Release Date: March 23, 2007
Created for the enjoyment of nostalgic young adults and cartoon loving children, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles return to the big screen once again! This time sporting wonderfully done 3D graphics, it’s a positive change for the turtles as they return to find a new place among today’s heroes and box office-hits.
Taking place as a sequel to the three live action movies released almost a decade ago, this movie takes place after Shredder’s defeat, meaning you won’t be seeing exactly the same plot recycled yet again. In this movie the turtles must reunite and take on a 3000 year old war general who seeks to reopen a portal to another dimension with the aid of his super powerful siblings. This time it isn’t just New York they find themselves saving but the whole world; in fact the movie even begins in the jungle depths of South America. Of course it couldn’t be called a TMNT movie without all classic elements including the character’s unique personalities and pizza eating, slang talking, ninja mayhem. This movie delivers all of it that, including a depth to the characters not seen since the earlier movies.
Aside from the base plot and fight scenes, this movie focuses a lot of the connection, and therefore turmoil, of the relationship of the four brothers. The movie begins with us finding out Leonardo was sent away in order to become a better leader, leaving his mentor and three brothers to fend for themselves for a year following the last movie. Throughout the film this is a trigger for the previously foreshadowed drama between him and his brother, Raphael, the hotheaded sibling who spends every night fighting crime on the street, as well as his own reckless temper. The confrontations between the two, including a rain-soaked fight scene, one of the best scenes in the film, makes for the movie’s most dramatic, and often heart-tugging, moments. It’s the well defined, and scripted, turtles that make up for the less than intriguing bad guys.
The graphics of the movie worked perfectly for the tone and style of the story. While initially some avid fans were turned off the new look of the turtles, the more slender, and debatably more frog-like, appearance, few seemed disappointed as they watched their favorite turtles-turned-ninjas fly around the screen in a spectacle of well choreographed fight scenes. Also, compared to the other characters, humans with their toothpick-like proportions (with an exception or two), the turtles still appeared above average in size. The color scheme was overall dark with strong contrasts and did especially great justice to the cityscape, showing a detailed, rich New York without trying to appear too realistic, making sure none of the characters looked too out of place.
As with any animated movie, one of the main aspects is the voice acting. While most of the voices were well chosen, sometimes they seemed a bit out of sync with their mouth movements, in particular April O’Neil. The first entrance of Splinter, sensei and father to the turtles, is almost impossible to understand, especially for the younger audience. As the movie progresses we see that his voice actor, while suiting the character, often speaks sounds as if his mouth were stuffed with cotton. Perhaps this was thought to better emulate how an old rat would talk should it become capable, but initially (and at random points throughout) it merely proved almost humorously difficult to decipher. The four brothers all had voices very similar to the classics fans are used to and fit their personalities with ease and flare.
Overall, this movie shouldn’t let down any old fans, or new ones. While the plot comes across as a bit cheesy at times, not much more can be expected from an animated movie aimed at children. The violence at times, however, may be a bit much for the younger children animated TMNT is often aimed at. For the older audience, there are also some holes in the plot but they are easily looked over as the scenes flow seamlessly from one to the other, exciting us with quick fight scenes hyped with a great soundtrack and humorous moments tucked in every corner. It may not come together as an award-winning movie or present us with anything we haven’t already seen but it never ceases to be entertaining and entertainment is exactly what the turtles have always been about.
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