Gephyrophillia #211

Originally Posted on 10/27/2009 by Jeff Harris

I didn't address it at the time on The X Bridge (though I did talk about it at my Twitter feed (if you're not following it, you're missing a lot!). Last week, Nickelodeon bought Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Not rights to air the 4Kids series. Not rights to distribute the upcoming live-action remake. They bought the entire franchise, lock, stock, and barrel for $60 million from Mirage Studios and 4Kids Entertainment. They're planning a new series in 2012, the aforementioned live-action movie that same year, and a bunch of other things that haven't been publicly announced, though I have a feeling Nick-owned theme parks will have a taste of Turtle Power in the coming years. They also bought the rights to the highly-acclaimed 4Kids remake and have plans to make a play for the classic 80s animated series, which hasn't seen the light of day in this country in over a decade.

Now, some people have been up in arms claiming that Nickelodeon is going to ruin the 25-year old franchise and kiddify it to become a comical mess. Let me tell you what's wrong with that mentality.

When the original 1987 series premiered, it was already a kid-oriented deviation from the original 1984 comic that inspired it. The brothers no longer were beer-drinking, swearing, blood-letting freaks of nature. They were radical dudes who donned multicolored masks with their initials on their belt buckles who mostly beat up robots and rescuing reporter April O'Neil on a regular basis. While the 2003 series is a lot more serious than the 1987 series ever was, it too is largely kiddified.

Maybe this whole "kiddification" myth extends to the fact that Nickelodeon was the one who picked up the franchise. Needless to say, almost instantaneously, the inevitable, almost automatic response from critics was "When are we going to see the inevitable crossover episode with Spongebob Squarepants?" It was as if their collective brains was managed by a single source and stuck on stupid. Nickelodeon's the network that launched Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Troop. They're about to make a series based on Kung Fu Panda. When it comes to action with light humor, Nickelodeon is the perfect place for it. Considering they own the property outright and not leasing it from a third-party, you can bet Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is going to be treated with respect by the network.

Is it the end of the world? No. Again, people worry too much over small things. Is it an end of an era? Hardly. Like I've said before, that phrase has become a cliche and almost lost all meaning because people take things to the dramatic edge way too much. As I said in my Twitter feed, the Turtles are in good hands. I wonder what's coming in the next 25 years.

*end transmission*

Jeff Harris,
Creator/Webmaster, The X Bridge.