Ant Ward and Andy Suriano created Nickelodeon’s popular hand-drawn Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. Now the fun, iconic characters return for feature-length Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie, premiering this Friday August 5th on Netflix. Ward and Suriano discuss the unique look, production adjustments and how they’d do trying one of the gang’s favorite activities. (This Animation Scoop Q&A was edited for length and clarity.)

Jackson Murphy: Ant, what did doing this movie… allow you to do that you simply could not do with the television series?

Ant Ward: Well off the bat, Jackson, the length and the format opened up story opportunities that we couldn’t quite grasp in 11-minute standalone [episodes]. While the series told a larger story and had these tentpole episodes, it was really fun to just get into the meat and potatoes of a feature story and let these characters breathe a little bit.

JM: It is a cool story about time travel and about aliens coming into play. Andy, were there any cinematic inspirations for you guys when it came to coming up with the core framework for this film?

Andy Suriano: Oh gosh — any huge disaster movie / end of the world / apocalyptic / time travel [film] is definitely evident throughout the entire thing.

JM: Yes! It’s interesting to see how the Turtles handle themselves, especially in looking towards the future and thinking about the past. Ant, could you see the future when you were making this movie? Could you see the end of the road and envision it as it turned out, or were there a lot of changes to the story… along the way.

AW: There were so many changes, Jackson. (laughs) So many! The movie was made under unique circumstances. I don’t think any of us had the crystal ball to know what was about to happen in February 2020 and the following years. We were in development on the movie for… 18 months before that.

AS: Yeah, totally.

AW: And what’s interesting timeline-wise and something we had to come to terms with is: we were deep into Season 2 of the show telling one story and developing the movie based on where that story was going to complete and end. But then [for] Season 2 we got truncated, so we had to keep going on decisions we made on the movie that weren’t necessarily going to 100% line-up with where we had to end the season. So we just had to commit.

JM: Wow. You made it happen! This television show was a big hit for Nickelodeon — nominated for a Kids Choice Award. It was on from Summer 2018 to Summer 2020. And now with this movie: I loved looking at the animation, this comic book, hand-drawn style. Andy, from a creator and a director’s perspective, what is the appeal of the style that you brought to these characters?

AS: Man, Jackson, we’ve always strived to keep it kinetic, have a lot of heart, a lot of fun and a lot of spectacle… and I feel like we wrapped it all into this movie. But that being said, we did that with the series and this really allowed us to open up, as Ant said, a lot more. One of our personal victories, I think, was being able to work with our old studio, Flying Bark [Productions] in Sydney, Australia. Our animation director Tom [Barkel] over there really brought their own unique visual style to it. Hands-down the best animation you’re gonna see in children’s television or any animated feature you’re gonna see. I dare you to find something cooler or more frenetic and kinetically paced.

JM: Energetic and really cool to look at. Ant, this has been quite a year for Ben Schwartz. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was a blockbuster movie, and he voices Leo in this. What amazes you about the voice acting skills that he has brought to this role of Leo and to his entire career?

AW: Ben is special. He brings so much genuine love for the characters — so much genuine humor. He’s an amazing guy. He’s super charming. He’s so funny. He loves to play in the booth. He’s really respectful to work with and ultra professional. He’s a great-all around guy.

AS: And so invested too. He would text Ant and I and be like, “When’s the movie coming out?!” He’s got this really great collaborative nature. I think all of our turtles had this… it was fun. And if they weren’t having fun in the booth, it would translate on screen. It’s gonna be very evident that everybody had fun.

JM: Nice. You talk about that bond, and that bond is so important to the Ninja Turtles characters. Andy, could you feel that — and through your years of working with these characters on the series and on this movie — that sense of family bonding even growing for you on a personal level?

AS: Absolutely. When you work on a production, those people become your family. You see them more than you see your own families back home. You’re at the office way longer than you are at home. Everyone you work with — you get closer and closer with. And especially with… the end of Season 2 and into this movie, we were in the trenches together. It was definitely a unique circumstance of us making this movie and being able to play and bring as many people from the series as we could.

JM: Ant, I love — in the second half — looking at the sky because you have some of these climactic sequences and there’s this red / purple / magenta sky. In working with your team, how did you decide on that exact color scheme?

AW: It was a bet — how much purple Andy could get in the movie.

AS: (laughs)

AW: All of that’s narrative stuff. Color tells a story. If you notice, even before we go to that super-vibrant stuff, we’re actually in a dead color place — we’re very neutral with the color, because we calm everything down. We start with very kinetic colors — everything’s very neon, super electric, the city’s alive. Then… due to the series of events, darkness overcomes the city and that turns into something very, very ominous with that color palette. That allows us to go back into optimistic colors and this vibrancy of where we started.

JM: Interesting. And Andy, what is the secret sauce of the Ninja Turtles? Why do you think these characters work — and have worked — for people of all different generations?

AS: I think there’s an accessibility to these characters. We all have this longing for family and this brotherhood, of people that you surround yourself with and have your back. These four turtles and all their friends represent that. At least to me, personally. It’s a family, and they’re a family you choose, not necessarily who you’re born with. It’s a team that operates as a family, and that has always stuck with me. And that’s something Ant and I always try to instill and infuse into our series and the movie. It’s such a strong bond between these characters that should be relatable to almost anyone.

JM: I think you’re right about that, and this movie is also about no one getting left behind. That’s a big theme, especially as we come down the home stretch of the movie that I think you get across really well. As I mentioned, this is a film about looking into the future a little bit. Ant, I know there’s a Seth Rogen Ninja Turtles animated movie on the way. Were you guys corresponding with him and that team as far as figuring out what we should and shouldn’t do with this?

AW: No. We were very much leaving the other project to its own thing. With each iteration of Ninja Turtles, you don’t want to get into the other people’s lane. You don’t want to necessarily step on other people’s toes. We knew the story we wanted to tell with the Rise family. And we tentpoles of things we didn’t get to tell in our show. And we have the utmost confidence that Seth and his team have their own story they want to tell with their own Turtles. And we’re really excited to see it.

JM: It’s so cool that Nickelodeon has latched onto this brand so nicely over the last decade or so. How many pizza boxes do you think you could stack on top of your heads?

AS: (laughs) I’d give it a solid three for myself. Ant could probably do a little bit more.

AW: You’ve got the balance and a platform to actually get them on your head. I mean, can I wear a hat? There are lots of questions, like what’s the size of the pizza box?

JM: Yes. (laughs)

AW: Is glue allowed?

JM: Ehh… I don’t know if the Turtles would like if you were using glue. I’m not sure. (laughs)

AW: Maybe three. I think three.

JM: You guys should have a face-off and see how you do against the Turtles. They get A LOT of pizza boxes over their heads in this movie.

AW: It takes skill. Skill and practice.

AS: Lots and lots of practice.