Rated PG for animated action violence (w00t, not “not-stop frenetic action”, but action violence nonetheless. It’s TMNT, not PPG), some scary cartoon images (Scary? Where did you see scary? I think the MPAA saw a different movie.), and mild language (So mild you’ll be asking yourself “WTH was the MPAA smoking when they rated this?”.)

Directed by Kevin Munroe, (the guy who is slated to direct the Gatchaman movie, looking forward to that one dude, now that I’ve seen your work.)

Written by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird (Creators of the comic book, FYI Peter Laird is one of the producers too, Eastman sold his share of the turtles to Laird, so he’s not involved anymore.) Kevin Munroe (Screenplay)

Starring Mako, Mitchell Whitfield, James Arnold Taylor, Mikey Kelley, & Nolan North as Master Splinter & the Turtles. Sarah Michelle Gellar, Chris Evans, Patrick Stewart, Ziyi Zhang, Laurence Fishbourne, & Kevin Smith.

I am giving this one 4 doughnuts, I was gonna go 3.5 (too many Disneyesque moments for me & the plot was overly simple IMHO) But the film has Chutzpah & I had to give it an even 4. The movie isn’t called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it’s just TMNT. It’s like they are saying to the audience, “If you don’t know what it stands for, we really don’t want your money.” Pretty Ballsy move, but then again the turtles are a pretty bankable franchise. Back in the day, they were more popular than the Power Rangers, Pokemon, or even Naruto, so I could see it as not being that big a deal.

They only touch on the origin of the turtles in the narration at the beginning & go straight to the action from there. It’s like they are counting on the audience not only knowing the origin of the team, but also on us not wanting to sit through 20 minutes of recap. Thank you.

They also went with the decision to not hire A-listers to voice the Turtles. In fact, despite the considerable A-List (IMO) level voice talent involved in this production, I don’t seem to recall them making a big deal about it in the previews. Normally producer & studios have the attitude of, “I paid a lot for these people & I’m gonna make sure everyone knows they are in this.” It’s like this time they are relying on the strength of the franchise & the quality of the film to carry it to the number one. Wow, you really don’t see that anymore. Way to go guys. Good job.

As to the film itself, where do I begin? First & foremost, this film isn’t based entirely on the cartoon series of the eighties, or even the more recent cartoon, or the movies, or the live action Saban show, or even the Archie comics. It’s based on the original Eastman & Laird comic book & influenced by the original cartoon. This is why the turtles seem to have had their personalities watered down in all of their previous incarnations. They seem to be more individuals & less pop culture stereotypes in this film. So they are using more of the original series continuity. Which is why April O’Neil is not a reporter & never was. Also the Turtles & the rest were redesigned by Jeff Matsuda (Of the Batman & Jackie Chan Adventures fame) So they look a bit different than what you are used to, but better at the same time. Like 300, this is one movie you are gonna wanna watch in theatres because you are gonna miss so much if you torrent or stream it. It’s just not worth watching a bootleg of this one. Bite the bullet & pay to see this one.

Now for the action. All I can say is it was kicked ass. I have been waiting for another CGI superhero movie since the Incredibles (IMO CGI lends itself so much better to the genre than live action & seems to me that it would be cheaper too, except for the mandatory A Lister you are gonna feel compelled to pay a fortune to work the tights & cape) This did not disappoint me.. I was scared at first that they might cowabungle the action sequences, but no, this is what superhero fight scenes should be, in fact they may have raised the bar. I want to now publicly state that I will be more than happy to reimburse the following directors for going to see this film so they can better understand the concept of superheroic action; Ang Lee, Mark Steven Johnson, & Brian Singer (Shame on you Brian singer, you helped write the book on superhero action sequences.)

So that’s my review, these aren’t the turtles you are used to, they are better in many ways. The action will floor you. The talent in this film is amazing There, you read the review, now go see it..