TMNT (film)

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TMNT
Poster of TMNT
Directed by	Kevin Munroe
Produced by	Thomas K. Gray Galen Walker
Written by	Comic Book: Kevin Eastman Peter Laird Screenplay: Kevin Munroe
Narrated by	Laurence Fishburne
Starring	Chris Evans Sarah Michelle Gellar Mako Iwamatsu Kevin Smith Patrick Stewart Zhang Ziyi Mitchell Whitfield James Arnold Taylor Mikey Kelley Nolan North
Music by	Klaus Badelt
Editing by	John Damien Ryan
Distributed by	Warner Bros. The Weinstein Company (sales)
Release date(s)	March 23, 2007 March 23, 2007 March 23, 2007 April 5, 2007 April 4, 2007 April 25, 2007 May 18, 2007 September 28, 2007 June 1, 2007
Running time	86 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$34 million
Gross revenue	$95,004,670
Preceded by	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III
Followed by	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles V
Official website
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Ratings
Canada:	PG
United Kingdom:	PG
United States:	PG

TMNT (also known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in some countries) is a 2007 film based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The film sees the Turtles grow apart after their defeat of The Shredder. Meanwhile, strange things are happening in New York City. An army of ancient creatures threatens to take over the world and the Turtles must unite again to save it.

It is the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film made of computer-generated imagery (by Imagi Animation Studios), with the previous films being live action. It is the fourth film in the franchise, and the first in 14 years, with the previous film having been released in 1993. Chronologically, the film takes place after the original films.^[1][2] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released on March 23, 2007 in a number of Eastern European and Asian countries^[3], on March 23, 2007, in the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, and April 5, 2007 in Australia as well as subsequently in numerous other countries. It was the #1 film in the U.S. on its opening weekend, bringing in $25.45 million.

The film features the four Turtles (Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo) as well as Splinter, Casey Jones, and April O'Neil. Its main villains are Max Winters, Karai, and the Foot Clan. Voices are provided by Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Patrick Stewart, and Zhang Ziyi. It is also the last film by Mako Iwamatsu.

Contents 1 Plot 2 Voice cast 3 Production 4 Promotion 5 Video game 6 Soundtrack 7 Reception 8 DVD release 9 References 10 See also 11 External links

[edit] Plot

The film opens with a narrated prologue, which states a fictional legend. In this legend, a warrior-king and his four generals lead a military campaign across the world. After many victories, the warrior attempts to become even more powerful by opening a portal to a parallel universe, where a great power was said to be. Opening the portal made him immortal, but turned his generals to stone and released thirteen monsters into his own world. These monsters decimated his army and continue to wreak havoc.

In the present, the Turtles have grown estranged after the death of the Shredder, and no longer fight crime as they once did. Leonardo has gone to Central America, on the orders of Master Splinter, for training. Donatello and Michelangelo have started small businesses in Leonardo’s absence. Raphael, unbeknowst to others, has continued as a lone vigilante known as the Nightwatcher as an outlet after being abandoned by Leonardo. April O'Neil, a friend of the Turtles, has given up journalism and now operates a shipping business with her boyfriend, Casey Jones. Casey has become more lax and less passionate and dynamic. While in Central America on business, April finds Leonardo. She asks him to return to New York and receives his refusal feeling that leaving Donatello in charge everything will be under control. After she leaves, he decides to return.

In New York, April and Casey take a statue that April had found in Central America to Max Winters, the wealthy Chief Executive Officer of a giant corporation. The statue is one of the Generals of the legend, the rest of which are hidden in the building. After April and Casey leave, Max Winters attaches a device to each General, reanimating them. It is revealed that he is the immortal warlord, and suggested that he has also been several influential figures of human history, including one of the Caesars. Winters then summons the Foot Clan, asking them to bring him the thirteen monsters. The Foot Clan is now headed by Karai, a black-haired young woman.

Meanwhile, Leonardo arrives in New York and returns to the lair. He is greeted first by Splinter, who welcomes him warmly and orders him to reunite the team. Later, Leonardo's brothers welcome him back, though Raphael is most reluctant to do so.

Later, as the four Turtles meet on a building to train, the four discover the Foot Clan fighting one of the monsters in a building construction site. In order to stop it from escaping, the four join the fight, but are swiftly defeated. Soon after, the four stone Generals appear, defeat the monster, and capture it. The Turtles return to the sewers before the police arrive. Many more monsters are collected by the stone Generals over the next few hours.

Later that night, Raphael and Casey patrol the city and witness the Generals capturing another monster. Casey notices that the Generals are the same ones whom he and April have been collecting for Winters.

