TMNT… not ANT

When I was a kid, rainy Saturday afternoons consisted of whipping out the ‘80s cartoon “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle” VHS tapes for a marathon. My brothers and I would sing along to the catchy theme song exuding our own turtle power.

I’m with all of the outraged TMNT fans after learning of Michael Bay’s plans to change the Ninja Turtles from mutant, pizza-eating, sewer-dwelling teenagers to aliens. This is not thinking outside the box. Bay squished the box and set it on fire.

Photo courtesy of sobadsogood.com

Saying Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael are aliens waters down their cool back-story of radioactive ooze. Bay can make a story about alien turtles all he wants. Just don’t drag the ninja turtles into it.

I wonder what his plan is for Splinter, the mutant-rat martial arts master who teaches them to be ninjas.

According to The Guardian, Bay said, “Kids are going to believe one day that these turtles actually do exist when we are done with this movie. These turtles are from an alien race and they are going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely lovable.”

Stuart Heritage from The Guardian said it best saying, “They're called the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, not the Teenage Alien Race of Turtle-like Creatures Who Happen to Know Ninja.”

Bay needs to stick to movies like “Bad Boys” and “Pearl Harbor” and stop ruining our childhoods one misinterpretation at a time.

I think I speak for all TMNT fans, young and old, when I say I hope that this idea stays in its shell, never to make its way out of the sewer.