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S6 EP18 | As it is one of the most rebooted IP's, the Studio Demands a new version of the famed reptile warriors of justice, and the guys find a villain worthy of Ninja Justice.
Two screenwriters attempt to recreate, reimagine, or flat out fix, existing film franchises when 'the studio' demands...MORE FILMS! It's an exercise in creative thinking where they will challenge themselves to conceptualize, pitch, and craft a film based on the stipulations of a hypothetical Hollywood overlord. | Sixfive Media
Hello, and welcome to The Studio Demands It, an exercise in creative thinking where we will conceptualize, pitch, and craft a film or series based on the demands from one of our listeners acting as a hypothetical Hollywood, oops, based on the demands from one of you listeners acting as a hypothetical Hollywood overlord. You. Thank you. That's what that that's why I forgot. As professional screenwriters ourselves and massive cinephiles, we talk movies all the time.
Speaker 2:Cinephiles.
Speaker 1:And we'd like to believe that we could meet any demand thrown at us. We will be your screenwriters for this episode. I am TC Duet, and joining me, as always, is Jim Cold Read Berzelik. Cold read, Jim. I if I put something in front of you right now, you cold read it, and it would be great.
Speaker 2:I would cold read it. I don't know if it'd be great.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's alright. I'm just gonna send you that real quick. And now Jim is gonna cold read something for us. Oh. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I found out that this was Jim's middle name, and I was like, you know what? I need to see if this is a family name or if it really is lives up to Jim's expectation. Alright, Jim. Here we go. Cold Reed versus Sanjay.
Speaker 1:Go.
Speaker 2:I shit myself blind. Your giggle your giggle is a few years back, I was home alone during a power storm. I went into the bathroom to take a dump and at the exact same and at the exact time I was shitting, I sneezed. Well, the power went out as well. The house was pitch black and I literally thought I shit myself blind.
Speaker 2:I couldn't see my hands so I panic. So in a panic, I was yelling, no. Cannot be it. True. I was in a panic feeling for the toilet paper to wipe and flush.
Speaker 2:After completing the task, I just sat on the toilet trying to figure out how to tell everyone I know that I literally shit myself blind by sneezing while shitting. After about two minutes of complete darkness and dread and panic, lightning struck outside and lit up my hallway. Best damn feeling ever.
Speaker 1:I just saw that. That'd be so funny to make you read it on the spot. Yep.
Speaker 2:I did it live up to to your hopes and dreams?
Speaker 1:It did.
Speaker 2:Excellent. It's so stupid.
Speaker 1:Oh, my face hurts.
Speaker 2:Boy. Also, I'm sorry. You mispronounced my middle name. Oh, yeah. It's Coldred.
Speaker 1:Coldred. Oh my god. Well, you did a good job cold reading. That's Coldred. That that does sound more like a name.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Jim Coldred Yeah. Ozelic?
Speaker 2:It's tuning Coldred. Cold dread of coal.
Speaker 1:Coldred. Cold coal dread. Is it hyphenate? Nope. It's like a Dutch name.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Is coal a prefix to like the dread or something?
Speaker 2:No. It's not one word. Yeah. It's it's coal Ma. C o a l.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I got it. The the the the mineral, the the
Speaker 1:the the
Speaker 2:fuel. Right?
Speaker 1:C yeah. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And then dread
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:As in fear.
Speaker 1:Oh, so a fear of brazilac. Yep. Nice. Nailed it. Okay.
Speaker 1:That utter nonsense was brought to you by me needing to watch Jim do that and make me laugh.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That was better than my cold red joke.
Speaker 1:Well, cold red the night stalker is one of your favorite shows. It is. Yeah. If any if anyone knows Jim, they all know that he loves Cole Dread, the Night Stalker.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:Yes. There you go. Jim, our listeners have given us demands from studios literally all over the world. And you listening now and tolerating my giggles, you can send us any demand you'd like, and we have to meet them right here on the spot. And when we reach the end of the episode, if we've done our job, we will have pitched a full idea meeting or even exceeding those demands.
Speaker 1:And when the end of the season comes, is coming up quick, Jim No. Season six is flying by. End of the season.
Speaker 2:Stay with us season six.
Speaker 1:Stay with us. Your demands could have helped us craft the script that will be greenlit by the fans for our finale. Thank you everyone who has been submitting. Please keep it coming. And today's demand comes from rko@okroggpictures.
Speaker 1:Okrogg. Okay. Alright. Here we go. Rog or r k o.
Speaker 1:Reboots are nothing new. We all know this. But some IP gets more rebooted than others. One of the most rebooted is the is the teenaged, mutated, najitsu using testudines. I'm gonna go
Speaker 2:ahead and assume Tetsudines? Is
Speaker 1:that the scientific e t? T e s t. T e s t, testudines. It must be this it's probably Latin for turtle. The teenaged mutated niu jitsu using Between 1990 and today, TMNT has been rebooted 10 times.
Speaker 1:Is that true?
Speaker 2:Yeah. That sounds about right.
Speaker 1:Five shows and five movies. There have been oh, five movie series. Five shows and five there have been consistency consistencies between the runs, but there have also been liberties taken. Given that another reboot is surely to come, the studio demands that you find a way to tell a Turtle Boy story with a unique spin, Cowabunga Gents. Okay.
Speaker 1:R k Okay Rog Pictures, r k o from Okay Rog Pictures. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Jim, which is wonderful because they just had their thirty fifth anniversary. The the 1990 movie just had its anniversary released to theaters. We actually watched it as a
Speaker 2:We
Speaker 1:did. On a on a a whim to be our commentary. So I anticipating that we might have a turtle demand, I lottery to the words Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and RKO came out as the demand for today. Okay. So here we go.
Speaker 1:Ninja Turtles. Jim, I don't know when this demand came in. I I didn't write that down. But I do know that they're working on a last Ronin movie that will be rated r Mhmm. Based on the comic book miniseries of the same name.
Speaker 1:And we'll tell the story of a Ninja Turtle. One of the four brothers is alive, has all the weapons, and is surviving in a semi apocalyptic landscape landscape where
Speaker 2:From what I understand, they they do in the comic, they do eventually say which brother it is.
Speaker 1:Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I kinda wish they didn't.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah. Yeah. Just to leave
Speaker 2:Leave it. Right. Like, that that's a bunch of things. Like, I wish they had never never found out who he was. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. I wish Mandalorian never like, Pedro Pascal's great, but I just wish they never took he never took his helmet Yeah. Things like that.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:And and to that end, I wish they never said which turtle the last dronen is because at at this point, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1:Right. Yeah. I well, yes and no. Because something that's the comic existed. I read the comic first.
Speaker 1:I didn't watch the cartoon. Mhmm. I didn't watch the see the movies. I wasn't allowed to as a kid. But when I would go to a friend's house, I get to read those comics, those black and white comic books.
Speaker 1:Like, this is what everyone likes. These nitros are weird. But you could not be a part of pop culture specifically in that early night that early nineties and not know Michelangelo, Rafael Leonardo and know their personalities. Sure. And I think that to say that it doesn't matter who it is, yes, if it's this adult turtle who is a fully fledged human being and not a caricature of a teenager.
Speaker 1:Because if it's Michelangelo, it's the party dude who is now the last Ronan. If it's this if it's Donatello, it's the intellectual who's now you know what I mean? Like, there that that personality does affect a certain version of that.
Speaker 2:Well, I I disagree. Yeah. You've been you've been re if you've been you've been reading this story, that's this that that's this last remaining brother.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And you've
Speaker 2:been getting flashbacks to when the when the brothers were alive, I I presume, and and also likely telling the story of how they died.
Speaker 1:Yes. Event oh, yeah. I yes. I agree that in that version of the story, it seeing those flashbacks, seeing all four of them together, not knowing who the point of view character is, just that's the memory of this turtle, I agree. I we don't need to know who the turtle is.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They are now emblematic of all four of their personalities combined into one thing and serving justice to the to the apocalypse apocalyptic land.
Speaker 2:And and there is there is an empathy in wanting to know which one of the four, like, lost ever like like, is is carrying on and and to to see, like, right, if it's Michelangelo, oh, to go from such such a joyous character to being this
Speaker 1:Sad.
Speaker 2:Sad or going from being the leader to having lost his tea, letting basically failing at being a leader Mhmm. Or feeling like he did. Or if it's Raphael having having been so consumed with his own rage Mhmm. That that he his his his rage wasn't able to save his brothers, and now he he exists only as a memory of of that rage. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Or Donatello. The machines amounted to nothing
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Since since he lost the one thing truly Mhmm. Meaningful to him. I would I would prefer a story which goes and suggests all four and never tells you which one it is.
Speaker 1:There there's a craftsmanship in that of allowing the reader to decide who they think it is. Completely I completely agree. So were we to have any sort of say in the matter, that's how we would we would do it. We would say, like, you don't get to know which one it is. Yeah.
Speaker 1:But we'll see how they handle it. I I have reservations about it being adapted, leading with the fact that it's gonna be rated r. Yeah. It's like
Speaker 2:That that has that has some real Suicide Squad vibes when you when you Yeah.
Speaker 1:Just be prepared for how edgy it is. Just make a good movie and just the rating will be decided on itself. But that being the case, knowing the history of the turtles, having some comic stuff to draw from, pretty much knowing every version they've done, it's also sad that this demand's coming after Mutant Mayhem, which was quite good. Yeah. And it's a shame that we haven't gotten another one yet or if we're going to get one.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Because Mutant Mayhem on many levels did some stuff with the Ninja Turtles that made it so good. Yeah. Animation style was
Speaker 2:so cool. Served it served that world really well.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And voicing having the turtles be voiced by children for the first time ever and not adults playing younger voices or just adults doing adult voices Yeah. Added a level of characterization that those Ninja Turtles hadn't had before.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Well, the 1991, they're 15.
Speaker 2:I yeah. They're supposed to be. Yeah. They're they're well, they're supposed to be 15 in almost every incarnation.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And they are I love that movie. Mhmm. I love it for many, many reasons, but, I don't perceive them
Speaker 2:as teenagers.
Speaker 1:Yeah. They are just the Ninja Turtles.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Do you have a preferred style of the Turtles here?
Speaker 2:You mean for what we're going what
Speaker 1:Well, just
Speaker 2:we're going to do? Yeah.
