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sidewaysSo apparently the Rise of the TMNT movie dropped and I didn't notice because I haven't been keeping my thumb on the fandom pulse lately, and Netflix somehow hasn't been spying on me closely enough to realise I needed that shoved in my algorithmic face immediately. For shame, Netflix. For shame.
Anyway that was a pretty solid Friday evening flick experience! Following on from the not especially acclaimed but moderately enjoyable cartoon series, the creatively titled Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie throws the gang into a frenetic battle to save the world when young protégé Casey Jones arrives in their timeline with a dire warning from a devastated future: the Krang are on their way.
Pros:
• If you've paid any attention to my past wafflings on this particular TMNT iteration, you should be able to guess my main joy: the animation was fucking gorgeous. Slick, expressive, lush in detail, a colour scheme that sings itself off the screen. It's a movie that begs for the re-watchers, the gif-makers, and the freeze-framers because there is just so much going on visually, and yet it never felt difficult to follow along. I truly hope the animators get to keep doing their thing because I want more works of this calibre very much.
• They made an effort to ensure every turtle had several Cool and Significant moments. I've certainly seen worse efforts! They leaned into the ol' A-team / B-team split but there were some genuinely sweet moments in both those sets of interactions and they are personality match-ups that bounce well off each other, so fair cop. Lots of Leo and Raph angst, naturally, but Don and Mikey's casual background affection brought smiles to my face more often.
• Tonnes of classic little references to make long-term fans crack a grin. Splinter's TV drama obsession. Commander O'Neil. Leo being thrown injured through a window (well, more of a portal, but it counts). There was even a blink and you'll miss it Bishop cameo! Also, the sizeable portion of the fandom that is weirdly obsessed with Donnie's soft shell and emotional repression will be having an absolute blast.
• The Krang were average villains - no time for character development even if they had any - but the organic tech was a lot of fun. The tentacle-y mind-invading scene got an actual wince out of me. Eugh.
• New Casey Jones is, like all of the characters, a very loose interpretation of the original but it was lovely to see the hockey mask back and his face design was excellent as well. Although there wasn't a lot of time to dwell on it I did enjoy the whole "student gets to see their venerable master in his young and emotionally stupid years" vibe he had with Leo, which is incidentally a fanfic trope I often like reading, thank you entire Naruto fandom.
• Meanwhile I was close to becoming VERY grumpy that they apparently erased Former Foot Recuit Cassandra "Casey" Jones without a word but the movie saved itself in literally the last 45 seconds - and I don't actually hate the punchline. His mom! Hilarious. Based on the one episode of 2k3 Casey's mom showed up in, that honestly tracks. Only disappointing insofar as I would have liked to see more of Cassandra in the movie (and also RIP dreams of April/Cassandra as a fun twist on the standard canon pairing, though it was always a longshot Nickelodeon would ever let that onscreen).
• The overall plot was interesting, and the emotional moments were staged really well, visually! But you're probably detecting a running theme haunting even the positives of this film, and, well...
Cons:
• The best way I can describe the pacing is "third season speedrun". RotTMNT is one of many series that hit the chopping block before its time but received the flimsy consolation of a wrap-up movie, and it's clear the creators chose to honour their vision by cramming every major beat they had planned for the longer story into a 1.5hr span. I don't exactly blame them for it, but the end result is an absolutely non-stop slam from dramatic high to dramatic high with zero breathing room. Something sad happened? Scary? Funny? Heart-warming? You have maybe five seconds to react, your time starts now. There were at least six different rally the heroes speeches in the space of thirty minutes. Leo went through his entire re-defining character arc in like three hours in-universe. A rollercoaster of activity zoomed through my eyeballs at maximum speed and I popped out the other side unsure on how the movie made me feel because it honestly... didn't. There was simply no room for feeling.
• It feels odd to complain about a lack of humour when I found the humour in the show so hit and miss, but Many Happy Returns was one of those plot-significant episodes that also made me laugh a lot and I don't altogether know it was the best choice to sacrifice the potential for its equal in favour of a much heavier tone when [gestures above] the pacing hindered its effectiveness.
• It was all very Leo-centric, of course. When is a movie ever not Leo and/or Raph centric? They are the film-hogs eternal, the A-Team, the primary colours. Still a little miffed we didn't get to see a glimpse of future Don, Raph, or April at all, wtf. Couldn't squeeze in a single freeze-frame shot? Hopefully there's something in the concept art.
• At the same time, they just up and ignored the final moment of the second season in which Splinter appoints Leo the new team leader, and I genuinely cannot work out why. It would have tied in perfectly with the emotional thrust of the film and linked it clearly to the TV series? New leader Leo cockily insisting on doing it his way, versus Raph trying to backseat drive in frustration because Leo just doesn't Get It - that was basically already what was going on! I feel like I detect the rank scent of executive meddling on this one.
• You know what Cassandra Jones would have helped with? There being exactly two voiced female characters, only one of them named. Whateverrrr no one watches TMNT for the stellar gender ratio really.
• Every goddamn adaptation: We will unleash our awesome weapon-
Me, every goddamn time: Oh no not the technodrome.
Every goddamn adaptation, every goddamn time: THE TECHNODROME!!!!
It's like only two arcs exist for you people I swear.
