Oh, bugger…screenshot Thursday.

Happy new month, y’all. Here’s another cool mid-transformation pic, this time of the TMNT character Ultimate Drako–a biological mashup of established baddies The Ultimate Ninja and Drako–as he separates into the two beings that made it.

 

Screenshot Wednesday

It’s often fun to check transformation sequences frame by frame.  Occasionally, you’ll get interesting single shots that go unnoticed in motion.  Here, for example, is Fox, in the middle of her transformation into  werebeast, but looking more like an evil simian with great hair.

By the way, the review for Eye of the Beholder should be up later this week, as I’ve finally come up with a satisfying alternative to the time-consuming recaps I’d been making and which nobody read.

Link: My review of “TMNT” (Vol. 6) #1

So, I have another blog. It’s supposed to be a general use thing, but it’s kinda evolving into the place where I review stuff, and among this week’s offering is my review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1, which aims to create a new version of the turtles while retaining the feel of the original Mirage comics.

While the series tries to replicate the original comics’ tone, it’s clear that they’re not particularly trying to replicate its plot: one issue in, and there are already a ton of differences between this incarnation and the original, ranging from the merely aesthetic (the turtles have no tails; Splinter has gray fur) to details that place it right next to the first cartoon when it comes to actual faithfulness to the original story. The turles’ origin, in particular, appears to have been altered in almost every conceivable way. Instead of being pet turtles, they are turtles being used as part of particular genetic experiments at StockGen Research Inc.; instead of being named by Splinter after being mutated, they are named by April O’Neil while still in their non-mutated state; instead of being Hamato Yoshi’s pet rat nor Hamato Yoshi himself, Splinter is a lab rat being tested on as part of a different StockGen experiment.

Go check it out.

Rumble in the Jungle: “The Shredder Strikes Back” Part Two

“Like the phoenix, I have risen from the ashes.  And into my fire, you shall fall.“–The Shredder

Written by: Erik Luke
Original Air Date: June 14, 2003
Recap Narrator: Splinter

Thank you, Peter Laird

I believe I’ve mentioned before how Peter Laird has taken to including some of his correspondence with Lloyd Goldfine regarding individual episodes of TMNT to his blog.  Well, a good amount of them have been added since I last checked, and they’ve allowed me to draw some conclusions. Namely, that it’s hard to understate how important Laird was to the creative process of the show’s initial incarnation.

While Laird’s position within the show’s creative staff was that of “Creative Director”, the title doesn’t quite encompass the extent of his contributions.  He helped work on character designs.  He oversaw scripts.  He made suggestions on the show’s overall direction.  And the show was unquestionably better for it.  While it’s impossible to say for sure, the e-mails strongly suggest that a TMNT 2k3 without Peter Laird would have been a lot more like Fred Wolf’s cartoon–or Fast Forward. There’s a lot of silliness and sloppiness in those original drafts, and Laird helped curb most of it.

Another interesting thing to note is that, while  the tone suggests that Goldfine and 4Kids had the authority to ignore Laird’s suggestions if they wished, most of them eventually made it in some form into the final product*.  A good thing, too: while the finished product is clearly Goldfine and the writers’, a look at the e-mails suggests, somewhat surprisingly, that a good amount  of  details– from key details such as Bishop’s story, Karai’s season 4 character arc,  and the reveal that the Underground City was an Y’lyntean colony, to second-long details such as specific camera angles were initially suggested by Laird. It suggests that Laird and Goldfine shared the very best sort of creative rapport: the type where each improves the other.

So what happened?  Clearly, by the time Fast Forward came along, a lot of that silliness and sloppiness began making its way into the final product, not all of it a result of a rushed production schedule (see: Back to the Sewer).  Some of it is, of course, intentional–the show was undeniably meant to focus more on the comedy–but the execution would seem to suggest that by the time season six came around, Laird was no longer as involved as he once was–if he was overseeing and commenting on individual scripts, there’s no evidence of it.  Which is sad, really.  Fast Forward, I still feel, had a lot of interesting ideas marred by sloppy execution, and I feel it could have been a great season if there had been someone there to make sure it got that extra level of polish.  While 4Kids could still crank out great episodes–”Timing is Everything”, “Invasion of the Body Jacker”, and of course, Turtles Forever–something that made the initial seasons what they were had been lost.

