How did I not know about this movie until now? I was born in 1980, so I was 7 when the cartoon first aired and I even remember some of the darker comic books before they went mainstream. The saddest thing about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise is that the best thing they’ve ever produced was in 1990 when the original live action film was released. I’ve shown the classic gem to friends and students here in Laos who’ve never seen it and they can tell it’s not CGI, it’s over three decades old, but it looks real. They always asked the same thing, “How did they do it?”
I’ve given ALL of the TMNT flicks a try over the years, but none have ever really even come close to capturing the magic of the first film. As a ten year old boy, it was the only film I remember that was a bigger deal than Star Wars. I also remember going to see it in a big theater with my friend Mike and we noticed this “old lady” in front of us sitting alone. She was friendly, but we were very surprised to see that a 24-year-old was also a turtle fan like us. In Catholic school, my teacher was very amused that in my version of heaven, I would choose to be a mutant turtle.
The Movie
Warner Brothers, nickelodeon, and DC has brought the turtles, the Footclan, and Shredder to Gotham City. Batman -vs- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has cheap Saturday morning animation, but the voice acting and ninja story kept me entertained. Did anyone else dream of being a ninja as a kid? I didn’t find out it wasn’t a real job and there was never going to be a ninja academy scholarship in my future until I was almost 13. Even though it’s been many years, I can still use most of the turtles’ weapons I practiced with for hours and hours in the woods. Mikey is my favorite turtle and I was always a Bruce Lee fan so I’m pretty handy with nunchuku.
I felt the characters all stayed true to form and used their weapons in brutal ways in this animated action adventure crossover. I won’t ruin or spoil the story for you. I’ll just say that I would have loved to watch this as a kid. Overall, I’d give this four out of five stars.
The Game
Remembering that I’m NOT a genius and someone else may have had this idea or even hoping the game already exists, I Googled it and found this awesome Reddit post by AuntieJamima. They posted a rad CGI video that looks like a gritty claymation of the fight mechanics if the TMNT were in a Batman game. I think it would be cool if the turtles borrowed some of Batman’s tech and could fly up and glide down on hoverboards from the future too. It would be so fun to go on five person online adventures as Batman, Leo, Raphael, Donny, and Mikey. If this ever becomes a real game, please leave me a NFT tip in the future…
