Kevin Eastman “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” interview
In his interview, Kevin Eastman who is a Co-Creator of Ninja Turtles discusses what inspired him to draw the Ninja Turtles for the new movie “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.” Check it out.
Transcript
00:00 My name is Kevin Eastman, I am the official co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
00:05 with my partner Peter Lidd.
00:06 We created the turtles back in 1984.
00:09 The creation of the turtles came out of love, passion, and a late night bout of goofiness.
00:18 I'm a big fan of Bruce Lee.
00:19 I thought if Bruce Lee was an animal, what would be the silliest animal he would be?
00:24 And so I did this drawing of a turtle standing upright with a mask on, nunchucks strapped
00:27 to his arms, and I put it on Pete's desk and I said, "This is going to be the next big
00:30 thing, a ninja turtle."
00:32 And he laughed and that was the barometer to carry on the foolishness to the next level.
00:37 So if one, why not a group?
00:40 So the first night we drew, I did a pencil sketch with all four turtles, these were different
00:45 weapons.
00:46 When Pete inked it in, he added Teenage Mutant to the Ninja Turtle title and that was it.
00:52 We fell in love with the idea and we didn't have any distracting painting work going on.
00:56 The evolution of the names of the turtles really came out of the same kind of silliness
01:01 that we approached the title.
01:05 We thought originally maybe traditional Asian names would be appropriate because of the
01:08 history, not silly enough.
01:12 Doug, Bob, Steve, still not silly enough.
01:16 In high school, not only being a comic book geek, I was a real art history geek and I
01:21 did a mural at high school of my tribute to Leonardo da Vinci.
01:25 So I just blurted out to Pete, I said, "Why don't we go crazy and name them after like
01:29 Italian Renaissance artists?
01:31 Leonardo, Michelangelo, and Raphael."
01:34 And we laughed and it stuck.
01:37 There was a discussion for about two weeks on Donatello because I liked the sculptor
01:41 named Bernini better.
01:43 So Donatello was almost named Bernini, but eventually we went with Donatello.
01:48 The personalities of the turtles to me evolved out of comparisons or similar to a group that
01:56 I would hang out with in high school or friends you might have is that you would have the
02:01 one that was the funny one, always cracking the jokes at the right or wrong time.
02:06 The one that was more into technical this and that, taking apart clocks and building
02:10 stuff.
02:11 You'd have one that was the self-appointed leader of the group and then you had the one
02:15 hopefully that would be someone that would back you up in a fight.
02:19 And I love the cross-section of these different personalities because they would be sibling-like,
02:24 have arguments, be at odds.
02:30 They love each other but they don't always like each other.
02:31 But when the chips are down, they all come together as a team and together they're stronger
02:35 with all of these personality types.
02:38 Bringing that to the table is appealing.
02:41 When Nick Lode first mentioned that Seth Rogen and his crew was interested in doing a turtle
02:47 project I was absolutely pumped, thrilled, and not only being a long-time fan of Seth
02:53 Rogen, I love his style and sense of humor.
02:55 It's kind of my style, a little snarky, kind of sarcastic at times and very in-your-face
03:01 at other times.
03:03 And I always felt that the humor elements of the turtles is just as important as the
03:07 martial arts stuff.
03:08 I was excited to see what he saw, what his crew saw as a vision for the movie.
03:15 It's big and loud and proud and awesome.
03:20 It's all them.
03:21 You can see it just from the trailer alone.
03:23 You can see that these guys nailed it.
03:27 What I loved about the approach for this movie was similar to Peter and I still figuring
03:33 out how to draw when we were doing the early issues.
03:35 So it's very organic.
03:36 It's very raw.
03:38 It's almost like an underground comic.
03:40 It's earthy and you feel the dirt and the city and the environment is all there.
03:46 I feel like they really captured that wonderfully.
03:49 It reminds me a lot of the original stuff that Peter and I did.
03:54 The fun part of the various levels of involvement I've had on lots of different turtle projects
03:59 is some a lot more intensive, some a lot less.
04:03 And it's almost at times the less is better because I can enjoy it.
04:09 To do a voice in here after so many fantastic artisans are bringing such a beautiful vision
04:15 to life that I can just sit back and take it all in and do my character and try to do
04:21 a good job and live up to their quality, which is fantastic.
04:25 So it's fun.
04:26 I love being part of it because they're my babies.
04:32 When they first showed me the style of how they wanted to approach the animation, I loved
04:35 it in that.
04:36 Again, I feel like it went to that sweet spot for me, which is these are teenagers and they
04:44 live in the city and they have...
04:50 You can feel them.
04:51 It's like something feels right about it.
04:52 It doesn't feel forced or manufactured or not too overly muscular or not too big or
04:56 not heroic.
04:59 It just captures their essence of four goofy kids.
05:03 It's like the two goofy kids, Pete and I, that created these things in the first place.
05:07 The style is perfect for this film.
05:11 When the fans see this movie, I think...
05:17 I feel like from what I've seen and actually the response that I've gotten from some of
05:22 the conventions and stuff I've done now is that it's going to be a lot of fun.
05:27 It's going to take them to a place that they either remembered when they were growing up
05:30 what they loved about the turtles or if they're a new fan, take them to a whole new place
05:34 to discover these turtles.
05:36 But I think it's going to be a great adventure, a great story, and a lot of fun.
05:40 I think they're going to walk out high-fiving and cheering.
05:44 The fans are insanely awesome to the point of humbling, to be honest.
05:49 We've traveled to conventions and promotional events all over the world.
05:53 It's from Buenos Aires to Asia to...
05:57 We were in Russia a couple of years ago, St. Petersburg.
06:00 We were just in Italy recently.
06:04 It's so bizarre that it transcends so many languages and so many cultures, and they get
06:09 through it.
06:10 They find and they found something they love about these characters, and it never goes
06:13 away.
06:14 I've been in countries where they can't speak a word of English, but they're so emotional
06:18 about their love of turtles.
06:20 They just crop men.
06:22 It's like getting really emotional and just can give you a hug.
06:26 They just hug you.
06:29 That's insanely cool.
06:31 That's overwhelming.
06:32 I use the word humbling a lot because it is to go so far away because it's kind of an
06:39 iconic silly American idea, but at the same time, it goes so far beyond that.
06:45 That's pretty wild, pretty awesome.
06:49 The moments that are touching to me, there's so many, and it always seems so very pure.
06:59 Whether it be, "I love the turtle so much, I wore the same Halloween costume for three
07:05 years in a row," or the parents saying, "I gave them turtle pajamas.
07:10 They wore them until they rotted off," to, "I had a really tough childhood, and the turtles
07:14 helped me get through that."
07:16 I saw what they had to go through and that they still remained as a family and remained
07:22 strong and that helped them get through a tough time.
07:27 That's when it hits you emotionally.
07:30 Those kind of moments of realizing that you've created something that means so much, even
07:34 if it's just like, "Always loved them, always will.
07:36 Ha ha, that's great," to, "Holy smokes, this really was a personal thing for them, and
07:40 it's very important to them in their life."
07:42 That's pretty wild.
07:44 spectrum is big and all awesome.
07:47 [BLANK_AUDIO]