The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are returning to live-action with a movie adaptation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, and that provides an opportunity to fix a mistake made by Michael Bay. The newly announced TMNT movie is the first live-action project involving Raphael, Donatello, Michaelangelo, and Leonardo since 2016. The comics will be the basis of an R-rated live-action TMNT: The Last Ronin movie that explores a separate continuity where Michaelangelo is the last living Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and on a quest for revenge after the deaths of his brothers, Splinter, and others.
The decision to bring the Turtles back to live-action comes eight years after audiences saw the final installment in the rebooted franchise Michael Bay produced. After beginning in 2014, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows ended the franchise in 2016 after receiving poor reviews and making substantially less at the box office. There were plenty of ways that the Bay-produced TMNT movies went wrong, and The Last Ronin needs to learn from them to succeed. That includes fixing one of the biggest mistakes the movies made with bringing the Turtles to life.
One of the biggest criticisms of the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies made under Michael Bay’s leadership was the turtles’ designs. Raph, Leo, Donnie, and Mikey became massively buff turtles, but it was their facial features that stood out the most. The live-action TMNT movies designed the brothers to look a bit more humanoid than expected. The typically rounded noses were flattened and made smaller, with nostrils also added. It was these small but noticeable changes that led to the divisive reactions to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles‘ live-action designs.
While the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action movies from the 1990s utilized costumes to capture the characters’ usual look, Bay’s movies went for added realism with the CGI designs. This is an issue many movies encounter when bringing cartoony characters to live-action. Just look at Sonic the Hedgehog‘s original horrifying design. With The Last Ronin‘s incredibly dark and grounded story, the film will likely want Michaelangelo and others to fit that tone. However, this does not mean that the new TMNT movie has to follow in Bay’s footsteps and make changes to the turtles’ designs for live-action.
The Last Ronin has the perfect opportunity to deliver live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles designs like never before. The original movies captured the recognizable character designs, but the rubber suits would not work today. Meanwhile, Bay’s films made the smart move to tackle the characters through CGI, only to make mistakes in the design process. The simple answer for how The Last Ronin can be better is by sticking true to the source material. It is possible for live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to look good with CGI and utilize the classic designs from the comics.
The new R-rated TMNT movie will already make improvements over the most recent live-action designs simply by not overhauling how the Turtles are supposed to look. Maintaining the design from the comics, animated shows or movies, and so on should be the priority. Even though Michaelangelo wears more clothing and armor in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin, his face is still very exposed. That makes getting the classic look right all the more important, especially after the divisive decisions made with previous designs.