TMNT (film)

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TMNT
Directed by	Kevin Munroe
Produced by	Thomas K. Gary Galen Walker
Written by	Comic Book: Kevin Eastman Peter Laird Screenplay: Kevin Munroe
Narrated by	Laurence Fishburne
Starring	Chris Evans Sarah Michelle Gellar Mako Iwamatsu Kevin Smith Patrick Stewart Zhang Ziyi Mitchell Whitfield James Arnold Taylor Mikey Kelley Nolan North
Music by	Klaus Badelt
Editing by	John Damien Ryan
Distributed by	Warner Bros. The Weinstein Company (sales)
Release date(s)	March 22, 2007 March 22, 2007 March 22, 2007 March 23, 2007 March 23, 2007 March 23, 2007 March 29, 2007 March 30, 2007 April 5, 2007 April 4, 2007 April 12, 2007 September 28, 2007
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$34 million
Preceded by	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

TMNT (also known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in some countries) is a 2007 film based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The film sees the Turtles grown apart after their defeat of The Shredder and their sensei, Master Splinter, is trying to keep the family together. Meanwhile, strange things are happening in New York City. An army of ancient creatures threatens to take over the world and the Turtles must unite again to save the world.

It is the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film made of computer-generated imagery (by Imagi Animation Studios), with the previous films being live action. It is the fourth film in the franchise, and the first in 14 years, with the previous film having been released in 1993. Chronologically, the film takes place after the original films. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released on March 22, 2007 in Israel and Russia, on March 23, 2007, in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, and April 5, 2007 in Australia as well as subsequently in numerous other countries. It was the #1 film in the U.S. on its opening weekend, bringing in $25.45 million dollars.

The film features the four Turtles — Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo — as well as Splinter, Casey Jones and April O'Neil. Its main villains are Max Winters, and Karai and the Foot Clan. Voices are provided by Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Patrick Stewart and Ziyi Zhang. It is also the last film by Mako Iwamatsu.

[edit] Plot

The movie begins by telling of an ancient band of warriors, who could never be defeated in battle and who wished to conquer the world. Their leader discovered a ritual that takes place during the alignment of a certain constellation, and uses it to gain immortality. In exchange, however, the other warriors are turned into stone and thirteen monsters were released. In the present day, a village in Central America has been protected by a mysterious ghost of the jungle. April O'Neil, sent to retrieve an ancient artifact from the jungle by the wealthy Max Winters, begins to look into the stories and finds that the "ghost" is actually the Ninja Turtle Leonardo, who has been training for Master Splinter. April tells him that after the defeat of their old arch nemesis, The Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Donatello works as an information technology consultant. Michelangelo, in order to bring money in, has taken a job as a masked children's birthday party character (known as "Cowabunga Carl"). No one is sure what Raphael is up to, but it is revealed that he has been scouring the streets at night as a masked vigilante, the Nightwatcher, taking a page from Casey Jones' book.^[1] Struggling to keep the family together, Splinter then realizes that strange things are starting to happen in New York, ones that include his sons.

Immortal tech-industrialist Max Winters, who attempted to conquer the world three thousand years ago by amassing an army of monsters using an ancient device to open a portal during an alignment of nine stars, is seemingly at work at the plot again. In the process, he reawakens his siblings, called the "Stone Generals", from their sleep (the four having been recovered unknowingly by April). Furthermore, Winters has enlisted the help of Karai, a minion of the erstwhile Shredder,^[2] who is intent on restoring the glory of her late master. Karai has assumed leadership of the fearsome Foot Clan and throughout the majority of the film, she is an elusive, adept ninja and commander who directs her troops in accordance with Winters' wishes of opening the portal.

As the film progresses, the Turtles reacquaint with one another and enlist the help of their old allies, Casey Jones and April O'Neil, in order to put a stop to Winters' plans and save the world. Leonardo returns to New York City and re-assumes the leadership of his brothers, though this creates much contention between Raph and Leo; with much of movie focusing on the discord between the two, ending in a duel between the them which Raph feels will determine the true leader of the Turtles. The battle grows on and ends with Raphael the victor. Raphael's sais were intertwined with Leonardo's katanas and the last strike breaks the katana blades and Raphael pins Leonardo to the ground. Coming to the realization of what he had done and fearing his actions, Raphael runs off. Leonardo assaulted soon after this, and is captured by the Stone Generals, who have turned against Winters in not wanting to return to being a mortal. Hearing Leonardo's painful scream, Raphael runs back to track the usurpers, though to no avail.

