Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Thread

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I went through the entire series start to finish, and when it gets really dark, it gets real. Characters die quite a bit, and Baxter Stockman slowly becomes a suicidal abomination at the hands of Shredder's gigantic henchman Hun. You probably gave up early in the show... but trust me... it got really good the later it went on.

I admit I did stop watching early. I did try watching one of their darker episodes later on and while I admired them for having some gutsy story lines, the dialogue still felt very juvenile, at least for me.

I've noticed the Turtles are more like Teenagers than ever before in this series. Somehow, they always felt like 20 year olds in both 87 and 2k3.

Absolutely they always seemed like snarky 20 year olds in 87 rather than teenagers, lol. The only time I ever got a teen vibe off of them is when Leonardo was hit by Donatello's personality altering thingie and he became all laid back and goof off, lol.

 

[Drtooth]

I admit I did stop watching early. I did try watching one of their darker episodes later on and while I admired them for having some gutsy story lines, the dialogue still felt very juvenile, at least for me.

The dialogue didn't strike me as any different than a standard action cartoon. It isn't exactly easy to make straightforward seriousness and not Narm. Even the comic was kinda guilty of it. There was one episode where the dialogue was atrocious, I admit... one of the last of the REAL 2k3 episodes. It had the laughable exchange:

CaseyL It looks like a storm is coming.

Splinter: NO! It is already here!

UGH...

Which was a shame, since it was a key episode to the end of the series. But it's still better than Krang's line (in an otherwise great episode) "I like my seafood without flies!" Few of us do.

 

[CensoredAlso]

The dialogue didn't strike me as any different than a standard action cartoon. It isn't exactly easy to make straightforward seriousness and not Narm. Even the comic was kinda guilty of it. There was one episode where the dialogue was atrocious, I admit... one of the last of the REAL 2k3 episodes. It had the laughable exchange:

CaseyL It looks like a storm is coming.

Splinter: NO! It is already here!

UGH...

Yeah that line needs to be banned from action TV and movies for a few years, lol.

I guess that's why I liked the 87 cartoon, it was more of a send up of action cartoons cliches.

 

[Hayley B]

Just randomly thinking of the movies right now. Why did they make Splinter like that in TMNT III? He looked more like a rat with the other 2.

 

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Just randomly thinking of the movies right now. Why did they make Splinter like that in TMNT III? He looked more like a rat with the other 2.

Why did they do a lot of things in TMNT III, lol.

 

[Hayley B]

Why did they do a lot of things in TMNT III, lol.

Very true

 

[Drtooth]

Just randomly thinking of the movies right now. Why did they make Splinter like that in TMNT III? He looked more like a rat with the other 2.

They couldn't afford Henson that time, or Henson didn't want to do it or something.

I dunno. I'm in the rare camp that actually likes TMNT III over the second one. I mean, the first film was a respectable dramatic action film with comedic overtones. I can't be the only one that got misty eyed those times when Splinter was presumed dead, and the turtles slunk back sadly to April's, Leo sees Splinter in a vision, and when they all see a vision of him by the campfire, causing them all to dramatically bow their heads and choke back tears (after Mikey's gag about the Marshmallows and Raph's "this is stupid" reaction no less). The second, while it had some good moments in it, was cartoony and trying too hard to be the cartoon series it wasn't, all the while shoving Vanilla Ice in there as a contractual obligation. It was like a Family Guy Conway Twitty cutaway... it went to long and it broke the story and disbelief. But unlike Family Guy, it was played straight! The whole second film was one big toy commercial. And it had the same sliding scale of excellent to meh as Men in Black 2 did.

Whereas the third film, while not as good as the first, felt like a legitimate Mirage comics storyline. Just without Rene the timelord (the film would have been awesome if that happened). Not to mention Casey is back, instead of the random martial arts guy, and Sab Shimono's in the film and he's really good in everything he's in (especially Jackie Chan Adventures). But it gets back to the dramatic/comedic balance the first film had (just not quite as well done or successful).

I still don't get the hatedom of the fourth film. It's not quite as good as the first one, I'll give it that... but like I said, second film was a failed attempt to become the cartoon, and the third had that time travelly stuff... The fourth film played out like a Tales of the TMNT side comic, and thankfully spared us another Shredder revenge plot (also why the second film wasn't that great. Tim Burton did right by killing off the Joker in Batman so we got to see other villains). The problem is, it was the establishmental film that was to have spawned a big sequel, but Peter Laird and Imagi couldn't agree to a basic plotline (Imagi and Warners wanted a wacky/cartoony plot and thankfully that film was never made). And then the license ended, and considering Astroboy was the last film they did before everything folded for Imagi, I don't think the film would have been completed at all.

 

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I can't be the only one that got misty eyed those times when Splinter was presumed dead, and the turtles slunk back sadly to April's, Leo sees Splinter in a vision, and when they all see a vision of him by the campfire, causing them all to dramatically bow their heads and choke back tears (after Mikey's gag about the Marshmallows and Raph's "this is stupid" reaction no less).

Trust me, you're not the only one.

I agree that given the choice, I'd watch the third film before the second film (I admit, I loved Corey Feldman as Donatello, lol). The third film had some good ideas it was just written atrociously, lol.

 

[robodog]

Those scenes choked me up too. And it's rare I get choked up during a movie.

Though I do prefer the second film I enjoyed the third film. It had it's faults but it wasn't really as bad as most people say. Probably could have used some better villains though. The only problem I had was when I went to see it I ended up in a theatre full of people who refused to shut up.

This is the first I'm hearing about the fourth film being disliked. No it wasn't as good as the first but it was still pretty good.

 

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It had it's faults but it wasn't really as bad as most people say.

It's one of those things where you're just so shocked and disappointed the first time you see it that you refuse to see it again for years and really build it up in your mind as "this. was. awful!" Then when you finally try watching it again you realize it's not as bad as you've build it up to be (though it's still pretty bad, hehe).