the Turtles became more popular, their image began to brighten up. The series spawned several cartoons, live-action films, and toy lines, and by the 90s, TMNT was a certified cultural phenomenon.
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The first live-action film in the series, simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, was released in 1990. Despite getting lukewarm critical reviews, the film was a smash hit among fans and is still largely considered to be the best TMNT film to this day. Two sequels followed that film, 1991’s The Secret of the Ooze, and 1993’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. Neither sequel was as well received or as financially lucrative as the original, and the film series was put on ice. Since then, there has been a handful of attempts to reboot TMNT for the big screen with varying degrees of success, but fans generally agreed that none have quite hit the mark as the 1990 film did. In June of 2020, it was announced that the next TMNT reboot would be produced by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, with the film being made under the duo’s production company Point Grey Pictures.
In an interview with Collider, Rogen mentioned that the new reboot would aim to be more like a “coming-of-age” film, emphasizing the “teenage” aspect of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Rogen, who himself has been a fan of TMNT since he was a child, brought up how the teenage part of the Turtles always interested him the most.
“As a lifelong fan of Ninja Turtles, weirdly the ‘Teenage’ part of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was always the part that stuck out to me the most. And as someone who loves teenage movies, and who’s made a lot of teenage movies, and who literally got their start in their entire profession by writing a teenage movie, the idea of kind of honing in on that element was really exciting to us. I mean, not disregarding the rest, but really using that as kind of a jumping off point for the film.”
While this choice may seem strange at a glance, it isn’t once you focus on Rogen’s career. He got his start working shows like Freaks and Geeks and Undeclared, which primarily focused on the lives of teenagers and young adults. Superbad, another coming-of-age film that Rogen and Evan Goldberg started writing when they were only 13, is largely considered one of the best teen comedies of all time. Given Rogen’s track record, an emphasis on the ”teenage” aspect of TMNT could be the way to go.
The Turtles have had a rocky history when it comes to their big-screen outings. Their most recent films haven’t been met with the best reception, and hope for a movie that captured the spirit of the characters like the 1990 movie did has been dwindling. While Rogen’s film won’t be live-action (it’ll be CG, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing), it does seem like more thought and care are being put into portraying the characters and world. Rogen’s filmography more than shows that he has a knack for capturing the teenage experience, and viewing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles through that lens can yield a much more interesting product than what we’ve been given recently.
Source: Collider