TMNT

Voices of: Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Patrick Stewart, Ziyi Zhang, Laurence Fishburne, Mako, Kevin Smith, Mitchell Whitfield, James Arnold Taylor, Mikey Kelley, Nolan North
Directed by: Kevin Munroe
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure
2007

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: When the world is threatened by ancient warriors, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles unite to stop them.

Review:

Tim: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise had laid dormant for 14 years, after the live action trilogy ended on a disappointing note. TMNT is the first animated film in the franchise, and while it doesn't reach the heights of the film two films, is by no means the worst film of the franchise. It's a perfectly fine film for kids that feels like a decent revitalization of the franchise.

Since the turtles haven't graced the big screen in over a decade, I liked the idea of the story beginning with the turtles mostly hiding from the outside world. Leonardo has traveled to South America to continue his training, while his brothers mostly stay underground, hidden from sight. Raphael quietly sneaks out to continue their fight against evil, but for the most part, our heroes are out of the hero game. The course of the story obviously brings them back together and unites them to stop the villains. Knowing what I know about the franchise, this was an appropriate story to tell.

There's obviously different things you can do in an animated film than a live action one, and this film did a good job of leveraging those opportunities. There's an ancient, thousands of years old warrior who wants to capture 13 monsters to open a portal to another world. Of course, this can only happen once every thousands of years, while certain planets are in alignment (I sighed when I heard this, as it's been overplayed in films). I was never quite clear on where the monsters have been all this time, or why they were so conveniently all located in New York City, as opposed to being scattered around the world. That bothered me some. Still, the idea of these monsters being brought together for a nefarious purpose was a compelling story. The dysfunction and distrust among the turtles was also a nice dramatic touch to the script. Real families fight, and I thought the depiction of their family strife was believable and interesting. I hadn't seen that depicted to this extent in the live action trilogy and it added some good drama to the story.

The animation is quite good and fit the style of the characters and the story. There wasn't anything jaw-dropping depicted on screen, but the animation was good enough to draw us into the story. It was certainly a plus for the film.

The voice cast was fine- outside of Patrick Stewart, I wouldn't have recognized any of the voice cast members had I not looked it up online first. It was fun to know Chris Evans voiced Casey Jones and Sarah Michelle Gellar voiced April, but I can't say either of them were particularly memorable. They were fine. Laurence Fishburne was fine as the narrator, but I can't say he made an especially big impact.

As you might expect, this film is certainly aimed at the younger demographic. I'm fine with that, especially as the story is told in a way that appeals to multiple demographics. Adult fans of the characters will find enough here to at least be somewhat entertained. I personally like the turtles when they are depicted in a darker view, but I wasn't overly disappointed in the childish nature of the film. The story is fine, it's different and at least somewhat interesting. It's predictable, but entertaining.

While I thought TMNT was fine, it wasn't good enough to suggest the franchise is back or should continue on as animated films. This was a decent movie, but it still leaves the franchise a bit up-in-the-air as to where it should go from here.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III