ScreenRant reports on “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” getting remade as “Ninja Turtles” because Michael Bay is afraid that “Teenage” or “Mutant” might be a turnoff to certain audiences.
I would make the connection between the fear-based re-titling that sunk John Carter, but I don’t have to — they do, in the article (2nd-to-last paragraph).
Seriously, people. Just man up and let the franchise be what it is. There’s a reason it had fans in the first place. The article nails it on the head here:
An obvious rebuttal to that idea is to point out that all of those preposterous elements working together in harmony is what ultimately endeared the TMNT series to so many people in the first place. Thus, throwing out a good chunk of the original franchise mythology will just ward off longtime fans, while not helping to convince newcomers to give this reboot a look.
I mean, if you’re trying to make the movie title cool, stop and look what you have left. “Ninja Turtles.” “Ninja …. tuuurtles.” Right there’s your problem. You’re trying to make a live-action movie about turtles cooler by taking away the teenage mutant part? Yeah, because ALIEN, NON-teenage turtles are gonna be way cooler.
Ahem.
I don’t mean to get carried away here, but I do think that the attempt to market to everyone winds up being a marketing effort to nobody.