Here it is! It's been shown off before but now here it is- your first sneak peak at the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Will Arnett premiered this trailer for the upcoming live-action adaptation on the TODAY show and it's already made its way online. This is a Michael Bay production from director Jonathan Liebesman and stars Megan Fox as April O'Neil, William Fichter as Shredder, and Will Arnett as Vernon Fenwick. The turtles are all-CGI creations this time - no more suits with goofy fat fingers!- although it appears the actors behind them did a whole lot of mo-cap work with them.
As revealed yesterday, the trailer begins with a voiceover from Shredder. He's talking to April O'Neil and is implying that he and her father had a hand in the creation of the Ninja Turtles. He remarks that heroes aren't born- they're created, as shots of Times Square being destroyed for the umpteenth time play out. Hey, what's a Michael Bay production without a city being destroyed? Finally we see Leonardo jump into frame and stand up in a pure hero shot.
Then there's a quick sequence of the turtles surfing down a mountain on their backs. "Donnie!" one of the turtles yells (Raphael?) and Donatello responds "Batter up!"- a classic turtle line- and swings his brother forward with his bo, sending him smashing shell-first into a truck.
The trailer ends with Michalangelo running into April O'Neil and showing that he's still the same goofy party-guy character he's always been, as he assumes that his mask is the thing that's scaring her and not the seven-foot tall turtle behind it. He takes it off and shows his strange-looking face, which has some peculiar human qualities to it. It's here that we realize just how huge these guys are in this film- they were pretty short in all of the other properties but here they're big, towering, and menacing.
What do you think? Does this ease your fears about Michael Bay taking over the reigns to yet another beloved comic book/children's tv show? I think part of the problem with people's fears of this film is that they're looking back at the original through the prism of childhood- the original film might be fun but it's no masterpiece. But still, there's definitely a lot up in the air still at this point. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hits this August.
UPDATE - forget the sneak peak, here's the whole thing!