Fanboys Anonymous

Michael Bay's reboot of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has pulled the old switcharoo with two of its cast members. Pete Ploszek and Seinfeld's Danny Woodburn had provided the motion capture performances for Leonardo and Splinter respectively, but they are not going to be the voices of the characters to go along with those performances.

Instead, Splinter will be voiced by Monk star Tony Shalhoub and Leonardo will be voiced by Bad Grandpa himself, Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame.

Upon first hearing this, I hadn't noticed that Knoxville had been identified as Leonardo, and my gut reaction was more positive. "He'd make a great Raphael!" I said to myself. Now that I know that isn't the case, I'm a little more hesitant to be positive about this.

What a Jackass..

Can he pull it off? Possibly. I'll wait until I see something before I fully judge it. However, I'm more confident in Shalhoub pulling off Splinter than Knoxville making a convincing Leonardo.

Also, what does this mean for the other cast members, like Alan Ritchson (Raphael), Noel Fisher (Michelangelo), and Jeremy Howard (Donatello)? Are we going to find out that they, too, will only end up being the motion capture actors and get replaced with other voice artists?


Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be released in theaters August 8, 2014.