Ninja Turtles Return...Again

So...they're doing a new Ninja Turtles cartoon.

For those just coming in, about a year or two ago, Nickelodeon swooped in and bought the entire Ninja Turtles franchise.  They own all of it now.  And, of course, they're getting ready to bring it back in a big, bad way.  A new animated series is in production, to premiere in the fall of 2012, and today they unveiled the voice cast.  The new Turtles are....

Jason Biggs is Leonardo.  That's right, still best remembered as the guy who f--ked a pie in American Pie is now the leader of the TMNT.

Sean Astin is Raphael.  Astin, big child star in the 1980s, starred in The Goonies, his most recent big role was Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Greg Cipes is Michelangelo.  Cipes, of course, a veteran voice actor who was Beast Boy in the Teen Titans cartoon. 

Now here's where things get surreal for me.

Legendary voice actor Rob Paulson is Donatello.  Paulson was Yakko on Animaniacs, Pinky on Pinky and the Brain, Arthur on The Tick, and...Raphael on the original Ninja Turtles cartoon.

That's right, the original Raphael is the new Donatello.  In the interview with Entertainment Weekly where this new voice cast was announced, Astin did say that it's kind of weird having the original voice there in the recording studio, and he would frequently end takes by turning to Paulson and going, "Umm...am I doing this right?" 

It's going to be quite the thing to see when it premieres in the fall of 2012.