Speaker 1:I'm just doing a general turtle conversation, but if you wanna dive into how do you wanna tackle this, I'm happy to.
Speaker 2:No. I I I don't. Like, my first run-in with the Ninja Turtles was the the the cartoon. Mhmm. And specifically, the the very fur the first six episodes commissioned for it were of a slightly higher animation quality Yeah.
Speaker 2:That like like, the turtles had more actual, like, definition to their faces. Whereas after that, when when they got full seasons greenlit and basically, they they they needed to pump out a lot of work for a little money Mhmm. The the all the turtle faces became like, everyone can draw them to this day. Like like, it it consists of, like, three three lines.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. And it's all the same face.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And and the thing is they were the same face in the in the original six episodes as well. Mhmm. There was just a just a slight more attention given to their details. Like, I like, I'm I'm remembering one particular line that goes straight down their face that gives them a slight beak look like turtles have.
Speaker 2:Sure. Sure. Yeah. And and also those first six episodes, while they still are a children's cartoon, they they stack the odds in a in a little more sincere way. The characters are living in their world and they're cracking jokes, but they're still trying to say say I mean, they're always trying to save the world, but it it just it feels a little less of a product placement thing.
Speaker 2:So that was my first Ninja Turtles. And then the nineteen eighty eighty nine, ninety ninety movie was getting to see this this thing get be become real.
Speaker 1:In live action form. Yeah. Yeah. I I've seen every iteration. So I've seen all the movies, and I've seen and and I've know what every animation version looks like because there's the original eighty seven to ninety six, ten season, 200 episodes run
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Of a cartoon. There's the The Next Mutation, which was popularizing or capitalizing on the popular the popularity of the Power Rangers.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And they had, like, the Venus de Milo character was added in
Speaker 2:there. Right.
Speaker 1:The 2003 to 02/2009, Nickelodeon ran a version just called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, seven seasons of that show.
Speaker 2:Seven seasons?
Speaker 1:Seven seasons. Wow. And it was the most faithful to the comics while still being kid friendly version of the Ninja Turtles. And then there's the no. No.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry. The the 2012 to 2017 version was on Nickelodeon, and that that basically took the previous very, very faithful ish one and then added, like, more humor and action and introduced, like, new versions of familiar characters. And then and then there's rise of the t m rise of TMNT, which was on also on Nickelodeon. Ben Schwartz voiced Leo. Raph was the leader.
Speaker 1:It was a the couple of
Speaker 2:Well, the thing some things were were switched around.
Speaker 1:Switched a roo, but they had also, like, really leaned into Donatello being full tech, like, wearing the headgear, much like the Michael Bay version, like, really giving them the the the toys to characterize them. I Rise of TMNT, while it lasted two seasons, is really quite kinetic and fun to watch. Mhmm. And I don't know if it it it obviously didn't get enough love because they didn't carry on with it. And then Mute and Mayhem came out the same time that was finishing up its run and had a Netflix movie and so on and so forth.
Speaker 1:All these versions, Mute Mayhem, as mentioned, animation feels like the better way to go, but there is something so wonderful about seeing live action version of these characters. So when I say, what's your druthers here? Is it live action or is it animation?
Speaker 2:So, I mean, you're not wrong. There is something fun about live action, but the Ninja Turtles like, I actually think the the Michael Bay produced Ninja Turtles is probably the most like, I know they said last round is gonna be live action. And there's there's a certain charm to the Henson costumes of the the nineties one.
Speaker 1:Right. Right.
Speaker 2:But it's it's such a zany world that, like, I don't I don't know if it's I don't know if it's worth trying to continuing to try to make that live action. Like, because then I don't know. Maybe you can. No. Because right.
Speaker 2:Because looking at the Marvel movies, the Marvel movies have done some entirely CG characters really well. So why couldn't you do that to the Ninja Turtles? Because so were I to make a Ninja Turtles thing, and that is what
Speaker 1:we're being demanded to do. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I loved what Mutant Mayhem did, and I would wanna lean into that. To the the Ninja Turtles, yeah, the Ninja Turtles will be there, but one of the fun things about it isn't that they're fighting a bunch of people. Mhmm. It's It's that they're fighting that there's mutants. There's there's crazy stuff in here.
Speaker 1:Yes. I I am of that mind as well. Oh. That giving going in animation allows way more outlandish stuff. It's not that you can pull that off in live action, but there is a little bit of
Speaker 2:You end up in rubber suit territory.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like
Speaker 2:And I end up thinking of granted, at this point, they're all nineties movies, but I think of movies like MacGyver and Garbage Pail Kids Yeah. And Ninja Turtles Mhmm. Which are all costumes. They're all practical, and there is a charm to every one of those for their own reasons. But there there there's there's something to it that also is like, oh, that's a that's a rubber suit.
Speaker 1:Right. And there's something weird about seeing, even at the best of CG, a rhinoceros in a hat. Yeah. Right? A warthog with sunglasses.
Speaker 2:It's Yeah.
Speaker 1:It it
Speaker 2:See, and so that ends up be becoming a thing as well. I I I feel it must still happen. I feel like back in the day, the nineties and even the the the February, the spectacle film basically showing off technology Mhmm. Was still a thing. And I feel like that's not quite a thing anymore.
Speaker 2:Even even when it is. Right? Like, every Marvel movie is a cavalcade of CG technology.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:But I don't I don't feel like that's how it's presented. I could be wrong about that. It might just be because I'm not going for those reasons. Mhmm. Or oh, maybe I'm pass I'm not I'm not properly impressed by the spectacle movies that are showing off things like that anymore, like Avatar.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. I maybe I should be, but they all they all just feel like, okay. You're getting really good at Roger Rabbit stuff here. You're you're putting CG characters that aren't real.
Speaker 1:You're
Speaker 2:you're animating them onto screens on onto sets with humans and in actual sets. And sometimes those sets aren't even real. Like, after seeing the behind the scenes of 1917 and how they were doing Yeah. Day for night shots. Like, not not even the classic day for night where, oh, it's blue.
Speaker 2:No, it just looked like they were shooting at night. No, they were shooting in midday.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It was insane. There's technology wowing you right there.
Speaker 2:And the thing is, the movie didn't show that off. It was the behind the scenes that did it. It totally had me fooled to the point that I didn't know I was looking at it at advanced technology.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:So I suppose seeing mutant animal people would be pretty like, oh, that's a an pushing technology. And there's something cool to seeing that. Mhmm. But at this point, honestly, seeing a rhinoceros man in a hat and a warthog wearing sunglasses, it would feel like Disney's Lion King.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like,
Speaker 2:it's it's gonna it's gonna look good. Mhmm. And so maybe that's the reason to do it.
Speaker 1:I would go.
Speaker 2:And and you know what? Yeah. Since this podcast is all about doesn't pay attention to budget and and post production needs. Mhmm. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Why not? Let's do a full live action thing. You know what? I'm gonna go one further. I want to genetically engineer We
Speaker 1:got that Disney money over here.
Speaker 2:People. We're gonna are animals that will become professional actors for in single roles.
Speaker 1:There's a movie that came out 2023 called The Animal Kingdom. It's a French movie. And in it, it's a it's a a movie about a pandemic that spreads across the world that people who are infected by it start to mutate into animals. There's no rhyme or reason about what animals they become
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But just they start to mutate.
Speaker 2:Cool.
Speaker 1:If you're infected with it, you be start becoming it. And it's it is such a good movie. It's this very small independent film. I I mean, I shouldn't say independent film. It's just a small small film.
Speaker 1:It's and and not a blockbuster by any means. There's a there's a quietude to it. It's an exploration of identity. It's a father son story. It's about grief and loss.
Speaker 1:It's like a lot of heavy stuff Mhmm. Set in this weird science fiction reality. It's it it was such a moving movie that had some really grotesque and yet somehow fascinatingly interesting, like fun to look at animal effects. Sure. Because people start, like, their teeth fall out and they're developing feathers coming out of their skin.
Speaker 1:It's all this gross stuff.
Speaker 2:You wanna do are are you No. Are you saying you wanna do Cronenberg's
Speaker 1:Teenage Mutant Ninja? I don't do Teenage Mutant Ninja Cronenberg's. No. But to the to the notion of practical effects is what they they did a lot of CG in it, but there's a ton of costumes and practical effects to these where it's it is some of the best creature effects makeup I've ever seen, but it's there's nothing exciting or heroic about it. So I I long story short, I wanted to plug the animal kingdom as this very cool practical effects mixed with CG enhancements
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Of animal people.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:I don't think a live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles can do as much as an animated one. I think an animated TMNT is the way to go. And I think Mute Mayhem, I love animation. Rise of TMNT, I love animation. I love the two d aspect of it.
Speaker 1:So I don't think we need to sit here and decide, even though I prompted you by saying, which do you prefer? It was more just a discussion of where your where your tastes go.
Speaker 2:Well, and now that we're here, I think you would also I think you've made me think of a good question as well, what would be the point of our Ninja Turtles?
Speaker 1:Right. Going to the story now.
Speaker 2:Yeah. If if the point of of ours would be to explore the notion of fitting in and not fitting in and how society builds itself and stuff. Right? Like, who who who gets ostracized and who doesn't, then doing a live action one where you could show off those kinds of things. Like, the turtles themselves don't have to be grotesque, but they would you come across other mutants.
Speaker 2:You come across aliens like Kraang and stuff that are gross. And the store I would want to craft the story to then speak to that notion. And and then it would also be about couching them in a world of people and how the world of people reacts to mutants.
Speaker 1:That is very much what we saw with mutant mayhem because they just wanna be kids who go to school. Michael Bay's turtles did that as well, which
Speaker 2:But my my point would be in in doing it live action, there will not it it's not a thing where, you know, Raphael can put on a trench coat and just go see a movie. Oh, they can say go be, oh, you can just put on a letterman's jacket and glasses and the rest of the class will be fine with it. Because a cartoon, you can do that. Can Right. You can the the logic of a cartoon allows a character who is that different to to do those things and then fit in.
Speaker 1:Bugs Bunny logic of like Kind of. Wig, lipstick, dress, that's a woman.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Even if it doesn't initially go that far. Right? Like, whereas I I feel like if we were to do a live action one, I would want to talk I would want to talk about the just the that that nature of being different. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And
Speaker 1:Well, that goes
Speaker 2:And and in the end, the diff for our for our main characters, that difference would be celebrated. Yeah. But it wouldn't ever like, there would always sort of be this this thing like, it will never it will never be normal. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Does does
Speaker 2:that mean and maybe and that might be the exact wrong message Not necessary. To to do with Ninja Turtles.
