A Case For: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
As part of our continuing service to you, The Correct, we continually find things for you to be in favour of. In our crazy, fast paced, webmanic society, it’s easy to miss something. Our “A Case For” series presents something (a TV show, film, Book, Band etc) that might deserve a look.
Our first installment “A Case For: Farscape” was presented by one of our regular readers, and we encourage that sort of behaviour. If you have something you’d like to make a case for, write it up and send it to us at admin@thecorrectness.com . See the end of the article for more info.
This week, we bring you A Case For Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, brought to you by Correctness regular The M-Daddy.
—————————————————–
I am many things, but here I’d like to focus on three main items that have inspired this “A Case For…”: I am a nerd, I am a father and I am a pop-culture opinionated jerk.
Recently my 3 year old son was briefly witness to ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie’, a film released almost 20 YEARS before he was born. I remembered it being kinda’ cheesy but he loved it! I then had to turn it off to take him outside into what some call ‘natural light’ (lame) but it made me think that there must be something to it I’d never noticed before because what little I saw made me laugh on a different level then what he enjoyed.
Luckily, it was on again shortly after. As a kid I was obsessed with anything TMNT (even the comics, and if my Mother actually READ them, that would have ended real quick…) and I loved the somewhat-faithful movie.
As an adult now, I think it goes beyond being a decent ‘licensed product movie’ that were so bad at the time (coughcough…HE-MAN…cough). It’s actually an entertaining movie, as much as the nerd and jerk in me almost hated to admit it.
1) Elias Koteas
– One of those “I know his face…” actors, which generally means he’s decent and terribly underrated (and Canadian…). This was his breakout role and he went on to work (with great success and praise) with the likes of Malik, Egoyan, Cronenberg, Scorsese and for the more main-stream Correct, Fincher. Clearly he has the pedigree.
But what makes him so great is he’s clearly NOT an action hero. He’s not some muscle-bound moron like most from the action movie-heavy early 90s. There’s a line that refers to him as Wayne Gretzky on steroids that actually seems out of place because he looks noticeably smaller then the Great One. He’s just an average dude who is completely believable as a sports-obsessed vigilante.
Also, the fact that he has some of the best one-liners in the movie seems to make up for the fact that he clearly (spoiler alert to a 20 year old movie!) ‘murders’ The Shredder in cold blood at the end of the movie. ‘Who was that guy I don’t know a thing about who fell off a building into a garbage truck just as I arrived? He looks bad…’ “Oops!” Crush, dead.
2) The Proper Show / Comic Balance
– When the original comic was released in the mid-80s, the basic tone and style was rough, dark and at times extremely violent. The TV series it inspired was colorful, childish and at times cheesier then an episode of the 60s Batman. It also had little if anything to do (other then a few character names and general ideas) with the comic and was only made for creators Eastman and Laird to cash in on a lucrative deal with Playmates Toys.
Clearly not self published
Clearly made for the mentally ill
The movie opted to take an interesting high road and gleaned the good stuff from them both (like April being a reporter instead of a boring lab assistant) and ditch the stuff that would have alienated it to different audiences (the violent tone of the comics or the zany enemy henchmen of the show.) The movie was darker and had some seriously mature themes, but was still recognizable to the show’s core children audience.
3) The Writing
– As a kid, it was funny to watch and some of the basic jokes were what I remembered. Watching in my 20s and 30s made me realize that there are some seriously well-timed 1-liners and funny character back-and-forth (especially between Michelangelo and Donatello, IE: “Gosh, it’s kinda’ like, Moonlighting, isn’t it?” What kid KNOWS what moonlighting is!)
Such well-done comic timing is what is essentially a kid’s movie was odd then and other then Pixar films it’s practically unheard of now.
4) It has Muppets!
– Alright, stealing from “A Case For – Farscape” here, and unabashedly so, but it’s the truth. Unlike Farscape, the Turtles and Splinter were actually created by the man himself Jim Henson, not just ‘The Creature Shop’. What does this mean? It means that these aren’t half-assed rubber suits done by hacks or first-year prop and costume interns. These were made with all the skill and talent of the man who invented the technique.
The movie actually has some decently choreographed fight scenes and skilled stunt men behind them (Ernie Reyas Jr!), something that would likely have been impossible in suits and costumes designed by anyone else. Oh, and Splinter? Guess what! That’s Elmo himself Kevin Clash working the rat. Believe it.
= AND The More you Know!
5) Corey Feldman!
– By this point his career had started into a Meatballs-sequel spiral he actually has yet to recover from (thank the Great Old Ones) but his nasally comically trained voice was perfect for this and… You know what, I can’t even sell this to myself. Donatello was Corey Feldman. It’s clever pop-culture trivia at it’s finest. Use it to Wow your friends!
Sometimes there are no words…
6) The Girl
In the interests of the loyal readerships’ desire to read a “The Case For…” strictly for the parade of women presented to you in a process we call ‘T-Binnsing’ (yes, I believe that’s official now) allow me to introduce to you the lone female in this hidden gem…
You’re welcome. Pleasure yourself at your own risk.
—————————————————————–
If you have a show or film or book or band you’d like to make a case for, we’d love to hear from you. Read the rules below, and drop us a line.
The rules:
1) Give us 5 good reasons we should care, or watch, or listen etc. Make them compelling. Remember, you’re trying to sell this to us, and our readers.
2) Send pictures along with the article. Admin_rock doesn’t like to work harder than he has to, so be sure to send pics, or links to pics in the article.
Check out the previous installment(s) to see how it’s done.