So thank you, Peter Laird, for your contribution to what would become my favorite cartoon.  Thank you Lloyd Goldfine, for doing your best to obtain Laird’s imput and to incorporate it into the cartoon.  It paid off.

—-

* A trend I noticed was that the suggestions 4Kids would most often discard were ideas for things Laird found appropriately silly or funny–for example, a suggestion that Stockman’s holographic face (from seasons 3-5) be given cartoonish, anime-ish expressions when appropriate.  It feels right, and once again shows how both Laird and 4Kids improved on the others’ work.

 

Leo’s Magic Sword

(Spoilers for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles season 3 ahead)

Going through the Comics Should Be Good blog today, I ran into a recent article by Brian Cronin highlighting a particular artistic quirk in Frank Miller’s 80′ Daredevil comics: whenever assassin Elektra stabbed someone with her sai, the weapon would pierce the person’s body, and stretch, but not break, hir shirt.  Like so:

It’s been explained that the reason for this seeming implausibility is due to the fact that Miller had to comply with the company’s standards for acceptable violence, which stated that while people could be stabbed, no exit wounds could be visible.  Nevertheless, it’s a damn good visual, one that became a trademark for the character during that time.

Upon reading, the post, my mind, like it does, flashed back to the Ninja Turtles–specifically, the episode “The Darkness Within”, where we get a similar visual.

Grisly.  It’s rather unclear from a single picture, but that’s supposed to be Leo’s sword stabbing the hell out of Splinter, as a part of a series of nightmare sequences created by a nightmare creature, who let’s face it, is meant to be Cthulhu with its serial number filed off.  In any case, while one would not be wrong in assuming that the reason why Splinter’s kimono is sword-proof is due to standards and practices reasons, I wonder if it was also meant as a homage to Frank Miller and Daredevil.  It wouldn’t be the first time TMNT has done that.

Reactions: The new TMNT ‘toon

Whoa, have I been out of the loop. I drift out of the TMNT fandom for a month, and I miss out on a bunch of news about the new direction of the franchise.

For those who haven’t heard about it from other sources, here is a breakdown of the new information, written by mega-TMNT fan Rosemary at her blog.  Go visit!  She has a bunch of pictures and descriptions.

Things to note:

Splinter:

Rosemary: Let’s start with Splinter. His new design is COMPLETELY different from anything that’s been done before. He is quite tall and wears a much more traditional kimono than he’s ever worn before. Personally, I like it. And from the little tidbits that we were given, I really think Splinter’s story has potential to be one of the strongest things about the new series.

Splinter’s origin is based on him being the human Hamato Yoshi in Japan. Human Hamato Yoshi has/had a daughter (not clear on what happened to her). In Japan, he and Oroku Saki/Shredder were rivals and after a battle Shredder believes his nemesis to be dead. But Yoshi fled to New York, where, of course, his life got even more interesting. When Shredder learns that Yoshi is still alive, he comes to New York and brings lots of badness with him.

This was the most promising bit among the various story details, and one that really hints at what Nickelodeon had been talking about when they announced that this would be an all-new take.  The bit about him being Hamato Yoshi, obviously hearkens back to the original cartoon, but the bit about him having a daughter really is a game-changer, and something that actually completely unexpected and new.   Even if she never appears (and the chances of that are rather nil), it’s now established that the turtles aren’t his first children.  He’s tried to raise one before, and his experiences doing that will naturally affect how he treats the turtles.  Lots of potential here.

