WTF: Creepy Unused Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Designs

When the first tv spots and trailers hit, fans were very upset with the new designs for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles — but they had no idea what kind of atrocities could have been. A number of unused Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles designs have leaked out following the release of the Michael Bay-produced reboot, showing creepy alternate looks for the turtles in a half shell. Some of the new designs feature a more alien-look which would have drawn huge outrage from Turtles fans. Hit the jump to check out the unused Ninja Turtles designs.

First up is some unused Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles designs created by Anthony Francisco (we have also featured some of his work from Guardians of the Galaxy in the past). These designs are much more alien-looking. I saw a good amount of hatred to the the designs that made the final film, but I can't even imagine the negativity filled response if the film had been based on these early concepts. These come via FirstShowing:

Update: Someone claiming to be involved with the recent Ninja Turtles film e-mailed us the following:

The Anthony Francisco designs are not concepts that were ordered by the production or the studio, in fact I've never seen those or heard of him. Productions receive a LOT of unsolicited material. The others are real. Also, those are not early foot designs- those are Shredder. I only write because hundreds of talented people put in countless, countless hours into the production of that movie that gets routinely slammed on your site. Some, rightfully so (I'm not saying the movie is good, by the way), but it's like you guys have it out for some productions from the start. If Edgar Wright turned out that same movie, the reaction would be different- no?  There are studio mandates/conglomerates/

deadlines to hit. Sometimes it doesn't work out the way you want.  But as someone who (on a very low level) was with the production from its inception- it kind of sucks to realize you stood on set for 16+ hours in the rain just to watch people keep digging for more stuff to post once the movie is released. It's a movie. We are all movie-goers. They don't all work, and sometimes, they really do. Maybe the latter isn't the case with TMNT- but then again, it's just a movie.

We are unable to verify the person worked on the production, but considering the e-mail user name features two of the Ninja Turtles names, we're skeptical.  Here is my e-mail response:

I'll add this to the story, but I don't think people are "digging" to find dirt to slam. if Edgar Wright made the movie I expect it would have gotten the same response. Blogs like ours may have been more excited to see it early on, but once they saw the content, we would have judged it solely based on that alone. I walk into every movie hoping it will be my new favorite. I love movies and stories, so to hear someone who is responsible for helping make them say "its just a movie" kinda sucks. – Peter

Hit the jump to see more unused Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles concept art.

Next up are some concept art designs created by Kelton Cram, who also worked on Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. These designs appear to be from further in the development process, and feature a closer to finished look, but still give you a few glimpses at some alternate ideas that were abandoned during development of the film:

And here is a look at some earlier Foot clan concept designs:

What do you think of these unused Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles designs? Do you like any of them better than the Ninja Turtles designs we saw in the finished film? Leave your thoughts in the comments below!