Review - TMNT

When I first saw a poster for TMNT, my jaw quite literally dropped; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an early 90s thing, something that was great, but surely not cool anymore. Apparently recent toy sales were surprisingly strong, leading the license-holders to believe that there was life in the old franchise yet, and I am so glad they gave it a go. This computer-animated movie is genuinely funny, has a lot of heart, and will keep both children and fanboys happy.

As the film begins, we see that the team of Turtles is in a bad way. Leonardo, the oldest brother and natural leader, had been on a training expedition to South America, but has decided to stay and help people living in the jungle. Raphael, the angriest turtle, has taken to being a lone vigilante, whilst the other two are doing decidedly un-ninja-ry jobs (producing some of the funniest moments). When Leonardo returns, Raphael’s bitterness at having to be led means that the brothers can no longer work as a group, which is very sad. It takes a shared enemy to bring them together, as they have to work as a team to take down an ancient evil. The storyline is quite light-weight, with a nice emotional arc setting up things for a sequel; though obviously it requires a suspension of disbelief (this is a universe with pizza-eating, human-sized turtles we are talking about), it makes sense in its own reality (a rarity nowadays in genre films).

On the animation front, they’ve gone the way of The Incredibles with the humans by making them very stylised. This is slightly off-putting, since the backgrounds are beautifully realistic, but everything else looks excellent. I especially loved Splinter; he was so gorgeous and furry, I could have eaten him with a spoon. Totally adorable. The camera movements and the panoramas of New York during the fights bring to mind the best of the Spider-Man films. Voice casting is very good, with a nice sense of character. Obviously aware of their geek audience, the film-makers have got Jean-Luc Picard (Patrick Stuart), Buffy (Sarah Michelle Geller) and The Human Torch (Chris Evans) in the cast.

This all adds up to a lovely little film that is much more fun than one feels it ought to be somehow. I don’t know why this is, though, because the Turtles were so popular back then for a reason, but it is so easy to forget. I’m not sure if TMNT has made them cool again exactly, but that day may be fast approaching. They are well on their way to getting those awful live-action films out of the collective consciousness, at least.