Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pt. 2

(Greg had the great idea to do a sort of duel blog post. The last couple of days we have been going back and forth between topics regarding the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He posted the first half his site, and the second half can be read below. To stay consistent, I will be talking in italics.)

Ok, great movies, and also a good way to see how our culture has evolved in the rearing of children. (ha). From what I remember the first TMNT movie had all the original weapons and a darker premise. Actual fights took place with swords, staffs, nunchucks etc. In the second movie I remember the first of the bigger fights being with food items, sausages as nunchucks, etc. Regardless, these were things I didn’t pick up on directly, I remember enjoying the first, I remember some scenes, but I LOVED the second movie. The secret of the ooze, I don’t know what it was but it seemed to have a funner, more comedic atmosphere. Turtles rapping with Vanilla Ice at a concert would have been unheard of in the first movie, as a wee chap I gobbled that shit up. Go ninja Go ninja Go!! I am pretty sure I still quote “I made a funny” quite often from the first movie too. As for the third movie, I don’t think I have even watched the whole thing. I can’t really explain it, because by the math it was 2 years later, I was only 9, had I grown out of my turtle ways? Had my parents been killed by turtles? Who knows…. I should mention that my tightest memory bound to TMNT is the Burger King Kids Club TMNT VHS that my cousin and I had. We watched that thing religiously. “The Great Boldini” was the name and I can still remember the quotes in the movie like I watched it yesterday. I guess we watched it so much because we had it on demand at our fingertips. Ahh, I really need to watch these movies over and just bring in the good times…

Haha, I just got one of those Burger King VHS tapes a few years back as a gag gift. My strongest memory of the show comes from the two part episode “PLANET OF THE TURTLEOIDS.” The Turtles get recruited to another planet (that’s full of turtle creatures) to help protect them from two-headed buzzard creature called Herman the Horrible. Yes, this all sounds insane, but it was one of the few episodes I had taped off of tv, so I watched it whenever I had a jonesing for the Turtles. While the cartoon was cool, and it introduced some of the other mutated characters that showed up in the toyline, I was a HUGE fan of the movies. I saw all 3 in the theatre, from what I can remember, and watched them all the time when I was a kid. I mean, Raphael says “damn” in the first movie! Twice! And those suits, they looked so real (done by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, natch). The great part of the first movie is that they still hold up incredibly well. Sure, some of the clothing styles are very 90s-esque (April has got some big ol’ hair, to boot), but it’s a great movie nonetheless. I’d have to watch the next 2 movies again to see how they were, but I bet they’re still good stuff.

To wrap this up I think we need a shout out to the turtle events and items which did not fit under our themed paragraphs. I must share this quick story: I got a painted turtle sometime Pre-2nd grade, as a pet, on one of my birthdays. As you can see, painted turtles have orange bands that stretch back from their eyes…. Exactly. It was Michelangelo. I was so excited I begin playing with it, holding it, watching it, looking at it. I went too far though, when I was looking at him inches in front of my face, and I turned him upside down. He was not impressed and quickly snapped out and bit on to my lower lip. Notice that this was not a snapping turtle or things could have been worse. It did take my dad and a flathead screwdriver to pry the turtle from my crying sobbing face. I remember I still loved the turtle after that point, but I was definitely slower to hold him in front of my face or even think of holding it upside down.

Alas, the closest I came to that was having TMNT pajamas and going as Leonardo for Halloween one year, complete with gigantic head and wood sword my dad made. And even though some people might scoff at the idea of the CGI Turtles movie from a few years back, or the new animated series, I highly suggestion giving both of them a try. The CGI movie is a sequel to the live action ones, and does a good job in that regard, while the new animated series reboots the characters, but does a better job sticking to the original comics, with more violence and seriousness than you’d expect in a Saturday morning cartoon.

Anyways, thanks for joining us for this very special tag team blog. Cowabunga!