Category: TMNT Musings

All posts relating to the ever-present Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles property and all incarnations of that franchise.

The Thing About Splinter’s Funnies

Splinter makes a funny in the first TMNT movie by introducing Cowabunga to the Turtles’ vocabulary… and also having a pizza fall on his head; that kinda counts, too.

And then he makes a funny in the second TMNT movie by making the Turtles do ten flips after they make the headlines in a newspaper and gets mentioned in a news report (Go Ninja Go Ninja GO! I made another funny!)

And then in the third movie, he wears a lampshade on his head… just like Elvis in Blue Hawaii. He never called it a funny, so I guess it doesn’t count and that’s why the movie turned out the way that it did.

But then along comes that CGI Turtles movie from a few years back and not once did Splinter make a funny. He didn’t have some silly headwear to put on his head. What the hell, movie? Why would you refuse Maki on one of his final film performances to let him do a Splinter funny? That movie could’ve used more funnies, you know.

Anyway, that was a random thought I had. Here’s hoping there are Splinter funnies in the upcoming movie… though given who’s behind it, I’d imagine the only funnies I’d be getting are fart jokes.

Turtles In Time

I’ve been rewatching the third TMNT movie… for no reason other than that I was bored and watching terrible sequels to great movies seems to give me some kind of kick that I am unfamiliar with. However, it is not without its chucky-worthy moments, even if it’s at the movie’s expense. I kinda like the Casey Jones scenes with the out-of-time samurais and their exposure to the strange then-present time; those were kinda funny. I suspect that if the entire movie was based on that rather than the horrible past sequences with the feudal rebellion and not-Clint, it probably would have been far better.

But as I’m watching this movie, a sudden realization dawned on me; I actually gotten more laughs and enjoyments out of this one horrible Ninja Turtles than I did out of either TGWTG anniversary special… I guess I know what I’m watching this year…

TMNT Games?

A friend was asking me the other day why I haven’t touched any of the TMNT games I owned for review, especially one that has been the subject of a past Grumble, Grumble commentary. The only answer I gave him is that I’m waiting for the right time… whenever that happens to be. For those who are wondering what games I have, here’s a quick list off the top of my head.

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (NES and PC MS-DOS)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game (NES)
  • Teeange Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project (NES)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles In Time (SNES)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (SNES)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (Genesis)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fall Of The Foot Clan (GB)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back From The Sewers (GB)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (PS2)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Battle Nexus (PS2)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Mutant Nightmare (PS2)
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash Up (PS2 and Wii)
No guarantee that all of these games are up for review anytime soon, but I am going to do some of them… when the time comes.

Casey F'N Jones

Full feature: http://caseyjonesthemovie.com/

This was out for two years… how the fuck did I miss this?

Won’t spoil anything, but it’s a fan film centered around Casey Jones and how he came to be. It’s actually pretty good with its only problem being its length; the half-hour passes by so fast that by the time I finished watching, I was like… “That’s it? I wanted more!”

Very well done, folks. Me likes.

IDW’s Shredder

Funny how things work, you know? Back in the original Mirage series, Shredder was offed in the first issue. Brought back to life later on and killed off once more (permanently) when the original TMNT cartoon was in its third year… with Shredder as a main villain. And yet, here we are on a new comic building up on a character that was essentially a throw-away. Funny how that works.

As far as this rendition of Shredder? Looks like he’s human and not a shell for a Utrom like in the 2003 cartoon (like the cartoon, but hated that version of Shredder). Then again, not much is known at this point, so who knows what the deal is. At the very least, I like the new design. Nice and simple, yet imposing at the same time. Sometimes, it’s the little things that work.

Random Thought About… Shell Shocked

Interesting dilemma here… the PRiS episode “Shell-Shocked” which featured the TMNT… or rather, the Ninja turtles from the Next Mutation series, are suddenly tossed out of the sewer and are greeted by Astronema, whom none of the Turtles supposedly know about… well, except for Venus, who refers to Astronema as the “princess of evil.” This despite Astronema never introducing herself as such… how could she have know if the Turtles supposedly never heard of Astronema and believe the exploits of the Power Rangers to be make believe.

Let’s not forget that this is PRiS’ fourth episode, which means Astronema isn’t generally well-known to the Earthers… so how the fuck does Venus know about Astronema?!

WTF indeed…

Random Thought About… Tournament Fighters.

Recently popped in TMNT: Tournament Fighters for Super NES… holy crap, is the AI in this game hard. Even on the easiest setting, the CPU’s offense is almost relentless, but that’s not why I’m here. Anyway, a random thought occurred while I was playing Tournament Fighters… where did the character Aska come from?

As I recall, the game is sort of a mishmash of elements from the various TMNT properties. Primarily based on the TMNT cartoon that started in 87, but contains a number of characters from other sources. For example, Shredder’s appearance is based on the original comics rather than the animated series. Also, the final boss of the game is Karai, whose only prominent appearance was in the 13-part “City At War” storyline that brought a close to the original Mirage Studios comic run that would make way for a color series. And then there’s War and Armagon, two characters from the Archie Comics series run.
And then we have this Aska character… apparently an original character that was made for the game… and I’m wondering… why?
Funny thing is that I don’t think Aska has been seen since in any other TMNT (or Konami) property since Tournament Fighters. So I gotta wonder about that… or maybe I don’t.
Anyway, just a random thought.

Random Thought About Next Mutation

Just a curious thought that I felt like throwing out there;

I found an old tape that had, among other bits of randomness, the first episode of the short-lived maligned Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation series that introduced the world to FemTurtle… I had always wondered what the backstory behind this series was and whether it had any connection to the movie trilogy that came before. What had me wonder about this was the Turtles’ lair. See, the lair on the show is based on the one from the second and third movies. Perhaps it’s a trivial nitpick and perhaps the two has little to do with each other… but still, one has to wonder about the possible links between the two.

I’m sure somebody did a fanfic on that already, though. If not… there’s an open challenge to anyone writing fanfics. Any takers?