Ever just wake up one day to find out that one of your dreams-you-thought-you-never-had came true?  I had one of those days — especially when I found out I was dreaming about bridging the gap between my childhood and the present.  In terms of Ninja Turtles, of course.

Like any good kid from the ’90s — Friday night was what kept me trudging through the week.  When it wasn’t Ghostbusters I was looking forward to, (they used to show cartoons for PRIMETIME!  Seriously, kids of the ’00s!) it was that other group of 4 — the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

After the “Turtles” were apparently caught on film trying to stop a robbery, Master Splinter orders the Turtles to investigate.

What they find, instead, are their light-hearted, fun-loving, multi-dimensional counterparts.  While at first, the Turtles find their multi-dimensional counterparts (the ’87 Turtles) to be free-spirited goof-offs, they find that they weren’t the only ones  who don’t belong in that dimension — their multi-dimensional villainous counterparts made the leap as well.

While in this dimension (the 2003 continuity) Krang doesn’t exist, the Shredder does — and this incarnation?  He’s vicious, he’s lethal, he’s … competent.  )

While Shredder repairs his body and merges the Dimension-X technology of the Techno-Drome with Utrom technology, the Turtles and their ’87 Turtles counterparts find a way to get along and set everything right.

First off, the theme for a coupla things of the last few years: The Multiverse.  It works here, and it’s a blast seeing the 1987 designs drawn in high(er)-quality.  What also makes this feature fantastic is the references to each dimension — the 1987 Turtles being just absolute stand-up guys that, seen through kid-eyes would make you see them as the absolute kinds of superheroes you could just hang out and eat a slice of pizza with.

It also makes for comedy gold, such as this clip:

(Fun fact: yes, April O’Neil has forever changed the way I see girls in yellow.  Yellow jumpsuits.  Oh April, you and your yellow jumpsuits and auburn hair.    )

The ’87 Turtles also provide a view of simpler times, when saving girls in yellow jumpsuits seemed like the sort of daily-thing-you-do, and that having a slice of pizza will miraculously provide answers in defeating villains who have high-tech weaponry.

The present Turtles, while a bit more serious, provide a nice contrast to these “new”/haven’t-been-seen-for-a-long-time characters.  Even if Fast Forward WAS aimed for younger audiences, it’s pretty easy to see that the origin of these present turtles are much firmer rooted to their Mirage comics origins.

The few faults to be seen here are the absolute impotence of the ’87 villains compared to their more serious/vicious present counterparts.  (Also, lulz at Mirage-Comics Shredder’s screentime!)  Then again, The Shredder is, was, and most probably needs to be, in any form, an egomaniac.

There’s also this nice bit about Present/Utrom-Shredder survives almost ANYTHING, while a pair of clumsy-henchmen (guess who!) would turn out to be his absolute downfall.

If you were ever a fan of ANY form of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at any point in your life, then this is a must-see.  Also, did I mention?  SEE IT!  Find a way!  Go see it right now!  It brought me this Saturday-morning-cartoon-don’t-care-about-the-world-eat-pizza-watch-Turtles F-U-N.  Cowabunga!

5/5,

only because now that I’m older, I’m finding the TMNT more significant.

***

Points to ponder:

1.  Will Hun stay that way?

2.  Does that mean that ’87 Shredder and Krang now have a flying Technodrome/Death Star?

3.  When will the DVD come out?  Apparently, it has 12 MORE minutes that was cut from the version I saw.

This was my review from last week. I got to see the premiere.

This review will be called “Missing The Point” or, as we shall refer to it for the whole review, MTP.

The entertainment industry has uncovered a “new” way to make money, that is, to re-invigorate/re-invent/re-create/re-make/capitalize(whee!) on what people have liked in the past, for nostalgic appeal. After all, if you liked something before, theoretically, you’d still like said thing after, say, … almost two decades, right?

