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Something I haven’t seen discussed a whole lot in the other TMNT blogs and forums is the humor embedded in Nickelodeon’s re-imagining of the TMNT.   We all know how “campy” the humor was in the original cartoon.  As kids it may not have seemed so bad but if you go back and watch an episode now as an adult it is just outright lame (almost insultingly so).

In the animatic we saw of Nickelodeon’s TMNT pilot I was pleasantly surprised by the embedded humor.  It never seemed forced and it had great comedic timing.  The jokes were legitimately funny and proper for the surrounding dialog, setting, and characters.  In the past 10 or years we’ve all come to expect so much more from our cartoons and movies.  Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks have raised the bar with humor in animated movies like Shrek, Toy Story, and Bolt.  These are great movies that you don’t mind seeing with your kids because you know they’re targeting adults just as much as kids.  However, on the flip side, there are animated movies that are purely for kids and are just absolutely painful to sit through as an adult.

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With what I revealed in my last post you’re all probably thinking, “What about the non-disclosure or confidentiality agreement you signed?”  Well, let me provide you a bit of information.

When each of us at the TMNT Fan Event were initially contacted by Nickelodeon one of the things that was required for all of us to be eligible was to return a signed release form.  This release was sent to us as an email attachment named “TMNT Confidentiality Release.”  Within the document was wording to the effect of “I agree not to photograph, record, etc.” any of the event itself and “I agree to be photographed, recorded, etc.”  In addition, all the photos, recording, opinions, etc. would be the exclusive property of Nickelodeon and could be used as they see fit.

In re-reading the language of the release, nowhere does it state that we are not permitted to share information we learned at the event.  I think where the waters got “muddied” was the requests from Nickelodeon staff members (prior to the event) that we all keep details about the event itself secret.  While it wasn’t really crystal clear to me at the time, it sure seemed like, after the event, they were going to allow us to share all that we saw and learned.  In fact, right before I left the gate of the Nickelodeon studios I asked the question, “What can we now share?”  The answer I received to that question was in direct contrast with what everyone else at the event was writing in their post-event blogs (i.e., claims that they could not share any detailed information).   To further this argument, for those of you at the event, think back to all the areas, places, and things they DIDN’T let us see.  They wouldn’t let us visit the Executive Producer’s office, remember?  He so badly wanted us to see his TMNT stuff but they wouldn’t allow it.  He had to bring some items to the Q&A to share instead.  Remember how we were accompanied by staff members in suits at all times?  I’d say they didn’t allow certain things because, while they did want to reveal a lot of great information, they clearly did not want us to learn everything.  They wanted to keep some thing under wraps and knew that the best way to do this was to control what we saw.

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