Go ninja, Go ninja, Go!!! We all remember the great tunes Vanilla Ice jammed out in the Ninja Turtles Movie from our childhood. New Line Cinema gave us three incredible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies in the early nineties; all of which I grew up on. I am definitely a product of the '90's cartoons and movies. Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, X-men, etc...that was my jam. Not only was I a fan of them growing up, but I truly grew an affinity for these characters and stories.
You can imagine my elation when I hear that Hollywood is rebooting the old, dusty franchise with a new and badass movie. Right? Right? NO!!! Unfortunately, Hollywood has not been able to get these adaptations right due to a blatant lack of respect for the source material. I understand taking artistic license on the projects, as we are all artists, trying to get our input in. However, producers and directors today are taking way too many liberties with these stories! They're famous for a reason!!! Why would you change what has done so well already!? Hollywood needs to learn how to nurture these stories into maturity, not change them completely!
Lets look at the most recent and heinous example, (you knew I was going to get to this eventually) Michael Bay's take on the Ninja Turtles!!! It's already been shown that Michael Bay has no respect for source material when it come to Transformers. The movies were critical travesties, and just all around bad movies. The Ninja Turtles have a very specific origin and history. Michael Bay has stated that he's doing out with their story, and making his own shit up...fantastic.
Now, this isn't a rant about how I hate Michael Bay, and he's raping my childhood, blah blah blah...No. I seriously want to point out Hollywood's lack of respect for the source material. As mentioned before, the original pieces are famous for a reason...audiences like what they are. I don't understand how some filmmakers can be so arrogant to think they can improve an already great thing. It comes down to the old adage, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" I would love to see these great stories retold with today's great technology and artistic tools...however, if the artist is the wrong choice...everything suffers from it. A partner and I are working on a rebooted 90's show to be pitched and eventually made into a big budget movie, (I can't say which, for legal purposes, but it's going to be fantastic!) and are adamant about keeping as much as we can, the same. The show itself is famous for a reason. We respect the old show so much that we are simply trying to modernize it for today's audience, not tell "our version" of someone else's story. I swear Hollywood!!! Get your head out of your ass!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment