Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Imprint Ceremony at TCL Chinese Theaters in Los Angeles
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B-Roll Footage: The iconic and beloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo) with Turtles Creator Kevin Eastman immortalize their handprints in pizza-shaped cement at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California on September 7, 2023. This video is only available for editorial use on Broadcast TV, online, and worldwide platforms. To ensure compliance and proper licensing of this video, please contact us. ©MaximoTV
B-Roll Footage: The iconic and beloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo) with Turtles Creator Kevin Eastman immortalize their handprints in pizza-shaped cement at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles, California on September 7, 2023. This video is only available for editorial use on Broadcast TV, online, and worldwide platforms. To ensure compliance and proper licensing of this video, please contact us. ©MaximoTV
Transcript
00:00 (chimes tinkling)
00:03 The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
00:05 in the Chinese Theater's Wet Cement.
00:08 To get the ceremony started,
00:09 if you'll please help me welcome,
00:11 Nichelle Turner.
00:13 - Hello, hello, hello, hello.
00:16 Oh, come on, it's Thursday, it's almost the weekend.
00:20 There we go, there we go.
00:22 And it's been a short week,
00:23 so we're gonna celebrate today.
00:24 It's very exciting to be here today.
00:26 How you guys doing?
00:28 You good?
00:29 Yeah, out of school, you're like, I'm really good today.
00:31 (laughs)
00:33 Well, it's really exciting to be here
00:34 to celebrate four of the biggest heroes on the planet,
00:38 the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
00:40 Let's hear it for 'em.
00:42 Absolutely.
00:43 As you heard Levi just say,
00:45 this is a very special honor
00:47 that is reserved for Hollywood's biggest and brightest stars
00:50 and Leonardo, Rafael, Donatello, and Michelangelo
00:55 managed to earn their place right here
00:56 and they're still teenagers.
00:58 So you know, they can do just about anything.
01:00 They haven't even begun to vote yet
01:01 and they're already getting hand and footprint ceremonies.
01:04 Now, I know that the Turtles would be the first to say
01:07 that they have not done this on their own.
01:09 They've had a lot of support over the years.
01:11 We've all supported them, we love them.
01:13 And they're on the road now to becoming the superstars
01:16 that we all know and love today.
01:18 So before we bring them out,
01:19 there's a couple of people
01:20 that I want you guys to hear from
01:22 that helped make the Turtles who they are today.
01:25 So up first, I would like to introduce
01:27 one of the biggest champions of the Turtles
01:29 who helped bring their latest film,
01:31 "Mutant Mayhem" to the big screen
01:33 and to digital platforms now
01:34 so everybody can watch it at home.
01:36 Please join me in welcoming the president
01:39 and CEO of Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon,
01:42 Mr. Brian Robbins.
01:44 Hello.
01:45 (audience cheering)
01:46 How are you?
01:47 (audience applauding)
01:48 - Hi guys, how are you guys doing?
01:50 (audience cheering)
01:51 Thank you so much for joining us today
01:53 to celebrate Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
01:56 It's really an exciting day for us.
01:58 You know, what started out as a pencil sketch
02:01 of a masked turtle with a nunchuck strapped to its arms
02:06 has morphed into a worldwide phenomenon
02:09 that has captured imaginations for more than four decades.
02:12 From comics to movies to television shows
02:16 to games to action figures and beyond,
02:19 the Turtles have touched every part
02:21 of the cultural landscape
02:23 while providing incredible entertainment.
02:26 They've inspired longtime fans
02:28 and gained lots of new ones along the way,
02:31 like you guys, I suppose, right?
02:32 Yes.
02:34 Created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1984,
02:40 these wildly inventive comic book characters
02:44 busted into the zeitgeist and never left,
02:47 becoming one of the most successful
02:49 and enduring franchises of all time.
02:52 Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello
02:55 have captivated millions of fans around the world
02:58 with their heroic and hilarious exploits
03:02 over seven, across seven feature films.
03:05 So on behalf of Paramount Animation
03:07 and Nickelodeon Animation and my partner, Ramsey Naito,
03:10 there she is, and our amazing filmmaking partners,
03:14 we're incredibly proud to continue the legacy
03:18 with our Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem film.
03:23 This film, thanks to our amazing creative team
03:27 of our leader and director, Jeff Rowe,
03:30 producers Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg,
03:33 and everyone at Point Grey Entertainment,
03:35 the film is being celebrated not just by new fans,
03:39 but by multi-generational fans
03:41 who grew up with these beloved characters.
03:43 Now, as a massive longtime fan and permanent teenager,
03:49 we knew that Seth Rogen and his team
03:51 would infuse this movie with the same heart,
03:53 passion, and curiosity that Kevin and Peter did
03:57 when they hatched the turtles 40 years ago.
03:59 And under the leadership of Ramsey Naito,
04:02 the teams at Paramount Animation and Nickelodeon Animation
04:05 have been working on this project for four years
04:07 to bring Mutant Mayhem to life.
04:10 It's been a passion and a labor of love,
04:13 and it's also now the best reviewed animated film
04:16 of the year.
04:17 (audience cheering)
04:21 Now, the turtles brand is one of the most important
04:24 franchises in Paramount Global's organization.
04:28 It is truly a privilege to be part of a fantastic
04:33 character's ongoing success and to continue the momentum
04:37 with both a theatrical sequel and an exclusive series
04:40 coming to Paramount Plus soon.
04:42 But none of this, none of this would be possible
04:46 without the amazing talents of two artists.
04:50 They had an incredible vision and an offbeat sense of humor,
04:54 and they first conceived of the now world famous
04:57 Leo, Mikey, Donnie, and Raph.
04:59 And so it is my really great pleasure to introduce
05:02 one of the original creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
05:06 Please join me in welcoming Kevin Eastman.
05:08 (audience cheering)
05:11 (audience applauding)
05:15 - Cowabunga!
05:18 Hey, yeah.
05:20 Man, this is so incredibly awesomely,
05:24 coolly, awesomely cool.
05:26 Man, I can't believe, you know, when I look at the history
05:30 of the turtles, and we're coming up on 40 years,
05:32 the turtles are gonna be 40 years old.
05:33 They're perpetual teenagers like me and Seth Rogen
05:36 and so many of you other fans out there.
05:38 But they're gonna be 40 years old next year,
05:40 and every one of the experiences that we've had
05:43 with the turtles has just been unexpected, unimagined.
05:48 It was something that we got into for the love and passion
05:52 of wanting to tell stories.
05:53 We were following in the footsteps of our hero, Jack Kirby,
05:56 who created most of the Marvel universe, as you guys know.
05:59 But we just wanted to be like him,
06:01 and I think even back when I proudly announced
06:04 to my parents that I'm gonna be a comic book artist
06:06 like Jack Kirby, I think they were positive.
06:08 We're gonna have one of those kids
06:09 that never moves out of the basement.
06:11 And I go back to 40 years ago when Peter and I
06:15 were sharing a studio, it was called Mirage Studios.
06:17 It was Mirage because it was our living room,
06:19 it wasn't really a studio.
06:21 And coming up with ideas, trying to sell ideas,
06:23 trying to break into the comic business any way we could.
06:26 And I thought one night, if Bruce Lee was an animal,
06:29 what would be the stupidest animal that he would be?
06:32 Fast-moving martial artist, slow-moving turtle,
06:34 made me laugh out loud, and so I did this sketch.
06:37 Turtle standing upright, nine checks after his arms,
06:39 and said, "This is going to be the next big thing.
06:41 "Ha ha ha." (laughs)
06:43 A ninja turtle.
06:45 So I drew it, Pete laughed, he did a sketch,
06:47 changed some things, and I thought, well,
06:49 if Juan wanted a group of them,
06:51 and so I did a sketch with four turtles,
06:54 each with different weapons,
06:55 and had written in this comic book ninja turtle logo to it.
07:00 And when he inked it in,
07:01 he had a Teenage Mutant to the title.
07:02 And again, we looked at this and we said,
07:04 "This is the dumbest thing we've ever seen,
07:05 "but we love it!
07:06 "This is so incredible.
07:07 "We have to come up with a story
07:09 "that tells how these characters became
07:11 "the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles."
07:13 And that was in 1984, we started,
07:15 and I want to take a minute to give a super awesome shout out
07:17 to my partner in crime, culturator Peter Laird,
07:19 because without him, they would not exist.
07:22 (audience applauds)
07:23 I know he'd love to be here if he could.
07:25 He doesn't travel that much anymore,
07:26 but man, what a ride we've had.
07:30 Because again, go back to 1984,
07:32 so we'd come up with a story
07:33 that tells how the turtles were born,
07:35 and we convinced my uncle, loaned us $1,200,
07:39 to print 3,000 comic books, which we were quite positive
07:42 we would not be able to sell enough copies of them
07:44 to pay my uncle back.
07:46 And so this crazy thing started happening
07:49 as you fans started buying them,
07:52 which allowed us to do a second issue,
07:54 which allowed us to do a third issue,
07:56 to do a fourth issue, and each time the sales improved.
07:58 And that, to us, was really the dream came true moment
08:02 in that Peter and I were now drawing comic books full-time.
