TMNT

I was there when the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic was launched. Yep, I am that old. Sigh. But anyway, I was never a huge fan of the comics and I thought the movies in the past were mediocre at best. I didn't really hear much about this movie and I only saw the trailer when I downloaded it like two nights ago. This time round, the studios decided to do a fully animated feature rather than the live actions movies in the past.

I think the gamble paid off.

I pretty much enjoyed the whole movie. I thought the animation (though not cutting edge) was adequate, the story was acceptable and the characterization of the the four turtles were pretty well done. As I sat through the credits, I realized much of the work was done in Hong Kong and I think that added to the pretty well choreographed fight scenes in the movie.

The other thing I liked about the movie is that while they had some really funny cartoon moments, the director didn't dumb down the movie so that it would appeal only to kids. There is the 'adult-ish' struggle of Leonardo trying to be a leader and of course the universal story about family. To top it off, they even had some of my popular celebrities doing the voices. April (the human heroine) is voiced by none other than my TV dahling... Sarah Michelle Gellar (of Buffy the Vampire fame)! And the villain in the movie (whose name I can't quite remember) is voiced by the ever respectable Patrick Strewart (of Star Trek fame).

Sadly and surprisingly, Rotten Tomatoes gives this movie an average rating of 13%! I think it deserves much more. Singapore's movie magazine FIRST gives it 4-stars out of 5. I'd agree with that!