I am Alan Wan, director of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Nickelodeon. AMA

I was Donatello for six straight halloweens as a kid.

I am now 24. Would I still love this show?

Absolutely. I'm 36 and I still love this show. :) In fact, Donnie is awesome in this show. Check out S01E07 to see him in action.

Why can't we leave cartoons alone? The old school versions of the 80's were badass! I know my opinion isn't the only one.

Did something happen to cause this that I'm not aware of? Was it too gory or dark?

Edit: not trying to come across as disrespectful, I am only curious.

I think of these "reboots" as taking the core essence of stories and updating the cultural framework to fit a newer generation. If the old stories aren't updated, the newer generation will never get to enjoy them.

Think of it this way, do you think Christopher Nolan's retelling of Batman is a good or bad thing? Will the 16-25 year olds of today sit through the Adam West batman?

So are you a cowabunga or booyakasha kind of guy? Every parent I talk to that grew up with the Ninja Turtles thinks it was a pretty silly move to ditch that classic saying.

I am a cowabooya kinda guy. hmm, that's actually kind of catchy...

Thanks for doing this

Me and my little brother watch your show whenever it is on.

I just want to say thank you for the show, it revives part of my childhood whilst creating one for my little brother.

Sakil

This means a lot to us. We pour our hearts into the show and comments like this keeps us going.

Favorite Turtle? Why?

Mikey. He is funny but he is also a bad ass. He sees thing differently than all the other turtles.

Who would you rather fight in a battle of life and death? Splinter or Shredder?

Splinter. I will die with honor.

What made you decide this was something you wanted to do? Just sitting around doodling one day, and thought "Hey. I should get paid to do this"?

Yup, pretty much exactly what you said.

Of all the shows/projects you have worked on, which was the most challenging?

How much creative liberty are you given, or do you have to stick with a "canon"?

Most difficult character to draw/animate?

How do you like your eggs?

• Legend of Korra is the most challenging. It's a very demanding show and one that requires a lot of drawing chops.

• Creative liberty depends on the show. On TMNT, I am given a lot creative freedom to interpret the script. On other, we are more restricted to stick with what's written. I like the shows that give me more liberty for obvious reasons. :)

• Mmmm... Dogpound in this new TMNT, just a cool design but very hard to move around because of size and complexity

• Over easy.

My son would love to hear a Ben 10 anecdote if you have the time. And, since it's an AMA, what's your favorite sandwich?

Greg Cipes, the voice of Michaelangelo, is also the voice of Kevin Levin in Ben 10 Alien Force.

Favorite sandwich... Philippe's in LA. People say that's where the French dip sandwich was invented.

What do you think about the original TMNT (i'm talking about the comic, not the show)?

Love the comic, dark and griddy. All the turtles look pissed off all the time.

If you weren't being all directorish and whatnot, what would you be doing?

I would totally be a sushi chef. I can be mean to customers and get away with it. How cool is that?

I have yet to check out the new show because I don't have cable, but as a HUGE tmnt fan I can't wait to watch it.

Is there any place other than Nickelodeon that I can watch it? Maybe online or something?

Hopefully you will have a long run so that my kids can enjoy the same characters that I did!

Yup you can watch some episodes online at: http://www.nick.com/videos/ninja-turtles-videos.

Would you rather fight 1 turtle sized duck or 100 duck sized turtles

actual turtle sized duck or ninja turtle sized duck? does the duck know how to fight?

How did you start out in this line of work?

Long story short, I was a college dropout who can draw pretty well. I was given the chance to work on the MIB animated series in 1999 as storyboard clean up artist. Tons of work, not a lot of pay. But I kept at it and slowly worked my way up. It took 13 years of incremental steps but it was fun every step of the way.

Somewhat of a strange question. I hear that alot of times, the voice actors have no physical interaction with the director. As in, they go to a studio and the director gives them long distance advice and guidelines, while they are comfortably in their hometown. Any comment on this?

While I do go into some of the recording sessions, most of the voice directing is done by a voice director. So it is somewhat true that directors might not interact with the voice actor at all. Usually if the voice acting doesn't match the final footage, the voice actor will ADR (automated dialogue replacement) it in post production.

For the most part the voice actors record in a studio so we have better control of the quality. It's pretty rare for the actors to be remotely located.

My girlfriend and I love the show. The animation keeps getting better and better.

Do you guys use MAYA or Cinema? AE or Nuke?

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I live down the street from nick; is anyone looking for a compositing intern? Seriously. :)

I know my stuff, I learn extremely fast, and I can fetch some mean coffee.

CG team mainly uses Maya. I know they use Nuke also. Nick offers internship, just come by to the studio. As for the information sheet at the front desk.

I am an artist myself. I stick to more 2D anime design and concept art. I mostly do it in my spare time and I am working on realism in my college art classes. I absolutely love The Legend of Kora and I am in great anticipation of the second season. I love the steam-punk feel you guys have brought to the show and how it perfectly melds in with the 20s gangster and martial arts fields; absolutely fantastic. My question is, how could I meet the right people and make the right connections to get involved in animation and design to work for a major cooperation like Nickelodeon? Also, how is the pay?

CTN expo is a good place to meet a lot of studios and people at one go. Keeping an updated portfolio on a blog or DA is a good place to get notice also. We have hired people off of Deviantart in the past.

Of the shows you've worked on, which had the best premise from a writing/directing/etc. standpoint?

I think the current turtle series has a great premise, excellent writing, and the best directing. No bias of course. ;)

Teen Titans was awesome too.

What do you think of this person: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCs9PFYHTe8 ?

Haha, I have met Michelle Ivey, she is cool. If we can all be passionate about something the way she is passionate about TMNT, the world will suck a whole lot less.

Why revive a long running franchise rather than start a new IP? Turtles have been around for a long time now, and resemble little of their origins, so why not just go in a new direction rather than try to change the fundamentals of a long running IP (like ozze, Krang, or who Shredder is)

Starting a new IP is risky. Yes consumers ask for it but when studios put in tens of millions of dollars to make it, consumers often do not respond to it because of the lack of recognition. It's a tough spot for the studio to be in.

TMNT is currently one of the top boy shows on TV, so the strategy is paying off.

Do you think that the general idea of the show from back in the day has drifted away?

I think this new turtles show is made to appeal to a different generation of turtles fans. So while we respect and try to incorporate the coolest ideas of the old show, we are also updating some of it to make it more appealing to the current generation of animation fans who have different expectations...