Peter Fenzel, Mark Lee, Richard Rosenbaum, Jordan Stokes, and Matthew Wrather overthink the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Turtles Forever and Richard Rosenbaum’s book Raise Some Shell.
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PETE, I’m so glad you brought Venus up!!! I was typing away with a feminist critique with the naming thing as the start, so I won’t beat a dead horse about the creator v. creation thing in nomenclature. But I’ll add that both characters go through the “femme-version”-of-male-counterparts thing that females often are given in comics, tv, etc. By this, I mean that aside from her somewhat “chesty” appearance, Venus’s characterization is distinguished not really by much except the braid at the end of her bandanna, and one of her weapons is a fan (an object more associated with femininity than masculinity). And Mona Lisa uses a nail file as a weapon and wears a pink scarf around her neck (or at least her bandanna is tied more like a scarf).
Not going to see the new movie. For lots of reasons. I was relieved when I found out they weren’t going to be aliens any longer, but I’m unhappy with Megan Fox still playing April. And after seeing the trailer, I realized that Shredder is being played by William Fichtner. While he’s a great actor, it’s yet another example of whitewashing and… well… yeah.
I meant to mention on the podcast, but there wasn’t time: One point of great professional pride for me is that a while back I worked on a play starring James Saito, who played Shredder in the 1990 live-action film.
Very, very good actor, and a supremely nice man: He signed a couple autographs for fans among the theater staff, “I hate Turtles! James ‘The Shredder’ Saito.”
And you got one of those (awesome!) signatures, then, aye?
Didn’t have the guts to ask.
The comparison between TMNT and the X-Men was very interesting. I’d mention that within the X-Men universe, the Morlocks provide a similar contrast to the relatively privileged X-Men. The Morlocks are mutants who, for various reasons, can’t be part of regular human society, and they have no economic resources, so they live in the sewers of New York.
It’s also interesting that the Morlocks are an entire society vs the 4 turtle and 1 rat group of mutants. I think this reinforces Rosenbaum’s point about the Turtles addressing the micro while the X-men address the macro.
I’ve always considered Wrather, Fenzel and Lee to be the Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael of the podcast, respectively. I think that’s pretty unassailable.
I agree fully. Perich is probably the Donatello, although Wrather and Lee split the technical duties most of the time.
I was disappointed by the total lack of any discussion of tangentially related funny animal samurai, Usagi Yojimbo.
I first found the TMNT because they were in a cross-over with Cerebus the Aardvark. Which means that it is canon that the Dave Sim universe and the TMNT universe are conjoined.
So my favourite TMNT character is Oscar Wilde.
Which Oscar Wilde, though? Cerebus has two of them.
Why not Groucho?
This podcast was exactly the right length.
*to the tune of “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”*
Big Bang Theory Big Bang Theory
Big Bang Theory Big Bang Theory
Big Bang Theory Big Bang Theory
Nerds on a TV show, ratings power!
Cowa-bazinga!
I’m a little bummed that you guys didn’t talk more about the 2003 ninja turtles, I guess it’s a generational gap. As for the question I shall choose 2k3 Leonardo, Yay ptsd turtles :(
I find it eerie that a new TMNT movie is coming out in the same years as a new Transformer film and both are being produced by Michael Bay. What is it about 1980’s cartoon/toy lines that Bay finds so intriguing?
Money?
Is it possible to make a TMNT or Transformer film without envisioning dollar signs?