08:05 That's all we wanted to be,
08:06 following the footsteps of Jack Kirby,
08:08 and tell and write and draw our own stories
08:10 and have a great time.
08:11 And then this weird thing happened.
08:13 We started getting calls from people saying,
08:16 "We think," you know, different agents and people thought,
08:19 "This could be something more than just a comic book."
08:22 And we were like, "No, really?
08:24 "Seriously?"
08:25 We were having so much fun doing the comic books,
08:27 so we explored the idea to do an animated TV series,
08:31 and it was one of these, like so many moments
08:34 with the Turtles, this perfect storm
08:36 of a great animation crew, great writers like David Wai,
08:40 he's a Paddy Howarth.
08:41 We get this theme song from a virtually unknown Chuck Lorre
08:45 at the time, who wrote the original Turtles theme song.
08:48 And suddenly we had this show.
08:50 We did five parts, five-part episode,
08:52 and it could have failed just as easily as it worked,
08:55 and this crazy thing happened.
08:57 You fans started watching it,
08:59 and that led to another eight episodes, to another season.
09:03 And then what's even weirder is it got so popular,
09:06 we were approached to do a live-action movie.
09:08 And it was like, "No way, perfect storm again."
09:13 So not only do we have an incredible writer
09:15 named Todd Langdon, Steve Barron is the director,
09:18 and then who else but Jim Henson
09:20 built those original costumes.
09:22 And you had this wonderful story
09:24 and told in this wonderful place,
09:25 and it just as easily could have failed, but it didn't.
09:28 It worked, and that's all your fault.
09:30 All you fans that came out to the movie premiere
09:35 and watched the cartoons.
09:37 And I'm asked oftentimes when we do a lot of conventions
09:39 and touring, people will say,
09:41 "How did you know it was a success?
09:44 "Like a real success?
09:46 "Yes, you were drawing comic books,
09:47 "yes, you were working on the cartoon shows
09:49 "and worked on these movies,
09:51 "but how did you know it was a success?"
09:52 And I picked two moments which I thought were kind of funny.
09:54 One was in 1988 when the toys first arrived at the toy store
09:59 and the toy store at the time was KB Toys.
10:02 Peter and I live in Massachusetts,
10:03 so we drove down to Springfield
10:05 'cause we wanted to see them actually in the store.
10:08 We didn't believe they'd actually be there,
10:10 even though we worked on them, developed them,
10:11 worked with the sculptors and all that stuff.
10:13 So we were going into the toy store, heading to the back,
10:16 and just as we arrived at the action figure section,
10:19 there's this mom dragging this young boy out saying,
10:20 "No, I'm not buying you
10:21 "one of those stupid Ninja Turtles."
10:24 (laughs)
10:25 We were like, "What have we done?
10:26 "Oh no."
10:27 And this is awesome.
10:29 The other big moment, I know that it was a success
10:31 that my grandmother, bless her,
10:34 for birthdays and Christmases,
10:36 she would always send me a card with $5 in it.
10:39 She was watching "Jeopardy" one night
10:41 and the turtles were crushed on "Jeopardy,"
10:43 so she figured I'd now hit it big time enough
10:45 that she didn't have to send me the $5 anymore.
10:48 So that's a true bargain of success.
10:50 (laughs)
10:52 So listen, it's been such a wonderful journey
10:54 throughout the original comic books,
10:57 the original TV series, the original movies,
11:00 and each time, Peter and I would look and say,
11:03 "Well, what an incredible ride.
11:04 "Well, next year it's all gonna end.
11:06 "Next year, that's it.
11:07 "It's been so much fun."
11:09 And then this thing continued to drive it forward again,
11:11 as again, you fans that kept wanting to see another series
11:15 and another turtle event,
11:19 something that these characters, you wouldn't let them go,
11:21 and it was just the coolest, most proudest thing for us
11:24 as co-parents.
11:26 And then I fast forward to an incredible time in 2011.
11:30 Nickelodeon, Paramount, and Viacom,
11:34 they bought the rights to all things turtles
11:36 and then brought the original creators back in
11:39 to work on some of these new animated series,
11:42 the new movies, the new comic books,
11:44 and it was a big risk and a great creative team,
11:47 a great partnership of bringing wonderful talent
11:51 with these, I laugh because these kids were,
11:54 I call them kids because I'm 61,
11:56 they were half my age, they write better than I do,
11:58 they draw better than I do,
11:59 and they grew up as turtle fans,
12:01 and they put all of that passion into this new turtle series
12:04 which just as easily could have failed,
12:06 but it didn't, it worked, the passion was there,
12:09 the idea was there, the stories were there,
12:11 and most of all, you fans were there.
