By Miles Baker
About 20 years ago, I spent every day thinking about how I could become a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. I thought about running away to live in the sewers, I wondered where I could get some of the good ooze that would turn me into a wacky fighting machine; I settled for buying a turtle at the local pet store and naming him Michelangelo, after my favourite turtle. But, by the time that turtle died a few years later, the phase was over and some other obsession had replaced the Turtles in my heart.
So when I got my hands on this box set of all four feature TMNT films it was an interesting reunion. How would these films — that I once no doubt counted as my favourite movies of all time, well at least the first two — hold up now that my age is in the double digits.
Not bad, really. I mean, these are not great movies, but they are interesting trips down memory lane. I found that the Turtles as characters got a little grating and, with the exception of Raphael, felt interchangeable. The newest of the films, 2007’s CGI-animated TMNT, is surprisingly good. I was really impressed with how it tied into the original films and gave the Turtles more distinct personalities. Overall, I’d say it’s the best of the bunch and worth checking out if you’re a fan who hasn’t yet seen it.
I wish, however, that this box set lived up to my childhood fandom.
On Blu-Ray (the version I watched) it retails for $62.95 on Amazon.ca and if you’re a really big fan, it might be worth it. However, I’m going to warn you that the transfer on the first two films — the ones you probably are most eager to watch — isn’t very good. There’s noise on most frames, and it’s generally sub-par. But each transfer gets better, with the third and fourth films looking downright great.
There are no special features to speak of on the first three movies — and that’s a big disappointment. There was so much that could have been covered, in particular the full-body puppets designed by Jim Henson’s creature shop and used in the first two films; or something about the Ninja Turtle craze that captured me and my peers — something more than a theatrical trailer. TMNT does have some special features, but they are identical to the version that’s already available on blu-ray.
However, the packaging is amazing. It comes in a cardboard pizza box, with each disc a different kind of pizza. There’s a reproduction of the original film adaptation by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, “character cards” that I remember from an old sticker book, a signed sketch, and a tuque. That’s right, a radical tuque.
It’s hard to say who this set is for. Hardcore fan will probably be disappointed by the lackluster transfer and special features, and casual fan will probably find the price point too high. But I think it’s worth it if only to see a young Sam Rockwell as “Head Thug” in the first movie.
My gripe with the turtles movies is they never had krang. That was the whole cartoon Shredder and Krang coming up with crazy over the top schemes to take over the world and yet for some reason always getting Beebop and Rocksteady to carry out the plan. After episode after episode of those two screwing things up, you’d think S&K would get one of the foot clan soldiers to look after things.
The thing about the films is that they are more an adaptation of the original comics than the cartoon and the comics did not have Krang.
Yeah but that’s a big mistake movie makers always make, they should base it on whatever the fan base has at it’s core.
I don’t remember any kids having any of the darker turtles comics, they all had the ones based on the cartoon. All my friends watched the cartoon and the cartoon was the thing that sold the toys and got all the kids watching it which become popular enough to be made in a movie.
Another franchise that suffers from this is Transformers. Instead of just doing an awesome live action version of the cartoons they tried to make it a big mixture of all the transformers generations. Now they have to write really awful stories that remind me more of National Treasure or Angels & Demons rather than a straight up awesome robots that change into cars freak out.
Basically I want to see the movie of the thing that made me a fan. Hollywood seems to try to make stuff that pleases everyone and that sucks.
To be fair, the movies were a mix more than anything and personally I remember not really caring that there was no talking brain in the movies.
I think what’s more important is to take what works best in the medium you’re adapting it to. I loved Krang, but a talking brain puppet probably would have looked more than a little silly — or possibly very frightening. Either way, that would have been counter productive.
I don’t know if it’s just me, but I feel that this release should emphasize better that it is the 25th anniversary of the entire TMNT franchise (with the comics being first published in 1984) and not the movies, in which which the first film is still more than six months away from its 20th anniversary.