Turtles Forever: An Inventive, Geeky, Guilty Pleasure
Tuesday, November 24th, 2009*minor spoilers*
I’ve been known to say that fanfic type ideas are never good to use in an authentic work of entertainment. Here’s where I finally eat my hat: take the most recent Ninja Turtles cartoon show and make a 90 minute TV movie about the Turtles from the original 80s show meeting them in an interdimensional portal, and you end up with biggest geeky, cartoon joyride since The Flinstones Meet The Jetsons. When I first found out about it, I thought to myself, this is so ridiculous it has to work. It does, and it’s nothing short of brilliant.
I use the word “brilliant” in a different context than I might for other movies. It’s brilliant in a TMNT sense– after all, Ninja Turtles isn’t exactly intellectual art. Those of us who love TMNT know why and find it difficult to explain to those who never got into it or weren’t kids when it first came about. Ninja Turtles has been around for exactly as long as I have– 25 years– and my love for it is partly nostalgia and partly my love for pop comic art. The original comic book art of the Ninja Turtles is unmatched in originality, and is a big factor in its longevity as a franchise. The visual design of the Turtles and their world is inspirational creatively, and that’s what I loved about this movie: it was not only a celebration of 25 years of Ninja Turtles, but a celebration of imagination.
I won’t say much about the plot itself because I’m really recommending fans of both the Turtles and fans of animation see it– and as I understand, the CW is planning to air it a few more times in the next three weeks, so check your local listings. Basically, an explosion in the original series Turtles universe rips open a tear in the multiverse and those Turtles, along with Shredder, Krang, and the Technodrome, wind up in the reality of the most recent cartoon series. This admittedly contrived event is immediately forgiveable because of all the opportunities the creative team makes sure to take advantage of. The writers know their Turtles. They know the new show was serious and the old one wasn’t. They know the new Turtles aren’t obsessed with pizza and that’s all the old ones talked about. They know what the fans of the new show want to see, what the fans of the old show want to see, and they give us 50/50 of both– the new Turtles get irritated with and make fun of the old ones for being too silly, and the old ones make fun of the new for being too serious. My favorite line in the movie is when the newer Raphael says, “It’s like we’ve got five Mikies now!”
The story isn’t exactly complex, but it’s well-crafted and never gets tired. The novelty of having both sets of Turtles in the same movie could get old, but the writers keep it fresh by thinking of every possible fun scenario that could be done with it, including having Shredder and Krang discover the newer Shredder, who is, of course, more serious, more insane, and more deadly, and doesn’t tolerate his counterpart at all. A lot of fun stuff from the old show make appearences, including characters and vechicles– I don’t want to give away any more than that. I love how the movie is both silly and serious at the same time– it doesn’t make the newer characters more dumbed down or sillier in order to include the older characters. Their played as straight as they ever were, and they have to find a way to tollerate the sillier versions of themselves. And elements from the older show that make their way into the newer continuity, such as Shredder’s mutigin and the Technodrome, are used in more serious and more frightening ways then they’ve been seen before.
But the best thing about it is the merging of animation styles. The stuff from the older continuity isn’t updated at all– that animation uses the same faded-looking color palate, and sometimes even looks a little grainy, while the stuff from the newer contnuity isn’t changed at all either. So when the new and old Turtles are on screen together, they don’t look like they even belong in the frame together because entirely diffrently animation styles and color palates are used to create them. Sometimes they don’t even look like they’re to scale with each other. That impressive amalglam of animation is used to even greater effect by the end of the film… but that’s something else I’d rather not give away.
The only complaint I have at all is some of the voice casting for the older characters. They couldn’t get everyone back, but I think they could have tried harder to get close on some of the voices. Leonardo especially sounds bad– his voice is a full octive lower than the original. And the guy playing Krang is trying his best, but he just doesn’t quite get there. I’m impressed that whoever played the old Shredder got as close as he did to the original, even though it’s obvious it’s a different voice. Raphael is the only one besides the old April who sounds perfect. And I’m pretty certain that everyone from the newer series reprised their old voice roles.
If you like any Ninja Turtles continuity at all, see this movie. It’s a dozen times more fun than the most recent TMNT theatrical film, and good enough it could have been released in the theater. It’s one of the best animated superhero movies I’ve seen, and I would rank it up with Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Return of the Joker (though it’s a very different movie from either of those). It was made with a lot of heart and wraps things up for both continuities so well, I almost hope we never see another cartoon continuity. This one made my year.
LLAP
-Cap’n Logan
