Michael Bay And The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Controversy

Yesterday, news broke that Michael Bay had big plans for the upcoming Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot movie that he is currently working on: he declared that he planned on changing the characters drastically. In a recent interview Michael Bay announced that:

"When you see this movie, 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."

These turtles are from an alien race? Wait. What? The outrage stems from the fact that Michael Bay explained that the turtles won't be from Earth: meaning they probably won't be actual turtles and they definitely won't be mutants. This is definitely a big change from the rest of the series. A change that seems to be completely unnecessary and uncalled for, especially since they are called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...

Fans weren't the only ones who were outraged with Michael Bay's announcement, the voice actor who played Michelangelo in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Movies, Robbie Rist had this to say to Michael Bay about the reboot:

"You probably don't know me but I did some voice work on the first set of movies that you are starting to talk about sodomizing....I know believing in mutated talking turtles is kinda silly to begin with but am I supposed to be led to believe there are ninjas from another planet? The rape of our childhood memories continues ... Everything I have said here could be off base and wrong ... He has made WAY more money at this than I have." 

But the drama continues today: Michael Bay has actually responded to all the rage that his comments have created on his personal website, stating: 

"Fans need to take a breath, and chill. They have not read the script. Our team is working closely with one of the original creators of Ninja Turtles to help expand and give a more complex back story. Relax, we are including everything that made you become fans in the first place. We are just building a richer world." 

Great... His statement is basically telling us, the fans, that he does not care what we think about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because he has the money and the power to do whatever he wants with the franchise that he has been given permission to revamp. Obviously his ego knows no bounds and he probably realizes that he will be able to make obscene amounts of money with new fans who have never heard of mutant turtles. But why would you want to alienate old fans (no pun intended), when you can simply keep the original origin intact? It's simple, turtles get mutated, and they are ninjas, they don't have to be from another planet to be cool.

The Teenage Alien Ninja Turtles Movie is scheduled to be released in 2013