Ninja Turtles CGI Movie

Features, Shorts, Live-Action and Direct-To-Video
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Post by YCougar » March 20th, 2007, 2:31 pm

Yup. That is the canon Raphael - moody and with a temper. He was extremely watered down for the old cartoon.

I'm also glad to see Leonardo actually looking/sounding/acting like a leader... he was so wishy-washy in Turtles 1.

And since their personalities look to be represented so faithfully, it looks like we're gonna have one heckuva fight... :P

Just 3 more days...
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Post by ShyViolet » March 20th, 2007, 5:13 pm

Yup. That is the canon Raphael - moody and with a temper. He was extremely watered down for the old cartoon.

I'm also glad to see Leonardo actually looking/sounding/acting like a leader... he was so wishy-washy in Turtles 1.

And since their personalities look to be represented so faithfully, it looks like we're gonna have one heckuva fight... Razz

Cool. :D

Just curious, how was Donatello in the comics? Did Cory Feldman not play him well?
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Post by ShyViolet » March 21st, 2007, 3:25 am

You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Post by YCougar » March 22nd, 2007, 1:29 am

Corey Feldman was a goofball, and in TMNT1 he made Donatello act like a second, slightly nerdier Michelangelo, I thought. Don is supposed to be a little more like the way he was in the old cartoon, just not so heavy on the gadgets. He's more of a Mr. Fixit than a genius inventor, though he certainly is one smart cookie... and an excellent strategist. He's also a bit of a pacifist and only fights because the Turtles usually have someone after them.

Based on the reviews I've seen so far, Turtle fans love it, but non-fan critics can't get past the monster storyline, as well as change of tone from the old 'toon... which I can understand (though I wish they'd at least research the comics before reviewing, so they would know that monsters and aliens are nothing new in the TMNT world, even if I personally prefer them in more down-to-earth stories...).

I'll have to review the movie myself after I see it... here's hoping it's got enough "family" in the story for me, as that's my favorite aspect of TMNT. And of course, kickawesome action. :P
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Post by ShyViolet » March 23rd, 2007, 7:13 am

Variety didn't like it too much--I read their review as my college library gets the mag.

The writer seemed pre-disposed to dislike it however, it being animated,
sci-fi genre, CGI, etc....


I still have high hopes for it though....:)


**************************************************

I didn't know that about Don. He sounds like a cool character! I used to know someone who said he was his favorite Turtle, because he was the "smart" one who could build things. :)

I also liked how in the 80's cartoon, they sometimes called Splinter "Sen-se" or Japanese for teacher. I hope they do that here! :wink:
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Post by YCougar » March 24th, 2007, 1:42 am

Oh, don't worry Violet... he's definitely "Sensei," as well as "Father" (which makes me mushy inside :P).

And here's the promised review! (treading pretty carefully on the spoilers, so some of the cuts are kinda lame ;))

**************

Just got back from my local theater, where I went to the 7:10pm showing with my two best friends and some of my animation major buddies.

Overall, on a letter scale, I'd give it a B. Maybe 7.5/10 overall, but with time and rewatchings it'll probably go up to an 8.

And here's the breakdown:

STORY:
Honestly, the monster story felt tacked on to me... the movie could have functioned quite well without it. (Not without severe plot reworking, of course, but as far as tone goes) That said, they handled it better than I expected... so a sigh of relief for that. There was also a pretty easy-to-spot story error with the monster roundup. If you're paying close enough attention you'll probably catch it. Wish they had noticed that; it would have been relatively easy to fix.

It was the family story that sealed the deal for me. Once this story kicked off, the pit in my stomach caused by my early impression of the animation (see below) cleared. The arguments between Leonardo and Raphael especially were well written and acted, I thought... and the two rival Turtles were shown to have both flaws and strengths. Which I loved - Leo was my favorite turtle at one point (before I stopped being able to favor only one :P) and I like to see him just at fault for tension as Raph. He's the sort that argues, but in a quieter, more biting way. And when he crossed the line on the rooftop... whoa.

ANIMATION:
Honestly, I spent the first 20-30 minutes of the movie soundly unimpressed. The lipsync was not very well done, a lot of things moved a little too "CGI" and not enough "natural"... I was like "aww, MAN... don't tell me I'm in for a cruddy movie..." But the lipsync improved over the course of the movie. I wonder if it was because the Hong Kong animators had less of a feel for how to sync English, especially at first? Who knows... but generally the ACTION part of the animation (running, fighting, etc.) was good, while the lipsync and the more subtle ACTING part of the animation (like, choosing what to do with hands/gestures) was good at times but extremely weak, even clunky, in others.

