‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ kicks off Comic-Con with 20 minutes of footage

It may not have given star power fans hope nor the studio, but that of Paramount Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Chaos kicked off the film’s panels at San Diego Comic-Con in a big way.

Due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes, the studio did not have Seth Rogen, who is both one of the film’s producers and actors, nor any other voice actresses. But it brought out director Jeff Rowe and a ton of footage from the film.

Twenty minutes of footage, to be exact. Fowler showed a piece from the beginning of the film and, judging by the reaction, went beyond the gangsters. The hall, although not as packed as usual, still had thousands in their seats and the audience was screaming for the film, which is set to hit theaters August 2.

Unspooling was an introduction to the four turtle heroes, who went on a night-time shopping run in town, decided to go to a movie in the park (Ferris Buller’s day off, a Paramount film, of course), and thinking about how good life would be if only humans could like them and have a normal life. What follows is being grounded by their father, Splinter, a recap of their origins, an introduction to the villain, and then their encounter with human girl April O’Neil, who leaves behind a messed up group of criminals.

And while Rogen wasn’t there, he did make his presence felt through two videos, one detailing the history of the Turtles phenomenon, and another which, along with Ice Cube (and is said to have been made a month ago, first lo SAG-AFTRA strike) spoke about the film in general.

Rowe, meanwhile, has opened up about how much the Turtles meant to him as a kid. “That’s what being a fan taught me,” he said.

And Rogen said he pushed to focus on the “teenage” aspect of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, something he thought was underrated.

The style and artistry of the animation is biting and a break from the polished, polished style of many other animated films, with the filmmakers choosing to emulate an underground comedy feel.

“We looked at how we used to draw in high school, when you’re so passionate but you can’t draw but you don’t know you can’t draw yet,” Rowe said. “So you’re going to draw a hand lovingly, drawing every nail, every wrinkle, but the hand is horribly misshapen. There is no formal artistic training that stands in the way of your pure expression. And we said, let’s do it.

The panel concluded with a surprise appearance from TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman, announcing that Nickelodeon and Paramount have secured the rights to the original TNT extension animated series that aired in the late 80s. He did not provide details on when and on which platform the series would appear.

“It’s been almost 40 years and I’m still drawing Turtles because of you guys,” he said, hinting at the power of fandom.