TMNT
Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution
Rated: PG
Cast: Patrick Stewart, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Ziyi Zhang, Chris Evans, Mako
Director: Kevin Munroe
WorkNameSort: TMNT
An opening act for the upcoming Transformers, here we have another childhood favorite renewed for a younger decade, this time in computer-animated format. The pizza-chomping sewer-dwellers are fairly consistent with the characters established in the early-’90s movies ‘ so purists (if there are any) should have little to complain about in terms of authenticity ‘ and certainly the animation is vivid and lifelike. Writer-director Kevin Munroe has situated the mutant-ninja turtles as a family in shambles, finding cute-bordering-on-precious professions for the once-united heroes. (Donatello is the brainy one, so he’s languishing in tech support; slacker Michelangelo ironically dons a rubber turtle mask as a birthday-party entertainer.) The brothers reconcile in service of a needlessly elaborate plot of fantasy mumbo-jumbo involving immortality, a Patrick Stewart’voiced tycoon, a 3,000-year-old-curse and 13 ferocious beasts roaming Gotham â?¦ er â?¦ New York City. Ignore the who-cares machinations of the storyline and focus on the familial turbulence, which will make this briskly paced trifle go down even quicker. The turtles’ perpetual wisecracks are as forced and overdone as the notorious Mr. Freeze puns of Batman and Robin, but I probably would have loved this movie unconditionally when I was 10.
This article appears in Mar 21-27, 2007.