Utroms/Krang:

Rosemary: The Utroms are now known as the Kraang. [...] The suits [their traditional exosekeletons] serve a double-purpose. One, is because they can’t survive in our atmosphere, and two is that the suits can project a holographic human form. As the series progresses, it sounds like these robotic Kraangs will become part of Shredder’s Foot army (and since they’re robotic, the Turtles can be more violent on them within the constrains of children’s television).

This is like °_°, and I’m not entirely sure how I feel about it yet.  For one, renaming the Utroms “Kraang” is a tacit acknowledgment of two concepts’ similarity, and it makes sense from a name recognition point of view.  On the other hand, naming the entire race after Krang also makes it seem like there’s no plans for our favorite pink blob to appear as an individual character, which in itself brings forth mixed feelings, since a) Krang was awesome, and b) Krang was awesome mostly because he and the Shredder made for a great comic duo in the original toon: if Shredder is going to be badass here, there might not actually be room for Krang as we know him, and if that’s the case, perhaps its best that any Krang-like character we see be named something else.

On the other hand, I’m not sure about the prospect of the Utrom/Kraang as a whole working for the Shredder, although I’ll withhold judgment until I see how it’s executed.

April O’Neil

Rosemary: April has been completely redesigned as a 16-year-old teenage girl. The Turtles meet her when they rescue her and her parents from being kidnapped by the Kraang (or Shredder? not exactly sure), presumably for their mutation experiments. This is from the actual first episode, which is not the “pilot” we saw, so we really weren’t told any more details about how that plays out, but it obviously ends with April becoming a regular visitor to the Turtles down in their Lair. As the series progresses, she will be studying with Splinter to become a kunoichi – female ninja. Oh, and Donatello has a HUGE crush on her. HUGE. It is one part weird, and one part adorable. It sounds like this may be a short-lived crush and not an on-going part of the series, although – like with everything else – I can’t say for certain.

This reminds me of a pitch the WB had made for a TMNT series before 4Kids got the rights for it, and my opinion of the concept of April as a peer has not improved.  Like with Splinter, it’s a radical change; unlike with Splinter, it’s one with the serious potential to change the character into one that is April in name only, particularly depending on how involved her parents are in her life. Also, given the fact that it went unmentioned, I’m assuming that April will once again be Caucasian here, which is a tad disappointing; I’d been thinking of late that it’d have been nice if they’d taken a cue from the early comic books and made her African-American/of African-American descent.

The other big change is Don’s crush, which brings back an element emphasized in the original movie but not much in either cartoon series.  While I liked the two characters’ bond with one another in the 4Kids cartoon, I’m not happy with the idea of him actually crushing on her–I prefers my turtles asexual when it comes to humans.

Baxter Stockman

Early pro: he’s still black.  Early con: His personality seems more akin to that of his original toon incarnation than the second.

Rosemary: On their way, they come across a man wearing a weird metal “suit” trying to break into a building. The man is Baxter Stockman. The Turtles watch him for a bit, laughing at him because his attempts at breaking in aren’t going so well and his “suit” is more clunky than it is intimidating. They eventually show themselves and beat him up, leaving him in a dumpster.

[...]

[During a latter fight against Baxter and his souped-up armor] Leonardo goes back to the bee hive they had run into the previous night, grabs it, and shoves it into Baxter’s suit through the face mask. Baxter, who is completely sealed inside the suit, gets stung by many now-angry bees.

Not exactly threatening, it sounds like.  Even his souped-up armor is more accidental than something he came up with.

Casey Jones

What’s planned for Casey, on the other hand, sounds pretty cool:

Rosemary: And while Casey Jones is not a part of the picture for the moment, expect him to eventually be. While it is not currently planned for him to be part of season 1, he will likely brought in for season 2. Although, Nickelodeon seems open to bringing him into season 1 if, while during the writing process, a particular need for Casey to be around comes up. And while we won’t likely be seeing him, prepare to see signs from him, as it is planned to have graffiti tagged by Casey be part of the background. When we do finally see him, he is planned to be a bit older than April, 18-20, and due to the limitations of television CGI will have short hair.