Speaker 1:Maybe. But the the Mirage comics, the way it started, they the Turtles are very much outsiders. They they don't live in public view as superheroes. They they live in the shadows as they were trained to do. And the first big arc exploration of their place is after they they they're defeated Mhmm.
Speaker 1:In New York and they much like the nineties movie, they go hide in April's farmhouse. Like, that's straight from the comics. And they they question their lives. They question their roles. They question whether they're more human or animal.
Speaker 1:And Leonardo is like, has a has the central crisis identity crisis within it.
Speaker 2:I did not realize that the movie spoke so much to that original
Speaker 1:Yeah. To the to the Eastern LA run.
Speaker 2:Because I never got to read the entire Mirage run.
Speaker 1:The there's a there's a run eventually in that Mirage there's an arc in that Mirage run where the they realize that they they they probably they'll never truly integrate into human society, so they they constantly debate their role in the city. Like, are they guardians? Are they assassins? Are they somewhere in between? Like, what's our place in a society that will never truly accept us?
Speaker 1:Mhmm. That goes to the root of the original Mirage run.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:That they're what's our place in the world that will never accept it accept us? And that goes to a conversation about underdogs. That goes to a conversation about currently in a society that we exist in that does marginalize people who despite being marginalized, still fight the good fight for the greater good of all of us.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:So the turtles being an allegory for identity politics and and roles in society, There's something deep to explore there with these weirdo characters named after Renaissance painters and sculptors.
Speaker 2:That's true.
Speaker 1:The yeah. So that Mirage Run does deal with those those identities. Like, they're you you see it. Yourself. Yeah.
Speaker 1:I I only ever read the Mirage Run, so I can't speak to the Archie Run or the
Speaker 2:I I do not remember the Archie Run doing anything like that. The Image Image Archie Comics, by
Speaker 1:the way, just to be clear.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yes. Although, I think they did have a crossover with Archie.
Speaker 1:Oh, surely. They would. Why wouldn't they?
Speaker 2:I I read some of the Image comics.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And those wonderfully dealt with the turtles growing up and becoming adults. They were they were losing the teenage part.
Speaker 1:And just being the Ninja Turtles. I do remember the Image Run being much more about especially because it's, you know, '96 to '99 to February. It's like it ran the latter latter half of the nineties. It was all about extreme. The Ninja Turtles are extreme.
Speaker 1:They're dealing with freaks. Like, all of, like, the the the bad guys were highlighted so much more as, like, the mutants that they were fighting.
Speaker 2:That might have been I feel like the the run I'm was that the image run? It was '96?
Speaker 1:Well, that's the one that refused Donnie with technology. That's the nineties run. The image comic run is when when Donatello got fused with his tech. Yeah. The the plethora of mutants, that wasn't in the Mirage run.
Speaker 1:That was more that was it was in the Mirage, but it was more introduced in what I was somewhere in between him. Probably the Archie run is where they started dealing with more mutants. Like, all I can think of is the toys.
Speaker 2:The well, yeah. Because the the cartoon the cartoon just pumped out
Speaker 1:Cartoon like, toys. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Characters because they were pumping out toys.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And so I think I what I liked about Mutant Mayhem again is that it's a it's a world full of freaks. Yeah. And then the turtles dealing with freaks among, like, what's our place among this group of weirdos that or these monsters in a society that doesn't have monsters and so on and so forth. So I I like the idea of taking that notion, that subtext of that, and putting them through the ringer on a deep emotional level while also having fun with mutants.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I don't know what to do with that. I'm just saying, like, if you're if you have any, like, oh, I don't wanna do that. Let's just be extreme. Let's send them to space to fight robots and giant an orange tie Triceratops, which also, yes, we should do that.
Speaker 2:I I also, never read I because I didn't finish the Mirage Run, I never got into their space adventures, which I know is integral to them, but always felt so weird. Like, why are they going to space? Because that's what comics do.
Speaker 1:Sure. The the, oh my gosh. I'm trying to think, like, that first Mirage run is first they meet we meet Shredder. Mhmm. Very much what the movie does.
Speaker 1:It deals with their creation, the the rivalry. So
Speaker 2:with the second movie Mhmm. The mutants that they create there, were those from the Mirage comics?
Speaker 1:Bebop and Rock City?
Speaker 2:No. In the second movie.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's right. It was Slash and something.
Speaker 2:I I remember well, I remember being upset. It it was another turtle because they did a snapping turtle.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I remember being upset that because Slash at that that point was one of my favorite characters, and I did not like how TMNT two
Speaker 1:Portrayed him.
Speaker 2:Portrayed him.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Who it was like a like a like a dog
Speaker 2:or like wolf. Weird dog monster.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I think they were made up for for the movie. I because I don't have any I think eventually they were full in the accounts, but I don't remember them being a part of it.
Speaker 2:Trying to Internet really fast. Internet
Speaker 1:faster, Jim.
Speaker 2:It's not working.
Speaker 1:Tell me more. Tell me more
Speaker 2:about TMNT things.
Speaker 1:That that's fine. I Yeah. I think that like, the original run is, like, the shredder run. You understand the backstory of Splinter and the the rivalry. Very much what the nineties movie essentially did.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Them coming back after their defeat. They, like, stand at April's and coming back. I'm trying to think that the that run of comics is, like, 60 some odd issues. It's it's it's definitely less than a 100.
Speaker 1:But I think the first, no, the first volume is, like, 60 some issues before they move to I think Hi. I think that first run might be the 1990 movie. That's it. That might be 60 issues of Ninja Turtles comics.
Speaker 2:Well, okay. So we're we're just we're starting all over. Right? We're not doing a sequel?
Speaker 1:I don't yeah. We don't we don't no. I think we can just do whatever we want. Like,
Speaker 2:we're starting
Speaker 1:it's the whole conceit of this is that the Turtles are rebooted so much so often, we might as well just reboot it right now and just do whatever we want with them. I think
Speaker 2:Well, I was oh, okay. Okay. You I Please.
Speaker 1:Skipped the origin entirely. We have reached a point in pop culture and a society where that there are certain characters we don't need to be reminded where they came from. We're not gonna see Bruce Wayne's parents get killed again. We don't need to see Peter Parker's uncle get killed again. We don't need to see Krypton explode, and I don't think we need to see a truck full of radioactive material splash little turtles and turn them into mutants.
Speaker 1:They can just be.
Speaker 2:Well, I don't know if I agree with that. Woah.
Speaker 1:But that Fight me. Where's your where's your bo staff?
Speaker 2:It's right here.
Speaker 1:Ow. He hit me with it so hard you couldn't hear it.
Speaker 2:Because I'm a ninja.
Speaker 1:How'd you get behind me? Get back over on your mic. Ninja. Ah, with Jesus.
Speaker 2:So I feel like if we just jump past all that Mhmm. Then we're not gonna be exploring. Then the notion of exploring what it means to find your place Mhmm. I think is is a done deal.
Speaker 1:We lose it.
Speaker 2:Okay. Yeah. We we lose it because they already exist in this world.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:It would be more like the image run where it's like, well, now that we where we've been a part of this world, now what do we do with ourselves?
Speaker 1:What okay. What about legacy sequel in the original three? The the
Speaker 2:I never saw the third one.
Speaker 1:Okay. Turtles in time. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Based on the video game. I don't know that for a fact, but that was my my main my main Ninja Turtle things were the cartoon that the first two movies, and then mostly that first arcade game Mhmm. And the Nintendo game.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Oh, god.
Speaker 2:But only the first two levels.
Speaker 1:Okay. Because it's an impossible game. God, that game is hard. Okay. Sorry.
Speaker 1:I keep interrupting.
Speaker 2:It's okay.
Speaker 1:What do you wanna do with these Ninja Turtles?
Speaker 2:What do
Speaker 1:you wanna with your Ninja Turtles?
Speaker 2:So the idea of exploring how they fit in this world, I think, is an interesting one. Thinking of it from a live action perspective and trying to do mutants, exploring all of the identity issues. Right? I think I think is an interesting one. So what I was gonna suggest was it would still be somewhat of an origin story in that the Ninja Turtles are not a known commodity.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. But I was gonna suggest, and I think Mutant Mayhem actually kind of did this. Mhmm. Although the difference, Mutant Mayhem had Superfly, but nobody knew who Superfly was because there was no never witnesses. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And so then when the Ninja Turtles encounter him, it's a big deal. Like, oh, you're like us. You're mutants like us. Mutants. I want to sort of go the other way.
Speaker 2:Mutants are sort of exploding all over the not literally exploding, but like they're they're popping up all over the place and the world, the news is getting nervous about them.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:Like, oh, what are these mutants up to? They're doing all these tear now this might be a little too x men. Mhmm. But they're doing all these terrible things. They're
Speaker 1:The initials exist because of daredevils. So it's okay to rip off a a Marvel comic.
Speaker 2:They're they're they're knocking over banks and they're robbing bodegas. That's not cool. Mutants are terrible. We gotta do something about these mutants. Meanwhile, our heroes are in the sewers seeing this news.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Right? And trying to trying to decide how they're going to go about in this world. The world, they don't want us. They they say they say as much.
Speaker 2:They, like, that that one guy said, hey. Muties should all they we should kill them all. We should lock them all in a zoo.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That's a
Speaker 2:little That's probably where they came from.
Speaker 1:Yeah. From a zoo. A zookeeper and a and a warthog did a thing and that made a warthog baby man and now they're robbing bodegas. This is modern day New York City. So
Speaker 2:that that's that's my initial notion would be to do that. Alright. And if we do yours where we don't do the intro, the Ninja Turtles are a known thing Mhmm. We could still do something like that, but that's less about how do we enter into this world Mhmm. And more how do we navigate the world turning on us Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Even though it's known us for so long. So the notion can be done with either one.
Speaker 1:Sure. Sure. Sure. Sure. I feel like and I'm not saying no to this this idea of what you've just pitched.
