After the defeat of their old arch nemesis, The Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart as a family. Struggling to
keep them together, their rat sensei, Master Splinter, becomes worried when strange things begin to brew in
New York City. Tech-industrialist Max Winters is amassing an army of ancient monsters to apparently take over
the world. And only one super-ninja fighting team can stop them — those heroes in a half shell — Leonardo,
Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael! With the help of old allies April O’Neil and Casey Jones, the Turtles are in
for the fight of their lives as they once again must face the mysterious Foot Clan, who have put their own ninja
skills behind Winters' endeavors.
For more about TMNT and the TMNT Blu-ray release, see the TMNT Blu-ray Review published by Greg Maltz on August 20, 2007 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
Call me old fashioned but my idea of superheroes is spiderman, batman and superman. Today the world is being saved by Rafael, Michaelangelo, Donatello and Leonardo. No, they're not Renaissance artists. They're four teenage brothers who happen to be mutant turtles. Their home is deep in the sewers of Manhattan and they are trained as ninjas by a serene rat sensei who looks more like a skinny lion.
All four Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--and their friends and enemies alike--are looking for victory
in their first movie and Blu-ray release.
In their first foray to the silver screen, the turtles find themselves taking on a gang of supreme warriors. These bad guys were turned to stone 3,000 years ago when their leader opened a portal to another dimension. Reunited and given new life, the gang of warriors must capture 13 humongous, horrible monsters who were released from the open portal and just happen to be hanging out in the Big Apple unbeknownst to the average citizen.
If this all sounds a bit hard to swallow, just focus on the ninja brothers. After all, they're only human...er, turtles...each with their own style and personality. One is a leader, one's a rebel, one's a pragmatist and the fourth is a pizza-scarfing skateboarder dude. They must overcome their differences before they can unite against the evil warriors threatening New York and the entire world. Not as easy as it sounds because Leonardo and Rafael face off in a sibling rivalry.
The visuals behind all this action are quite intricate. Imagi creates detailed forestcapes, cityscapes and interiors. The bitmapping and surface textures are rendered into convincing settings and characters. Watch how some surfaces are reflective while others show a rougher texture that absorbs the CGI light.
The major characteristic I look for in evaluating animation is whether the characters have weight. In TMNT, I'm not sure there was such thing as gravity, but that's ok. It's not supposed to be realistic and the high-resolution picture takes the viewer on quite the thrillride.
Although Imagi's computer-animated world strives for depth, I found the CGI to be a 2-D experience. Compared to your average Saturday-morning cartoon, TMNT is very impressive, though. Warner serves up the 1080p, 2.4:1 video via the VC-1 codec. The detail is good and motion was very smooth, although I'm not convinced the bitrates are the best on Blu-ray.
Minimal grain and noise is visible. While the contrast and black level are good, much of the color had a subdued or washed-out look, especially in the New York scenes that take up most of the film. It gave TMNT a film-noir look that was darker and more gritty than your average cartoon. Highly detailed, the CGI world rendered by Imagi gives viewers a lot to see. Action and motion are nearly constant and only the most critical eye will find something to complain about.
The soundstage is well engineered. It's immersive and delivers crisp, clear vocals and sound effects. Listen to the opening scene when a machete is used to cut through jungle foliage. The blade rings out convincingly. It's not pure audiophile bliss, but it will do nicely. The production even involves low bass rumble that set my B&W ASW 825 subwoofer rumbling in several scenes.
If you've become accustomed to PCM, you may be a bit disappointed with the sound on TMNT. The Dolby TrueHD track may give up some audible quality to LPCM, although a comparison for this BD is not possible. For a general comparison, I heard a difference at Dolby Labs in San Francisco, while Sony and Dolby staff tested a Blu-ray demo disc intended for use in kiosks in Asia. TrueHD is necessary for 7.1 channel content, but I feel that producers should try to use LPCM for 5.1.
Not being a huge fan of the turtles or special features in general, I did not check out the bonus material on the Blu-ray. All bonus content is in 480i or 480p standard definition. This content includes commentary by writer/director Kevin Munroe, an alternate opening in which the rat sensei tells the introduction about the ancient warriors turning to stone, an alternate ending, a deleted scene, a side-by-side comparison of the storyboards and CGI action, and interviews with Patrick Stwart, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Laurence Fishburne and the filmmakers.
Overall, TMNT is a class act for family film viewing and young audiences. The talent used to create the CGI action as well as the characters' voices was top notch. The story had some good messages as well, about overcoming adversity and sibling rifts. Coupled with the scary monsters and green heroes, the ominous look of the video may be scary for young children. Beyond this, I can recommend TMNT on Blu-ray for anyone who wants their turtle heroes in high-resolution. They may not be Superman, Batman or Spiderman, but they are more man than reptile.
Warner Home Video has officially announced that they will bring the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Film Collection' to Blu-ray on August 4th, day-and-date with the DVD release. This four-disc set will feature all four films from the series - 'Teenage Mutant Ninja ...
Warner Home Video has revealed that they will bring the 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Collector's Edition Box Set' to Blu-ray this August, day-and-date with the DVD release. The set, which is celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the characters, will include all ...