And finally, a bit of weirdness:

Rosemary: Overall the Turtles’ designs looked great. My biggest problem was that somewhere down the line they all grew a third toe. Not the exaggerated heel that has sometimes been referred to as a “third toe,” but an actual third toe up front. None of the art we had seen before arriving at Nickelodeon had a third toe. And the walkway up to the studios had been decorated with a bunch of two-toed green footprints. So there were no early signs that something was “a-foot” (hah!) with the toes. When I started noticing it throughout the 2D animatic I thought this was just some weird mistake happening. But then I also noticed it in the 3D model we were shown. And then we were shown the action figures, which had three very distinct toes on each foot. Now it seemed clear that it wasn’t a mistake.

This is, of course, purely superficial, which is why it’s the change that bothers me the most.  Unlike bandannas, skin colors, height, and whatnot, the amount of toes has always been consistent, so seeing this apparently-arbitrary change bugs.

So, in conclusion…

Well, I think it’s clear that Nickelodeon is taking the franchise seriously, which is a good thing.  I also think it’s clear that they meant what they said when they announced that they’ll be taking it into new territory.  What we’ve seen so far is interesting, with several intriguing bits, and no deal-breakers.  I’m really curious to see what the final product will look like, so I guess mission accomplished, Nickelodeon.

Blog Paint Job

So I’ve given the blog a new look–mostly because I finally got tired of the too-narrow column in the original version.  Hope you find it an improvement.  The background, by the way, is taken from TMNT: Back to the Sewer development background art, by the awesome artists Keith Conroy and ~Nexxorcist, which I guess means it either belongs to them or to Viacom.  Their art can be seen here and here, respectively.

On other news, I’m 80% done with my next review, of “The Shredder Strikes Back” Part 1, so it should be done by tomorrow or Monday.

Evil

“Evil” is not a term I use lightly. Maybe that’s a flaw of mine, but that’s the case. It feels too absolute, too loaded; people often use the term to justify any atrocities they decide to commit against said “evil”–see “Evil, Axis of”–, and so I’m uncomfortable using the term.

Not today.  From the article House Republicans aim to redefine rape to limit abortion coverage:

Currently, the federal government denies taxpayer monies to be used to pay for abortions, except in cases when pregnancies result from rape or incest or when the pregnancy endangers the woman’s life.

However, if the 173 mainly Republican co-sponsors of the “No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act” have their way, that would all change. Instead of keeping the 30-year-old definition of rape in federal law, the bill would modify it to “forcible rape,” thereby severely limiting the health care choices of millions of American women and their families.

In other words, rape would not be rape unless violence were involved; however, the term “forcible rape” was left undefined, leading some to speculate its meaning since it is also not defined in the federal criminal code or in some state laws.

“This would rule out federal assistance for abortions in many rape cases, including instances of statutory rape, many of which are non-forcible,” Nick Baumann of Mother Jones wrote recently.

He continued, “For example: If a 13-year-old girl is impregnated by a 24-year-old adult, she would no longer qualify to have Medicaid pay for an abortion.”

This right here? Evil. The people behind it may try to justify it as a cost-saving measure, as an attack on immorality, or simply giving their constituents what they want, but in the end, it doesn’t matter. It. Is. Evil.

Now, the things I don’t know about rape, rape culture, and how it’s intertwined with sexism could fill Wikipedia—partly because as a middle-class, non-minority male, I have the societal privilege of not really having to worry about it much unless it happens to affect people in my immediate circle. Oh, sure, I was aware that it was a horrible thing that I didn’ t wish on people, but it was the sort of awareness that one can stuff in a drawer and then forget about like a birthday card, on an issue that I felt could be traded away for a gain on some issue which mattered more to me. Until a few weeks ago, I would have looked at this article and not felt much of anything beyond mild annoyance.  Now, I just want to travel back in time and punch past me for ever being that stupid.