Speaker 1:I just feel like this is common territory. It feels like a Ninja Turtles story we've seen already of them Yeah. Being a part of a oh, we gotta go out in public and and prove we're not the we're not evil
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Like these other mutants. But I know I know I had did this whole thing about how the original core of this was about being an outsider and finding your place in society and and realizing you don't fit in, therefore, you you decide to be a protector regardless of how the world's gonna sit. Like, I know I had gone into all that territory, and you are right. If we take this story and start it and just drop in on the lives of these characters that have existed for x amount of time
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:They very well if if that's the case, then they've accepted in some capacity that we we have already made the decision. We we do not belong to this world, but we will still use our abilities to protect the world that doesn't know we exist or want us.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Dropping in on that and then where do you proceed from there? It's here's a here's a soft pitch of we've already made that decision, and there's a turn in the world of people. Like, maybe the first like, a a a famous Lady Gaga type character starts dating a mutant, and suddenly it's becoming socially acceptable that mutants are now part of culture and everyone's like okay with it. And so then the turtles are like, we we accept a long time ago that we'll never be a part of this world. And now the world has changed so much that maybe we could enter society.
Speaker 2:And then they fight ninjas. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Maybe that's not a Here's a here's another notion of of they are not Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They are adult turtles.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And they have they're they've more or less completed or finished their mission. They've all gone their separate ways, and now we have four schools of thought that Leo stayed in New York and is continuing to fight the fight, the never ending battle. Is this this is from one of the comics, I believe, you were telling me about it.
Speaker 2:The yeah. The the image run was about the four of them. I think it starts where they're 19. Yeah. And they're all like like, they've they've defeated the Foot Clan.
Speaker 2:Okay. Yeah. And they're all trying to see what then their next phase of life is. And I didn't I I I didn't follow enough of the run to fully know where it goes. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I'm sorry, Eric Larson. I didn't read enough of it. But I do like, write like the intro was Michelangelo wanted to become a writer. Rafael became basically picked up Shredder's helmet and mask and became leader of what remained of the Foot Clan.
Speaker 1:That's cool.
Speaker 2:Donatello was helping out their space friends when he had an accident and a cyborg fused itself to him. Mhmm. And Leonardo was struggling with what to do because all he ever knew was being leader of the Ninja Turtles, and now they were all going their separate ways.
Speaker 1:It's like being a being a warrior in peacetime. Yeah. Right? That's sort of the struggle that he has?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, okay. What I like this. What if I don't. No. Well, let me let me get have more I I don't fully wanna use all of this, but let's start with Leonardo being a warrior in peacetime.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:You're you're gonna, whether you know it or not, want a war. You're gonna look for any any signs that the war is here and and that that motive like, I'm I go out. I protect every night. I'm waiting for the war to come back. It's like, Leo, we we want we the city's safe.
Speaker 1:It's not New York of the nineties and eighties anymore. It's New York of 2025. It's just a much safer place. It's not the it's not the cesspool of crime it once was. It's a very clean city now.
Speaker 1:No. No. It's still gonna come. The the the war is coming. And if the other guys are like, no.
Speaker 1:We've done our job. We're moving on. We're not even teenagers anymore. So then when the attack when the war does show its sign, Leo has to be like, I was right. I was right.
Speaker 1:It's back. It's like, no, Leo. Come on, man. You're you're misinterpreting signs. But Leo's right.
Speaker 1:There is a war that has returned without them being ready for it, and he's the only one that is.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:There you I don't know. There you go. That's that's all I got.
Speaker 2:Okay. You
Speaker 1:don't like any of that?
Speaker 2:I don't like it because I don't wanna do adult turtles.
Speaker 1:Got it. You wanna do teenaged turtles.
Speaker 2:It's it's a part of the title.
Speaker 1:Okay. Like You're
Speaker 2:not wrong. Yeah. So and while we get older and we want to see our IPs grow with us
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:Ninja Turtles has been one that has defied that. Like, other than this comic and last Ronin, It's one that, like, it's literally a part of the name. Like, this is this is for the kids.
Speaker 1:Okay. I I can I can have my cake and you can eat it?
Speaker 2:Okay. And and I guess just what I mean by that is, like, like, think about all the IPs that we've seen. Yeah. Yeah. Right?
Speaker 2:Like, Bill and Ted, Star Wars
Speaker 1:Indiana Jones.
Speaker 2:Indiana. Yeah. Right? Like, and and I under we all understand why they're aging. Ninja Turtles is one that doesn't have to.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, let me let me give you some cake to eat.
Speaker 2:K.
Speaker 1:They're 17 and the movie Num
Speaker 2:num num
Speaker 1:the movie opens with them defeating Splinter and the Foot Clan.
Speaker 2:Oh, defeat Splinter?
Speaker 1:Like, the the movie opens with them defeating their greatest villain.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And they've they've saved the city from this evil they win.
Speaker 2:We've defeated him. Now what? Yeah. Cut to title screen.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That well, kinda, like, that once you once so that the movie begins with we have now defeated the biggest threat this city has ever seen that we've ever seen. We've done it without people ever knowing or being able to acknowledge us except April giving us some, like, name drops. Now you all can relax. Your kids, now you can now you can be 17.
Speaker 1:The war is over. We've defeated the war has ended. And so now we can have what I was suggesting of, like, Leo being like, no. I refuse to believe that that's the end of it. There will always be we are trained to believe that there will always be a need for us.
Speaker 1:There's still a need for us. And the other three are like, let's be kids now. That way they're not adults.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And the main threat has been taken care of. In that, what off it offers up, whether we wanna choose to use existing lore or not, is then what's the threat? Because there is a threat. Mhmm. The audience doesn't gonna isn't gonna know what it is.
Speaker 1:The turtles don't. Like, you know what I mean? Now we've we've created an early enough adventure. They still can question their place. They've succeeded.
Speaker 1:And then now what? So, basically, like, the opening of the movie is the end of an origin movie. We're about gonna proceed with a sequel. Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I see what you're saying.
Speaker 1:The status quo is
Speaker 2:that. Okay.
Speaker 1:Can you can you see that working at all? Sure. This is this is an interesting case because we're both turtle fans, but we're coming from very different places.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:This is kind of fun.
Speaker 2:Well, I I also feel so I feel what we're gonna be better off doing here is not following theme, coming up with story, figuring out where theme fits in.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I think the discussion early of what the theme is and now setting that aside Mhmm. We will organically find a place for it. So now it's discussing plots and character arcs and whatnot, and we don't have to worry about the theme. You are correct.
Speaker 2:Well, then the place I the place I would go based off of that intro is the Kraang invasion.
Speaker 1:Okay. Okay. Yeah. That the the that the little brain monsters in the robot body show up.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:What's Kraang's what's I know Kraang was, like, the main they were like, I'll get you next time in the cartoon.
Speaker 2:Right? Don't even yeah. I don't even know if he was the main Krang alien.
Speaker 1:The like, Krang
Speaker 2:Oh, he is. He's an alien warlord. Frequently appears in Ninja Turtles.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like
Speaker 2:Frequently. Like, he appears somewhere else.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well, he's definitely had arcs in the shows and most recently the movies because, like, the '87 cartoon, Craig is the major vision villain along alongside Shredder. Yeah. Having not even watched the show, I can tell you that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They they I remember from the comics, Krang's are there's a plethora of them. They come from dimension x. Mhmm. They're trapped in their brain bodies. They have the Technodrome.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's in the cartoon as
Speaker 2:well. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Kraeng isn't Kraeng it's funny that Kraeng is a species. He
Speaker 2:was in the Rise of the TMNT movie.
Speaker 1:Yes. Yeah.
Speaker 2:They did this.
Speaker 1:That's the
Speaker 2:did this.
Speaker 1:Villain of the of Rise of the TMT. That's the show as well. Oh, no. No. He was just the main villain in the movie because the movie ended the series.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And it's much more you actually would love it. It's much more Lovecraftian horror
Speaker 2:Sure. Than
Speaker 1:campy than it's not the campy brain in a body from, like, the
Speaker 2:Oh, it's
Speaker 1:air. It's much more grotesque space monster stuff. So Okay. Crang was never in the, like, any of the Muppet movies.
Speaker 2:No. He was not.
Speaker 1:But, well, now there's a conversation which Muppets play the four main characters. Rizzo's obviously Splinter. Kermit's Leo. Gonzo is Michelangelo? Yeah.
Speaker 1:No. Animal's Michelangelo. No. No? Fazi's Michelangelo.
Speaker 1:Jokes.
Speaker 2:The scooter is Donna Tello.
Speaker 1:Donna Tello. Yeah. Who's the is Rafael the one human? No. April April O'Neil's the one human.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And Rafael is who's the rudest of the
Speaker 2:Sweetums is Casey Jones. Oh, got my augers, Eric.
Speaker 1:Anyway, the Michael Bay, the second one out of the shadows. Kraeng is the is in live action and
Speaker 2:Oh. Oh, wow. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay. Teams up with Shredder. They're trying to I
Speaker 2:should need to watch more Ninja Turtle stuff, apparently.
Speaker 1:So Krang Krang is is not in every iteration, but he has been used quite a bit.
Speaker 2:So then it we shouldn't use him.
Speaker 1:Right. I My
Speaker 2:yeah. Actually, my deficiency here is is a is a handicap. I am handicapping us, hobbling us.
Speaker 1:But here's the thing. Taking shredder off the table in the opening and then not being able to use Krang, what the hell do we do?
Speaker 2:You tell me. You've read more of this stuff. Do we go to space? Do we see the Triceratops guy?
Speaker 1:I love those Triceratops guys. The what was their
Speaker 2:I don't know. I never read that arc.
Speaker 1:Oh, no. The the Triceratrons or Triceratons Triceratons. They're they're alien dinosaurs. Not they're not earth mutants.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:But they, you know, they essentially are mutants because they come from an existence where dinosaurs evolved into bipedal rulers of the whatever world they come from, the Triceratrons. Let's let's just say alien invasion. Let's start there. Because Kraang being being an alien invasion
Speaker 2:The reason I thought Kraang particularly in that story worked so well is because Shredder was his essentially his hench Shredder thought they were co villains, but really he would Shredder was Krang's henchman.
Speaker 1:Put that in G. I. Joe terms for me.
Speaker 2:Kraang was Cobra Commander, and Shredder was Destro.
Speaker 1:Thank you. That's that that helps.
Speaker 2:Oh, okay.
Speaker 1:Thank you for that. The the Triceratron invasion is from the Mirage Run.
