I've heard, though never seen an original source, that Michael Bay once said that he made movies for 13 year old boys, so sue me....or something to the effect....and I wish I could Michael. I really wish I could sue you. Don't get me wrong, there is NOTHING wrong with making movies for 13 year old boys. Big action scenes, awesome fights, badass heroes, explosions, even toilet humor, GREAT! Awesome, go do that Michael!...but why does that also mean there has to be racist fuckers in your movies? And bland, useless women? And what the FUCK is with making Mikey a horny asshole?
The thing that I adored about TMNT, between the movies and the cartoon (never got to read any of the comics), was how NICE these guys were. I wanted to hang out with the turtles! What made them so interesting was that it was so unfair that they had to live in the sewer because they were cool dudes, who gives a shit that they were reptiles? Yeah, Raphael was a dick at times, Leo was a bit up his own ass, so and so on, but these were GOOD people and Splinter made that so. Yeah this was a rat raising four turtles into ninjas, but he was also a dad raising his sons to be good pe....err...turtles. Splinter taught them, guided them, lectured, and even punished if necessary.
I grant that I haven't seen the movie yet, so what the hell do I know?, and I am working off a big dose of nostalgia here, but at least by what Bob says, these would not be the turtles that Splinter would raise. Splinter, in previous iterations, raised the boys to be smart and respectful....not horndog bros.
I don't mind seeing changes...rework it, make it awesome, it doesn't HAVE to stay true to the original. Hell Splinter doesn't even have to be a part of it, if you don't want! I wanted to go see this, I wanted it to be good!...but I don't HAVE to want to go see it, it doesn't have to cater to me, because this was made for kids and kids will see it. Boys and girls both and just like when I was a child, they're going to want to hang with the turtles....except now parents wouldn't want the turtles around their kids, and that's just sad.