00:00 The original creation of the Turtles came out of love, passion, and a late night out
00:07 of goofiness.
00:08 I did this drawing of a turtle standing upright with a mask on, nunchucks strapped to his
00:13 arms, and I put it on Pete's desk and I said, "This is going to be the next big thing, a
00:17 Ninja Turtle."
00:18 The animated series came out in 1987 when I was five years old.
00:25 The live action movie came out in 1990.
00:28 I was eight.
00:29 It was like perfectly geared towards someone my age.
00:32 Ninja Turtles is something that all of us have been obsessed with ever since we were
00:35 kids.
00:36 I remember being four years old and wanting all of the toys.
00:39 Action figures, cartoons, the bed sheets.
00:41 I was just kind of obsessed with them.
00:43 I started taking karate probably because of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
00:47 How much love was put into their designs and the props.
00:51 My dad bought me nunchucks because of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
00:54 The package art and everything about it was funny and weird and told a story.
01:00 They called us and said, "Would you guys ever be interested in working on the Teenage Mutant
01:05 Ninja Turtles?"
01:06 Did we play it cool at all?
01:07 No.
01:08 No, no.
01:09 If we can approach it through this teenage lens, really lean into a coming of age version
01:14 of it, and they said yes.
01:17 Jeff was willing to say, "We have to make this look and feel totally different."
01:22 He's like, "What if it's animated by teenagers, so to speak?"
01:25 We put so much work into the visuals, into the artwork.
01:29 The style is perfect for this.
01:31 It's almost like an underground comic.
01:32 It reminds me a lot of the original stuff that Peter and I did.
01:36 It's you and your buddies.
01:39 It's you and your brothers.
01:40 It's you and your sister and your brother.
01:41 I think a lot of people can relate to kind of feeling like an outsider at times.
01:46 This desire to fit in, to be accepted.
01:50 It's one of the most essential emotions.
01:53 The fans are insanely awesome.
01:56 Whether it be, "I love the turtles so much, I wore the same Halloween costume for three
02:00 years in a row," or, "I had a really tough childhood, and the turtles helped me get through
02:04 that."
02:05 That's when it hits you emotionally.
02:08 Wanting to create, wanting to tell your own stories, and then actually having it happen.
02:12 It's a dream, and it happened.
02:14 I love the Ninja Turtles.
02:15 It was like the first thing I was ever a fan of.
02:19 It's fun and exciting.
02:22 Here I am, 61 years old, and I'm still getting up and drawing comics.
02:25 Turtles every day.
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02:30 (explosion)
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