Blast from the Past #624: July 4, 2003: Re: The Fugitoid and Re: TMNT - 3rd draft eps 040, July 8, 2003: Re: Revised Show 16 and Re: TMNT - Final draft - eps 040, July 9, 2003: art faxes today, and July 11, 2003: Re: Models and such

Subj: Re: The Fugitoid
Date: Friday, July 4, 2003 12:33:34 AM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine

In a message dated 7/3/03 4:51:52 PM, JoEllen at 4Kids writes:

<< Dear Peter:  One quick question before the holiday....does the fugitoid
blink?>>

An interesting question! I've always thought of the Fugitoid's eyes as little digital displays, and his "pupils" are actually made up of groups of pixels which move around, animated electronically, on those little displays. Now, because of that, the 'Toid's eyes -- or at least the pupils -- could do all kinds of things (widen, narrow, vibrate, invert, etc.), including, I suppose, "blink". This "blink" would ONLY be part of the pixel animation on the eye displays, NOT some kind of physical, moveable metal piece.

-- Peter

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Subj: Re: TMNT - 3rd draft eps 040
Date: Friday, July 4, 2003 1:33:17 AM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine

Lloyd,

Thanks for incorporating a lot of my suggested changes into this script.

I'm still not absolutely 100% happy with Leo's actions, but given the changes which work to establish that he is very conflicted, I can live with it.

In re-reading the script, the scene between Leo and Splinter where Leo disobeys Splinter's order stood out as very strong, and it made me think that it deserves some kind of related scene in a future episode where Splinter and Leo come to terms with his actions, in some fashion. 

Otherwise, I'd say this is approved.

-- Peter

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Subj: Re: Revised Show 16
Date: Tuesday, July 8, 2003 11:15:20 PM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine

In a message dated 7/7/03 3:45:34 PM, Carole at 4Kids writes:

<< Dear Peter,
We now have all of the information we need to know regarding the
re-animation/post of the "Kirby" episode in order to accommodate your
requested revisions.

There will be a minute of new animation, add'l music and effects, slugging
and sheet timing for the section as well as additional talent and studio
costs.  I spoke with Norman about extending the running time of the FoxBox
master (add'l :30) and he is fine with that.   We have already delivered the
show to many territories internationally and I presume that it is not your
intention for us to recall those masters, correct? >>

Carole,

That is correct. 

<< We would also need to
close caption the new master, which we would be able to use for the DVD
release as well.  We would also create a new international master for future
sales.

All in all the cost would run $12,000.  Peter, as soon as you approve these
additional costs, I will let you know when we can deliver the new master, as
the animation alone takes 4-6 weeks (including retakes) to produce.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

Best
Carole >>

That all sounds reasonable and approvable. I look forward to seeing the finished result. Thanks!

-- Peter

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Subj: Re: TMNT - Final draft - eps 040
Date: Tuesday, July 8, 2003 11:35:43 PM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine

Lloyd,

I think I finally realized why the whole bit with Leo jumping down onto the Foot Ninja in the warehouse bothers me. It's a preemptive strike without a well-defined goal other than killing (or at least beating the crap out of) people. The Turtles haven't been attacked, Splinter hasn't been attacked, Casey and April haven't been attacked, in fact NOBODY that the Turtles know and/or consider "good guys" have been attacked. And yet there's Leo, ready to just jump down onto some Foot guys and start cuttin' them up. No plan, no strategy, no mission, nobody to rescue, no nothin'. Just jump in and start fighting. It's NOT Leo. MAYBE Raph... but DEFINITELY not Leo.

I wouldn't be so stuck on this point unless it was (at least to me) a key aspect to the Turtles. If it WERE Raph we were talking about, MAYBE I could shrug and say, "Okay, he's a hothead, he might let his emotions get the better of him, he's not a planner, etc. etc." But this is LEO!!! -- the Turtle who has tried to be the best student of Splinter ever. And this is clearly not something that Splinter would do.

The way I see it, Leo's feelings of (misplaced) guilt have brought him to the point where he is actually CONSIDERING a preemptive attack against a LARGE (too large!) group of foes... and the fact that Leo, "Splinter Jr.", the planner, the strategist, is even CONSIDERING such a foolish move, says VOLUMES about how tortured he is in his (misplaced) guilty feelings.

I do have a suggestion which if used would make my comfort level come up to an acceptable point, and I think would not change the important dynamics of the scene. I suggest that in the scene where Leo is by himself on the edge of the roof, debating furiously with himself whether or not he should jump down and attack the Foot, he never actually makes the decision to move -- but a crumbling brick or three on the edge of the roof catches him unaware and he starts to fall off. But he is caught (as is currently in the script) by his brothers.

Another thing I noticed which for some reason REALLY jumped out at me in this reading of the script was these lines from Leo re: Splinter:

79. *LEONARDO
(angry; to himself)
What does Master Splinter know anyway?  Where does it say we have to do everything he says!  He doesn’t have all the answers.

Granted, Leo is upset and he disagrees with Splinter on this one point -- but this seems WAY too petulant and childish, especially for Leo. Also, it doesn't reflect the fact that one of the reasons that Leo is upset is that he DOES think Splinter has all the answers, and for them to be at odds like this on this one issue is tearing him up.

