‘Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Movie Review: Certified Krangtastic
At long last, the fourth Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series has its movie. Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie has been released on Netflix. It was initially announced in February 2019, alongside a retargeted The Loud House Movie released last August. The show itself ended the August before that after a truncated second season but with an epic multi-part finale.
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie starts in a Krang-ravaged 2044, where Casey Jones, voiced by Haley Joel Osment, is sent to the present day to prevent such a future by his Sensei, Leonardo, voiced once again by Ben Schwartz. Very Terminator, I know. And yes, the entire cast of the series returns to their roles. Schwartz as Leo, Omar Benson Miller as Raphael, Brandon Mychal Smith as Michelangelo, Josh Brener as Donatello, Eric Bauza as Splinter, Kat Graham as April O’Neil, even John Michael Higgins as news anchor mutant worm Warren Stone and Rhys Darby as Hypno-Potamus.
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Their villainy opens up the present-day action, stealing a totem that, through miscommunication between Leo and Raph, ends up in the hands of the Foot Clan, specifically the Lieutenant voiced by Rob Paulsen. Casey doesn’t find the Turtles until after this has transpired. The totem is a key used to free the Krang from Dimension X. These Krang are very much pink veiny marble slabs with tentacles, and their diction is incredible; there are no vocal quirks or filters. The performances by Jim Pirri (Alador Blight on The Owl House) and Toks Olagundoye (Mrs. Beakley on the DuckTales reboot) as Krang One and Krang Two are strong and menacing. With a sonic scream, Krang One disables the Turtles’ mystic powers that were a major part of their set in the series. His comrades begin to overwhelm New York City in a quest to terraform it as an extension of their world and conquer with the Technodrome.
Directed by series developers Andy Suriano and Ant Ward, these two know how to play to their cast’s strengths, and the animation the series has become known for is amplified here. What they’re able to accomplish in these movie circumstances is still pretty shocking. At the start, it’s told that every time Raph says “hero,” they take a bite of pizza, essentially a drinking game but with pizza. There are multiple instances of actual blood, and the body horror the Krang inflict is intense and beautiful. At least one of them loses an eye in return. We even get vulnerability in Donnie willingly exposing his soft shell. There’s even bodily disintegration. It’s very emotional and earns it.
Regarding audience accessibility, if a viewer goes in with basic franchise knowledge, the one plot point that could be considered a spoiler is the status quo across the rest of the franchise. There are character presences that might be unfamiliar but still easy to figure out. No one will be lost, but they will be immersed.
This movie is excellent and earns its existence. In the likely event that this is the last chapter of these Turtles’ story, it’s a heck of a note to go out on. The Nickelodeon era of the franchise is loaded with iterations of the team, with several more coming. Still, this movie proves what makes even the shortest animated series stand out as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
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