00:00 [MUSIC]
00:02 The original creation of the Turtles came out of love, passion, and a late night out of goofiness.
00:09 I did this drawing of a turtle standing upright with a mask on, nunchucks wrapped around his arms,
00:14 and I put it on a piece of desk and I said, "This is going to be the next big thing, a Ninja Turtle."
00:18 [MUSIC]
00:22 The animated series came out in 1987 when I was five years old.
00:26 The live action movie came out in 1990.
00:28 I was eight. 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 kids.
00:35 I remember being four years old and wanting all of the toys.
00:39 Action figures, cartoons, the bed sheets.
00:42 I was just kind of obsessed with them. 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 Package art and everything about it was like funny and weird and told a story.
00:59 [MUSIC]
01:01 They called us and said, "Would you guys ever be interested in working on the Teenage Mutant 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 like a coming of age version of it.
01:15 And they said yes.
01:17 [MUSIC]
01:18 Jeff was willing to say like, "We have to make this look and feel totally different."
01:22 He was 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. It's almost like an underground comic.
01:33 It reminds me a lot of the original stuff that Peter and I did.
01:36 [MUSIC]
01:38 It's you and your buddies. It's you and your brothers. It's you and your sister and your brother.
01:42 I think a lot of people can relate to kind of feeling like an outsider at times.
01:47 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.
01:57 Whether it be, "I love the turtles so much I wore the same Halloween costume for three years in a row,"
02:01 or, "I had a really tough childhood and the turtles helped me get through that."
02:05 And that's when it hits you emotionally.
02:07 [MUSIC]
02:08 Wanting to create, wanting to tell your own stories, and then actually having it happen.
02:13 It's a dream and it happened.
02:15 I love the Ninja Turtles. It was like the first thing I was ever a fan of.
02:19 It's fun and exciting.
02:21 [MUSIC]
02:22 Here I am 61 years old and I'm still getting up and drawing comics.
02:25 Turtles every day.
02:27 [MUSIC]
02:32 (explosion)
