Nice Ideas...but don't jump the gun

Just wanted to get in my $.02 on this developing project.  I enjoy the the Turtle/Road setup, but the critical elements are missing.  If he's an old turtle, why does the story require him to be old?  Everything should be used to establish our character and resolve his arc, everything else is just fluff.  His motivation is key, and we don't have a story until we have his motivation.  

I would suggest "running with" a few possibilities (hot chiquita turtle, food, water, turtle land) for motivations and then see how that plays out with the story.  If you find the motivation provides ripe opportunities for the crossing-the-road setup, then you might have a story developing.  If not, move on.  The main thing to consider is this:  the story resides entirely within your protagonist and more specifically in how he changes internally to overcome his external obstacles.  

Don't limit yourself this early to defining the style of anything (animation, look, character) as the style should come again from the necessities of the story (namely the arc of your protagonist).  If you come up with a very active and human story, it would not benefit you to stick with naturalistic turtle animation.  Nail the story in words (namely a seven sentence story), and then worry about anything visual.  

I would suggest anyone working on this project to develop a seven sentence story that serves these duties:

1) Who is your character?  (beyond look, you should tell us more "how" your character is).

2) What is your world? (namely, what is the character's pre-existing relationship with this world?).

3) What changes everything?  (your enciting moment).

4) What must your character overcome to return to some form of stasis? (think in terms of man v. man, man v. situation, man v. himself).

5) How does your character overcome (or is defeated by) his obstacles? (within and without).

6) How does your character win or lose in the end-game of his battle? (again within and without).

7) How does the story resolve or return to stasis? (what has changed....within and without).

Keep it simple.  Try to devote only one sentence per number.  Once you have a paragraph story that reads and appeals to you and others you pitch it to, you just may have the beginnings of a good story.  Don't worry about incremental challenges (i.e. first he tries this, then he tries this, THEN he does this) until you have a relatively coherent seven sentence story.  Just focus primarily on the internal motivations at first and you will find the external actions come naturally to complement your already existing and super-awesome story.