Time for our heroes in a half-shell. TMNT: MM.

We asked Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit which turtle each most resmembles? “I think that’s very easy,” says Dan. Rafael, for anyone who knows me. I don’t think that any person in my life would say anything different. Raphael wears his feelings very close to the surface and there’s often a feeling of explosion followed by introspection about that explosion and being like, ‘Oh, I probably shouldn’t have gotten so angry,‘” ponders Dan. “Maybe I shouldn’t have been so heedless of my own safety, rushed into a situation, or said something that maybe was a little bit off color? I feel things really deeply as do my characters.”

“The one who who’s always been spoke to me the most since I was a kid is Michelangelo because he just wants to have fun. He wants everyone to be happy,” adds Benji.

We asked them how they got attached to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem project.

Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Brendan O’Brien (awarded story by credit) and Jeff Rowe (director) had been working on Turtles for some time before Hernandez and Samit came on board. The duo had been working on another project with Seth and Evan called Figment. “We then came in to help out with Turtles and we ended up doing a bunch of work on it,” says Benji.

Turtles has enjoyed both the animation and live-action treatment on screen. Mutant Mayhem is full animation.

“Animation is a collaborative process because it is so iterative,” says Hernandez on the writing process. “You can start an idea even in something that is in the storyboard or in the layout stage and it’s not too late to make changes. We came into a process that underwent a lot of adjustments. Seth, Evan and Jeff were the leaders and our role was to be additive to the process.” And because the storyboards are already drawn, it’s easier to visualize a complete movie than from a script.

Both Benji and Dan grew up on a diet of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, television shows, and merchandise. “I think that that really was exceptionally helpful in being able to say, ‘There was an action figure that I used to love when I was seven Let’s put him in the movie,” adds Dan.

There are over twenty iterations of the Turtles spanning television, video games and film. “They were specific, obscure mutants that we loved in the 80s, that we haven’t seen in forever. We let those come to life and have fun with that,” Benji continues.

“I think sometimes, studios are reticent to hire people who are true fans of a property as if having that expertise is a drawback in some way. I guess it can be if your head is too deep into the mythology and you’re in the weeds of it,” ponders Dan. But he knew that he and Benji could extract the necessary mythology and adapt it to the big screen or change it into something exciting and new.

The writing duo also used their fandom approach in Pokémon: Detective Pikachu and The Addams Family 2, which they believe added to their success. “We know these characters. We’re coming in with the knowledge of the universes and with ideas of the things that, we as fans, would want to go to the movies and see ourselves,” adds Benji.

Putting The Teenager Back Into The Turtles

With Seth Rogen at the helm, the guiding principle i the development of TMNT:MM was that there wasn’t enough “teenage” in previous versions of Turtles. “And most of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles we’ve seen sound like guys in their 20s and 30s talking,” remarks Hernandez.

“It’s clearly adult voiceover actors and they just seem like adults that like to party a little too much, but they’re not true teens. Seth wanted this be a PG-rated Superbad where the turtles feel like real teenagers in the way talk to one another and interact. Rogen suggested that TMNT:MM should explore that basic teenage core want of being accepted.”

So, team Dan and Benji sharpened their teenage pencils and told their story through the lens of turtles. “Everything we wrote and did in the final movie feels so fresh and different. It also gives the turtles a permission structure to mess up and be young. Teenagers make mistakes all the time. Teenagers think that they can handle situations that they can’t. Teenagers get in over their heads. We all understand, on an emotional level, what that feels like. And so now, to be able to see the turtles go through the same thing in a way that we haven’t exactly seen them go through before, I think it feels exciting and I think that animation really compliments that feeling of energy of who are we and what are we in this world… and are there more of us?” says Hernandez.

Dan and Benji didn’t make a career decision to enter the comedy and animation space. “I had a professor in college named Robert Creely who was a really amazing poet. I said, ‘How do you decide when a poem is over?’ because a lot of his poems were very short. And he said, ‘Listen, the content must dictate the form,‘” says Hernandez.

The pair took this advice to heart and don’t consciously consider preferences for one medium over another. “I think that your idea has to justify the medium that it’s going to live in,” adds Dan. “And we were fortunate, coming off the tech to Pikachu, because it was a hybrid animation live action that opened up doors in both avenues for us,” adds Benji.

“We really were very inspired by Lord and Miller in the way that they have embraced both. And that’s so exciting to us. And we’d love to emulate that path because it allows you to do anything that you want as long as the idea can carry the weight of how you want to express it.”

Final Words

Aside from the common screenwriting no-nos, we asked Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit what pearls of wisdom they offer screenwriters. “We care less about the formatting being perfect or things like that are following all the rules. We really just want to see a unique personality and point of view on the page,” asserts Benji.

“There’s nothing more exciting than reading something where you think, ‘I have never read anything like this before. It’s weird and different. You read so many scripts that have same basic plotline over and over and they’re trying to emulate the voice Tina Fey or Abbot Elementary. They are so uniquely the people that wrote them. We want to see the voice of a new writer on the page even if it’s not perfect, even if there are structural or story issues because a lot of that stuff can be taught, learned, and improved. But you can’t teach a unique voice that stands out. That’s something that someone needs to bring in from the beginning and you can help sharpen and refine it,” continues Benji.

Other screenwriting bugbears include a reader not knowing what or why something is happening on a page or which character is talking. Also, don’t introduce a dozen characters on one page. Let the reader meet each individually so they can process and keep up.

“My big piece of advice is you have to understand anytime that you send out a piece of material right off the bat, generously 50% of people will think it’s garbage. That leaves the other 50%,” says Hernandez. “Talk to them.”

♪ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ♪
♪ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ♪
♪ Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ♪
♪ Heroes in a half-shell ♪
♪ Turtle Power ♪