Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello and their sensei, Master Splinter are all back from the depths of your childhood TV set to make it big on the silver screen.

Ninja Turtles logo

The Michael Bay-produced reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has finally got its first trailer, giving us a chance to see how the motion-captured turtles look compared to their traditionally animated/live-action predecessors. And they look kind sinister.

Back in the 90s, the turtles were pretty child-friendly. They could have even been described as cute, and had a penchant for skateboarding and pizza – something every young girl or boy could relate to at the time.

Watch the trailer for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles here

Now, in the 2014, Jonathan Liebesman-directed version, the turtles are more inclined to jump off buildings and carry heavy weaponry, not to mention their menacing demure. This could be cool though; the turtles might have to face some serious moral dilemmas a la The Dark Knight.

But keeping to the original, rather playful style of the original Turtles is something fans are keen to see, and that’s something mega producer Bay is promising will happen.

Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesFans are split on the new, scary looking turtles

"There was that quote saying that we're making [the Ninja Turtles as] aliens. We're not. It's the ooze! It's from the original source material. These are from the original writers, and I never went out to correct myself in the press. I do listen to the fans and I do want this to be authentic. I think they're going to be really happy with this movie. When I see the digital stuff, the turtles look great," he said in an interview with Moviefone last year.

In that case, the story will undoubtedly be this: crime is threatening to overwhelm New York with  Shredder and his evil Foot Clan maintaining their dominance over the police and politicians.

Our four anthropomorphic superheroes – trained by their rat sensei in the art of ninjuts - try and battle the bad guys from the storm drains underneath the city, all the meantime trying to stay hidden from society. And you can see why in the trailer. 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be released on the 8th August in the USA and on the 17th October in the UK.

Teenage Mutant Ninja TurtlesShe wasn't scared about the little orange mask, dude