Meeting at April's apartment, Casey tells her what he saw, and April is reminded of the story explaining the statues. In addition to the legend at the beginning, she reveals that the portal will reopen again 3,000 years after it last opened; that is, within the next few days. They all realize that Winters is the warlord. Raphael, putting down Leonardo’s leadership decides to quit the group, and leaves to find his own way of stopping Winters. Meanwhile, the Generals realize that once Winters has all thirteen monsters, their immortality will be forfeit; therefore they begin laying plans against him.

Leonardo is instructed by Splinter to find Raphael later that night, who is still disguised as the Nightwatcher. Leonardo begins confronting the vigilante, whom he does not recognize; Raphael responds by attacking Leonardo. In the resulting fight, Raphael is knocked off on the ground by Leo, revealing the Nightwatcher's true identity to him. After a brief argument, Raphael challenges Leonardo to fight. Leonardo disappointed inevitably accepts. In the fight, Raphael breaks Leo's swords and distracted by this is pinned to the ground. Raphael, with murder in his eyes, realizes his actions by the deep and confused stare of his brother and flees in horror at nearly killing Leonardo. Leonardo watches him go in sadness, and witnesses what his brother has finally found in himself. Leonardo is tranquilized and captured by the Generals, who wish to use him as a substitute for the final monster. Raphael hears his screams, but is too late to help. Raphael returns to the lair, after a brief rage tantrum, he tells Splinter that Leonardo has been captured by the stone Generals. The whole team, including Casey and April, make their plan under Raphael's resolution to get Leonardo back.

At Winters’ headquarters, the interuniversal portal begins to open. Winters realizes that he does not have all of the monsters. He begs his Generals to find the last one, on the grounds that without all of the monsters, they cannot be made mortal again. The Generals wish to retain their immortality; therefore they refuse. Outside the tower, a fierce battle is raging between an army of Foot Ninjas and the Turtle team. Despite their superior numbers, the Foot are unable to prevent the Turtles and their allies from getting into the building.

Once inside, they free Leonardo. Raphael gives him a new pair of swords, and solidifies his loyalty to his brother by accepting him as their leader, Leonardo answers by reinforcing Raphael that he will need his strength. Winters is thrown at the Turtles' feet by the Generals, whereupon Winters reveals his plans to become mortal. The Generals then reveal their plans to use the portal to summon an army of monsters forth into their world, while keeping their immortality. Casey and April, accompanied by Karai, go in search of the last monster while the Turtles and Splinter stay behind to contain the Generals. During the battle between the Turtles and the Generals, Casey and April return with the last monster following them. The monster is tricked into running into the portal, taking the Generals with it.

The Foot soldiers approach the Turtles; Karai tells them to enjoy their victory, because they will soon be in another battle, wherein will be "familiar faces from your past". They then depart, leaving the Turtles confused as to whether or not she means to imply the return of the Shredder. Winters acknowledges his debt to the Turtles, then happily dies, rising into the air and changing into golden dust before their eyes.

Reunited and bound in common purpose, the Turtles resume patrolling New York City and practicing their martial skills as a team, and family. The film concludes with the often repeated line "Man, I love being a turtle!".

[edit] Voice cast

• James Arnold Taylor as Leonardo
• Mitchell Whitfield as Donatello
• Mikey Kelley as Michelangelo
• Nolan North as Raphael / Nightwatcher
• Chris Evans as Casey Jones
• Sarah Michelle Gellar as April O'Neil
• Mako as Master Splinter
• Patrick Stewart as Max Winters
• Laurence Fishburne as Narrator
• Zhang Ziyi as Karai
• John DiMaggio as Colonel Santino
• Paula Mattioli as General Serpiente
• Kevin Michael Richardson as General Aguila
• Fred Tatasciore as General Gato
• Kevin Smith as Diner Cook
• Billy West as various characters

[edit] Production

The first of three films released in the TMNT franchise by New Line Cinema in the early 1990s was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Subsequently, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze was released in 1991, and finally Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III in 1993. A CGI TMNT movie was first announced in 2000, with John Woo supposedly at the helm. That movie languished in development hell, however, and Woo ultimately moved on to other projects.^[4] TMNT departs from the previous films' live action style, and is the first TMNT film to be CGI. Writer/Director Kevin Munroe, who had previously worked with video games, comics, and television animation said that he wanted to do total CGI instead of live action and CGI turtles because it would be easier for the audience to "suspend disbelief for such an offbeat story" as there would be no break in the reality between CGI and live action.^[5] Producer Tom Gray explained that the decision to depart from the live action franchise was due to escalating budgets for the three films, and with each film making less than its predecessor, a CGI film became a reality.^[6] For example the first film made $135.2 million on a budget of $13.5 million, and the third made $44 million on a budget of $21 million.^[6] Golden Harvest's rights expired, and Gray, at an animation company, said the question arose there over a CGI TMNT film in 2004.^[6]

