The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a big part of my childhood.  I grew up in this sweet spot where the cartoon was incredibly popular and we got the first few movies and a slew of video games.  I entered into Friday’s panel at Room 6BCF with hesitation.  A few animated films that never took off and some jittery cartoon series have since come out and I’ve grown older.  I can safely say, though, that while there are some big changes afoot, I think showrunner Ciro Neili knows just what buttons to push to revitalize this franchise.  During a lively panel we were shown some brief character intros, Neili’s concept art, clips of test footage, and much more.  Jason Biggs (Leonardo), Rob Paulsen (Donatello), Sean Astin (Raphael), Greg Cipes (Michaelangelo), Mae Whitman (April O’Neil), Hoon Lee (Splinter), and Kevin Michael Richardson (Shredder) were all on hand to share their experiences and individual love for the property.  Hit the jump for more details.

Back in March we got our first look at Nickelodeon’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series by way of a cool teaser trailer and some stylish character posters. But now we finally have word on who will be voicing our heroes in a half-shell. EW reports Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings) will voice the rough-around-the-edges Raphael, Jason Biggs (American Pie) will voice the leader Leonardo, Greg Cipes (Teen Titans) will voice party boy Michelangelo and TMNT series veteran Rob Paulsen will voice the intelligent Donatello (he actually voiced Raphael in the original animated series). The series is currently set to air sometime in the fall of 2012, but you can expect an exclusive first look to be debuted at this year’s Comic-Con in San Diego. Hopefully we’ll have someone there to catch that debut, so stay tuned.