Speaker 2:It was. It's from
Speaker 1:the Mirage Run. They're
Speaker 2:But the reason I was gonna because we make a big show of defeating Shredder at the beginning of the movie by having Kraang resurrect him as later in the movie. Well Was was where I was
Speaker 1:Where were gonna go? Well, the the Triceratron invasion, so the way that one begins, is what I'm thinking, they get teleported. I can't remember why, but they get teleported off Earth.
Speaker 2:So the story can happen. Right. Pretty much.
Speaker 1:It was the it was the eighties, man. You can do whatever you want. But they're they're teleported off Earth into the middle of of this Triceraton Triceraton, I should look it up, invasion. Like, they're preparing to invade Earth, and they the scout ship crashes in New York, and then eventually, the US government exploits the chaos causing a standoff like, causing like, using that as an excuse to do some unsavory governmental things.
Speaker 2:Triceratons. Triceratons. Thank you. So change the p to an n.
Speaker 1:Having having yeah. Right. Having having an alien invasion of Earth is yeah. And that's a cool those are some cool looking characters. So instead of Krang, whatever you wanted oh, you said you wanted to resurrect Shredder.
Speaker 2:Well, that would be that's that's why I started going that route. We don't have to.
Speaker 1:Well, my quest let me ask you this. In in this suggestion that they defeat Shredder Shredder, do they kill him, or do they lock him up? Because if they don't somehow lock him up in the midst of the invasion, they it could be that the turtles, like, we need all hands on deck and that explodes.
Speaker 2:I don't like that.
Speaker 1:No. Okay. Alright. No. Okay.
Speaker 2:I I think a a classic, we defeated him by knocking him off a a tall height so we don't see his body.
Speaker 1:And he'd come back as a hero. So you agree you're agreeing?
Speaker 2:No. He he comes back for revenge.
Speaker 1:You're agreeing. He comes back to team up with the Triceratrons.
Speaker 2:Who are villains. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. So they he he seemingly shows up like, I'm here to help you fight the gotcha. That's what you get for beating me, teenagers.
Speaker 2:Why would he ever agree to help the Ninja Turtles?
Speaker 1:To to lull them into a false sense of security.
Speaker 2:You've been ninja lulled.
Speaker 1:No one expected this. Yeah. We did. We we called it when we let you out that you were inevitably gonna betray us. Curse your son, yet inevitable betrayal.
Speaker 1:Alien invasion. Okay. Does that what does that do for you if if that's
Speaker 2:It does it doesn't do much. Where are going with it?
Speaker 1:I I You suggested it. Yeah. Because Okay. Let's say it
Speaker 2:is so is because I was going with what I know from the the the cartoon show Right. Which is basically he has his battledrome Mhmm. Underneath New York City. Technodrome. Technodrome.
Speaker 2:Sorry. Battledrome is is GI Joe. It's a Cobra thing.
Speaker 1:Why would why would you compare GI Joe to Ninja Turtles?
Speaker 2:I that's on me. I I don't know.
Speaker 1:You guys hearing this over here?
Speaker 2:And then, you know, he'd command an army of robotic foot soldiers and or mutants that he creates
Speaker 1:And they fight them and
Speaker 2:a bunch of weird beard weird weird bad brains. Mhmm. And, yeah, they'd they'd fight and win. We Okay. But you're right.
Speaker 2:Maybe that's too pat. Maybe that maybe that's the exact same as the Triceratons invading. I
Speaker 1:Let's let's take a moment. Let's take a beat here. As as far as setting up the status quo the way I did, does that work? I think there's something fun in getting rid of taking Shredder off the table immediately.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And then where do we go from there? I I if you like the notion of Leo being like, no. The war isn't over. It's like, relax. It is.
Speaker 1:We can be kids now.
Speaker 2:To me, it depends on where you go and what you wanna do with that. Right. Otherwise, the theme of that is you don't ever you can't ever be kids. Being adults and being ever vigilant is the proper thing to do.
Speaker 1:Well, that's that is a a a theme to explore that eats if the other three are saying, like, no. We can we can be kids now. We can relax. We can even though we can't go to school, there's ways for maybe maybe Michelangelo's found some kids in Harlem who were, like, cool with him showing up to play basketball or whatever. Like, they can start finding their way to integrate into a a comfortable childhood.
Speaker 1:Their childhood is coming close to an end anyway, and Leo's the one who's like, no. And, yes, you're right. Like, if Leo is right, then the answer is no. If you're trained to be a soldier, you'll always be a soldier. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And finding a way to make that not true could be part of
Speaker 2:While also having a war and him being Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Like, I don't know. Like, the only way we're gonna defeat these Triceratons Triceratons is if we make fart noises at Be a kid. Maybe maybe maybe not. I well, let's take a moment here.
Speaker 1:Let's take our let's take our five. Five for us, sixty seconds for you listeners. Let's take our break here and just go ahead and just walk it off for a second to try to think what we can literally do anything we want with the Ninja Turtles. Mhmm. I'm not I'm not I'm not gonna set my my any ideas I have from the comics, any knowledge I have from the comics, I'm setting it aside.
Speaker 1:Okay. Anything you have from the cartoons, let's set it aside. Anything at all. If we end up wanting to use Krang, we're gonna use Krang. But let's just take because I think it's one of these cases where we might know too much
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:About the thing that we're not freeing ourselves to do whatever we want with the thing. Sure. I think, if I may reference a previous situation, is way back when we did the Lone Ranger, trying to make a Disney Lone Ranger limited us. Yeah. We were we were saying, gotta stay within these lanes.
Speaker 1:And I took the took the rails off and said, let's just do whatever we want and then find our way back, much like find our way back to the themes. We can do literally anything we want with the Ninja Turtles. You're in the backyard. You have toys in your hand, what are we gonna do? So go ahead and and let's let's take a moment for that.
Speaker 1:We'll take a quick break here. You cool with that?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Cool. I mean, very clearly the Ninja Turtles fight GI Joe characters. Oh, so it's it's a crossover. It's a pair.
Speaker 1:Paramount owns all these properties, Jim. We'll be right back after these messages from Six Five Media. Jim's holding the cat. You got a cat? You got a cat in your hands?
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 1:You're the She she looks thrilled to be there too. She actually looks very comfortable right now.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Okay. Welcome back. Here we are. Okay. Jim, just took our little few minute break there.
Speaker 1:How you feeling? Ninja Yeah. Okay. So before we begin, do you still like the notion that we start with the defeat of Shredder and then we jump ahead a little bit? Like, the post the aftermath of that?
Speaker 2:Oh, no. I wasn't
Speaker 1:You're starting Hope
Speaker 2:That's not where I was Tell Where was I, sir?
Speaker 1:I won't interrupt you. Let's see. What do you got?
Speaker 2:You know, let me put this cat down.
Speaker 1:Okay. Bye, cat. Thanks for coming.
Speaker 2:I think I I wasn't gonna deal with Shredder at all. You said think we're think outside of it. We can do whatever we want. The place where I went, I went back to, right, that notion of, mutants are are kind of, popping up more and more. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But the direction I went with it is they start popping up and a company comes out say no. Would they would they be I couldn't decide if they were forward about it or not. But basically, Ninja Turtles are trying to find out what's happening here. Holy crap. I'm realizing as I'm trying to say this, I had a lot of story a lot of holes in in my plot, in my story.
Speaker 1:Go ahead and throw out throw out your your noodles here and I'm like
Speaker 2:But basically, there there is a a genetics company Mhmm. That has been splicing different things together for different reasons. Right? If we can mix a pig and a chicken Mhmm. Making a a picking, We can we can have very tasty, juicy
Speaker 1:Pork chicken.
Speaker 2:Pork chicken. Yeah. And so they're doing stuff like that, and there there's a lot of waste waste product, and that's kinda what gets dumped down the drain and and eventually what makes our Ninja Turtles was some some of this runoff is what made the Ninja Turtles. And other mutants are popping up, and the company actually starts they actually start a line of they're they're they're they're looking into making basically, they start doing man animal hybrids. Right?
Speaker 2:They they start they start mutating people for different reasons and likely for the so they make anything they can to genetically engineer stuff. Mhmm. And one of the things I can I can come up with a bunch of things that's unimportant right now? Mhmm. What is important is that they're doing this, and and it's and they're doing it nefarious nefariously.
Speaker 2:So there are a bunch of test cases that they will bury or abandon or or or whatever. And the Ninja Turtles are looking into it, and they're they're they're trying to take down the company that was responsible to spreading for spreading the waste that made them.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:It was way more complete in my head as I was thinking about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Let me let me offer up some something here. I I like the idea of mutants becoming more widespread, that that more of them are popping up. And the what about the initials? They're hiding from the world, but not because they don't wanna reveal that they're mutants, but that they are they're vigilantes.
Speaker 1:They're heroes. They're out there fighting crime. Whereas mutated beings, creatures, people, hybrids or whatnot are becoming more common. That that that whatever this this t TGN, t TIG, whatever the TGIF was, the the the company that created the mutagen that led to this, there could be something there to explore. But, essentially, for the past seventeen or so years, mutants have been integrated into society here and there, and they're they're part of the day to day world.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. The Ninja Turtles are these heroes in a half shell who defeated this this Ninja clan. We're still gonna use the defeat shredder in the beginning. Sure. And so the status quo of this world is they've completed their war, and the world exists with other mutants around them.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:They are just staying hidden. Now it's it is a year later.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And the four characters have gone to they're they get to just be teenagers in one way or another. Leo's still training, rat. Like, whatever we want to to go, we can come back to this. A wave of fear begins to sweep the public in New York City because a group, a a a cadre cadre of wealthy, charismatic politicians have launched a high profile campaign against mutants. And they're they start blaming mutants for crime and unemployment Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And social unrest. And they had these slick speeches, and their relentless we'll call it propaganda
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Turns the city against those mutants that are all have been all around them for some time now and haven't been a problem. In fact, the big threat of New York City wasn't a mutant. It was Shredder, a a human, and this human clan of soldiers. Right? So these these wealthy types, these politician types are fanning the flames of open hatred against this community of people.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And the turtles have to start putting out fires as there's an uprising of hateful attacks against the mutants. And the turtles become heroes to the these these the the people who need
Speaker 2:to community?
