The recent news of the sale of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property to Nickelodeon has sent many TMNT fans into a tailspin. What will happen to our favorite Turtles without either of the original creators (Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird) at the helm? I suppose we won't know for sure until Nick releases a new show, but many of us miss the Turtles already. TMNT needs an appropriate send-off to effect a transition from the old to the new. Does Turtles Forever fit the bill?
The concept behind this movie is that all TMNT incarnations exist in a Turtle Multiverse a la Crisis on Infinite Earths. The G1 Cartoon Shredder and Krang mistakenly send the Technodrome and its contents (which include the G1 Cartoon Turtles) to the 200x Turtles dimension. There, the G1 and 200x Turtles work together to stop the Technodrome from causing all sorts of havoc. G1 Shredder, realizing that he's hopelessly outnumbered, frees 200x Shredder from his icy encasement in space. 200x Shredder quickly realizes the advantages of the Technodrome technology and seizes it for himself from the comparatively incompetent G1 Shredder and Krang. He wants to destroy all Turtles, everywhere, by seeking out the ultimate source of the Turtles: a dimension right from the Mirage Comics called Turtle Prime. The Turtles of three dimensions have to band together to stop the Shredder from destroying reality!
That's all well and good, but how does the movie sit with Turtle nerds like me? Let's break out the analysis by generation:
200x TMNT
The 200x characters understandably take the lead. I've always thought that the 200x storyline is the strongest of any Turtle incarnation, and its Shredder is the most diabolical of all the Shredders, so it's understandable that their universe would stand as the basis of the movie. (That, and the 200x Turtles are the only ones that today's kids would know.) The only weird thing with these guys is that the character designs are somewhat inconsistent: the Back to the Sewer style Casey and April are co-mingling with the Fast Forward style Turtles. It's not a biggie, though.
I've never been a huge fan of Hun, but the character undergoes a pretty cool transformation in this movie that's definitely worthy of an action figure.
G1 Cartoon TMNT
The original cartoon Turtles were over-the-top silly in the original cartoon, and the personalities of the G1 Turtles in this movie follow suit. Similarly, the G1 Shredder and Krang were over-the-top incompetent, as they are in this movie. Some fans might balk that the G1 characters in this movie are over-the-top in their over-the-topness, and that's probably true, but I'm cool with it.
It's awesome to see the G1 Cartoon characters animated so well. The animation of the original cartoon was spotty at best, so this is probably the best they've ever looked. And it's fun to juxtapose the goofy personalities of the G1 Turtles with today's Turtles.
There are many tributes to the old show for fogies like me. Stay frosty and you can see Erma, Ninja Pizza, Tokka, and Razar. One other thing: I need a Mutant Banana action figure. Seriously.
Mirage Comic TMNT (Prime)
The climax of the movie occurs in the Turtle Prime universe and as expected, there are many homages to first Mirage comic. Not only is the style of the Turtles indicative of the first issue, but also some of the dialog is lifted straight from the comic. But the coolest thing is that some shots are identical to those in the original comic. You'll see the street shot from page 9, the iconic cover shot, and the Turtle group shot on pages 2 and 3, among others.
The Prime Turtles are grim, exhibiting the Frank Miller-esque personalities indicative of the first issue. In later issues of the Mirage comic the Turtles lightened-up considerably, which might make some fans say that the Prime Turtles in the movie are caricatures of the comic. But remember that the Turtles were all business in the first issue, exhibiting no personality other than the grim internal dialog.
My biggest geekgasm happened during the scene in which 200x Shredder calls up dozens of viewscreens displaying Turtles from other dimensions. You can see artwork from many of the coolest and most legendary TMNT artists over the decades: Jim Lawson, Eric Talbot, Michael Dooney, Michael Zulli (from issue 31), Mark Martin (from issue 16), and even Lesean (from the short-lived Dreamwave series). It's worth a DVD rental just to pause that scene and check out the other dimensions.
And, not to spoil anything, but the final scene is a heart-felt nod to Kevin and Peter.
Overall:
Turtles Forever is a great tribute to the cross-generational TMNT multiverse, and a perfect send-off for the property as it transitions into a new era. The movie is a Turtle nerd's dream, conglomerating a lot of the stuff that's cool about the different generations of Turtles into one big bowl of Turtle Soup. Those of you who missed it, don't fret! CW will be playing it 2 or 3 more times over the next few weeks, so you too can once again get swept up into the Turtle Power!
Labels: Movie Reviews, TMNT
14 comments:
TURTLES FOREVER ROCKED!! IT IS THE BEST MOVIE EVER!!! =)
I had not heard of this movie. I am very eager to see it myself now! I hope I can catch it. I just love it when kid shows do these era cross over things. Voltron, Power Rangers, etc. It's actually a pretty rad thing to do. It's almost sad as well. Like you mentioned sort of a send off, or a death of an era. I do not think Nick will care for the fans as much as the latest team responsible for this film apparently did. :) The whole premise of the movie is really an homage not only to Eastman and Laird, but everyone over the past 20 odd years who has grown up with TMNT and loved em.