12:13 And here we are,
12:14 Nelly, through a tremendous, successful animated series,
12:17 and then I'm thinking right now of spending some time
12:21 with Jeff Roe, the director of this movie,
12:23 with not only Evan Goldberg, but the incredible Seth Rogen,
12:26 which I'm a huge fan of, developing in this new movie,
12:29 and Jeff Roe is a little shy at first
12:31 when I started talking to him,
12:32 and he's talking about his early collection
12:35 of how often he wore the turtle's Halloween costume,
12:37 all the toys that he had,
12:39 his parents staying up Christmas Eve
12:40 to put the Sua play set together,
12:42 (laughs)
12:44 and, or stepping on Leonardo's sword
12:45 in the way the rest of them in the middle of the night.
12:47 He was a true and serious fan,
12:50 and I think it all shows in Mutant Bayham,
12:52 'cause it's one of the best rides, the best times,
12:54 and one of the greatest, most fun turtle movies
12:57 that I've seen in a long time,
12:58 and I think you all agree.
13:00 I know, I can't wait to see it again,
13:02 so it's fantastic.
13:04 I just wanna wrap up by saying,
13:06 listen, this is not only the,
13:08 everything that has led us here,
13:11 into this stage, into this moment,
13:13 like I said, was unplanned, unscheduled,
13:15 could not even have imagined this to happen,
13:18 but to be here in Hollywood,
13:20 at the first place, when I came to California,
13:21 when I came here, it's the Chinese theater I wanted to see,
13:24 the hands in the cement.
13:25 I love the history, I love movies,
13:28 I love the storytelling, and so much that it means,
13:30 and the fact that we get to be part of that history,
13:33 you know, mind blown, I don't know,
13:35 anything I can't come up with words beyond maybe humbling,
13:38 but what a great moment for a couple of proud daddies
13:42 of Turtle Babies, and with a great team.
13:44 Ramsey, you're awesome.
13:47 Brian, you always support everything
13:50 that these creative people, these ideas,
13:51 these young and talented creative people bring to the table,
13:54 and it's just a great feeling to be embraced
13:58 by somebody that now is parents,
14:00 so it's sort of like three men and some,
14:03 you know, three people and some babies,
14:05 but now this great team that's supportive of our idea,
14:07 and continuing the tradition,
14:09 and putting out great stories, and great movies,
14:12 and it's a wonderful thing to be part of it,
14:14 and to be part of this event here today,
14:15 so I'll say again, Cowabunga!
14:18 (audience applauding)
14:20 - Nice to be here.
14:20 Talk more later.
14:22 - Thank you so much, Kevin.
14:24 Couple things that I got from that.
14:26 First of all, the kicks are sick, right?
14:29 Yeah, they're sick.
14:30 My godson taught me a new word.
14:31 He said when something's good, they're filthy.
14:34 Those are filthy, right?
14:35 Yeah, absolutely, and the second thing is, guys,
14:38 I know you were listening, and I know you're excited.
14:40 Don't ever give up on your dreams.
14:42 He's living proof to never give up on your dreams,
14:45 even if you're in your living room,
14:46 and you're calling it a studio.
14:48 It can work.
14:49 It can definitely work.
14:50 All right, thank you, Kevin.
14:51 Okay, you guys ready?
14:53 You sure you ready?
14:55 I don't know if you're ready.
14:59 Are you ready?
15:00 All right, all right.
15:02 It is now time to meet our fellas, okay?
15:06 You ready to meet the Turtles?
15:07 Kevin's been saying it.
15:09 He's kind of been practicing, but on the count of three,
15:11 I need you guys to give me
15:12 like the biggest Cowabunga ever, okay?
15:15 No inside voices.
15:17 You're not gonna get in trouble.
15:18 I want you to be as loud as you wanna be.
15:20 You ready?
15:21 One, two, three.
15:24 Cowabunga!
15:25 Ladies and gentlemen, please meet our heroes in a half shell.
15:31 Everybody, let's give it up.
15:33 Number one for,
15:36 I'm gonna get 'em right,
15:39 and I just lost my notes.
15:42 There they are.
15:43 There we go.
15:44 I did all that and then I screwed it up.
15:46 See what happens?
15:47 But we're gonna do it again.
15:48 On the count of three for me, ready?
15:50 One, two, three.
15:53 Cowabunga!
15:54 All right, everybody,
15:56 please join me in welcoming Michelangelo!
15:59 Here he comes.
16:04 Donatello!
16:05 Raphael!
16:09 And our boy, Leonardo!
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