Reviews

So I just watched Ratatouille on DVD. Like Incredibles, I dismissed this as another lame Pixar movie and saw Spidey 3 instead(big mistake).

But I gave Incredibles a chance and ended up enjoying it a little more than I thought. So I thought the same would happen with this movie. I was wrong.

The story was boring. Really boring. Boring and predictable. Boring, predictable, and way too long. Incredibles had a deep engaging story that kept me hooked. Ratatouille had two stories that went nowhere. Remy trying to realize his dreams of being a chef, and Linguini trying to realize his dream of not being a tool. It seemed like a good formula, well it would have if we haven't seen it in 2000+ other movies. And every 10 minutes they had to keep reminding us what's the plot of the story, because they were that bad at showing it.

The characters, oh god the characters. Flat and dull. They had no charisma, nothing unique about them, nothing that will make them stand out and join the ranks of greats like Bugs Bunny and Homer Simpson. Remy was just another big dreamer type. He works hard, get's knocked down, gets back up, and achieves his dream. Good for him, now what? He has the same backstory as about 1400 other Disney characters. And Linguni, the dude was a loser. A total loser, and he's stays that way through the entire film, and yet somehow he still get's to make it with the big-nosed chick. What was he there for? His only purpose was to make Remy look good. People say Linguini had very unique movements, but all he did was spin around a lot. What's unique about that. He had no personality, and he flaunted it. And obviously his voice actor didn't even care enough to try to make him at least sound interesting. Colette, she claimed to be a tough and sassy girl in a"man's kitchen", yet all she did was fall for the biggest loser in France. Where's her self-esteem, they did absolutely nothing with her character. It's like Pixar isn't even trying to make us care about these characters. They're one-note and easily forgettable, soon to be pushed aside for the next bland set of characters, then the cycle begins anew. And my apologies to Patton Oswalt, he's one of my favorite comedians and people in general, but the voice acting was terrible. Flat and emotionless. They honestly couldn't just get guys like Billy West and Rob Paulsen. They would have made the movie 10x more interesting.

Even with the great story and characters of the Incredibles, the animation still kept the movie bogged down. Ratatouille was no different. Everything felt so mechanical, so chained down. It didn't feel fun and exciting. It just made me wonder if they weren't gonna put any effort into trying to make the animation fun, lively, and surreal, why the hell didn't they do it in live action. All it had was just some fancy camera angles, thinking that would compensate, well, it didn't. Pixar strives too hard to make they're animation look more realistic, so much so that it loses another key component, believability(spell check). They have these uber realistic atmosphere and these ultra-fake looking humans, that it clashes and makes the movie look even more fake than it is. It doesn't suck you into the world they've created, it spits you out maliciously. One of the things I liked about the movie TMNT, they built this dark, gritty, comic style atmosphere and built it around the characters, and it worked, you were in that movie, it was believable. Ratatouille wasn't.

Ultimately, I'm not surprised little kids like the movie, it was geared toward them, and they're the only ones who could enjoy it. All the adults that are saying this is the best movie ever, needs to retrieve their souls from Walt Disney's cold dead hands

I finally saw Tmnt today, and I loved every minute.

Storywise, I really dug it. I loved the monster angle, though, like I've heard people say, I wish it could have gone into more depth with the monsters and how they got into New York. The main plot however, was pulled off rather nicely. A lot of good scenes, I especially loved the breakfast scene. I liked the fact that there was more emotion in this one than in the first, you could really feel the tension between Leo and Raph, and they pulled off the broken team/family angle off really well, it gave more depth to these characters. It really stuck true to the characters. Munroe also really knows how to do dialog, and the ad-libbing throw in there was well played.

The animation is where this movie really shines. Fight scenes looked beautiful, I especially loved the intro. Imagi should be given an award for this flick, they worked they're asses off and it shows. The facial expressions were perfect, and even the smallest details were just a joy to the eyes. They really did make this movie look like a comic book come to life. The camera also added well to the mix. The best sequences were by far the Leo/Raph fight and Mikey's skateboard sequence. No CGI movie comes close to this level of greatness.

The voice acting was incredible. James, Mikey, Nolan, and Mitchell truly brought the Turtles to life. Sarah and Chris were great as well, Chris truly surprised me. Evans has managed to pull off both Johnny Storm and Casey Jones, thus guy can do comic characters. Mako, Patrick, and Ziyi were also good, though Karai sounded a little off at times. But I loved the feeling Mako put into the movie, may he rest in peace. I was also proud to see such great talents as Phil Lamar, Billy West, Jim Cummings, and Tara Strong involved in this.

The humor was kinda off and on. Sometimes it didn't work, but other times I couldn't help but to crack up. The humor in this movie definitely appeals to a much wider audience that the humor in the new series. Don and Casey, I thought, especially stood out. My friend Ricky was especially cracking up at the jokes in this flick.

The Leo/Raph fight, best fight in any incarnation of Tmnt. I love the first movie, but that fight easily tops every fight in the first 3 movies. Centerpiece of the movie.

That said, my gripes: The movie, way too short. It took off and just went without stopping. I really wished they would have kept all the cut footage in, It really would have helped if this movie was longer. Though, I guess Warner Bros just wanted to test the water with this movie, so I expect the inevitable sequel to be longer.

Also, some of the lines felt out of place. Some of April and Karai's lines I thought didn't really work, and would have been better off unsaid, or better worded.

I didn't mind the goofy look of the humans though, I'd rather this than the "Polar Express style".

In my opinion, I'm with Ign in saying this movie was the best Tmnt movie yet. The first one was great, but this added much more needed depth to the characters. The action was intense, the character relationships were well played, the voice acting was incredible, and there's still more they can do with the series. I hope the Tmnt never go back to Live Action. It doesn't suit them like CGI does. Kudos to Kevin, Thomas, Peter, and everyone at Imagi.

I'd give this movie a 9/10. Not perfect, but still well worth the time.

I will have to say that while I love the OS, this new one is far superior. The best part of the show is the story lines. By being closer to the original comic book, you can expect to see great episodes packed with the kind of action the OS never delivered. You can also expect to see episodes based on ones for the old comics.

The characters are also better represented. Not only are they off that whole pizza obsession thing, but they're also very hardcore(while still being humorous). Leo is still the dedicated leader, Don is still the brains, Mikey is still the lovable goof, and now, Raph is the hot-headed angry turtles that he was in the comics. But not just the turtles, April, Splinter, Casey, Leatherhead, Baxter Stockman, and of course The Shredder have also been improved and made closer to they're comics selves. And creating great new characters like Traximus, Ultimate Ninja, Draco, and Agent Bishop just adds to the greatness. Plus, we get to see characters from the old comic be introduced for the first time like Renet and Karai.

The animation has greatly improved, adding a dark tone to the series, and the music really fits the tone. And even the voice acting has improved. The only thing wrong with the series is the theme song, but that's a minor detail.

With co-creator Peter Laird working closely with the show, it has gone far beyond all the other TMNT shows and has now become the best cartoon intended for kids on t.v. today. I give the series an 11 out of 10, it's that good.