Let me start by saying TMNT holds a very special place in my 90s kid heart. I spent several Saturdays with my cousin Dillon watching The Mighty Morphing Power Rangers, Yu-Gi-Oh, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on their dusty smelling shag carpet drinking Nestle chocolate milk. One of my earliest memories of my cousin was him coming completely unglued in the Walmart toy section for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pizza Party Van that shot projectiles out the side doors. He threw temper tantrums pretty often, but we got nice toys to play with out of it.
Over the years there has been a few attempts movie wise to capture the teenage turtles. They all kind of felt too grown up. Like this was obviously meant for the older people that drag their kids to watch anything vaguely nostalgic to potentially share an interest with them when the end credits roll. I am thinking specifically that one scene when Black Betty played in the background while they fought this gremlin looking thing in a diner. That was not meant for the children in the audience, that was for us Raphael fans. Love you, guys.
I am very happy to announce that this movie GETS IT. The boys actually are designed to appear like young men instead of super jacked (you know what I mean), and the dialogue they share with each other is modernized in such a way that is believable. Sure there is a lot of Generation Z slang, but that is what is needed. This is a movie that I can see younger generations really enjoying. It updates a lot of humor to be present day while keeping the original weirdo mutant vibes the series was based off of. The art style is absolutely perfect, every scene in this movie is stylistically drawn so that I found myself wanting to pause certain scenes just to look at the details. However, I was in a movie theater so I couldn’t do that.
A lot of the key points unfortunately I have seen already through trailers and marketing which I find to be a very common issue for movies currently. That being said, the movie was still entertaining to watch. In some instances closer to the end of the movie, it felt like ‘oh, this would be a really fun act in a video game’ and honestly I can see this movie being easily translated into one. I could go on and on dissecting the movie but I feel like I would be slipping into spoiler territory. Stay after the first roll of credits!
It is worth the watch if you are also a Turtles fan. Have you seen it yet? Tell me what you thought!