-- Pete

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Subj: art faxes today
Date: Wednesday, July 9, 2003 1:15:51 AM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine

Lloyd,

I got a bunch of art faxed to me today that I thought I should comment on:

1.) Porpoise: This is looking kind of odd, but that's not NECESSARILY a bad thing. I can see that an attempt has been made to tie it to the Playmates toy thing, which is cool, but I wonder if we can be a little looser for logic's sake. What I'm thinking about is the "squirt nozzle" which is over the Turtle's right eye -- it doesn't look like something that should be there all the time (I'm talking about in the show, not on the toy) because it looks like it gets in the way of normal vision. My suggestion would be to do a little redraw so that while the shape of that piece is the same, it can be swung out of the way (to the side, or up) in normal use and swung INTO place over the right eye when its special qualities (magnifying? infrared? whatever?) are needed by the wearer. The overall look would still be close enough to the toy, in my opinion.

2.) Tech Packs: cool.

3.) Karai: As a rough it looks good. Curious to see how her costume is treated, colorwise. Looking at this drawing, I had an idea which I freely admit may be my WORST one ever, but on the other hand might be cool. I was inspired by the substantial bangs which Karai has... and I thought, "What if she has some cool, perhaps frameless,  shades which slide up into/down out of those bangs?" I don't think I've ever seen something exactly like that.

4.) Short and Tall Aides: These guys are pretty cool, as roughs go. I was wondering how far we can push the yin/yang symbolism thing here... for example, should one be black and the other white (hmm... as aides to Karai, who is from Japan, do they need to be Asian?)? Should their outfits be half black and half white and be the exact opposite of each other (i.e. those two wacky half-black/half-white characters in the classic STAR TREK episode with Frank Gorshin... I think it was titled "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield")? What about giving each one of them a funky hairstyle thing which would be a single dreadlock or pigtail-type thing, only one would have it on the left side of his head, and the other on the right side? And do these guys (and Karai) have the Foot logo on their outfits?

-- Pete

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Subj: Re: Models and such
Date: Friday, July 11, 2003 10:55:33 PM
From: Peter Laird
To:   Lloyd Goldfine

In a message dated 7/11/03 7:11:36 PM, Lloyd writes:

<< Hey Pete!

We sent you models (Stockman's Robot, revised Turtle Tunneler, Karai as a
Ninja, Karai's aides revised, and a couple of tech packs w/ their interior
equipment poppin' out).  Lemme know what you think.>>

Lloyd,

I will! Here goes:

1.) Stockman's Robot: Don't like either of these too much, the first version less than the second. The second seems like just kind of a clunky redrawing of the robot as it appeared in the comics, which leads me to say "Why don't we make it look more like it did in the comics?" I just went back and looked at the first appearance of the robot (issue 52) and it's a cool design (not mine -- Jim did it).

2.) Revised Turtle Tunneler: I'm not loving ANY of the Tunneler designs, even the ones Jim submitted yesterday. Let me think about it some more.

3.) Ninja Karai: I only got a drawing of her in a size comparison with a Turtle and Casey, so it's a little small, but it looks good.

4.) Karia's aides revised: These are also kind of small, in size comparisons with a Turtle and Casey, so some of the details are a little hard to see. I'm not crazy about how the big aide's hair thing sticks out of the side of his head like one of Pollyanna's pigtails -- I was envisioning something that hung down, hugging the side of his head. And does the small aide have any hair change? I think I see a little goatee, but I'm not sure.

5.) Tech packs: These look cool.

<<We also sent out another brief installment of the Christmas tale>>

This is confusing as hell, getting all these little pieces -- my plan is to wait for the whole thing and to read it all at once. I'd appreciate your sending me a complete file once that is ready. Thanks!

<<and
outlines for shows 44 and 45.>>

Comments on outline for Ep. 45/"The Stanley Cup"

1.) I think it would be funnier if, instead of having Mike trying to force chips and snacks through the slits in his goalie's mask, he has customized it so there's a little food slot that flips up when he pulls a string or a lever or something.

2.) I wonder if instead of blasters or railguns or lasers, the cowboys could have "cold"-related weapons (to go along with the ice hockey theme), which might shoot icicles, freezing water, snowballs, etc. Actually, I just had a related thought that might ramp the surrealism aspect of this wacky story a bit higher -- what if the "cowboys" are actually from Alaska (instead of Texas -- and it's a larger state, anyway). Maybe they're Eskimos! And their boss could still be an oil baron (lots of oil in Alaska).

3.) It would seem that a key problem with the "sting" that our heroes want to put on the bad guys is that by setting it up as an ostensible sale of the stolen Stanley Cup to the crooks, the Turtles and Casey could be seen as just as guilty as the crooks. Maybe there could be some way to structure it so that the Turtles and Casey could lead the crooks to believe that they (the Turtles and Casey) are planning to secretly replace the Stanley Cup in its place of honor in the hockey stadium, thus leading the crooks to believe that they have another chance to steal it.

------------------

Comments on outline for Episode 44/"April's Artifact"

1.) The only real comment I have on this one is that the feel of it is pretty close to the "Tales of the TMNT" comic story where the Turtles go back to prehistoric/dino times with the timestress Renet and do battle with the evil sorcerer Savanti Romero... and as I think it would be fun to do that comic story with those characters at some point, I would suggest changing all of the dinosaurs in this tale to weird monstrous creatures which might be seen in another dimension.
Actually, just thought of another comment -- maybe, instead of the Mage revealing himself as evil in the end, he is instead accidentally overwhelmed by the power of the hidden knowledge he has sought, which causes him to become megalomaniacal, but the Turtles save him from himself through whatever means necessary.


-- Pete