While with plot issues and overreliance on exposition, the movie is a blast artistically and characterisation wise. I relish the prospect of any future animation project as we go through this Animation Revolution. As long as they don't lose track of what makes animated movies tick, I welcome more!
I'll start with the good, this movie is obviously a piece of art. Each aspect is done with as much care and style as any actual piece of art, regardless of whether or not you like what they are trying to do. For instance, I didn't like the horrific human designs and disgusting portrayal of human locales but I respect the fact that the artistic direction is going this way deliberately. They aimed for this vision and went with it the whole way, and I applaud them for that. That added with a classic dose of Nickelodeon goo obsession and you got a genuine experience.
The characterisation is engaging and most importantly authentic, you truly believe there are teenagers voicing these turtles as they talk, act and think like one. The side characters also had great characterisation, particularly the new characters; I just had some reservations with the portrayal of Splinter and April. I didn't like the direction they took them in this version of the TMNT but I can get on board with what they went for. I personally think the portrayal of a stoic, strict, wise martial arts dad on part of Splinter is part of the DNA and the essence of his fatherhood, he is strict with them because of his martial arts sensei persona. Having him forbidding the turtles from going to the human world because "they didn't accept them when they showed up out of the blue" it's a bit weak narratively and doesn't play into his supposed age-given wisdom. And April's arc of acceptance in High School resonates with that of the turtles, but I feel the human world is not built up enough to let us into her actual world or New York city for that matter. I know it's not fair to compare, but Spider-verse did a better job at letting us into the heads of "the general public" reacting to the extraordinary circumstances that were happening. Here, we only get a bunch of news reports reporting in a very black and white way and I know it's played for laughs but sometimes it feels the movie doesn't take itself seriously, at least emotionally.
It rushes through scene after scene, joke after joke, action set piece to the next to get the flow going but it rarely ever slows down to swell up the music and let us sink in the moment. I think there was one scene, when they were grounded they had a heart to heart when they talked to each other, another when they were walking in the sewers after saving April and the lighting is perfect. I don't know, I feel like subtlety is always better than erratically expressing feelings or overall not digging deep enough. I lack an emotional engagement with the plot and characters in this movie. Because I could have overseen the actual plot of this movie which never really climaxes into an emotional one as much as they tried. Surely it is unique in execution, the villains definitely are not one dimensional in this aspect but they do decide one dimensionally to turn on the bad guy in a whim and without any sense of remorse. And this wouldn't feel strange if the relationship between them and the bad guy wasn't built as a healthy "family type" one. I don't know, some decisions seem to have been made to move the plot forward and not for trying to tell a moving emotional and cathartic plot or character arc.
And the last issue I have with the movie is the teenage angle. While the actors had authentic chemistry and age-appropriate behavior and dialogue, unfortunately the reliance on current world references and trends like twerking and current movie moments or even anime (attack on titan) to explain a plot point; it's a very poor way to connect with the teenage spirit. While the references to current pop culture media is okay and the use of smartphones is subdued in the movie while still representing the smartphone-obsessed era we live in, highlighting trends like twerking which, while popular, was never received as a positive trend and therefore make the movie cringy is not a decision that will date the movie in a good way. I don't know, some aspects of the movie really references specific fads that have not gone down in a popular way. And this goes with any reference to very specific outdatable content like memes, online fads and social media trends. I'd stay away from that if you don't want to be instantly outdatedly cringy.
Aside from that, the movie is definitely unique in style and the animation is superb despite some creative decisions that I subjectively don't like but can get along with. The comedy was decent, some jokes and musical scenes were great but other jokes just felt forced; the characterisation was on point and I love the new characters, specially the Geko. I think we are heading towards the right direction and this movie adds to the new fad of unique Animated movies that I hope we keep on getting.
I'll start with the good, this movie is obviously a piece of art. Each aspect is done with as much care and style as any actual piece of art, regardless of whether or not you like what they are trying to do. For instance, I didn't like the horrific human designs and disgusting portrayal of human locales but I respect the fact that the artistic direction is going this way deliberately. They aimed for this vision and went with it the whole way, and I applaud them for that. That added with a classic dose of Nickelodeon goo obsession and you got a genuine experience.
The characterisation is engaging and most importantly authentic, you truly believe there are teenagers voicing these turtles as they talk, act and think like one. The side characters also had great characterisation, particularly the new characters; I just had some reservations with the portrayal of Splinter and April. I didn't like the direction they took them in this version of the TMNT but I can get on board with what they went for. I personally think the portrayal of a stoic, strict, wise martial arts dad on part of Splinter is part of the DNA and the essence of his fatherhood, he is strict with them because of his martial arts sensei persona. Having him forbidding the turtles from going to the human world because "they didn't accept them when they showed up out of the blue" it's a bit weak narratively and doesn't play into his supposed age-given wisdom. And April's arc of acceptance in High School resonates with that of the turtles, but I feel the human world is not built up enough to let us into her actual world or New York city for that matter. I know it's not fair to compare, but Spider-verse did a better job at letting us into the heads of "the general public" reacting to the extraordinary circumstances that were happening. Here, we only get a bunch of news reports reporting in a very black and white way and I know it's played for laughs but sometimes it feels the movie doesn't take itself seriously, at least emotionally.
It rushes through scene after scene, joke after joke, action set piece to the next to get the flow going but it rarely ever slows down to swell up the music and let us sink in the moment. I think there was one scene, when they were grounded they had a heart to heart when they talked to each other, another when they were walking in the sewers after saving April and the lighting is perfect. I don't know, I feel like subtlety is always better than erratically expressing feelings or overall not digging deep enough. I lack an emotional engagement with the plot and characters in this movie. Because I could have overseen the actual plot of this movie which never really climaxes into an emotional one as much as they tried. Surely it is unique in execution, the villains definitely are not one dimensional in this aspect but they do decide one dimensionally to turn on the bad guy in a whim and without any sense of remorse. And this wouldn't feel strange if the relationship between them and the bad guy wasn't built as a healthy "family type" one. I don't know, some decisions seem to have been made to move the plot forward and not for trying to tell a moving emotional and cathartic plot or character arc.
And the last issue I have with the movie is the teenage angle. While the actors had authentic chemistry and age-appropriate behavior and dialogue, unfortunately the reliance on current world references and trends like twerking and current movie moments or even anime (attack on titan) to explain a plot point; it's a very poor way to connect with the teenage spirit. While the references to current pop culture media is okay and the use of smartphones is subdued in the movie while still representing the smartphone-obsessed era we live in, highlighting trends like twerking which, while popular, was never received as a positive trend and therefore make the movie cringy is not a decision that will date the movie in a good way. I don't know, some aspects of the movie really references specific fads that have not gone down in a popular way. And this goes with any reference to very specific outdatable content like memes, online fads and social media trends. I'd stay away from that if you don't want to be instantly outdatedly cringy.
Aside from that, the movie is definitely unique in style and the animation is superb despite some creative decisions that I subjectively don't like but can get along with. The comedy was decent, some jokes and musical scenes were great but other jokes just felt forced; the characterisation was on point and I love the new characters, specially the Geko. I think we are heading towards the right direction and this movie adds to the new fad of unique Animated movies that I hope we keep on getting.