I will admit, the first film is by far the superior film of the TMNT series. I mean it was dark, edgier, and even had Casey Jones in the film. But I was a kid and all I saw in front of my eyes was another chance to break out those nunchucks and karate chop the air in a furious enjoyment as the Turtles were back and Vanilla Ice was doing the sound track. Sure, my refined tastes in film has allowed me to discern between good and bad films, but I will never, ever, grow tired of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, expect for that shit third film where they travel back in time. What a load of horse shit that was.
The crime-fighting Turtles — Michaelangelo (Michelan Sisti), Donatello (Leif Tilden), Raphael (Kenn Troum), and Leonardo (Mark Caso) — return in this quickly made sequel to the popular superheroes’ first film. The story concerns arch-enemy Shredder, who kidnaps nutty professor Jordan Perry David Warner, the man who invented the infamous ooze, in order to use the ooze to destroy the Turtles. Shredder enlists his hapless wolf named Rahzar and a baby snapping turtle named Tokka and dips them in the ooze to turn them into horrible and imposing ninja warriors. But on the Turtles’ side is proficient kick-boxing pizza boy Keno (Ernie Reyes Jr.), who uses his moves to help the Turtles stop Shredder and his monster warriors. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
While I lament the fact that Rocksteady and Bebop are missing from the Turtles franchise, I guess having Tokka and Rahzar is ok…i guess. Still the fact that we got a more wacky Turtles film appeased the kid in me, while I missed the dark edge that the first film had. In reality, who cares! It was the turtles saying shit like “Cowabunga” and “tubular” and fighting the Foot and being turtles. I loved the hell out of this movie for the sheer fun it presented. Yeah a bit more weapon use would have been cool, maybe stabbing someone with their swords, but I will take karate fighting turtles over nothing.
The movie itself did go into a big overhaul from the first film. The tone is lighter and focuses more on zany action sequences and fighting, rather than letting the characteristics of the turtles we have grown up with take flight. No witty comebacks or one liners, but more prat falling and karate chopping. It is a much slicker looking film than the grimy, dark feature film that kicked off turtle mania. It is made for a much wider audience than those that read the comic books that it was based on, but can you blame the studios for capitalizing on the craze for turtles?
I can’t remember how many times I saw this movie as a kid or even now as a fully grown adult at the age of 27. I still find time to throw out a “Ninja…vanish” line whenever I can leave the room without a trace. This is more so a part of my childhood that I will have strong connections with this movie. Yeah it was comical, farcical, and terribly cheesy, but it still brings up memories of playing “Ninja Rap” on repeat by Vanilla Ice while I simulated battles between my Super Shredder action figure with the turtle gang. It is a movie that I will never look down on, mainly cause I have my childhood attached to this film. If I tried to destroy this film, I would be destroying a piece of me. Even with the change in film mood and tone, TMNT II is still an awesome movie with fights, rapping, mutated animals and a villain who doesn’t even do anything and dies. Seriously, The Shredder does fuck all in this movie and is defeated by his own stupidity. What a lame villain.
