My heroes in a half shell
It was early April of 1990, I was ten years old waiting in line with my father for the best movie ever made, in my head at least.
Almost every day I would play with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toys. Every day some sort of storyline would play in my head as the toys fought in epic fashion to win the day, or for the villains to tragically defeat those heroes in a half shell.
Every morning I would get up before school to watch the animated cartoon, to watch my favorite character Leonardo cut through mousers like butter, to see Michelangelo swing his nunchucks into foot soldiers, to watch the crude but rude Rapheal toss Rocksteady through a wall and to see how Donatello would use his machines against Krang.
Watching for the first time in the theater as the turtles each jumped on screen for the first time was am absolute kids dream come true. Our heroes on cartoons and comics now a reality took over my life, as it did most kids.
Going back to one of my favorite movies of all time, because it holds a special place in my heart then and now, it still holds up as a movie. The original TMNT movie is a classic and all around masterpiece of what a ninja turtle movie should be. It was funny, violent, and had decent fight scenes throughout the film. Could of been better? Sure. Did it have to be? Nope. It's perfect as is.
My only gripe about the movie is the main theme song says Rapheal is the leader, which pissed me off. My boy Leonardo is, why would you want a hot tempered jump into a fight dingbat like Raph leading a team of ninjas? Exactly, you wouldnt. Also that subway fight scene where Raph fights some footsoldiers to save April was a little to fast paced and blurry.
Yeah, parents had problems with the movie at the time, I guess because the turtles sliced and diced some rotten teens on a rooftop, but hey, those kids were bad apples, they needed to be taught a lesson. Well maybe not getting cut up by a sword lesson, but a lesson nonetheless.
The characters were perfectly played in my eyes, from Leonardo to Casey Jones to Shredder, who by the way has been the best version so far in the movies. Which brings me to the point, why the hell cant they make a decent ninja turtle movie? I dont get it.
With all that said I'm just stating fact here, the MVP of that movie is Leonardo. The leader of the group took out more foot soldiers than the rest and he had more strikes against Shredder at the end.
Hell, even Shredders second in command Tatsu was decent in the damn movie.
All in all it was a great movie and I'm still waiting for a decent second movie and its been almost thirty years. I really wish Disney would buy the rights and develop a MCU like version of the ninja turtles, maybe develop it as the IDW comics storylines did but no, we will be stuck with Michael Bay like versions no one wants.