Before Kevin Munroe was hired as director and writer, Munroe first had to gain the approval by Turtles co-creator Peter Laird. Not knowing if they'd ever meet again, Munroe brought an original copy of the first issue of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book for Laird to sign. After spending a day discussing his ideas with Laird, Munroe left the meeting unsure if he would get the film. Later, he would open the comic to see a drawing Laird had done of Raphael, one of the turtles, with the words "Dear Kevin...make a good movie...or else."^[7]

Munroe stated in terms of the story line that ideas were floated as extreme as the Turtles being in space, but eventually it just came back to New York City, and the theme of the family that had fallen apart.^[6] When developing the screenplay, Munroe wanted to take on a less lighthearted tone or "less Cowabunga" and place an emphasis on dark elements as shown in the original comics to appeal to the mature audience. "I had a very specific tone because mixing that sort of action and comedy is a very specific thing. Most people were just coming and wanting to make it too funny. I think that version of the movie could do really well, but we wanted to do something where it sort of pushes the envelope a little bit more and says that animation is more than just comedic animals bumping into each other and farting!"^[8] Munroe said that both in design and in the rendering of the animation, he was after the feel of a comic book.^[6]

Production for TMNT began in June of 2005^[9] with a budget estimated between $35 to 40 million.^[9][10] Other sources stated the budget is $34 million.^[11][12] Development and pre-production took place at Imagi's Los Angeles facility and then the state-of-the-art CG animation were produced in Hong Kong, followed by post-production in Hollywood.^[9] For designing the New York backdrop, art director/concept artist Simon Murton stylized the familiar Manhattan skyline and urban landscapes to make them appear uniquely "TMNT." "We began with cinematic cues from certain black-and-white films from the 1940s and '50s," notes Murton. "I really wanted to push the lighting and the environments to create the look and feel of an alternate reality."^[13] The animators that worked on the fight sequences were inspired by Hong Kong action films. Animation director Kim Ooi explains since it was in CG, they were able to "push and stylize beyond the limits of live action."^[13] Imagi used Maya with Pixar’s RenderMan for the production pipeline’s back-end.^[10]

The cast is new compared to the older films. Jim Cummings is the only past TMNT actor to appear in this film. Cummings has previously contributed voice-work in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. TMNT was Mako Iwamatsu's last film prior to his death. Mako was announced as the voice of Splinter at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 20, 2006. He then passed away the next day.^[14] A dedication to Mako appears at the end of the film's credits.^[15] This is the second TMNT film to include a dedication, the other being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze which was dedicated to Jim Henson.

In an interview with Kevin Munroe, he stated that he would like to direct a possible sequel, possibly involving the return of the Shredder.^[16] He is already signed on to do a sequel, but stated that "it's going to depend" on the "box office at this point". Mirage Studios' Steve Murphy has posted a message on his blog saying that a TMNT sequel is looking very likely. ^[17]

The Executive Producers of the film are Peter Laird, Gary Richardson, and Frederick U. Fierst.

[edit] Promotion

The first teaser poster featured the 2003 show's logo, which was eventually abandoned and then recovered in 2004. In addition to the main poster, there were several others including individual ones for each turtle.

At the 2006 Comic-Con, the TMNT panel screened an exclusive preview that contained a Splinter voice-over with shots of monsters, jungles, foot ninjas, facial tests, concept designs, muscle tests, dynamic fight tests, and some comedic scenes.^[18] Also, a sneak peek booklet containing storyboards, environment designs, and character designs by comic artist Jeff Matsuda was distributed.

The teaser was released in July 2006. It starts out with the camera moving above the buildings on a dark night. When it finally stops moving, the turtles open their eyes and all that can be seen is the whites of their eyes against the dark background. Then, the turtles start maneuvering across the tops of the buildings, finally jumping down and landing in a dark alleyway. As each one lands, they perform kata with their respective weapon. After Leonardo finishes with his kata, Michelangelo can be seen falling into a dumpster. As Donatello opens the dumpster, Michelangelo says "I'm okay." A police siren is heard and then the car pulls up. The officer shines his light down the alley, but the turtles have already disappeared. The camera pans down the alley to show a manhole cover being slid back into place, with the name "TMNT" on it. The movie's full trailer was attached on December 15 to the films Eragon and Unaccompanied Minors. It is currently available on Apple Trailers, MTV.com, and Yahoo! Movies. It also debuted on the G4 show Attack of the Show!.

On February 26, two television spots debuted and began airing. Later, two more TV spots, geared specifically toward the young children demographic aired on 4Kids TV, the channel that broadcast the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 TV series).

