Kyle
Kevin Eastman Co-Creator Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (photo: Nibletz LLC)
Kevin Eastman one of the creators of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise over 28 years ago, had a panel to himself
at DragonCon 2012 and to the delight of many in the audience he spilled the beans on the upcoming new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Series that will debut on September 29th at 11:00am on Nickelodeon with a special 1 hour episode. The panel attendees got to see the new opening theme song and a couple of scenes from the new Turtles series.
Eastman pointed out that a lot of people who loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as kids, now actually have kids that are “turtle age”. Despite being a cartoon about ninja turtles, the original comic series was dark and meant for adults. Of course as the franchise grew up in the late 80’s it was evident to Eastman and co-creator Peter Laird that the Turtles morphed into a kids and now what we would call tween epidemic.
The new Turtles comic books will be geared toward grown folks but the cartoons will try and fit a happy medium for all to enjoy.
Eastman had sold his rights to the franchise to Laird in a process that started in June of 2000 and concluded in 2009 however Eastman was hired on to consult the new third animated series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman joked that in the animation studio the new animators referred to Eastman as Obi-Wan and that there were animators working on the new Turtles that grew up with the originals.
The new series will feature Jason Biggs as the voice of Leonardo, Rob Paulsen as the voice of Donatello, Sean Astin as the voice of Raphael and Greg Cipes as the voice of Michaelangelo. April O’Neal is of course coming back for this series as well and will be voiced by Mae Whitman.
Eastman also revealed that his first Turtles graphic novel in 25 years is due to the publisher by September 10th and if he hits his deadline it should be released sometime in October on the heels of the premiere of the newest series.
One of the best reveals in the panel was that Eastman’s youngest son Shane became aware of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when he was three or four and started playing with some of the toys his older brother Peter had. Shane was so excited about the Turtles and didn’t understand that his daddy drew the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Eastman had remarked that for two decades people had told him that their kids grew up with the Turtles and he never got to see that first hand until his son fell in love with them. Shane went on to be Raphael for three consecutive halloweens. How cool is that.
Check out our exclusive video below where Eastman talks about how he is really excited about this new series with the Turtles that he and Laird started nearly 30 years ago.
Linkage:
Here’s DragonCon’s official Website
And here’s the site for the brand new Ninja Turtles
