TMNT review

I’ve been looking forward to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie since day one. The idea of an all CGI Turtles movie didn’t thrill me, it was just a small concern, and any fears were soon erased with the teaser trailer. In that trailer the Turtles looked like they were ripped from the pages of the comics. Their eyes were the same eyes to be found on Page one of issue one which was a big plus for me. This movie was obviously made by someone who cared about this property.

But somewhere in there something happened. It was like the TMNT movie I had put so much faith in became a safe kid’s film. Now I know that this movie was never going to sniff a rating above PG, but that teaser trailer showed so much promise and these other trailers showed so much….umm…cute monsters. What happened?

So with much hesitation I went and saw it. I was excited, but every ounce of me was waiting for a disaster. What I found instead was a Turtles film that pulled a lot of punches and yet it still manages to work somehow.

The Turtles retain a lot of the characteristics of the comics. Mike is a clown, Don is smart, Raphael is a loner, and Leo is the reluctant leader. Keeping this dynamic is crucial to the movie, and I think director Kevin Munroe realizes that. The Turtles need to act like a fractured family. If Munroe had chosen to ignore this and instead focus on the monsters then this film fails. The arc of this story isn’t in the Max Winters storyline; it’s in the Raphael and Leonardo dynamic, and the stances that they choose to take.

I mentioned the CGI earlier because I still don’t think it works. The humans are animated to be too much like a cartoon. How come a cheap Nasonex commercial has better animated humans then a top of the line Hollywood movie?

What works? The Foot here works better then expected. They are a group lacking a leader since the Shredder’s death. In many ways the Foot is what the Turtles are at the beginning of this film; Leaderless, looking for their place.

I’m not the biggest fan of the monsters and Max Winters story, but it serves its purpose. It is just a backdrop for a much bigger story to hopefully be played out in a sequel. A sequel that would hopefully include the Shredder.

Overall TMNT is a solid children’s film. It doesn’t pretend to be anything more then a fun movie, and you shouldn’t expect as much.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #45

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles began being published by Mirage Studios in May of 1984 until August of 1993. While originally intended to be a parody of the popular mutant comics at the time, it quickly became something that Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird never realized it would be: a merchandising empire. But somewhere between the movie, the Archie comics, the toys, the cereal, and the animated series the original canonical series lost a step. Issue #45, titled "Leatherhead, Too" (First Printing: March, 1992), tries to return the Turtles to their original, more action oriented, roots.

This issue was written and illustrated by Dan Berger, who does a decent job to replicating the tone of the early Eastman and Laird written and illustrated issues. His art is very reminiscent of Batman: The Dark Knight Returns but with a nod towards the animated series, and while that sounds awful, it actually works pretty well.

The issue starts with two splash pages that seem to be lifted directly from issue #1, and then a brief introduction to the turtles and their characteristics. The plot centers on the re-emergence of a leaderless Footclan in New York. This plot point would seem to set up the 13-issue "City at War" arc that concluded Volume 1. The Foot were last seen in the "Return to New York" story arc (issues #19-21) which concluded with the second death of the Shredder, Oroku Saki.

It seems that members of the Foot want revenge for the death of the Shredder and begin using Leatherhead (first appearance Tales of the TMNT #6) as a means to achieve that revenge. Leatherhead is trying to return to the Ultron planet, the planet calls home, when members of the Foot befriend him and secretly ruin the transporter device he was working on (this isn't the dumb wrestling obsessed Leatherhead of the Archie series and cartoon, Leatherhead here is portrayed as being highly intelligent.) This leads Leatherhead to question who are his real friends and his real enemies. After two very brutal battles, with the Turtles and the Foot respectively, the issue ends on somewhat of a sour and depressing note.

While issue #45 seems to be nothing more then a stand alone issue, it may be important to collectors trying to carve out the Turtles versus Foot relationship. This issue directly bridges the events from the second death of Shredder and the return of the Foot in "City at War", which allows the reader to cut out the numerous stand alone and zany dream-like adventures the Turtles have from issues #21-#44.