Speaker 1:The mutant community and those who are protecting the mutants and also feeling the ire of this this hate wave that is being spread by the powers. And it's a why are they doing this? Why are these these wealthy, attractive, powerful people waging this campaign? The mystery of finding that out is they can be the most disgusting of they're not humans. They're actually, like, ancient evil that have mutated below the surface of society and have have crawled back into the public public view, prettied themselves up and are hiding in plain sight, turning us against each other sorry, turning people against the mutants and are those are the most disgusting evil in their soul and inside and out things that need to be killed and destroyed.
Speaker 1:You know, just off the top of my dome Okay. Thinking, you know, no parallels whatsoever to to society.
Speaker 2:I understand why they're there, and I'm I'm willing to go with it. But the only the only thing there that I would like it making them making them eldritch creatures, I feel pulls away from the point.
Speaker 1:Like, go ahead. If you if you see what I'm doing here. Right? Yeah. I'm not being like, I'm being pretty fake here.
Speaker 2:I think if if the ones doing this were were just humans
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. That that is that that drives home the point more.
Speaker 1:Okay. Good. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:But by making them monster so by making them monsters, it goes along with the right. The allegory of the people who cause this kind of thing, they're terrible. They're they're they're so terrible. They're inhuman. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:Right? It's it's gross what they're what they're doing. They can't possibly be people.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But it also, in our fiction, allows a notion of separation of, oh, no. No people would ever actually do this.
Speaker 1:I loved it.
Speaker 2:So the people in in so your your your allegory. Right? We lose the Scooby Doo lesson of it doesn't matter how creepy or terrible it is. It's it's always an old man looking to fucking make money.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. And and if we open the movie with the defeat of Shredder, greatest the threat New York City has ever faced, not a mutant. And in the grand scheme of things, these evil these evil people
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Are just human. It could even be, like, what sort of monsters are these things? And the revelation is they're not monsters at all. They're just bad people. Always be the rich white guy who's trying to make a buck off the theme park.
Speaker 1:Old man rivers.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And is that that would be the only thing is it's not actually like, we could even do a switcheroo where they wear costumes, like like it's a Wizard of Oz kind of thing where, oh, it's these weird eldritch monsters. Nope. Those are just masks. They're actually behind Yeah.
Speaker 2:Or or or just facades. They're behind those things as well.
Speaker 1:And and they are
Speaker 2:And they're they're just they're just people They're
Speaker 1:just people.
Speaker 2:Looking to make money. And so to that end so okay. I guess we can keep the whole they defeated Shredder thing. What that builds nicely into is I know the company has a name in Canon. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna recommend calling it something else. I'm gonna recommend calling it Chimera. Okay. And it's been in operation for a number of years. And they do things like they offer cosmetic products.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. Like, get an injection and get I can't think of any good examples like, get get a mane of hair like a horse or or
Speaker 1:You use horse shampoo. Why not have horse hair to go with it?
Speaker 2:Yeah. Right. Right. Basically, suggest that they've been doing genetic engineering on their products for years. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And there are human casualties suggest death, but but human victims here or even even even animal victims. There there are victims Mhmm. Here that they just kind of throw away. And over the years, they've they've kind of been growing in population. And maybe that's what April O'Neil has been reporting on or was.
Speaker 2:And so then that's all backstory. Right. Starting starting the movie with the turtles defeating Shredder Mhmm. And they think they have a moment's respite. I don't think Leo has to be like, no.
Speaker 2:We must be remain ever vigilant. There can be an element to that, but I don't even see the other three nest. There wouldn't be much downtime for them to be like, let's go live normal lives. Yeah. They would they would basically get a moment of respite.
Speaker 2:And what would happen is almost immediately these politicians that that are are and and and other pundits Mhmm. Who are saying, oh, these mutants are bad. The mutants are What they point to, what they start saying is, oh, that shredder guy, he was keeping the mutants at
Speaker 1:bay. Oh,
Speaker 2:Look at look at them all. They're all popping up every you see them on every street corner.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:This is they they dare to come in our restaurants now. Mhmm. Mhmm. Because right. Right.
Speaker 2:Because they've been hiding and shunned and stuff, and now there's so many that they're they're they're they've yeah. Just they're starting to feel kind of kind of welcome, a little bit welcome. Initially, the city's like, thank you Ninja Turtles for defeating the or maybe not because right? Because they're ninjas. So maybe it's April who thanks them, but nobody ever knows who are.
Speaker 1:Thank thank you, like, early on, like, very much in the first act. Thank you to those heroes
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:Who do what needs to be done without the recognition.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:That you do it because it's the right thing to do. That's that's those are heroes right there Yeah. Which is could be part of the theme of the movie of,
Speaker 2:like Sure.
Speaker 1:Doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do, not because the attention you'll get or what people think.
Speaker 2:It's just
Speaker 1:more what is morally correct.
Speaker 2:So then the politicians start using Shredder as their dead hero. Right? He was the one keeping the mutants at bay. Turns out he must have been this this April person has the story backwards. Shredder was the the the shadow hero protecting the city, and now they're gone and not and because at the same time, the Chimera, the company, has decided we're gonna use this as our opportunity to kinda clean up our mess.
Speaker 1:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:We're gonna turn the city we're gonna turn the city on the mutants so that they get rid of them for us. Mhmm. And to pump that up, we're gonna have some of our own mutants that we have on payroll such as Rocksteady and Bebop. We don't have to use them, but the that they they work because they are scrupulous enough to attack mutants Mhmm. For for the publicity.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So Rocks yeah. Rocks need to be about hired by the corporation, go out and start causing chaos. Not necessarily maybe hurting mutants, but they don't they don't it's more about making a show of look mutants bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. False like kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. And so then the Ninja Turtles and April helping to find who who's who's doing this and why. Mhmm. Once again, and as and as always, follow the money.
Speaker 1:Follow the money. Well, let's let's actually
Speaker 2:because so then you find politicians are doing it because they are being paid by the corporation to do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That the it's it's the money and the power that's corrupted all these things. Now looking at the characters after their they they defeat Shredder and they have a moment of respite, now giving for the four of them a four individual tactics of how to address this. So for example, if Leo's the one that's like, we need to go out and fight and protect the protect the the people from being attacked by this, that, or the other, whether it's humans attacking or if it's other mutants who are working with bad faith our best interests and fighting them, Leo is is is doing taking a very defensive or offensive position.
Speaker 2:No. It would more I I see you're defensive. Right? Because he wants to protect the people.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And Rafael can be like, no. We gotta take out these pack of dorks. Yeah. Like supposed to be a pachyderm
Speaker 1:Yeah. Of portentos. That's so rude.
Speaker 2:Because cool. Because both rhinos and pigs are pachyderms.
Speaker 1:They're very rude and cool.
Speaker 2:Thank It's a very
Speaker 1:cool dude thing to do.
Speaker 2:So he, like, he wants to, like, no. We need to attack these guys specifically. They're giving us a bad name.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So offensive, reaction, defensive reaction. Leo sorry. Not Donnie working with April to do the investigation side of it, that they are their their tactic is, let's figure out this what's the structure of this? This isn't random.
Speaker 1:This is very calculated. Who are these people? What is the because it needs to come down to a fight. And whether it's the these evil politicians have the ability to fight turtles or they got their goons and pull shredder back into the mix to fight them or what have you, it still needs to come down to a fight in a in a freaking ivory tower that they just beat the crap out of people into to to make their points.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And Michelangelo opens a pizzeria.
Speaker 1:Well, I was gonna say there might be an opportunity here to to face this from another perspective, which is you might poo poo this immediately. But if Leo if, if Mikey has a girlfriend or a relationship that is not of turtle kind.
Speaker 2:Go ahead.
Speaker 1:No. No. It's alright. I I I
Speaker 2:You can have this.
Speaker 1:If if another version of this is to it's not being on the offensive. It's not being defensive. It's not investigating. It's facing being able to witness the consequences of non like, the the rhetoric of it. The you know, he's just a cool party dude.
Speaker 1:He's he's just out there. He's he's got a got a a significance, all life is good until it isn't. And and either it's the significant is also getting attacked or the significant turns like, well, I've been been reading some of this stuff, seeing some of the stuff online, and maybe we shouldn't date each other anymore. I don't know. I it just there's we have a there's surely a fourth way to Sure.
Speaker 1:Approach all this.
Speaker 2:So here's my and and and we can we can combine the two. Here here's my proposal for that. Mhmm. We got a lot of mutants
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:In the city. Maybe Michelangelo it's not a matter of going out and fitting into the general New York populace. Mhmm. He finds a place. He finds a place where mutants have kinda created their own little sanctuary, their own little speakeasy.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And so he goes there and he he's found a little community outside of his brothers. Yeah. And they get attacked. And you can give them a girlfriend
Speaker 1:there. Yeah. Okay. Good. We all them to the like, through this all these encounters of, like, the city's falling apart, these attacks are happening, how each of them approach it in their own way, we get some legs there.
Speaker 1:We get some because they're not working together, they all are working for the same towards the same thing of this is bad. We must stop it. We're gonna do it our individual ways. In the end, they do need to come together to work as a as a quartet to defeat the evil. And, yeah, I think that that once they get to the the big picture of things and and they're fighting the final boss battle, the four of them working together, now they all have different motives and reasons for being there, similar and different.
Speaker 2:I see what you I see.
Speaker 1:And Mikey could even be the one to try to talk sense into someone like Bebop Bebop and Rocksteady. They'd be like, what are you doing? Why why would you this is bad for you too. And this is when the dust clears, you're next. You're on the wrong side of this, man, dude.
Speaker 2:Man dude. Man dude. Don't call me a man.
Speaker 1:Yeah. To to have Mikey be the the heart in a sense, the brain, the heart, the muscle.
Speaker 2:Sure. I the only thing I'm I'm lackluster on is the them all fighting separately.
Speaker 1:Well, fighting separately until they until they get Yeah. To the
Speaker 2:Yeah. I I'm not I'm lackluster on that.
Speaker 1:There there's a way to slowly reconnect them together, especially if if Raf and Leo are trying to work together at first, but their tactics separate them and then bring them back together. If Donnie is working with April and then Mikey eventually like, reconnects with them after the events of or Mikey, after the attack on the the Speakeasy, the underground club, would if Raf shows up or Donnie show, whatever, then now we can basically put them in four, put them in two or three in one, and then combine everybody. Like, separate them briefly.
