4 out of 5

Director: Kevin Munroe

For Turtles fans: this movie comes close to perfect. For kids: this movie has some fun characters and scenes, but you’ll probably want more poop jokes and explosions. For casual viewers: There is some amazing animation on display in this film, and it’s a respectable kids fare that tries to blend varying ages-appeal to a semi-decent extent. I’m a turtles fan. The story doesn’t go for retelling, instead picking up somewhere between the comics and new cartoon, and that is an amazing strength, as this lends itself to already established characters. Leo and Raph are written perfectly. Donny is also fairly spot on, though he and Mike both needed more screen time. Mike is a disappointment. He’s funny, but he’s too childish in this incarnation. Same goes for Casey. I like Chris Evans (Casey’s voice), but Mr. Jones is written way too nice in this film, and his “romance” with April is poorly mixed with the tone of the movie. The biggest flaw is that they tried to go for too much. 13 monsters, Karai and the foot soldiers, and a plot that starts thousands of years back… From the opening narration I was surprised with the depth of the plot, and then cramming it into 80 minutes gives it too little time to stretch out. There’s the first fun battle with the beast, and then the 12 remaining monsters get seconds of screen time. The foot soldiers seem like petty side characters instead of worthwhile adversaries. All of the pieces were potentially interesting, it was just too much at once. Still, the rooftop fight scene is amazing (it almost looks like claymation), and the scenes that get it right, with character chemistry, are tear-jerking for turtles fans. (Yup.) If you want to be sad, watch all of the extra scenes on the DVD. They cut out so many pieces that would’ve paced this a lot better and made it tons funnier. Overall, though, this was a worthwhile wait, and although I could’ve asked for more, I was expecting much less.