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Shelf Beauties |
TMNT How come Warner Brothers and
The Weinstein Company are afraid to call it The Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles? It’s
not cool to call them that
anymore? Is the
word “Mutant” too scary
for the families and 5-year olds the studio wants to see the film? I can’t imagine
the title would be all that
scary when the movie is 300 for kindergarteners (without the blood and
decapitation, but lots of fighting). In this computer animated
film, our heroes – mutated turtles who live in the sewers of So, can TMNT stop Max
Winters before tragedy befalls the rest of the planet?
Can they learn to fight together as a team
again? TMNT is one of those movies
you enjoy more if you don’t ask any questions and just watch the fight
scenes. Writer/director Kevin Munroe
takes us through the machinations of a plot, especially as he lays out one of
the world’s longest opening narrations, which is designed to set the scene for
us so we are ready to enjoy the movie.
However, he isn’t all that interested in showing us how the characters
live up to the themes he puts forth, and the audience is often left wondering
who these other characters are and why motivations seem to be changing. We are constantly reminded
by the Turtles’ master, Splinter (voice by Mako, and, by the way, he’s a Munroe’s script could use
some help as well. As you would expect
with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it is full of cheesy dialogue and
horrific puns, but, shockingly, most of this flew over the heads of the
audience I saw the movie with. I
couldn’t figure out if they just didn’t understand the puns, or if they are so
used to horrific dialogue that this seems normal to them. Maybe all of the toddlers were in too much of
an epileptic trance from all of the fast moving, flashing action on the screen
to even hear the words. The animation is OK, but
clearly not A-Level or Pixar-Level as the movement of the characters’ mouths
doesn’t always quite match up with the words they are saying, and none of the
art seems very impressive or groundbreaking.
Plus, for a movie that is 300 for kindergarteners, it’s not as cool
visually, most of the fight scenes are hard to follow, and the style is nothing
special. Some of the action sequences
are OK (parents may want to consider that the Turtles and other warriors get
into many, many, many fights), and the overall story is decent, but TMNT will
please the youngest of audiences, while the rest of you may cringe like I did
when the hint of a sequel is put out there at the end of the movie. It’s not a promise, but more like a
threat. 1 ½ Waffles (Out Of 4) TMNT is rated PG for animated action violence, some scary cartoon images and mild language.
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