Breaking: 4Kids Is Still Cartoonishly Awful
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?I’ve got good news and bad news, folks. The good news is that Turtles Forever, the shockingly awesome cartoon special starring several versions of the TMNT spanning from the new cartoon to the original black-and-white comic, is coming out on DVD on August 24th. Now the bad news:
? Despite being shown in widescreen, the DVD will be full-screen.
? Eight minutes of footage have been edited out, cutting the running time from 78 minutes to 70.
? This is the only DVD release for Turtles Forever planned. Most likely ever.
If you’re a hardcore TMNT fan — hell, if you just enjoyed the immensely enjoyable Turtles Forever — you have my condolences. This sucks. And it sucks extra hard because it’s totally unnecessary. So for some reason, it was okay to broadcast that footage but now it’s too saucy to include on the DVD? It was okay to broadcast Turtles Forever in widescreen, but now that it’s in DVD, it needs to be pan-&-scan? That makes no sense at all. It’s extra work, and it makes Turtles Forever worse on both counts. And who the fuck is it for? I know 4Kids has never given a shit about older fans — I don’t begrudge them that, it’s not their business — but wouldn’t the kids who watched Turtles Forever on TV want it to look and be the same? At the very least, shouldn’t there be an option to watch the damn thing the way 4Kids decided it was okay to show on TV? Erg. Thanks to GalvaTRION for the tip. (Via Ninja Pizza)
About The Author
Robert Bricken is one of the original co-founders of the site formerly known as Topless Robot, and its first editor-in-chief, serving from 2008-12. He brought the site to prominence with “nerd news, humor and self-loathing” as its motto, raising it from total internet obscurity to a readership in the millions, with help from his savage “FAQ” movie reviews and Fan Fiction Fridays. Under his tenure Topless Robot was covered by Gawker, Wired, Defamer, New York magazine, ABC News, and others, and his articles have been praised by Roger Ebert, Avengers actor Clark Gregg, comedian and The Daily Show correspondent John Hodgman, the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Rifftrax, and others. He is currently the managing editor of io9.com. Despite decades as both an amateur and professional nerd, he continues to be completely unprepared for either the zombie apocalypse or the robot uprising.