Why ‘TMNT’ Animators Chose Hand-Drawn Style Over CG

variety.com:

Karen Idelson Reboots and remakes tread dangerous territory. Make it too much like what’s already been seen and audiences will wonder why it was made at all.

Turn the wheels of something completely unexpected and you might run the whole thing off the road. If you manage to hit that sweet spot where the story and visuals bring a franchise into the now, it somehow just seems right on an organic level for fans.When audiences watched “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” they found themselves face to face with a Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo and Raphael, who had a hand-drawn feel that was distinctly different from the crisp, bright “TMNT” of the past.

The story was also much less cowabunga and more teen angst. “We were asking ourselves, what if we did something different and what if we didn’t make the faces symmetrical?” says helmer Jeff Rowe. “We pushed the proportions of the characters and we extended that to the environment, too.

Me and the art team just got really excited about seeing how many traditional animation design rules we could break with the overall look of the animation but still make something that serves the story.