TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)

I had the pleasure of taking my wife and son to see this animated feature last night. It was a movie that I expected us to all enjoy on our own individual levels. I figured we'd each take something away from it. Well as it turns out, I was right.

After watching the trailers and looking at the images I've seen online, I was hoping it would have a nice look to it. It does. This is one of the best looking animated features I have ever seen. It looks considerably better than any non-Pixar feature. In fact, I would say it rivals Pixar too. There is a scene about halfway through the movie that takes place in the rain and it looks stunning. I found myself saying "Oh wow, that looks good" on more than one occasion. One of the best things they did was to make the human characters look convincing. They had a unique physique to them. The arms and legs were drawn with a slight over-exaggeration to the shape to give them more curve. The faces of the characters gave them a look that kind of reminds you of The Incredibles. One thing I was particularly happy to see was the eyes looked like they had actual life in them. They did not have the "dead eye" look that plagued The Polar Express. The turtles and Master Splinter looked incredible. They each have a slightly distinct look and build to them. Their respective personalities are very consistent with the previous incarnations of the Ninja Turtles too. This movie looked like it was showing off how advanced the special effects were in some spots. Water, fire, smoke, reflection, lighting, and textures were shown off in some places in an almost "Look how good we can make this seem" fashion. Most times, it's sits back and just seems to blend in. I can only imagine what movies like this will look like 5 years from now.

If you don't already know, The Shredder is not in this movie, but it is strongly hinted that he will be a major part of the next movie. The storyline is pretty cool. In fact, it was better than I expected it to be. 13 monsters from 3,000 years ago running through New York did not sound like something I would enjoy as much as I actually did. I told my wife at one point that they could have made this movie really scary for little kids if they wanted to. The movie has some dark spots in it, but not enough to scare my three year old son. Much more and he would have been a little freaked out. The soundtrack is loud, modern, and really quite fun for an animated movie. There's plenty of action to keep you interested, but not so much that it comes across like a Michael Bay movie. It has plenty of heart, character development, and feel good stuff too. I hope that the Star Wars animated series looks and resembles this movie. Please pay attention 20th Century Fox! I would love to see a Justice League movie done this way too. Forget the live action version, do it this way.


5 Words to Sum it Up: Anticipating more Turtles like this!