In February 2007, Warner Bros. began an online campaign by creating a MySpace page for each of the turtles . Within a week before the release date, several clips were unveiled through various websites.

The McDonald's fast-food chain promoted TMNT, having eight toys to collect with the purchase of a Happy Meal. There is a novelization based on the film.

The film was originally set for release domestically (USA and Canada) on March 30, 2007, which would have been the seventeenth anniversary of the release of the first film. The March 30 date was advertised in the teaser trailer and early posters, but the release was moved up to March 23, 2007. Incidentally, Disney's Meet the Robinsons, another computer-animated film was released on March 30, 2007.

[edit] Video game

Main article: TMNT (video game)

The video game version of the movie was released three days before the actual movie's release.^[19] Ubisoft secured the rights and released the games on March 20. Ubisoft won the rights from Konami, who had produced all the previous games.^[20] The game is available for PlayStation 2, PSP, PC, Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS, GameCube, Wii, and Xbox 360 game systems. Reviews for the games ranged from horrible to mediocre to exemplary, due to the vastly different games produced. The home console games were identical, and given bad to mediocre ratings; the PSP and Nintendo DS games were identical to each other but not the home console versions, and were given abysmal ratings; and the Game Boy Advance version was entirely separate, but received good ratings in contrast to the other versions. It was lauded for its excellent use of the side-scrolling beat-'em-up style, which evoked nostalgia for older games in the series such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time. However, there is no multi-player mode in the GBA version.

"The TMNT movie is all about the emotions associated with family and teenage angst," said Nick Harper, the game's creative director. "We've taken that philosophy and turned it into gameplay mechanics that will be fun and challenging.^[21] The game features collaborative team-ups between the turtles. However, the game also features single-player campaigns for the brothers.

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: TMNT (soundtrack)

[edit] Reception

SuperHeroHype.com posted a review for TMNT with an overall score of 7/10, stating the film had a good balance of dark aspects and kid-friendliness. IGN.com also gave it 7/10, calling it "by far, the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie yet." The film received an 8/10 from reviewers on JoBlo.com, CHUD, and Moviesonline. Despite minor problems with the overall design of the human characters, they praise the film for its unique animation style, top notch voice acting, and character driven story. They cite it as a good rebirth of the franchise and it successfully hits its target audience. Comic and animation related websites like Newsarama, Comic Book Resources, and Toon Zone were also favorable in their reviews.

Mainstream critics were less impressed with the film, resulting in a 32%^[22] aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Critics generally pointed to lack of originality as the film's main flaw. Richard Roeper expressed this in his review, saying, "I guess if you read the comic strip and you played the video games and you watched the TV show and dug the earlier movies, you’ll dig this new version. For me, I didn’t do any of that stuff." In contrast, users of RottenTomatoes.com rated the movie with a freshness of 69% as of August 29.^[23]

TMNT ranked number one at the box office on its opening weekend, beating out 300 (the top film of the previous two weeks), The Last Mimzy, Shooter, Pride, The Hills Have Eyes 2, and Reign Over Me. Weekend estimates showed that the film made $25.45 million over the weekend of March 23-25, 2007.^[11] The film grossed over $96 million worldwide during in its 91 day run in theaters.^[24]

[edit] DVD release

TMNT was released on August 7, 2007 for DVD, HD DVD, and Blu-ray Disc. ^[25]

The DVD contains the following bonus features: ^[26]

• Commentary by Writer/Director Kevin Munroe
• Alternate Opening and Alternate Ending
• Deleted Scene
• Side-by-Side Comparison of Storyboard and CG
• Interviews with Voice Talent

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• 2007 in film

[edit] External links

• Official website
• Imagi's TMNT Official website
• TMNT at the Internet Movie Database
• TMNT hype at Superhero Hype!
• TMNT at Rotten Tomatoes
• Official Mirage Studios website
• Director Kevin Munroe on TMNT Animated News & Views interview
• TMNT Review on Variety.com

Preceded by 300

Box office number-one films of 2007 (USA) March 25, 2007

Succeeded by Blades of Glory

v • d • e Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Characters Leonardo · Michelangelo · Donatello · Raphael · Splinter · April O'Neil · The Shredder · Casey Jones · Baxter Stockman · Karai · List of characters Concepts Foot Clan · Dimension X · Technodrome Comics Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles · Tales of the TMNT · Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures · Daily comic strip TV series 1987 cartoon (episode list) · The Next Mutation · 2003 cartoon (episode list) Films Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles · II: The Secret of the Ooze · III · TMNT Games Role-playing games · Video games Related articles Food tie-ins · Action figures