He’s altered their origin story so that the crime-fighting turtles now come from an ‘alien race.’
‘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,’ Bay said at the presentation. ‘These turtles are from an alien race, and they are going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely lovable.’
Never mind the fact that, as every dedicated TMNT fan knows, the pet turtles were mutated (hence the name) into superheroes after exposure to radioactive waste in the New York sewers.
Robbie Rist, the actor who voiced the ninja turtle Michelangelo in the 1990 film adaptation, took to Facebook on Monday to put Bay in his place, accusing him of ‘sodomising’ the original movies and causing ‘the rape of our childhood memories.’
‘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,’ he wrote. ‘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?
‘You know that ninjas are a certain kind of cultural charact…. Oh what the hell am I talking to you for? The rape of our childhood memories continues.’
Bay defended his choice to alter the cult classic on his own website Monday night.
‘Fans need to take a breath and chill,’ he said in a statement addressed to TMNT fans. ‘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.’
Image: Getty
