You guys lose me when you dive into continuities, because not only am I not a huge fan of the 2003 Turtles (I tried to keep interest but I lost it in the first season somewhere), but The Turtles are much bigger than that. It's so much of a pop culture force that you don't really need to put certain slivers into time lines or formats. 80s Shredder, 80s Krang, 80s Turtles, you roughly know their story, here they are, let's make a movie.
Much of what has been said is how I feel. Some of what has been said is complete blasphemy, whether you're blinded by nostalgia goggles or not. I am not, which I remembered from my repeat airings of the 80s Turtles Toon from their DVD releases, but like many I do very logically and strongly believe that the writing used to make the 80s Toon Turtles seem goofy was weakly done.
It was for the sake of the movie's story, so I'm not going to be all nerdy offended by it. I always found their retardedness from the old show to be part 80s/90s and partly the fact that they didn't grow up in a sewer away from humans and other teenagers.
I know how inaccurate and unfair it is to use such a general scope to view the old show, because I could do the same thing with the 2003 show and it's equally not very nice. I didn't like the fact that a cool underground lair just fell into their laps, their catch phrases and early jokes are twinge-worthy in their desperate attempt to be hip and cool, and they would call the 80s Toon Turtles goofy while I remember an episode where the four 2k3 boys went out training and flipping around practicing their "ninja skills," meanwhile what they were doing was jumping from rooftop to rooftop shouting and woo-hoo-ing loud enough for anyone to poke their head out the window to gawk at them being all stealthy.
Someone made an excellent point about how they made fun of their "Ainti-Technodrome gear" but never once made mention of the stuff that was actually cool, like the Cheapskate, which Donatello named because it was effective, but didn't cost a lot to make. Way to go, Donnie, who by the way wouldn't mistake a wrench for a hammer.
The fourth wall stuff was okay, for the most part. It was funny, because it was a fun part of the old goofy cartoon, but it went on for so long that it almost felt like characters who didn't acknowledge the fourth wall bit were themselves breaking the fourth wall by doing so!
What I do have a bias with, though, is my 80s Toon Shredder. I don't like his goofy aspect, so I crave the cool HUMAN Oroku Saki from the early 80s Toon days and the first live action movie like a fat man craves a fresh box of Krispy Kreme, because that's all I have of him -Early old toon and movie. I appreciate the devious villainous nature of the Utrom Shredder of course. But I need my evil outcast martial arts master from Japan, not to mention his rival and former brother Hamato Yoshi.
Giving the new VO actors who voiced the 80s Turtles a B or B+ is fine, but to say they are equal or better than the originals is blasphemous. 80s Toon Turtles or not, the originals are VO icons from my day, and they can only be imitated. Rob Paulson's resume will knock your socks off if you read all of his excellent and memorable AND plentiful work. And Cam Clarke's voice is a leader (That's old school Leonardo for those keeping track).
Speaking of the old school original VOs, Shredder is ALSO among my favorites and kudos to earlier posts referring to him as "Uncle Phil." LOL! That guy rocked. Granted, like the others, I can understand if you can't get me the originals. Heck, I don't necessarily want them to do it, but like I said: imitated. Never duplicated.
Darkwing Duck is a special guest on Gargoyles? Adam West's Batman is a special guest in the Dark Knight movie? I appreciate the perspective, but I don't think I need a Glen Beck chalkboard collage (resembling the kids' placemat at a restaurant) as proof that these are incredibly inaccurate comparisons. Even if Darkwing Duck resembles 80s TMNT, which it definitely does, a piece of animated brilliance like Gargoyles, or cinematic brilliance like the Dark Knight, does not equal the 2003 TMNT cartoon. Besides, the 80s Toon Turtle show 'played itself for laughs,' not 'for laugh's at anyone's expense.'
The reason for the crying from the Technodrome forums? They're shallow goofy as heck but the one deep part of their characters in the movie they reflect on and feel is their fear, desperation, and sadness? Nope. Admittedly good try, but I don't buy it.
Yes, YES OH GOD YES I'm afraid so. My friend, it's even in the opening theme. It's a shell of a town!!! It was used once in the first movie, which had a darker, PG-13 type of feel with it, so it's okay. In that cartoon it was just overkill after its first use. A better time for one-liners and hip jokes was the 80s and 90s. You couldn't go wrong if you didn't mind campy.
With that said, and everything else off my chest, it's still impossible to give a thumbs down to this movie: Go Green Machine! Thanks for the fun ride, everyone who was involved with the project!