OK, now I am sure that most of you have at least the slightest idea of the Turtle's story. Here's a quick recap, which I know has changed over they years, but the general gist is that four turtles were dumped in the sewers where they came into contact with some radioactive ooze that mutated them into humanoid form turtles. Along with the foursome, a rat also was mutated. The rat, named Splinter knows the ways of the ninja, taught them to the turtles and the fought crime. Great story, huh? Well, they had a nemesis named Shredder, whom was defeated in the 1990 film.
A big part of the story centers on the strained relationship between Leonardo and Raphael. This story is great, but pushes Michaelangelo and Donatello to considerably smaller supporting roles, something I assume will change should there be a sequel. Raph is something of a hothead, not happy with Leo's departure, and decides to take things into his own hands. Now that Leo is back, Raph is even less happy now that his brother has returned. It is an interesting dynamic that plays out, but there is the bigger story that they are all forced to deal with.
There is an ancient, immortal warrior who unwittingly let a number of ghastly beasties loose upon the earth, while his generals were turned into beastly stone statues. It just so happens everything is converging on New York, the warrior goes by the name Winter, and he has just bought the statues and is intent on bringing his men back and recapturing said beasties. It is up to the turtle foursome, along with April O'Neil and Casey Jones to get their act together and get to the bottom of the creature activity. Oh yes, the Foot Clan are still around too.
Director Kevin Munroe did a great job of realizing this incarnation. The animation looks great, perhaps not to the level of Pixar, but the look is spot on, from the gritty look ofo the city to the nice looking skin tones. It is a world realized very well, very fitting for the new look turtles.
Is it perfect? No, but it is a lot closer to it than I ever would have expected. It would have been nice to have some more surrounding information, maybe some news reports, or anything to imply that the scope was larger than is pictured. Perhaps, an additional 15 minutes to flesh it all out. Still, I have a hard time complaining as I had an absolute blast watching it.
I was interested to find that there were a number of celebrities who lent their voices. Among those stars was Mako, who died during the production last year making this his last big screen appearance having voiced Master Splinter. Other stars include Sarah Michelle Gellar as April O'Neil, Chris Evans as Casey Jones, Patrick Stewart as Winter, Zhang Ziyi as Karai, and Kevin Smith as Diner.
Bottomline. This was so much fun! The action was great, the animation was great, the story was good. It turned out to be so much more than I had expected. I can only hope that it does well enough to generate a sequel to expand on this new universe.
Highly Recommended.
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