What changed? Well, thanks some urging by some very awesome people, I’ve begun doing some reading, which has had the effect of turning rape from Something That Happened to Other People Who I Don’t Really Care About to something that is ever-present, constant, and damaging in some very specific (yet very different) ways. Similarly, I’ve begun to scratch the surface when it comes to deeper understanding of the myriad ways society screws women and anything that can be consider “other” over.

And this bill? Majorly screws women over. Looking over Shakesville’s survivor thread, one can read countless stories from people who have been molested, raped, or sexually taken advantage from. Very few of the experiences recounted there would qualify as “forcible rape”, and even if they did, good luck proving that in court. That does not make any of their experiences any less horrible or scarring. Yet here’s this bill, discounting their experience. What happened to them? Not rape. Just some other, unspecified event that doesn’t inspire the visceral response of the word “rape” and can be shoved under the carpet. Bullshit. Unacceptable. This is fifty percent of the population we’re talking about, who already face severe disadvantages simply because sexism is the norm in most world cultures. Thinking of their rights, their safety and their livelihoods as something that can just be legislated away is monstrous, and the fact that 173 of the people who think that way are also the same people actually writing our laws is tragic and infuriating.

So what can one do? Given that giving congressmen a taste of their own medicine is impossible (oh, but wouldn’t it be satisfying?), the best I can really ask for is this: Become aware. Become pissed.   Explain to your friends why this is unacceptable, and why everyone, not just women, need to expect better, and why culture needs to change in a manner that would make simply suggesting making laws like this political and social suicide.  Because the moment 173 of our lawmen start supporting laws that harm half our population, we’ve lost all pretense that government is here for our benefit.  And that right there?  Scares the shit out of me.

Puerto Rico Gargoyle News?

Oh, this is too good. Today’s edition of the Primera Hora newspaper—one of Puerto Rico’s major newspapers, which really, helps explain why the island is in the sorry state it is—had this article on something that has apparently being going on in the past few days.  Apparently people have been claiming to have seen gargoyles flying around.

I know, right?

Here’s an excerpt from the article, given my quick-and-dirty-translation treatment.

While Canóvanas’ mayor, José “Chemo” Soto, cleared out the dust from his hunting uniform in order to set in motion a plan to capture the strange flying beast—which many claim to have seen in cities such as Guanica, Lajas, in San Germán—Primera Hora looked into the opinions of a historian, a psychologist, and a sociologist. All agreed that the phoenomenon doesn’t exist.

For example, as historian Ricardo Alegría sees it, the stories of gargoyle “attacks”–which share certain similarities to those of the mythical chupacabras, since both are believed to act during the dark of night and to suck the blood from its victims—are simply yet another story in our folklore.

[...]

“I find that detail very interesting because the term “gargoyle” is an architectural element from medieval buildings in Europe, which could specifically be seen on cathedrals. They’re monstrous figures, made in stone, which were placed on rooftops to collect and dispose of rainwater though various holes,” the educator pointed out about what at first was a decorative figure. There is one known gargoyle in Puerto Rico, atop a Miramar chapel, in Santurce.

Wikipedia explains that myths referencing gargoyles date back to the Middle Ages, and related with the popular interest in bestiaries and other hellish torments. Others assure that, at night, the stone gargoyles become beasts of flesh and blood, which then return to their stone state at dawn. [bold mine]

Perhaps that is what Chemo and his hunting partner, Reynaldo Ríos, are thinking, as they ventured last nigh to look for the Boriqua gargoyle among the ruins and tunnels of the old sugar mill, in Guánica, where they assure lie the skeletons of its victims.

So yeah. Desire to bang my head against several hard objects at the idea that a major newspaper considers “looking at Wikipedia” to be valid research nonwithstanding, the fact they’ve actually considered “our” gargoyles mythology to be worth mentioning is awesome.