Raphael returns home angry with himself and, much like Leonardo before him, calls upon Master Splinter for leadership advice. Raphael admits to his sensei that he realizes why Leonardo was chosen over him. Splinter reminds him that while he may not be the greatest student, that does not make him any less the old rat's son; Raphael, like Leonardo, is a strong, loyal and brave warrior, but in order to be a leader these qualities must be tempered by humility and patience. The old rat decides that the time for hiding is now over. The three brothers then set out to save Leonardo and, with the help of Splinter, Jones, and O'Neil, they take on the Foot in their attempt to rescue Leonardo. They rescue their leader and Raphael has new katana blades for Leonardo. Raphael then asks Leonardo to lead them and mentions that they need him. In a touching scene of brotherly love, Leonardo returns the statement, "I need you, too [on this team]!" With that statement, the team is finally whole.

Although Winters is considered evil by the Turtles and their allies throughout the film, he ultimately is redeemed by his good intentions; his motives for opening the portal were to return thirteen beasts already released to where they came from, return his siblings to mortality and flesh, and restore his own mortality. One of the Soldiers realizes Winters' true intentions and begins to rally the others into mutiny, though the Turtles ultimately thwart this attempt, with the help of Jones, O'Neil, the Foot Clan and Master Splinter. After the battle is won, Karai says that even though the Foot Clan helped them this time, they will return for revenge with the help of "familiar faces", implying the return of the Shredder. The brothers look at each other in astonishment, with Raph saying, "You don't think she means...". Karai and the rest of the Foot ninjas vanish in a puff of smoke.

Winters, after thanking April, Casey, and the Turtles for their help of returning his mortality, levitates into the air and disentegrates, leaving only his helmet. The next scene shows Splinter back at the lair placing Winters' helmet on a shelf along with other helmets, one of them being the Shredder's. Raphael asks if he has room for one more, and places his Nightwatcher helmet on the shelf. Mikey then asks if he can put his Cowabunga Carl mask in there with them. The film ends with the Turtles jumping and flipping over rooftops of the city with Raphael's voiceover, "We live together, train together, and fight together and that's why we'll always be...brothers. Oh, I love bein' a turtle!"

[edit] Production

The first of three films released in the TMNT franchise by New Line Cinema in the early 1990s was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Subsequently, The Secret of the Ooze was released in 1991, and finally Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III in 1993. The 1993 film was the last TMNT film released until 2007. A CGI TMNT movie was first announced in 2000, with John Woo supposedly at the helm. That movie languished in development hell, however, and John Woo ultimately moved on to other projects.^[3] TMNT departs from the previous films' live action style, and is the first TMNT film to be CGI. Writer/Director Kevin Munroe, who had previously worked with video games, comics and television animation said that he wanted to do total CGI instead of live action and CGI turtles because it would be easier for the audience to "suspend disbelief for such an offbeat story" as there would be no break in the reality between CGI and live action.^[4] Producer Tom Gray explained that the decision to depart from the live action franchise was due to escalating budgets for the three films, and with each film making less than its predecessor, a CGI film became a reality.^[5] For example the first film made $135.2 million on a budget of $13.5 million, and the third made $44 million on a budget of $21 million.^[5] The rights expired with Golden Harvest, and Gray, at an animation company, said the question arose there over a CGI TMNT film in 2004.^[5]

Before Kevin Munroe was hired as director and writer, Munroe first had to gain the approval by Turtles co-creator Peter Laird. Not knowing if they'd ever meet again, Munroe brought an original copy of the first issue of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book for Laird to sign. After spending a day discussing his ideas with Laird, Munroe left the meeting unsure if he would get the film. Later, he would open the comic to see a drawing Laird had done of Raphael, one of the turtles, with the words "Dear Kevin . . . make a good movie . . . or else."^[6]

Munroe stated in terms of the story line that ideas were floated as extreme as the Turtles being in space, but eventually it just came back to New York City, and the theme of the family that had fallen apart.^[5] When writing the screenplay, Munroe wanted to take on a less lighthearted tone or "less Cowabunga" and emphasis on dark elements as shown in the original comics to appeal to the mature audience. "I had a very specific tone because mixing that sort of action and comedy is a very specific thing. Most people were just coming and wanting to make it too funny. I think that version of the movie could do really well, but we wanted to do something where it sort of pushes the envelope a little bit more and says that animation is more than just comedic animals bumping into each other and farting!"^[7] Munroe said that both in design and in the rendering of the animation he was after the feel of a comic book.^[5]