Speaker 2:I can see they they each I I yeah. And it probably would take a movie because a movie is a long time and also a very short short amount of time. Yeah. I can see that right. Because they each have a different priority.
Speaker 2:And so they're like, come on. We gotta go do this. Mhmm. That's not important right now. What we gotta do is this over here.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. You guys, that's just a symptom of this. You need to follow me over to this warehouse.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:There's no time for that. The fights are happening over here.
Speaker 1:Yeah. That that that disagreement of leadership.
Speaker 2:My only problem with that is clearly they just finished an arc
Speaker 1:Where they work together.
Speaker 2:Where they work together and defeated the bad guy.
Speaker 1:Yeah. There therein lies my suggestion that a year go by, that they have had a year of peace time and need to get the band back together. And part of Sure. Part of that, part of what comes into question here is Splinter's role in this. Perhaps with the defeat of Shredder comes the death of Splinter.
Speaker 1:I don't know. Like, removing him the the the glue that keeps his boys together, taking him out of the equation allows them to fracture and find their way back to each other. Like, what would yeah. I don't know. That that might not be the strongest way to do it, but having the voice of reason omnipresent in all their lives makes it a little difficult to keep them separated because splinter has always said you four are always stronger together.
Speaker 1:You need to stay together. So taking him out of the equation could allow them to remember that. Remember who you are. It's this this, of course, might be way too heavy of a subject matter, but I think that there's with without all the variations of what you can do with the Ninja Turtles, if this is the the spine of the whole of the whole adventure and then injecting it with one liners and cool fights and the the flash and extreme cool stuff Mhmm. Allows it's it's it it creates a it's it it can lull people into learning a lesson kind of thing where it's like, oh, this is cool.
Speaker 1:It's about depression. What? I didn't know that. Nuh-uh. It's just got a cool soundtrack.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. The the yeah. I I think you you you touched something fun with Mikey separating from them and finding the community because even in the grand like, something that is fun at the end of Mutant Mayhem is the way, like, all every everything is piled onto the table, and all the toys are there, and everything is is is playing a part, to completely tangent over to, like, an action set piece. They are all masters of their weapons.
Speaker 1:But Sure. It would be cool maybe it would be cool or not to to have a moment where they are, like, briefly swapping weapons and, like, just having a moment where, like, they're all proficient in what they do. They're just most proficient in their weapon. So if it's like a it's like when Thor and Captain America swap the hammer and and Stormbreaker. Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's just it's a minor little, like, in an action moment, oh, Leo's Leo tosses his sword. Rav catches it and chucks it at Donnie, and Donnie hits it like a baseball bat and whatever. Just thinking choreography that we can't do an audio form. The yeah. I mean, what I was just feeling like Yeah.
Speaker 1:Mull this over. Is this is this kinda Yeah. Hitting some cool turtle stuff for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah. I'm liking this. The I I it it's plot important to have it happen and I know that that's why you have the the the jump forward in time. But that feels so to me right now, that feels so heavy handed and it undermines I mean, this is the beginning of our story. We're not actually undermining a previous story.
Speaker 2:Right. But it feels like it undermines whatever lessons they learned pre like, we were a team. Mhmm. And then a year later, we don't agree anymore. Like like Yeah.
Speaker 2:See you
Speaker 1:mean. I see what you mean.
Speaker 2:I realize that could speak to the original message of family. Family is important and
Speaker 1:you Right.
Speaker 2:You will disagree with family. But in the end, it is good when family comes together and works together.
Speaker 1:Well, to maybe this is the wrong way to go, but I'll suggest it if in that opening, the final battle culmination of however long it took these kids to get here with with master Splinter
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:That they win at the sacrifice of Splinter, that Splinter, say, dies in the result of defeating Shredder so that it's, you know
Speaker 2:Sure. And that that that cuts short any lesson of working together as they then all basically go into their own grief.
Speaker 1:Right. And choosing to grieve in their
Speaker 2:own
Speaker 1:way, successfully moving on in one way or another, giving them some even if it's months, even if it's just weeks, like, something
Speaker 2:A that year is fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Taking taking taking the win and the
Speaker 2:doing anything with splinter otherwise. Right. So I guess if we fridge him, that works.
Speaker 1:Oh, no.
Speaker 2:That's what it is.
Speaker 1:We're doing. That's that. But to create a thematic reason for it
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:That you we once we we won as a team, we won as a family last time. Our whole family was there last time. That's we like, Leo and Raf, like, it might be those two that come in the the most direct conflict because when you look at I think
Speaker 2:we look It always is.
Speaker 1:It's always those two seem to be the most diametrically opposed in methods and mentality. So having even if it's, again, Michelangelo being the heart of bringing together a mutant community, and and he's the one who, in his naivete, has the right voice of reason to be, like to quote master splinter and be the the the fool, the the the enlightened fool. That might that might be something there to be like, know, the reason we're like this is because master splinter will be so disappointed in us. Like, I don't know. May maybe that doesn't work.
Speaker 1:Maybe it does, but I think that they're giving Splinter a noble sacrifice and not just and, technically, fridging motivates someone, not curbs them. Fridging someone is to motivate a hero into action, and if Splinter is a is a heroic sacrifice, I would say.
Speaker 2:I'm laughing because the the the you are you're not wrong, but the term also came out of a very callous use of particularly female characters.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Green Lantern
Speaker 2:is
Speaker 1:the,
Speaker 2:like It's the origin.
Speaker 1:Of fridging, for those of you who don't who might not know the term, is killing a hero's undeveloped or underdeveloped girlfriend strictly to motivate him into into revenge, into action.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:For her. Who? My girlfriend. Right? What's her name?
Speaker 1:She's in the fridge. And she existed solely to be killed so that I could then be motivated to inaction. Right? Yeah. So not so using the literary term, we're not fridging Splinter.
Speaker 1:We're we're I I I take your meaning. Yeah. Killing him off in order to
Speaker 2:We're fridging him to motivate our story.
Speaker 1:Yes. But then it allows them to to, yeah, reunite and work as a team to fight. What so actually to go to that taking out the final boss of this. Is it a group of people? Is it a boardroom that we can send a Robocop into and
Speaker 2:It's it it is just literally the end of Robocop. Ed two zero nine shows up Yeah. Counts down even though everyone puts their their guns down and then shoots them all out a window.
Speaker 1:It's just a bunch of mouse droids. What were those things called? Mousers. Mousers. It's just a bunch of Mousers.
Speaker 2:There you go.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But they're doing Ed two point o Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, and yeah. So I wanted to put I cannot remember. Baxter.
Speaker 1:Baxter.
Speaker 2:Yes. Professor Baxter. I can't remember his first name, or was that his first name? Baxter. Put Baxter in there, and he's developing Baxter these Stockman.
Speaker 2:There you go. Yeah. It was his first name. He's developing these these robots for a reason I'll come up with later.
Speaker 1:They're they're like electric robots, and they're really impressive at first. But then it turns out that the CEO who developed the electric robots, he didn't invent them. He just developed the company that made them publicly available in mass quantities.
Speaker 2:No. No. He can he's he should he can be the inventor, and they literally run on AI he's been developing.
Speaker 1:Son of a bitch.
Speaker 2:Yeah. I think we got something here.
Speaker 1:Okay. But, yeah, to that final battle, is it a fight against it? Like, what are we what are we punching in the end? Do
Speaker 2:they Shredder.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's it's No. Well, no. I don't think that's entirely the wrong way to go if they, like, if they anticipate that, uh-oh, we're getting some pushback from some unseen force. It's one they think it's one Batman, but it's actually four Batmans.
Speaker 1:It's just a it's a turtle man out there. Yeah. There's four of them. Which is a fun sort of nod to the last Ronin that they think it's just one. Yeah.
Speaker 1:In anticipation of that, yeah, they have Bebop and Rocksteady and some other mutants that might be having their
Speaker 2:They have their own little army army of mutants.
Speaker 1:Right. But the ace and the whole being shredder himself.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Like Maybe.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Getting to that final level of the of the tower to punch a size the the CEO or the the slash governor of New York who or the mayor of New York who's done this all in the first place. And, him saying, I think you're gonna find it a little difficult to beat me because I've got my main man here who never needs a can opener. My back turtles. And then they have to fight Shredder again.
Speaker 1:And then punch that politician in the face. Jim's thinking.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Sorry. I'm thinking. I don't I know I suggested that earlier for, like, oh, if it's Krang, he brings back Shredder.
Speaker 1:Mhmm. I kinda yeah. I guess I I didn't realize I was doing that, yeah, touching back on that idea, that Shredder.
Speaker 2:Am I okay with it if it's not Krang, if we're not just doing the cartoon story? If I kind of I kinda wanna keep Shredder dead
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:In in in this version. Yeah. Because the point to earlier is Shredder's dead and they're using the the the idea of this villain. Mhmm. They're trying to lionize him for their cause against mutants.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Whereas if he's alive again in the background, that that Sure. It makes them more nefarious, but, like, in a in a in a in a weird Mhmm. In a weird way. Like like, I'd I like the idea that they use they use the reputation and name of this dead man Mhmm. To to their own ends.
Speaker 1:Well, then this this isn't this isn't a wholly original idea, but could that final boss, whether it's the mayor slash c it's a mayor businessman, I think, is the if he mutates himself to fight them or
Speaker 2:Right. Like, I I kept thinking that too, and that feels pretty Mhmm. That does feel pretty pat.
Speaker 1:Okay. Then how about this? How about this? He he has this this is someone who's been preparing for this, that he has access to to power and money and things that that are un unheard of, even going so far as having alien technology at his fingertips so he can power suit up. And it could be hints towards the Triceratons and Krang just within the tech that he's using.
Speaker 2:I I think I like that. I think I'm okay with
Speaker 1:He he basically, I can think of a couple examples where this is coming from. But, yeah, he suits up Yeah. To to fight these guys. Lex Luthor battle suits, Silver Samurai against Wolverine. What's the She Hulk?
Speaker 2:Batman versus Predator. Yeah. Batman versus Superman.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But just that he he suits up to or to suit up to fight these guys.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And I can't believe hey. We defeated one guy dressed in all metal. We can do it again.