But that brother vs. brother fight... hoooooo man. Worth the $5.50 I paid for the ticket by itself. Easily the centerpiece of the movie. Some good animation there, that's for sure.
One of my friends who came with me to see the movie is a HUGE Raph fan, and after he got Leo flat on the ground, I leaned over and said "10 points for your boy." :D I also loved how he was practically sobbing as he took off over the rooftops... nice work there. Emotional. I loved it.
TEXTURES/LIGHTING/CINEMATOGRAPHY:
In a word, fantastic. What was subpar in the animation department was balanced by the sheer look of the film. The textures are amazingly detailed, lighting is great, and cinematography also quite awesome. This was the part my animation buddies were most impressed with. One specifically pointed out the rain during the rooftop fight scene. It was indeed phenominal, and kudos to Imagi for that.

VOICE ACTING:
Also phenominal. ESPECIALLY whenever Leo and Raph were arguing... none of it sounded forced to me.
Even at one point where Raph goes "NOOOOO" wasn't too bad - of course, the fact that he threw down his sai while he did it made him seem distraught enough for it to be plausible. Though I suppose a wordless "AAAAAAUUUURGH" may have been better.
I'm used to Mako because of Avatar, so I loved him too... though those used to a smoother Splinter voice may find it hard to adjust. The lipsync would sometimes not match his voice well at times, though. Random thought: some of those mouth shapes Splinter made reminded me of Don Bluth's work. X)

SCRIPT:
At least in terms of the lines said, generally good. I'll mention the Leo/Raph verbal fights again and say that nothing felt out of place there. Mikey had some painful lines, though at least some were obviously supposed to be that way. I think the weakest dialogue in the film were the one-liners. Some hit, some missed, some missed by a mile. I don't mind that they were there, but I would have liked some better ones.

As for the opening narration by Lawrence Fishburne... yeah. Pretty badly executed. Though as he got into the backstory, I stopped noticing as much. Not sure whether that was due to me being drawn into the story or him just getting better. There was just too much drama in the tone for a story like this, I think.

And the "name" actors did pretty well.
Even April's pausy "explain the legend of Yaotl" lines at least made a little sense in context.
MUSIC:
I'll be brief here and just say I liked it. The score, at least. My main complaint is I just wanted to hear a few more different themes. Good thing the Nightwatcher theme is a good one that I didn't get tired of. :)

THEATER EXPERIENCE:
Positive. It warmed my heart to hear the audience cheer and applaud as that green flame appeared on the screen when the movie started. There was also scattered applause for each Turtle's introduction, and more applause when the end credits hit. Didn't notice too much audience reaction throughout the movie (though some one-liners got some decent laughs) but the beginning and ending... aaah. Good time to be a Turtle fan. I wore a TMNT shirt that I made last night (with Leonardo on the front :D) and my animation guys commented on it, haha.

FINAL WORDS:
Maybe Peter Laird likes monster/alien stories, but I honestly prefer the Turtles in their home city, fighting ninjas or street gangs. Yet, this film did OK for what it was. Perhaps aiming for "all ages" was a mistake, as I heard several people commenting about the film "not knowing who it was directed at" as we all left. Though I thought it really did feel aimed for the old-school in-their-twenties-fans, especially with the family tension. We oldies (and hardcore fans) tend to enjoy that stuff.

There's talk of a possible sequel. And of course, Karai's parting words left plenty of room for one... and, dare I say, one that could adapt a certain well-loved story from the comics. :) With the practice they had on this film, I'd love to see what Imagi could do with a second Turtles movie. This one just has to do well enough at the box office and maybe they'll consider it. Though I for one would definitely want them to push the boundary and make any sequel PG13. Then maybe we can see some sweet nunchuck action from Michelangelo... and perhaps a couple choice (but still relatively tame) words from Raphael. :D

If I wasn't a Turtles fan, I'd probably like it significantly less. But the thing was, this film was MADE with crazy fans like me in mind... so I suppose it succeeded there. I can understand reviewers giving it negative reviews, because I think you just can't enjoy it as much if you're not a fan.

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Post by Whippet Angel » March 24th, 2007, 1:56 pm

If I wasn't a Turtles fan, I'd probably like it significantly less. But the thing was, this film was MADE with crazy fans like me in mind... so I suppose it succeeded there. I can understand reviewers giving it negative reviews, because I think you just can't enjoy it as much if you're not a fan.
Hmm...... When you say fan, do you mean hardcore (as in a fan of the comics, 80's cartoons and films) or twentysomethings that were only familiar with the 80's cartoon and films (not too familiar with the comics).