In this case, the new TMNT movie succeeded. Rather than re-telling the “four-turtles-and-a-rat-getting-it-on-with-an-accidentally-spilled-batch-of-mutagen” story. (That most children of the 90s are pretty much well-versed with.) The new TMNT film is a sequel, of sorts, to the first 3 films, conveniently wrapping it up with fancy CGI and elements from the original comic books and the 2003 series.

What does this mean? It means that the new TMNT film will likely appeal more to long-time shellheads rather than kids getting to see this stuff for the very first time. The plotline is pretty much a cross between the early comics (Eastman and Laird, yeh!), an episode of the 2003 series and an episode of The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. If you were ever just a fan of the original ’87 series and not the comic books, then you’re going to notice that the trailer for Ferrel’s Blades of Glory provided more LOL-moments than the whole film. Which is acceptable, since technically, this is a Frank Miller movie. (Minus the whores.) Adhering more closely to the nitty-gritty comicbooks (originally, they KILLED The Shredder in the first issue) the original comics parodied. (Fun fact: Eastman and Laird were brainstorming for a new comicbook and Miller’s run on Daredevil just happened to bring in ninjas into the fold. Hence, “The Foot” clan. Daredevil (and, this is a parenthesis within a parenthesis, I am aware, and the whole of the Marvel U) still go crossing paths with ‘em ninjas from “The Hand” clan.) So yeah, that guaranteed most of the action, really.

So where does MTP step in? This film featured the turtles years and years after their glory days, meaning, they aren’t so teen-aged anymore, right? So what are they? AMNTs? GuMNTs? Michaelangelo suffered the brunt of MTP, in that he was depicted more like an autistic-surfer-junkie-hooked-on-the-90s rather than just the party-dude that he is. (Leonardo leads, Donatello dusts machines; Raphael is cool but crude, Michaelangelo is a party dude!) Did he even bring out the ‘chucks? (MTP!) I can’t even remember. Having the “N” stand for “ninja” in the title really puts expectations on the film — to me, it felt like it didn’t have enough ninja-fun-time action scenes, especially during the crowd fights. It all gets too messy, and thus, MTP of having “N” in the title.

Oh, and yeah, for some reason April O’Neil’s a ninja. From damsel-in-distress reporter (I miss the yellow jumpsuit), to lab assistant, to antique-store owner, she is now a ninja who’s on equal footing with ninjas from the foot clan. Really now, that’s bigtime MTP!

Although for the most part, it is pretty cool how the whole CGI-thing worked out. Everything looked great, and the representation of the turtles is pretty much acceptable. Tons of great detail jammed into what seems like two-season’s-worth of story packed into two hours. I loved the Leo/Raph fight scene best, since, well, it isn’t like the first time this has happened, though notably, it’s only really happened in the original books/2003 series much more often. (As a kid, this might’ve been something I overlooked in the ’87 series, that, along with the whole “New Mutations” season.)

I said all these, but I was grinning for most parts during the movie. It’s an okay (re-?)jump-start for the franchise, but it lost most of the younger audience’s attention with its seriousness. Am I going to see it again? Yeah, probably. I’m a child of the 90′s — the turtles are pretty cool in the sense that, growing up knowing them would mean that no matter what happens, even if they start jumping dimensions/going off into cosmic adventures, a new film isn’t too bad. So yeah, if you’re geeking out right-at-this-moment, go see it! Just don’t expect to see Baxter the Fly, The Rat King, Krang, Bebop, Rocksteady, The Shredder, Leatherhead, The Neutrinos, Dimension X, Usagi Yojimbo, Napoleon Bonafrog and Metalhead showing up. — this isn’t your kuya’s TMNT.

(Fun fact: for my birthday last year, to do something that would bring back childhood memories, I got some season 1 eps of the ’87 series. A day later they released the trailer for this film. Whee)

3/5

*****
On a side note, GTA IV’s trailer was released last Thursday!

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