Speaker 2:Sure. And, actually, interestingly, we could show bits of what he suits up with earlier in the movie as we see private security forces clearing mutants out of spaces for for for squatting or whatever. Yeah. And we see Chimera has has lent technology to the local police force to help get rid of these
Speaker 1:Unwanted.
Speaker 2:Unwanted mutants.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So that way in the end, it's not just, and here's a bucket of tech that you haven't seen before.
Speaker 1:Laying the laying the groundwork for all that tech to be there in plain sight the whole time.
Speaker 2:But I think in the end, at the at the right at the at the top of that tower, on their way there, it's not the I think Chimera does have their own little private army of unscrupulous mutants Mhmm. Such as Roxanne and Bebop, and we can come up with some others. But ultimately, I think what I would want at the top would just be human guards. Mhmm. It it's the the the mutants are really just for show because, ultimately, they are a they're they're a a human centric company.
Speaker 2:Yeah. A humanosupremacist company. Oh. They they have no use for mutants, even the ones that they hire and keep.
Speaker 1:We'll get Daniel Bernhardt can play the the main guard. He's the he's a stuntman. He was in the the Barry episode where he the guy who won't die.
Speaker 2:Sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah. He's the John Wick guy. He's he was he's the he's, like, stuntman extraordinaire for that, I can't remember what his company is called, the guys who did, like, Deadpool, and he was in Bloodsport. Like, he's just he's, like, the stuntman of stuntmen. So having him play just that's the kind of action we'd want in this movie is not not the find it in the edit, but get it in camera kind of action sequences.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Animated or otherwise. Yeah. Yeah. I guess it wouldn't be if it was live action, it's Dan and Bernard. If it's animated, it could be whoever you want.
Speaker 1:Seth wrote it.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, as we discussed earlier, the live action stuff is really animated as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. So then Or Yeah.
Speaker 2:Or would it be more appropriate if that final battle like, we can we start the final battle and we do our very own Avengers assemble, and it's not the Ninja Turtles that truly take take him down. It's
Speaker 1:Mikey's friends.
Speaker 2:It's a mob of mutants who yeah.
Speaker 1:I Who've got the could
Speaker 2:back up the turtle because Yes. So early at at some point, I think Michelangelo, when he meets this community, he he wouldn't like necessarily brag about it, but it would kinda come out Mhmm. In one way or another that, oh, hey, he's the guy who who did who took out Shredder or or or did this or that. Yeah. And so it'd be like, well, what are you doing?
Speaker 2:What why aren't you doing something about it now? He's like, oh, that's a good point. Maybe I should. Radical. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Something like that so that they're aware of the Ninja Turtles and
Speaker 1:Getting the all the all the mutants and allies together to storm the building and or, like, there's there's two ways to do this. They storm the building so this is a public takedown.
Speaker 2:That that was more my notion. It's it's not something that that the Ninja Turtles have rallied.
Speaker 1:Great. Yeah. They they show it's just everything sort of everything aligns so, everyone converges on the same points.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And
Speaker 1:whereas they defeated Shredder in the shadows and maintained anonymity, right, then in this case, they are embracing that the public's gonna watch them do this and they're okay with
Speaker 2:that. Maybe. Yeah. So talking talking it out, in the in the world that this is taking place in Mhmm. To the general public, that might not look great if, oh, yeah.
Speaker 2:All these mutants that everyone's been villain vilifying, they stormed a A Capital Building. And and and eliminated a CEO slash leader. That's not.
Speaker 1:Maybe we don't do that. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Never never mind.
Speaker 1:We could we could we could and or and or it.
Speaker 2:No. I think what what we do, we have simultaneously, what's happening is a a confrontation is happening between like, maybe there was a protest that stop stop beating up these mutants. Stop killing these these people. They're they're they're residents of the city. And it's coming to a head, protesters versus counter protesters.
Speaker 2:Sure. Sure. Sure. And a a mob fight. It basically is a riot.
Speaker 2:It's basically about to break out between these two groups. And somehow our Ninja Turtles defeat the the villain in a way
Speaker 1:That it stops
Speaker 2:the riot. He yeah. That he is publicly Mhmm. Revealed.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I coming coming down to if this
Speaker 2:Oh. Yep. I mean, do we just do maybe it's hackneyed, but we just do a thing where Donatello Yeah. Displays screen. I I
Speaker 1:was just about to say that something to that if that if the I'm not, my power I'm not a mutant like you thought I was. Like, they believe that this is monstrous whole time. Like, my my my weapons or my video or cameras and Internets and screens. My my power is my voice. I I can control you with a flick of my finger and a smile across my face.
Speaker 1:Like, if that's his brag Mhmm. It's like, cool. We're gonna hoist you on your own petard here, buddy. Yeah. Here are the cameras.
Speaker 1:Here's the streaming. Here's your voice. There's your smile. And there's all the world's senior true colors.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I think it it
Speaker 2:And and it wouldn't even and it doesn't just implicate him. Like, he says, this is the corporate, the corporations. Yeah. I I know you were you were trying to, like, put the politicians at as the the the the central villain. Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm doing the corporation.
Speaker 1:Oh, I think the corporation. I think they're one in the same at this point. Like, the the the power the hierarchy that's in charge of this that's trying to manipulate the public is both both CEO and leader
Speaker 2:by government. Like, it could, like, cut in, like, you think the mayor is gonna care what you have to say? I am. I'm city hall. I control the mayor just like I control everyone else.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Through through all the all the all the things that they they consume. They just they consume and believe it.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Having having a moment of of, like, oh, you think, like, Donnie tries to do something and then he's and he stops him in the in the climax. Like, wait. You're gonna you're gonna you're going to display this in Times Square? You think I Yeah.
Speaker 1:You didn't prepare for that? It's like, oh, no. We have cell phones, buddy. What are we doing sending it to TV screens? Like, just sort of a little switcheroo there to be like, he assumes it's one thing and it's the other.
Speaker 1:But, yeah, in general, whether it's hacking it or not just to hot Mikey the villain Mhmm. It might there's still some satisfaction in oh, gosh. And the the the the epilogue of this or the denouement of of still having that that few people who, like, yeah, I heard every word he said, fake. Like, having people who, even though it's right in their face, the truth was told directly to them. Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And that's that small, you know, there's the poison never truly gets out of the system
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:In in a situation like this. There will always be zealots. Sure. Just a little thing in the like, April being upset about or Donnie being upset about it and having some sort of moment of, like, that's the news. That's how it works.
Speaker 1:Yeah. It's that's fun. Right? The the fun of this does come into the dialogue and the action sequences. All this very serious subject matter we're playing with
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:If you put on top of it, I was talking about this earlier, a fun soundtrack and great action moves and fun quippy dialogue, I think those things can congeal and and live in the same existence to say a very strong message in a cool movie. Sure. Yeah. James Gunn, what are doing? You're good at that.
Speaker 1:Is he busy is he busy right now?
Speaker 2:No. I don't think so.
Speaker 1:Okay. I mean, I he did one he did one movie with a did one movie this
Speaker 2:Lollipop chainsaw, and I don't know what he's done since.
Speaker 1:So Oh, yeah. Okay. Trauma.
Speaker 2:That wasn't trauma. That was just a video game.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay. I'm sorry. Okay. So Ninja Turtles. Do you I mean, I think do you wanna wrap it up here?
Speaker 1:Is
Speaker 2:this yeah. Like, I I I don't feel like our our energy came to a head in the in the third act, but I feel I feel pretty satisfied with with what what we put together as a whole here.
Speaker 1:Yeah. So let let's go to, Okay Rog Pictures, r k o o k Rog. How did we do? We we we took on your demand. We decided we it was gonna happen anyway.
Speaker 1:So we the the demand was find a way to tell a turtle boys story. You are right, Jim. You were right to keep the teenagers in there with a unique spin. And if Eastman and Laird talked about being outsiders from in the eighties eighties when they created these comics. They hear Gen X point of view of being the outside the system.
Speaker 1:This feels like honoring that subtext of the original with a very modern lens.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 1:And also taking the turtles to truly stand up for the marginalized underdog. Mhmm. Like, that makes me happy to think, like, there's no mistaking what these heroes fight for. You can't you can't switcheroo this one and claim to be Yeah. One minded and and Yeah.
Speaker 1:Turtles would speak to me. Yeah. Right? So but I think that's gonna do it for this episode. So we wanna know if we met your demand for today.
Speaker 1:So you gotta hit us up. If you agree, disagree, if we miss something, you can message us. You listening. It doesn't even have to be r k o. You can message us directly at studiodemandsit.com or on Instagram.
Speaker 1:Find this episode if you wanna comment there at studiodemandsit. If you're not already, you can subscribe to any of the pod catchers of your choice and subscribe to us. If you feel like giving a little review, you can do that in app as well, and that helps get the show out into the algorithm. You can find us on YouTube and TikTok where we post video content, including some material not heard here on the show. And, Jim, people could talk elsewhere.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You can join the conversation on Reddit at r/studio demands it or on our Discord. You can go to our website at the top of the page. There is a link to the Discord server where we also chat about movies.
Speaker 1:It's true. Join the conversation. And if you want even more, we have a Patreon for a couple bucks a month or free. You can sign up. If you subscribe, you can get episodes early, commercial free, get their extended double length episodes where we have additional conversation before and after.
Speaker 1:For this episode, we discussed underdogs in films and laughing through the pain as a creative, to put plainly. But, yeah. You and you can also subscribe on Patreon for free. We do post, free content every now and then. Free material.
Speaker 1:I don't like calling it content. That's a dirty word. Massive thank you to Six Five Media for everything they do for us. So please check out the other Six Five shows if you're so inclined. Jim, if you unless you have anything else to say about the teenage mutated Ninjago toitles.
Speaker 2:Ninjago is a different IP.
Speaker 1:I I think I think we should do that GI Joe Ninja Turtles crossover. So, it's okay that he's on IP because then Legos
Speaker 2:can work.
Speaker 1:Anyway Okay. That's gonna do it for this episode. We'll be back again soon with another one of your demands to challenge ourselves. I'm TC.
Speaker 2:Jimbo.
Speaker 1:Cold Reed.
Speaker 2:Jimbo Cold Reed.
Speaker 1:There we go. Cold cold dread.
Speaker 2:Cold dread.
Speaker 1:I did it again. I'm sorry. Is that offensive?
Speaker 2:Yes. Damn it. Alright.
Speaker 1:That's it. That's how this ends with me being offensive.