Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-Parasitica

2013

I’m taking on an episode of the newer cartoons series from Nickelodeon because…

1-It’s good to take a look at what the turtles have been up to in recent years.

2-I just saw this episode the other day when the kids were watching it so it’s fresh in my mind.

No one listens to Mikey because in this version he has stupid ideas. In a fight with a giant wasp he inadvertently causes Leo to get stung. Without it’s stinger the wasp dies. They find an egg they believe to have come from the wasp and Leo insists they take it back to the HQ. Really Leo has been infected and is being controlled by the weird insect egg. He begins to change. Raph notices the change, but doesn’t have time to get help. He gets bit by Leo and changes. The next morning Donnie and Mikey see the other tow have changed and try to get the doors closed to trap them in so they can have time to think up a plan. Donnie comes up with a formula for an antidote but is bitten by Leo before he can finish. He tells Mikey to finish it and inject all of them. Mikey agrees and knocks out Donnie once he turns, but not before Donnie bites Mikey. Donnie changes and goes to Raph and Leo. They ask about Mikey and Donnie says he bit him so he will be there soon and he is. He seems to have turned, but it’s a fake and he injects them with the antidote. They go normal and Mikey explains how he managed to finish the antidote and says it may cause drowsiness. So all but Mikey fall over and of course the egg hatches to release three giant wasps. Mikey holds them off until the others awaken and they take down the insect invaders. Mikey brags and gets hammered by Leo for using his favorite comic as toilet paper. Roll the animated credits.

The negatives-While I generally like this cartoon I don’t like that they make Mikey too dumb, that’s not really needed.

The positives-This is definitely a break from them fighting the usual suspects. I like that it comes down to  Donnie and Mikey to fend off their stronger brothers and solve the problem. There is also a  Star Trek influenced cartoon that Leo likes but the others make fun of. The segment in this episode is hilarious.

 

 

Upcoming stuff and junk

Still planing on having a few more Turtles topics this week. Next week I’ll tackle the Robocop trilogy plus another topic or two about that character. I have yet to see the new film so I can’t comment on that.

Take care!

Trilogies

Ah, the trilogy or oh no the trilogy depending on the specific example. I will be reviewing the third Turtles film soon, but it had me thinking of other trilogies. Recently I’ve watched the Turtles Trilogy, Robocop trilogy, the Porky’s trilogy and the Smokey and the bandit trilogy. Yet I am still alive to write this. Anyways some times you get the rare trilogy like the episodes 4-6 of Star Wars or Lord of the rings where the parts are kind of mapped out and there is a plan in place. Most series run on the let’s wait and see if this films sells and if it does we’ll crank out another. That last part makes sense to studios I’m sure. In many cases we see the original directors replaced or actors or actresses replaced because they have other projects going on at the time of the sequel. It’s difficult to capture the spirit of the original film with a lot of different people involved and frequently we the viewer get something that represents the series in name only. Hence the bad reputation that sequels in general get. There are good sequels, but they are normally outweighed by mindless ones unfortunately. Still fans of a beloved first film will go see another film particularly if enough original people are involved with the project. Plus it’s so great to say trilogy.

Teenage mutant ninja turtles 2-The secret of the ooze

1991

The Turtles back, they still love pizza but they seem a bit sillier overall. April is back too, hey wait they slipped in the old “same character, but a different actress trick” in on us. For shame. Oh and Shredder is back too, hey didn’t he die in the first one? Oh well if Spock can come back then so can Shredder. They added a cute little Asian kid because we know well that went in the second Indiana Jones movies. Okay on to the plot once we find it. Oh here it is-Shredder and his foot guys kidnap a scientist (David Warner) and forces him to use this ooze to mutate a snapping turtle and a wolf doggie thing into giant versions that strong but have no brains you know like pro-wrestlers. That’s the plot? Hey at least we get to see the timeless music legend Vanilla Ice perform during a turtles fight, wait that’s not really a bonus. Eventually after numerous jokes the turtles beat Shredder again, but not before he gets real big (thanks to Kevin Nash AKA: Diesel/Big Daddy Cool).  Roll the credits.

Negatives-The first April was better. No Casey Jones. The plot and action have been watered down this time around. While I liked how the turtles looked I felt the film just went rather than flowed. The charactizations added little that wasn’t done in the first film.

Positives-Some of the humor is funny. The first fight scene is cool and the humor is memorable.

A rather average outing for the Turtles and a bit of a letdown from the first film.

 

Wizards and Warriors on DVD

http://tvshowsondvd.com/n/20112

I mentioned this show before, but it looks like it has surprisingly gotten a DVD release. Might have to break down and order it.

