TMNT: Las Tortugas Ninja

Greetings again from the darkness. Reinventing a once popular franchise is always a bit of a gamble since the built-in audience will be very critical to changes and building a new audience can be extremely difficult. The secret usually lies in the ability to recapture the good parts from the original and add modern touches in order to attract new viewers.

Director Kevin Munroe delivers some witty one-liners and a couple of nice fight scenes all wrapped up in a terrific new animation style that lends itself very well to the dark side of sewers and big cities. Additionally, some complicated interaction between Leonardo and Rafael add a dimension not normally seen with the Turtles. All the necessary elements are there: the fight scenes (in keeping with the PG rating) are action packed, but with very little real violence; the bad guys are bent on world domination, even though the familiar Shredder is gone; the Turtle brothers struggle at times, but of course come together as a team when necessary; and the funny one-liners will make all ages giggle.

The downsides are the opening stage-setting scene, which will be a bit boring and hard to follow for the youngsters and the lack of any type of catchy music for the characters. Michaelangelo remains the fun-loving one, but he and Donnatello are pretty minor characters, and a big complaint is the lack of edge to Casey Jones. Instead of a hockey mask, he should probably dress as the Sta-Puff Marshmallow Man. Still, none of that takes away from a fun film with a beautiful look.

Voice acting is pretty well done by the likes of Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Patrick Stewart, Mako, Kevin Smith and Ziyi Zhang. So take the kids and if you were once a Turtle fan, you should treat yourself to the fine new version. Cowabunga!!

Oh, my God, I finally saw TMNT, I don't know how many opportunities to see TMNT in the theater, but it never pulled through. But I finally got to see the movie this morning on DVD; I have to say that over all the movie really worked. While I would still prefer the live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film made back in '90, this was a fun adaption as well. The CGI was always an ifie subject with me, but I think that it worked for the simple fact of where this movie was aimed at, mostly a children's audience, and the dark animation made you feel as if you were in the comics. The voices were a perfect fit and the story was very cool. The only problem I had with the movie is that it seemed to be like more of a video game than an actual movie, it could have just been more creative I think. But the story worked very well.

The turtles are back and they are about to face their biggest villain yet, a bunch of immortal stone monsters who are wishing to stay this way. But it gets harder when Leonardo comes back from the jungle just trying to become a better leader, but Rapheal isn't in the mood when he wants things done his own way. Now the boys must try to fight as one to fight off these monsters, with Splinter, Casey Jones and April O'Neil on their side, they just might be able to pull together and save the city once again.

TMNT is a fun animation movie that I'm sure kids will love. I was 5 when the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie came out and I admit, I still watch it to this day, I still love the turtles, so I guess I was looking for those old memories. But since this wasn't really aimed towards the old school fans, I think it was somewhat of a disappointment, but it is worth a watch. I definitely think if you enjoy the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stories, you'll get into TMNT.

6/10

Just saw this tonight at an advance screening. Have to say it didn't really leave me disappointed, but it's certainly not harking back to the hyper violent original graphic novels that some might have hoped. It's more of a continuation of the original couple of films, so more action than violence.

The story is a bit silly, but befitting of an animated piece. It mainly plays a back seat to the inner-turmoil between the four brothers which is the main focus of the film. Leo and Raph have the majority of the screen time with Don and Mikey taking a back seat, even to the likes of April and Casey.

Style wise, it looks very good, with some excellent fight sequences. Although overall the film went by very very quickly. Voice Acting was good too, nice to see Patrick Stewart in the mix too.

Basically if you liked the original movies than you'll be in for a treat. If you're one of those people that thinks they should all have red bandanas and swear all the time then this might not be exactly what you were hoping for.

I went into this feature not quite knowing what to expect. I grew up with the turtles and was a huge fan of the comic book, the cartoon series (the original, of course), and the movies (only the first two). Growing up with the first two movies, I was really hoping that this one would be live-action. I will have to say though, that I was not at all disappointed in this feature.

At the beginning of the movie, I was slightly disappointed in who the rivals were. It seemed very far fetched, even for a Ninja Turtles movie. However, about half-way through the movie, I found myself forgetting about the not-quite-so-wonderful way the story line was set up. I'm not going to give away too much, but let's just say that the feud that has existed between Leo and Raph reaches an interesting point in this movie.

Overall, I would have to say that any turtles fan should give this film a shot. Try to not go into it with expectations set by the first two movies. Just think of this as a stand-alone movie, even though it does roughly follow the story-line set by the first two. If nothing else, the CGA is wonderful and the voice acting isn't so bad either.

This is one of my favorite animations and has some of the best action and visuals in any animation