Looks like it’s time to start simping for Point Grey Pictures again. I can’t help it; I have yet to encounter a film under their banner that I don’t find some level of respect for. Even the likes of The Interview (easily the worst of their releases to date) had its moments, not to mention serving as a particularly bizarre little pop culture artifact as far as American-North Korean relations are concerned.
With their latest dip into the animation pool (while making me hope that the people working on this did so under better conditions than the poor souls on Sausage Party), they’ve tapped a major name to direct and co-write: Jeff Rowe, co-director and co-writer of The Mitchells Vs. The Machines. And hot damn, does this look like it shares artistic DNA with that masterwork. The animation done by Mikros Animation (who also worked on the eclectic Captain Underpants movie) also takes cues from young fan art in how pretty much everything on-screen, from the characters to the sets to the particle effects, are accentuated with scribble marks like it’s all been done in pencil or crayons.
On top of just being solid marketing (it’s practically inviting its target demographic to do their own drawings based on the film), it’s a suitable aesthetic for a film that emphasises the Teenage in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. That, and the Mutant side, given the texture quality on the Turtles makes them look like they’re animated with clay, helping them stand out visually in a world where they already stand out in pretty much every other way possible.
As for the Turtles themselves, along with actually being voiced by teenaged actors (Micah Abbey as Donatello, Shamon Brown Jr. as Michelangelo, Brady Moon as Raphael, and Nicolas Cantu as Leonardo), their performances and the writing behind them properly portrays them as teenagers. They are all colossal dorks, incredibly hyperactive, and honestly, they are kind of annoying in that particular way that teenagers are. But all of that only serves to make them that much more endearing, as they come across as the kind of guys that I honestly would’ve liked to have hung out with when I was their age. Also, the touch where Splinter (Jackie Chan) taught them martial arts using chopsocky flicks and YouTube tutorials helps integrate them as products of the modern day, even in the presence of characters like the chronically-90s Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd).
And on the note of the mutants here, this treats their presence in this world much like the mutants of the X-Men. It plays into the ostracization angle of their relationship with the human race, with the Turtles wanting a normal life outside of the sewers (a rare instance of teenagers actually wanting to go to school), and the big bad villain Super Fly wanting to enforce acceptance for him and those like him… by killing all the humans and turning all the animals that are left into mutants like himself. Apart from setting up some decent nuance regarding issues of segregation and battling oppression, there’s something especially fitting about a character that claims to stand for the unheard but ends up so blinded by his own self-serving priorities that he becomes the very thing he hated… being played by Ice ‘Tucker Carlson is a’ight by me’ Cube.
But, of course, there’s also my favourite thing about Point Grey films to get into: The soundtrack. Except the good here doesn’t even start with the needle drops; Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross do some very cool shit with the sound of this thing. There’s quite a bit of the ambient stuff they regularly bring out for film soundtracks here, but they also dig into some early-NiN industrial rock. Between the use of kid-friendly body horror with the mutants and their backstory, and the blaring electronics going on, there’s some serious Quake vibes to this. I hesitate to say this is the best soundtrack they’ve put together, but it’s easily one of their most fun in quite a while.
As for the needle drops, there’s a lot of New York-based rap to go around, and it's all in just the right places. Ante Up set to the Turtles pulling robberies to get groceries, underground oddballs De La Soul soundtracking another group of underground oddballs, No Diggity backing a beautifully edited montage of the Turtles taking down Super Fly’s criminal network, Shimmy Shimmy Ya in the background as the Turtles and the other mutants chill out at a bowling alley… I mean, the tracks being classic comes second to just how well they fit here. To saying nothing of the lengthy set piece built around What’s Up? by 4 Non Blondes, which effectively wrestles the title for ‘Best Use Of This Specific Song’ away from Wild, and makes for another impressive addition to the studio’s track record for ingenious uses of licensed music. Goofy grins abound.
Beyond the impressive presentation and fun atmosphere, it’s also got some solid superhero pathos to it. Again, there’s a fair bit of X-Men in the idea of the Turtles fighting for a world that both hates and fears them, and the overarching depiction of the city and its prejudiced citizens make for some pretty heartbreaking moments early on. As easy as it is to say that Splinter is being overprotective and doing more harm than good by completely shutting his sons away from the world, it’s just as easy to see why he would do so: That kind of trauma can really fuck you up. But as things start to turn around, and the glorious final battle with Super Fly gets under way, it brings out some similar feels to Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man movies in how it shows New York City looking out for their own, much as the mutants do. Not gonna lie, I got a bit teary-eyed once our boys started to get their dues.
As much as I somewhat went to bat for the 2014 live-action film (and then went on to regret that decision once its sequel turned around), I’ll easily admit that this is the best that the Turtles have looked on the big screen in a very long time. Some of the jokes might hit an odd note (the recurring gag about the Turtles getting milked feels like an extended reminder that, yes, this is from the same guys who made Sausage Party), but between the amazing visuals, highly entertaining soundtrack, and solid use of the Turtles themselves as thematic characters, this is a really fun and well-made movie. The worst I can really say about it is that it feels like there’s more that can be done with these ideas beyond this one film, but between its sequel already being in development, and even talk of a proper TV series from this specific vision of the characters, even that is already looking hopeful.
No comments:
Post a Comment