August 24, 2023
Because he disagreed with how the Techno Cosmic Research Institute head Cynthia Utrom (Maya Utrom (Maya Rudolph) wanted to use his mutant-creating technology, scientist Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito) went into hiding. One night, TCRI agents caused an explosion in Stockman's lab that killed him and his family of mutant animals, while one vial of his green ooze rolled down into the maze-like sewers of New York City.
Fifteen years later, there were four teenage humanoid turtles -- improv comedian in orange Michaelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), big burly in red Raphael (Brady Noon), bespectacled geek in purple Donatello (Micah Abbey), and their anxious leader in blue Leonardo (Nicholas Cantu) -- who lived in the sewers, The brothers were raised by their over-protective father, an old rat named Splinter (Jackie Chan), who taught them martial arts.
Their first human friend April O'Neil (Ayo Edebiri of "The Bear") was also still a dorky teenager in high school here. She wanted to be a reporter but the camera made her extremely nervous and notoriously so. The antagonist here is a sociopathic mutant fly named Superfly (Ice Cube), who led a squad of other mutant creatures, including warthog Bebop (Seth Rogan), rhino Rocksteady (John Cena) and Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd), among others.
The main story here was how the turtles wanted to mingle in the human society above, something Splinter always warned them against. The turtles thought that stopping Superfly and gang can make them into heroes whom the humans will love. However, when they meet the other animal mutants, they also felt a bond with them because of their common origins, hence tough decisions needed to be made.
This script took Seth Rogan and four more people to write. It was set in the present day, with numerous fun references to pop singers like Beyonce and Adele, and movies like "Ferris Bueller's Day Off," "Avengers Endgame" and "Attack on Titan." The musical soundtrack included a couple of 90s earworm hits -- Blackstreet's "No Diggity" during an "OldBoy"-inspired fight scene, and 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up" during a crazy car chase scene.
Director Jeff Rowe was just nominated for an Oscar for his last project "Mitchells and the Machines" (2021) even with its anti-Disney style artwork. The artwork of this new film is even bolder, with raw, rough "sketches" with thick lines and bold colors done using pastel crayons. It is this novel-looking, deliberately unrefined artwork style that gave this film its unique quality that makes it more memorable than if the original art style was retained. 7/10.
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