 

Teenage mutant ninja turtles

1990

So apparently in New York there are these martial art proficient masked turtles who are instructed by a rat. No wait, I’m serious or at least in a Hollywood adaption of a comic book kind of way. Okay back to this movie. People are having things stolen..in the big city..can you believe that? Oh, yeah so can I, but wait this is apparently being done by a bunch young people who have been organized by a ninja guy named Shredder who wears well stuff that looks like it would shred you. The police don’t want anyone to know much of an anything, but a reporter named April goes nosing around. Eventually she befriends those turtles. The shreddie guy and his feet er and the Foot take the rat Splinter to lure the turtles in. Meanwhile the turtles eat pizza, team up with a hockey goalie mask wearing guy named Casey Jones and they try to figure out what to do next. Eventually they throw out more jokes and sillines plus manage to save Splinter, straighten out a bunch of teens who were on the wrong track and apparently defeated the shred dude/thingie/person/guy. All is well until the next film so order pizza and roll the credits.

Negatives-This is geared toward kids to an extent, but not as much as the cartoon of the same time was.

Positives-I think is a fairly strong comic book adaption that has held up well over the years. The personalities of the main characters is decent, the action is adequate and the pace is strong. The back story is simple and things move along fairly quickly. There are some great one liners and I never get tired of the Dominoes delivery scene.

 

 

Ten things I know or think about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

1-I first got into their comics in the 80’s followed by the cartoons and the movies.

2-The only one of the original trilogy films I saw in the theater is my least favorite of the three (that will be revealed when I do the reviews this week).

3-My son is a huge fan of the turtles as well.

4-I like the 2007 film more than most people seem to.

5-Despite their appearance I am optimistic about the upcoming film, but will probably wait to see it on DVD.

6-In general I like most of the re-incarnations of them in cartoons over the years.

7-I have pretty much never eaten pizza in the last twenty some years without thinking of the turtles.

8-The turtles are on my travel mug.

9-The original cartoon’s theme is one of my favorite cartoon themes of all time.

10-For what it’s worth my favorite turtle has always been….

Upcoming stuff and junk

This week will definitely be Turtles week. Reviews of all three 199o’s films, a review of a cartoon or two and an episode of the not so popular Next Mutation show. Plus some general thoughts on them. Cowabunga, dude!

10 thoughts on KISS meets the phantom of the park

1979

1-So KISS have super powers that rely on cheap animation and simple special effects.

2-Paul Stanley talks like he is reading off of cue cards. Oh, wait I think he was.

3-Ace Frehley appears to have a cartoon character voice for this film.

4-Don’t be a smarty pants gang member or you may get turned into a robot.

5-Changing the lyrics of Hotter than Hell to Rip and destroy will get you booed.

6-A human can be controlled by having a little circuit jabbed into their neck.

7-KISS like to sit poolside in full make-up during the day time.

8-Robot duplicates of KISS change into shabby looking stuntmen during fight scenes.

9-If KISS beat your robots then you turn into an old dude.

10-Gene Simmons was more laid back then apparently because he didn’t sue the robots for using his likeness, but instead just destroyed them.

Space Race?

After watching Cannonball Run for the first time in years I was wishing someone would make a space/superhero version of the same concept. It would have a minimal plot and rely mostly on nostalgia of course. So there would be some great space race from point A to point B and all kinds of genre people would be tossed in as characters that were mostly plays on a role they were famous for. Here are some of my ideas that I am sure would make anyone with taste roll their eyes at.

William Shatner and Patrick Stewart play retired commanders who decide to join forces for the race, but bicker over who is the Captain and who is the crew.

Angela Cartwright and Billy Mumy play siblings who constantly get lost during the race.

Alan Tudyk, Harrison Ford and George Takei play rival pilots trying to one up each other with crazy maneuvers.

Adam West and Burt Ward play two former co-workers who once had the coolest ship around and they decide to bring it out for the race. Since it’s forty years older and so are they their chances of winning aren’t good.

Lynda Carter plays a warrior who decides to get an edge with an invisible ship. While the ship is invisible she can be seen flying through space in a sitting down position.

Katee Sackhoff and Dirk Benedict play a father-daughter team who constantly argue over the new ways of flying vs. the way it used to be done.

Sigourney Weaver is a confident pilot with a steady ship, but she keeps hearing noises and seeing shadows of something in her ship.

I see Ron Pearlman as a crazed intergalactic cop trying to stop everyone.

Somehow Bruce Campbell, Erin Grey and Sam Jones would have to worked into the film as well. Campbell might be good as a grizzled miner living alone on a planet and when racers stop to ask him for directions he points them in the wrong way.

So there are my ideas for a truly pointless film that I would love to see. Feel free to add any other racers you would like to see in this film that will never happen.