Blast from the Past #470: June 15, 2005: re: minis "Ice Scream" and "Faster", and June 16, 2005: comments on the "Free Comic Day" mini

Subj: re: minis "Ice Scream" and "Faster"
Date: Wednesday, June 15, 2005 11:19:05 AM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine

Lloyd, 


Here are my comments on the two new minis.


comments on mini "Faster"


1.) I'm not crazy about the "Raph and Bike" shaped hole ending of this one -- we're getting into "RoadRunner" territory here -- but the setup for the gag doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Raph's just sitting on the bike in the garage and blipping the throttle, yet he keeps saying "Faster!" How does he know how fast the thing can go at each tuning stage if he's not actually riding it? This MIGHT work if instead of the bike just sitting there on its kickstand it was in some kind of dyno/riding simulator rig where the rear wheel is set on rollers so that you could reasonably estimate how fast it can go (without the bike actually moving anywhere.


Actually, that might make the hole in the wall gag more palatable for me. Imagine that this simulator rig has a big screen in front of the bike which displays a simulated road course so that at the same time  Don is tuning the bike, Raph can be trying it out. Then, instead of actually going through a stone or brick WALL when he hits the red button, Raph can go through the SCREEN, leaving the same kind of "Raph and Bike" shaped hole.

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comments on mini "Ice Scream"


1.) This is... bizarre. I'm not sure it's actually funny. As I was reading it, I thought it was leading up to an ending with Mikey sitting up in bed in a cold sweat and saying something like "Gotta lay off those late night mega sundaes! The idea that Mikey would FAINT because Leatherhead roared at him is kind of dopey and out of character.




-- Pete

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Subj: Fwd: Number 5 coming your way!
Date: Thursday, June 16, 2005 10:25:40 PM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine


Lloyd,


     Here are my comments on the "Free Comic Day" mini


     1.) Re: the following:

"DONATELLO
Where we going? Is someone in trouble?"

     Don would say "Where ARE we going?"


     2.) I fell compelled to point out that this is yet ANOTHER of these minis which depends upon BEATING on somebody (in this case Mikey) for the "humorous" punchline. That makes three out of five -- NOT good. And Mikey is the victim in all three of them.
     This approach just feels lazy to me. And do we REALLY want to encourage kids to think that it's REALLY funny to bash somebody's head? I think the ratio of "humorous" beatings to other actually funny stuff should be no greater than 1 out of 10 -- DEFINITELY not 3 out of 5 as it stands now.
     For this one, why not instead have Mikey rush to the front of the line at the comics store, greedily pushing his way in and grabbing a huge armload of free comics, then rushing back to the alley... only to find that the other guys have already lifted off in the copter, and either:


     a.) the other Turtles yell down something funny as they lift off (maybe  something about another "emergency" they have to attend to, something goofy like "Splinter just called us on the ShellCel -- he ran out of hair gel!" or something of that nature. And Mikey is left to slog all the way home with his huge pile of comics. And it starts raining at that moment. ("Aw... Shell! Now they won't be "mint"!")


     b.) Mike sees the guys leaving in the helicopter, then hears a noise behind him -- and turns around to see an advancing crowd of pissed-off comic geeks (pissed off because Mikey cut the line and grabbed too many comics). End on a classic "Mikey girly scream".


     -- Pete