I'm with you, that it was just nice to see the G1 turtles with good animation. The first five episodes of the original cartoon had pretty good artwork going for it, but I guess they switched to a cheaper animation studio after that because you can see a big difference in quality. I thought the Mirage Turtles at the end were perfect, and it makes me want to go back and catch up on the 200x show (I've only seen a handful of episodes).
It was a great special, but I think the way they kept making fun of the '80s Turtles was a bit redundant by the end. It felt like the show was sticking it's nose up to them, and yeah, they were a bit more over the top than they used to be. That said, it was still really amusing, and the plot still gelled the various Turtle incarnations really well. Seeing the multiverses, even including the Stan Sakai Turtles, and those mentioned above, was awesome as well. It was a great send off, and wasn't epic, but it showed the care that mattered.
man i woke up early to see this and i recorded it on my dvd recorder it to me was the proper send off for the the franchise i grew up on. the final scene almost brought a tear to my eye. and i loved seeing the mirage turtles( orginal comic look) in animation just seeing that version of the trutles come to life for me was amazing i cant wait for the dvd i hope it has loads of sepcial features!
It was a strangely fitting send off considering the timing. In light of the Nickelodeon purchase, some of the lines in that ending scene seem especially poignant. The overall theme of the whole presentation, though, was that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will always carry on in some way. It was a reassuring message to end things on.
Two points:
1. Judging by that poster above, Unicron is in it?
2. Was there any mention of STAR TREK TURTLES?
The Unicron-looking thing in the poster above is the upgraded Technodrome. It was pretty cool... I'd imagine it would work well in a TMNT video game.
No mention of the Star Trek Turtles, though. :) My friend Jason mentioned that it would have been awesome if they showed some shots of Turtles action figures in the other dimensions, and I totally agree!
I'm afraid I liked this movie. I liked the way it made light of the 87 turtles. They were annoying and the story lines were stupid and goofy and they got called out on it, oh well. What did bother me was the 456,345,267 times they said "what the shell". Yes, I understand, it sounds like "what the HELL" very clever, I see what you did there, now stop it. All in all it was a funny little bit of action fluff. Could have been written better, could have been animated better, but then again, that is what we have come to expect from TMNT. Just be glad it wasn't another "Out of There Shells" tour *barf*.
I loved the movie. It got my inner geek going nuts, my inner 8-year-old following suit, and Mr. 28-year-old John ended up genuinely laughing at a lot of the humor. "What? Who are you talking to? Is there a person over there?" was great. Also, the thought that this is technically the grand finale for both the 1987 and 2003 shows is interesting - Shredder is back and doing his usual thing in the '80s universe (no mention of Dregg. Ha!), and I won't give any spoilers about the fates of the 2003 characters, but it's a pretty fitting sendoff.
It's almost too bad that we won't be getting a sequal for this.
I watched it too and like it very much. The way they made the 80s turtles look silly was kind of annoying, though. Having seen the 80s and the 2003 side by side made me feel sad for today's children for getting such low quality animations. The turtles had very little details and what's up with the white eyes, I know it worked for the figures, but it had no business in the cartoon.
Seeing the beautifully rendered Splinter, Bebop, Rocksteady, Shredder and Krang really made me appreciate the old animations.
The same thing is happening unfortunately with Star Trek. A young director JJ Abrams directs a new film which breaks away from the traditional franchise and people seem to like it. Now Star Trek is all about JJ's and years of excellent movies and episodes mean nothing for people.
That's me ranting... sorry about that :-)
I am really surprised that in every review that I have read about this AWSOME entanglement of TMNT Multiverses that not one single person has refrenced the fact that yes they did include both cartoon forms and the comic book form they also used lines from the original movie form the 80s as well. SPOILER: Ie... When the one true Shredder is talking to Hun after he has been mutated and they are planing their attack on the turtles lair it matches the the lines that are exchanged between the Shredder and Tatsu in the original 80s movie before their raid on the turtles lair. So yes they did do an awsome job of crossing every form of TMNT known to the fans over in this AWSOME movie. So ends an era in the TMNT legacy and what a wonderful send off or hand off how ever you want to look at it it was. Hopefully Nick wont screw up this gift that they have been given that are THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES
Just gonna join in here and say how much I LOVED Turtles Forever. This could have been really cheesy and thrown together, but you can tell a lot of love was put into it.
I did find it a little annoying that the 80's Turtles were portrayed as being so over-the-top, but I consider them to simply be parodies of the originals. It would have been nice if they could have gotten the original voices, but I'm not sure if everyone is still around/may-have-been-too-expensive.
Regardless, this is the first TMNT animation that I've been able to thoroughly enjoy in over a decade (sorry 200X TMNT fans, I could just never get into it).
As far as what the next 25 years for TMNT bring, under the helm of Nick, who knows what it will bring, but at least we've got some great memories and this was a truly fitting sendoff!
I loved this TV-movie. I am still waiting to get this on Blu Ray if not a DVD. I've sure there's some special features and bonus materials that are waiting to be added to the disc release.
It's a real shame that Playmates had no plans to make any toys base on this movie. It would have gave them a perfect opportunity to make 3 sets of different stype Ninja Turtles.
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