TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM Merchandise Highlights The Four Heroes In A Half-Shell

@SATW42 - Calling this a kids' franchise is something I take issue with. That's like talking about Todd Phillips' Joker as being based on a popular kids' franchise.

@ObserverIO - it’s like Disney as a whole. You have children, of course, then you have adults who like the parks and are able to let go and have fun and embrace their inner child, but realize that’s exactly what they are doing, having fun and remembering their childhood.

Then there’s Disney adults, the people in arrested development who make Disney parks their personality, go more than 5 times a year, cry when they walk in the park and see the castle, and wait in line for 3 days for a figment popcorn tin. These people are weird. Sorry.

I feel like we’re at a point where grown men complaining about braces, glasses and April O’Neill skin color are the Disney adult version of TMNT fans.

@SATW42 - I totally see what you're saying. Adults can and do like kids franchises and there's nothing wrong with that (not even with those 'Disney adults' even though they seem weird to you).

I also agree that grown men complaining about April being black and wearing glasses is [frick]ing weird. Not because it's a kid's franchise, just because it's [frick]ing weird.

But despite TMNT being continually marketed to kids since the licensing days, I would still disagree with it being a kid's franchise.

Yes it had the 1987 cartoon thing, and that was huge, Turtlemania was HUGE and it was indeed all about the younglings.
But the 1990 movie was more of a comics adaptation that took the younger audience and the cartoon into account. The sequels to that movie though were undoubtably for kids. Unwatchable for any adults that didn't grow up with them.

But then something happened. The kids grew up and the franchise stopped cold. It still existed in it's adult form, but the kid-oriented version of it was no longer popular.
Power Rangers had become the new thing that the kids liked, so they tried a Ninja Turtles live action show in the same vein and universe as Power Rangers and by the same company, Saban.
It didn't work. Kids no longer liked Ninja Turtles.

But the adults that had liked them since the mid-80s still did.

The 2003 show had a huge adult audience. They weren't adults liking something for kids, they were adults liking something for adults that only existed due to being marketed at kids. Much like the adult audience of many other comics-based shows (and movies) that were also geared towards kids such as Batman: The Animated Series.

Kids will watch any cartoon. Adult comics fans would watch only those based on things for which they were already a fan of as an adult. They would watch any and every cartoon based on their beloved comic books, especially back then because comic book adaptations were few and far between.

These cartoons were the only way that we could get faithful adaptations of the comics we love (and some would say they still are, lol). They were created by and for adult comics fans. But they only existed because of the kids. They were made for the kids and had to be restrained by that kind of storytelling, because that was the only market with which to get these things made at all.

The 2003 show wasn't as successful as 4Kids/CW/Cartoon Network would have wanted it to be. It sold some toys (most bought by adult collectors). But it wasn't what the 1987 cartoon had been.

The 2007 movie was not very successful at all. Didn't even warrant a sequel and the company that made it went bust.

Then Viacom bought the project thinking it was a kids franchise that they could exploit.

The first thing they did was license the franchise to IDW as a new comic. Made for adult comics audiences, it is one of IDW's biggest successes and remains very popular among adult fans today.

They did a 2012 cartoon that successfully skirted the line between being based on comics and being very aware of it's adult audience and keeping the kids happy too so that it can continue to exist. It's probably the most successful TMNT cartoon since 1987, but still not quite what that was in terms of merchandising power.

But it was very much full of adult-based content and had a mostly adult audience. It was full of '80s horror homages, comics adaptations and references to the 1987 cartoon.

You have to remember that even the kids who loved the 1987 cartoon were now all grown up and still invested.

When the majority of your audience is adult, you're probably an adult franchise.

But they tried to get the kids again with the Michael Bay movies and Rise of the TMNT and failed horribly with both, because they failed to get the adult audience who were either fans of the comics or full of nostalgia for the 1987 cartoon (or at this point the 2003 cartoon, which was basically the comics anyway).

Viacom keep throwing their bait in the water hoping to reel the kids in and they might be successful this time, but the only real success the TMNT have had with the kids in recent memory was the 2012 cartoon and all those 'kids' are now a decade older.

They might actually make some money if they just give in and accept that this is a franchise for everybody and not just kids. Like Marvel did.

Also, I really want an R-rated Last Ronin with the OG 1990 cast, lol.

@ObserverIO - lol it’s all good, and some real valid points. I don’t think we’re really that far off from eachother, I just don’t take issue with it being called a kids franchise.

I also would love the hell out of an R rated Ronin movie. I also would never argue an R-rated movie was meant for kids just because it’s turtles, you know what I mean?

@SATW42 & @ObserverIO - I'll be real with the both of you. At any rate, it's gonna to be a long time before we see a TMNT adaptation (film or series) based on the original Mirage Studios comic.😒

@Motherlicker - That was just weird. Like a hat on a hat. I mean they already have these massive shells and then all of a sudden he's got a proton pack and a damned VR headset. It's like he was carrying a whole lab on his back. How can you fight like that?

The one thing I personally hate about the new designs is the '87 throwback of the initialized belt buckles. I thought we were over that.