Anyway that was a pretty solid Friday evening flick experience! Following on from the not especially acclaimed but moderately enjoyable cartoon series, the creatively titled Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie throws the gang into a frenetic battle to save the world when young protégé Casey Jones arrives in their timeline with a dire warning from a devastated future: the Krang are on their way.
Pros:
• If you've paid any attention to my past wafflings on this particular TMNT iteration, you should be able to guess my main joy: the animation was fucking gorgeous. Slick, expressive, lush in detail, a colour scheme that sings itself off the screen. It's a movie that begs for the re-watchers, the gif-makers, and the freeze-framers because there is just so much going on visually, and yet it never felt difficult to follow along. I truly hope the animators get to keep doing their thing because I want more works of this calibre very much.
• They made an effort to ensure every turtle had several Cool and Significant moments. I've certainly seen worse efforts! They leaned into the ol' A-team / B-team split but there were some genuinely sweet moments in both those sets of interactions and they are personality match-ups that bounce well off each other, so fair cop. Lots of Leo and Raph angst, naturally, but Don and Mikey's casual background affection brought smiles to my face more often.
• Tonnes of classic little references to make long-term fans crack a grin. Splinter's TV drama obsession. Commander O'Neil. Leo being thrown injured through a window (well, more of a portal, but it counts). There was even a blink and you'll miss it Bishop cameo! Also, the sizeable portion of the fandom that is weirdly obsessed with Donnie's soft shell and emotional repression will be having an absolute blast.
• The Krang were average villains - no time for character development even if they had any - but the organic tech was a lot of fun. The tentacle-y mind-invading scene got an actual wince out of me. Eugh.
• New Casey Jones is, like all of the characters, a very loose interpretation of the original but it was lovely to see the hockey mask back and his face design was excellent as well. Although there wasn't a lot of time to dwell on it I did enjoy the whole "student gets to see their venerable master in his young and emotionally stupid years" vibe he had with Leo, which is incidentally a fanfic trope I often like reading, thank you entire Naruto fandom.
• Meanwhile I was close to becoming VERY grumpy that they apparently erased Former Foot Recuit Cassandra "Casey" Jones without a word but the movie saved itself in literally the last 45 seconds - and I don't actually hate the punchline. His mom! Hilarious. Based on the one episode of 2k3 Casey's mom showed up in, that honestly tracks. Only disappointing insofar as I would have liked to see more of Cassandra in the movie (and also RIP dreams of April/Cassandra as a fun twist on the standard canon pairing, though it was always a longshot Nickelodeon would ever let that onscreen).
• The overall plot was interesting, and the emotional moments were staged really well, visually! But you're probably detecting a running theme haunting even the positives of this film, and, well...
Cons:
• The best way I can describe the pacing is "third season speedrun". RotTMNT is one of many series that hit the chopping block before its time but received the flimsy consolation of a wrap-up movie, and it's clear the creators chose to honour their vision by cramming every major beat they had planned for the longer story into a 1.5hr span. I don't exactly blame them for it, but the end result is an absolutely non-stop slam from dramatic high to dramatic high with zero breathing room. Something sad happened? Scary? Funny? Heart-warming? You have maybe five seconds to react, your time starts now. There were at least six different rally the heroes speeches in the space of thirty minutes. Leo went through his entire re-defining character arc in like three hours in-universe. A rollercoaster of activity zoomed through my eyeballs at maximum speed and I popped out the other side unsure on how the movie made me feel because it honestly... didn't. There was simply no room for feeling.
• It feels odd to complain about a lack of humour when I found the humour in the show so hit and miss, but Many Happy Returns was one of those plot-significant episodes that also made me laugh a lot and I don't altogether know it was the best choice to sacrifice the potential for its equal in favour of a much heavier tone when [gestures above] the pacing hindered its effectiveness.
• It was all very Leo-centric, of course. When is a movie ever not Leo and/or Raph centric? They are the film-hogs eternal, the A-Team, the primary colours. Still a little miffed we didn't get to see a glimpse of future Don, Raph, or April at all, wtf. Couldn't squeeze in a single freeze-frame shot? Hopefully there's something in the concept art.
• At the same time, they just up and ignored the final moment of the second season in which Splinter appoints Leo the new team leader, and I genuinely cannot work out why. It would have tied in perfectly with the emotional thrust of the film and linked it clearly to the TV series? New leader Leo cockily insisting on doing it his way, versus Raph trying to backseat drive in frustration because Leo just doesn't Get It - that was basically already what was going on! I feel like I detect the rank scent of executive meddling on this one.
• You know what Cassandra Jones would have helped with? There being exactly two voiced female characters, only one of them named. Whateverrrr no one watches TMNT for the stellar gender ratio really.
• Every goddamn adaptation: We will unleash our awesome weapon-
Me, every goddamn time: Oh no not the technodrome.
Every goddamn adaptation, every goddamn time: THE TECHNODROME!!!!
It's like only two arcs exist for you people I swear.
no subject
Date: 2022-08-12 10:39 pm (UTC)Couldn't tell you exactly when it started but it was definitely a thing in the 2k3 era, bless.
In fairness to Netflix I don't think I've watched any TMNT properties on their platform because they never HAVE any (that I want to watch). But surely Google is selling them enough of my data!