Production for TMNT began on June of 2005^[8] with a budget estimated between $35 to 40 million.^[8][9] Other sources stated the budget is $34 million.^[10][11] Development and pre-production took place at Imagi's Los Angeles facility and then the state-of-the-art CG animation were produced in Hong Kong, followed by post-production in Hollywood.^[8] For designing the New York backdrop, art director/concept artist Simon Murton stylized the familiar Manhattan skyline and urban landscapes to make them appear uniquely "TMNT." "We began with cinematic cues from certain black-and-white films from the 1940s and '50s," notes Murton. "I really wanted to push the lighting and the environments to create the look and feel of an alternate reality."^[12] The animators that worked on the fight sequences were inspired by Hong Kong action films. Animation director Kim Ooi explains since it was in CG, they were able to "push and stylize beyond the limits of live action."^[12] Imagi used Maya with Pixar’s RenderMan for the production pipeline’s back-end.^[9]

The cast is new compared to the older films. Jim Cummings is the only past TMNT actor to appear in this film. Cummings has previously contributed voice-work in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. TMNT was Mako Iwamatsu's last film prior to his death. Mako was announced as the voice of Splinter at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 20, 2006. He then passed away the next day. It has been reported that he had previously recorded a majority of his dialogue for the film, making this his last film.^[13] A dedication to Mako appears at the end of the film's credits.^[14]

[edit] Cast

Left to Right: Michelangelo, Donatello, Master Splinter, Leonardo, Raphael, April O'Neil, Casey Jones.

[edit] Promotion

An alternative poster, showing Donatello.

The first teaser poster featured the 2003 show's logo, which was eventually abandoned. In addition to the main poster, there were several others including individual ones for each turtle. - - At the 2006 Comic-Con, the TMNT panel screened an exclusive preview that contained a Splinter voiceover with shots of monsters, jungles, foot ninjas, facial tests, concept designs, muscle tests, dynamic fight tests and some comedic scenes.^[15] Also, a sneak peek booklet containing storyboards, environment designs and character designs by comic artist Jeff Matsuda were distributed.

The teaser was released in July 2006. It starts out with the camera moving above the buildings on a dark night. When it finally stops moving, the turtles open their eyes and all that can be seen is the whites of their eyes against the dark background. Then, the turtles start maneuvering across the tops of the buildings, finally jumping down and landing in a dark alleyway. As each one lands, they perform kata with their respective weapon. After Leonardo finishes with his kata, Michelangelo can be seen falling into a dumpster. As Donatello opens the dumpster, Michelangelo says "I'm okay." A police siren is heard and then the car pulls up. The officer shines his light down the alley, but the turtles have already disappeared. The camera pans down the alley to show a manhole cover being slid back into place, with the name "TMNT" on it. The movie's full trailer was attached on December 15 to the films Eragon and Unaccompanied Minors. It is currently available on Apple Trailers, MTV.com and Yahoo! Movies. It also debuted on the G4 show Attack of the Show.

On February 26, two television spots debuted and began airing. Later, two more TV spots, geared specifically toward the young children demographic aired on 4Kids TV, the channel that broadcast the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 TV series).

In Feburary 2007, Warner Bros. began an online campaign by creating a MySpace page for each of the turtles . Within a week before the release date, several clips were unveiled through various websites.

The McDonald's fast-food chain is promoting TMNT, having eight toys to collect with the purchase of a Happy Meal. There is a novelization based on the film. - - The film was originally set for release domestically (USA and Canada) on March 30, 2007, which would have been the seventeeth anniversary of the release of the first film. The March 30 date was advertised in the teaser trailer and early posters, but the release was moved up to March 23, 2007. Incidentally, Disney's Meet the Robinsons, another computer-animated film was released on March 30, 2007.

[edit] Video game

Main article: TMNT (game)

The video game version of the movie was released three days before the actual movie's release.^[16] Ubisoft has secured the rights and released the game on March 20. Ubisoft won the rights from Konami, who had produced all the previous games.^[17] The game is available for PlayStation 2, PSP, PC, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, GameCube, Wii and Xbox 360, game systems. The Wii version has little functionality geared towards its controller.

"The TMNT movie is all about the emotions associated with family and teenage angst," said Nick Harper, the game's creative director. "We've taken that philosophy and turned it into gameplay mechanics that will be fun and challenging.^[18] The game features collaborative team-ups between the turtles. However, the game also features single-player campaigns for the brothers.

