TMNT (film) - Production

Production

The first of three films released in the TMNT franchise by New Line Cinema in the early 1990s was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Subsequently, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze was released in 1991, and finally Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III in 1993. A computer graphics imagery (CGI) TMNT movie was first announced in 2000, with John Woo supposedly at the helm. That movie languished in development hell and Woo ultimately moved on to other projects.

TMNT, executive produced by the TMNT co-creator Peter Laird, departs from the previous films' live action style, and is the first film CGI film in the series. Writer/director Kevin Munroe said that he wanted to do total CGI instead of live action and CGI turtles because it would be easier for the audience to "suspend disbelief for such an offbeat story" as there would be no break in the reality between CGI and live action. Producer Tom Gray explained that the decision to depart from the live action series was due to escalating budgets for the three films, and with each film making less than its predecessor, a CGI film became a reality. For example, the first film made $135.2 million on a budget of $13.5 million, and the third made $44 million on a budget of $21 million. Orange Sky Golden Harvest's rights to the franchise had expired, and Gray said the question arose there over a CGI TMNT film in 2004.

Munroe stated in terms of the story line that ideas were floated as extreme as the Turtles being in space, but eventually it just came back to New York City, and the theme of the family that had fallen apart. When developing the screenplay, Munroe wanted to take on a less lighthearted tone or "less Cowabunga" and place an emphasis on dark elements as shown in the original comics to appeal to the mature audience. "I had a very specific tone because mixing that sort of action and comedy is a very specific thing. Most people were just coming and wanting to make it too funny. I think that version of the movie could do really well, but we wanted to do something where it sort of pushes the envelope a little bit more and says that animation is more than just comedic animals bumping into each other and farting!" Munroe said that in design and in the rendering of the animation, he was after the feel of a comic book. Karai was one of Munroe's favourite characters from the comics and he "was the one who really pushed for Karai" to appear in the film.

Development and pre-production for TMNT began in June 2005 at Imagi's Los Angeles facility and the CGI animation was produced in Hong Kong, followed by post-production in Hollywood. In designing the New York backdrop, art director/concept artist Simon Murton stylized the familiar Manhattan skyline and urban landscapes: "We began with cinematic cues from certain black-and-white films from the 1940s and '50s. I really wanted to push the lighting and the environments to create the look and feel of an alternate reality." The animators that worked on the fight sequences were inspired by Hong Kong action films. Animation director Kim Ooi explains said that because of CGI they were able to "push and stylize beyond the limits of live action." Imagi used Maya with Pixar’s RenderMan for the production pipeline’s back-end.

The cast is new compared to the older films. Jim Cummings and Frank Welker (who voiced Tokka and Rahzar in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze) are the only past TMNT actors to appear in this film. Cummings has previously contributed voice-work in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. The film also features the two voice actors for Ratchet in the Ratchet & Clank series, Mikey Kelley from the first game, and James Arnold Taylor from the others, playing Michelangelo and Leonardo respectively. TMNT was Mako Iwamatsu's last film prior to his death. Mako was announced as the voice of Splinter at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 20, 2006. He then died the next day. A dedication to Mako appears at the end of the film's credits. Although Iwamatsu is the only actor credited in the role, Greg Baldwin performs a substantial portion of Splinter's dialogue in the finished film; Baldwin had already mimicked Iwamatsu's voice when he took up the late actor's role as Iroh in the concurrently-produced cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender, and used this precedent to successfully lobby to join the cast of TMNT as Splinter following Iwamatsu's death.

Talking about a possible sequel to the film, Munroe said:

Shredder – it would be cool to see. I’d love to see us explore the Karai and Foot Ninja thing a little more. I love the Rat King, even though it’s such a ‘one-opp’ villain, but I still think it would be kind of cool to go back to him. I’d love to – and this is sort of the ‘out there’ one, as I don’t think it would work for our next sequel – the idea of the Triceratons. I think that would be really fun – the idea of traveling to that planet or them invading or something. We come up with ideas for Peter . ‘Okay, Pete, they time-travel back, and they go to Mayan culture, and they fight aliens, who just happen to be teleporting back at the same time.’ And he’s like, ‘Eh, we did it in 1992.’ Stuff like that. I mean, they’ve been everywhere. There’s so much source material.