Either way, after reading your review, I think I wanna see this now (instead of waiting for the DVD) :P

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Post by YCougar » March 24th, 2007, 2:55 pm

Whippet Angel wrote:Hmm...... When you say fan, do you mean hardcore (as in a fan of the comics, 80's cartoons and films) or twentysomethings that were only familiar with the 80's cartoon and films (not too familiar with the comics).

Either way, after reading your review, I think I wanna see this now (instead of waiting for the DVD) :P
The main obstacles an '80s toon/previous movies fan would have to overcome are probably the lack of Shredder (not a spoiler - this is revealed in the first 5 minutes of the movie) and maybe the crazy out-of-its-mind monster story. Though as I recall, the old 'toon had some of those stories itself. You should enjoy it just fine, so long as you don't get too nitpicky on the weaknesses.

I think another way in which the movie suffered was pacing - part of the end especially was not paced too well. And the director has posted on a forum I frequent, saying that the original treatment would have been close to 2 hours and cuts were made from there to keep it PG (to keep WB happy). So I imagine the pacing issues were probably a result of this.

If anything, this movie could (and probably) should have been longer. While I enjoyed it, the frenetic pace it had to keep was a little overwhelming.

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Post by ShyViolet » March 24th, 2007, 2:58 pm

Hopefully, the cut stuff will be on the DVD! :)
It was the family story that sealed the deal for me. Once this story kicked off, the pit in my stomach caused by my early impression of the animation (see below) cleared. The arguments between Leonardo and Raphael especially were well written and acted, I thought... and the two rival Turtles were shown to have both flaws and strengths. Which I loved - Leo was my favorite turtle at one point (before I stopped being able to favor only one Razz) and I like to see him just at fault for tension as Raph. He's the sort that argues, but in a quieter, more biting way. And when he crossed the line on the rooftop... whoa.
Yeah, I like the family stuff too! :D

Your review makes me even more interested. :) :wink: I will definitely try to catch this if I can. :wink:
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Post by eddievalient » March 24th, 2007, 11:48 pm

I just watched it and oh man, Best Ninja Turtles ANYTHING Ever! I've been a fan my whole life and I felt like this was the movie I've always been waiting for (I just didn't know that until tonight). Comic book movies are my favorite genre and I'd say this one ranks pretty high up there, next to Superman and Sin City. A+
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Post by ShyViolet » March 25th, 2007, 5:45 am

You can’t just have your characters announce how they feel! That makes me feel angry!

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Post by eddievalient » March 25th, 2007, 12:17 pm

In case anyone here is interested to know, 4Kids is allegedly going to start releasing boxsets of the recent TMNT cartoon. According to the official Turtles website, Season One Part One (the first 12 episodes) will be out in May and S1 Part 2 will be out in September. I've already got the first 12 eps, but I'll definitely be looking forward to the rest of the series (I never was able to follow it on TV).
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Post by YCougar » March 25th, 2007, 10:44 pm

Yeah, I'd heard about that. Pity they won't be releasing full 26-episode seasons, but it's better than having to hunt down 8 discs with only 3-4 episodes each.

It's a good series that's been sorely overlooked just because it wasn't the old Turtles. But around 80% of the episodes adapt original comic book stories, which I really appreciate. And while they went in a new direction with Shredder that some didn't like, I thought they fit the continued story around it well. And it's got some great dark stuff that pushes the envelope for Saturday morning TV, especially seasons 3 and 4. Good stuff - not quite Gargoyles or anything... but good.

As for the current Fast Forward season? I don't even consider it the same show. And it makes me die a little inside every time an oldschool fan blasts the new show because they saw FF and thought the whole thing was like that.


As for the movie, TMNT faces quite a test from Meet the Robinsons this weekend. I'd like to see the Turtles stay on top, but going up against Disney... yeah, I'm not that deluded. :P I just hope it stays going strong... Turtle fans are really crossing their fingers for a sequel. I'd like to see it again before it goes out of theaters myself.

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Post by Meg » March 26th, 2007, 7:13 am

Ah, I dunno. I haven't seen as much marketing for MtR as I was expecting, and what I have seen feels likes it's on a sugar-high. The TV spots pretty much consist of "SINGING FROGS AND FUNNY DINOSAUR LOLOLOL!!111"

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Post by ShyViolet » March 29th, 2007, 9:32 am

Hey appropriate for this thread: I stumbled on a genuine 80's Turtles animation cel for sale on ebay!! :)

http://cgi.ebay.com/TMNT-original-hand- ... dZViewItem
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