[edit] Music

1. Gym Class Heroes - "Shell Shock"
2. Jet - "Rip It Up"
3. Cute Is What We Aim For - "There's A Class For This"
4. Cobra Starship - "Awww Dip"
5. Meg and Dia - "Roses"
6. Pepper - "Bring Me Along"
7. Amber Pacific - "Fall Back Into My Life"
8. Billy Talent - "Red Flag"
9. This Providence - "Walking on Water
10. Ever We Fall - "Youth Like Tigers"
11. P.O.D. - "Lights Out (Chris Vrenna Remix)"
12. Big City Rock - "Black Betty"
13. Klaus Badelt - "I Love Being A Turtle (Score)"
14. Klaus Badelt - "Nightwatcher (Score)"

The soundtrack is currently available on Atlantic Records.

[edit] Reception

SuperHeroHype.com posted a review for TMNT with an overall score of 7/10, stating the film had a good balance of dark aspects and kid-friendliness. IGN.com also gave it 7/10, calling it "by far, the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie yet." The film received an 8/10 from reviewers on JoBlo.com and Moviesonline. Despite minor problems with the overall design of the human characters, they praise the film for its unique animation style, top notch voice acting, and character driven story. They cite it as a movie that really appeals to both kids and fans alike.

Mainstream critics were less impressed with the film, resulting in a 32%^[19] aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics generally pointed to lack of originality as the film's main flaw; a lack of knowledge of the source material may have also negatively affected their opinion. Richard Roeper expressed this in his review, saying, "I guess if you read the comic strip and you played the video games and you watched the TV show and dug the earlier movies, you’ll dig this new version. For me, I didn’t do any of that stuff." In contrast, users of RottenTomatoes.com rated the movie with a freshness of 79% as of March 29.^[20] Also, on IMDB it has gained a relatively good rating of 7.0.

TMNT ranked number one at the box office on its opening weekend, beating out 300 (the top film of the previous two weeks), The Last Mimzy, Shooter, Pride, The Hills Have Eyes 2, and Reign Over Me. Weekend estimates showed that the film made $25.45 million over the weekend of March 24-26, 2007.^[10]

[edit] Trivia

• Specific dialogue makes references to the previous live-action films. While under attack by one of the Stone Generals, Casey Jones says "And I thought girl scouts were pushy!". This was spoken by Michaelangelo in the first film, though he said "insurance salesmen". In the battle with the foot clan he also says "two minutes for high sticking!", which was one of his lines from his introduction in the same film. The very last line of the film, spoken by Raphael is "Man, I love being a turtle!", which has been spoken in each of the previous films.
• When the turtles are eating breakfast, Michelangelo is seen putting cereal on his pizza. All four turtles did the same thing in the second episode of season one from the 80s cartoon series.
• Towards the end of the film, several items are shown that reference the live action movies. These include: Shredder's helmet and staff, the canister of ooze that mutated the turtles and Splinter (labeled TCRI instead of TGRI, though the crack is strategically placed to work either way), a Foot Ninja mask, the time scepter, Walker's hat, and pieces of the battle suits of armor worn by the Turtles in the third film.
• In a recent interview, director Kevin Munroe stated that he'd like to direct a possible sequel, possibly involving the return of the Shredder.^[21]
• There are two arcade machines in the Turtle's lair. The one on the left shows the Glider part from the bottom of the Turtle Blimp from the original cartoon, while later on it shows Casey Jones playing a game with the Turtles van that Mikey drives throughout the film and the one on the right features the character Zeus from Imagi's CG animated TV series Zentrix.
• Despite the film taking place in New York City, only one real life New York landmark was shown, the Brooklyn Bridge. Several skyline shots where shown in the film, but none of the buildings shown were actually real. The shape of Manhattan was shown, along with Brooklyn and New Jersey, yet Staten Island did not appear where it should have in the shot. Most of the movie took place in what could be the central part of Manhattan, consisting mainly of lowrise to midrise apartment buildings. However, only one real life district actually appeared, Chinatown. The city had been completly redone, there was no Midtown or Downtown, but just one main fictional skyline, dominated by the WintersCorp Tower.
• All four films were released in March of their respective years.
• This film was released a week before the 17th anniversary of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1 day after the 16th anniversary of The Secret of the Ooze, and 4 days after the 14th anniversary for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• 2007 in film

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Imagi's TMNT Official website
• TMNT at the Internet Movie Database
• TMNT hype at the SuperHeroHype!
• TMNT at Rotten Tomatoes
• Official Mirage Studios website
• TMNT Preview at YourGeekNews.com Featuring Exclusive Scenes and Interviews with cast and crew.
• OOZE & AHHHS The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles burst back onto the big screen with a new look, a 'Sin City'-like attitude and the brother vs. brother showdown you've been waiting to see
• MoviesForGuys.com Review