Michael Bay addresses angry “Ninja Turtle” fans regarding upcoming remake

“Cowabunga, dude!” Famous words made popular by a band of four turtles, mutated by a spillage of top-secret ooze that gave them the size and strength of full-grown men. With the wisdom and guidance of a similarly mutated rat, the amphibious quartet came to be known as the sewer-dwelling vigilantes the 90’s generation came to know and love as the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.” Enter Michael Bay. A tweaking of the Ninja Turtle origin story and a change in the title has ignited an angry backlash from swarms of beloved fans, and a sense of urgency on the part of Michael Bay to extinguish hatred for the upcoming reboot that’s spreading like wildfire.

“Paramount marketing changed the name. They made the title simple. The characters you all remember are exactly the same, and yes they still act like teenagers. Everything you remember, why you liked the characters, is in the movie,” says Producer Michael Bay on his website, “This script is being developed by two very smart writers, with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles. They care VERY MUCH about making this film for the fans. Everyone on this team cares about the fans. Just give them a chance. Jonathan the director, is a major fan of the whole franchise. HE’S NOT GOING TO LET YOU DOWN.”

The director Bay is referring to is Jonathan Liebesman, whose credits include a reboot of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” the upcoming sequel to “Clash of the Titans” titled “Wrath of the Titans,” and the excellently marketed by underwhelming alien flick “Battle Los Angeles.”

Speaking of aliens, that’s the route the new Ninja Turtles origin story is going to take. They aren’t mutants anymore. They’re aliens. This is the real reason Paramount decided to shorten the title to just “Ninja Turtles” and the reason why droves of fans are already rejecting the idea of the reboot before so much as a trailer has even been released. Fans of the franchise have already taken to petition websites like change.org and causes.com urging the public to boycott the upcoming film, scheduled to be released Christmas 2013.

To Michael Bay’s credit, he did a heck of a job reviving the Transformers franchise, with the first film at least. But the uninspired sequels led fans to believe the megahit producer was out to destroy their childhood.

Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and my personal favorite, Raphael. Four turtles named after a different artist from the Renaissance, each with their own specific personality type, an identifying color, and a signature weapon, with one unifying affinity for pizza. Kids of the 90’s watched the cartoons, played the video games, watched the movies, carried the lunchboxes, and wore the costumes. It’s understandable why the MTV generation holds the franchise so dear to their hearts.

A fantastic CGI-animated revamp titled “TMNT” was released in 2007 and received positive reviews, beating out “300” to earn the number one at the box office, but there was never any talk of a sequel. For what it’s worth, a reboot of the classic, alien or mutant, can be a good thing for our favorite band of heroes in a half-shell. A chance for an entirely new generation to find out why we have become so enamored with T-U-R-T-L-E Power, even as adults.

No matter what the outcome, Vanilla Ice sums up a sentiment shared by all in five simple words:

“Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go.”

Michael Bay Photo courtesy of Simon Davison on flickr.com

TMNT Photo courtesy of ninjaturtles.com