TMNT (film)

TMNT (also known as TMNT 2007 or Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2007) is a 2007 American computer-animated martial arts superhero film written and directed by Kevin Munroe. Based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series, the film stars the voices of James Arnold Taylor, Nolan North, Mikey Kelley, Mitchell Whitfield, Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mako, Kevin Smith, Patrick Stewart, and Zhang Ziyi with narration by Laurence Fishburne.

It is the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film made with computer-generated imagery (CGI) created by Imagi Animation Studios as well as the first feature film in the franchise in 14 years. It is loosely connected to the original 1990–1993 trilogy. The film sees the four turtles (Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo) having grown apart after their final defeat of their archenemy, the Shredder, but are set to reunite and overcome their faults to save the world as evil ancient creatures threaten it.

The film was released theatrically by Warner Bros. Pictures and The Weinstein Company (making it the only film in the TMNT franchise to be distributed by the latter company) on March 23, 2007 to mixed reviews from critics yet was a commercial success, grossing $95 million worldwide against a budget of $34 million.

Plot
3,000 years ago, a warlord named Yaotl opens a portal into a parallel universe. The portal's energies grant Yaotl and his four sibling generals immortality, but the generals are turned to stone. The portal also releases 13 immortal monsters that destroy his army and his enemies while becoming the famous mythical monsters of legend as centuries pass.

In the present, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have grown apart after defeating the Shredder; Master Splinter has sent Leonardo to Central America for training, where he protects a village from local bandits. Donatello works as an IT specialist, Michelangelo works as a birthday party entertainer called "Cowabunga Carl", and Raphael continues to fight crime at night as a masked vigilante known as the Nightwatcher, which he keeps a secret from his family and friends. The Turtles' old friend April O'Neil now operates a shipping company that locates and acquires relics for collectors, assisted by her boyfriend, Casey Jones.

April travels to Central America for work and finds Leo, telling him that his brothers have drifted apart. She returns to New York City with a statue for wealthy tycoon Max Winters. Leo also returns, and April and Casey deliver the statue to Winters. Winters hires Shredder's former second-in-command, Karai and her ninja Foot Clan to search the city for the 13 monsters before the portal opens again. Raph encounters Casey, who reveals his knowledge of Raph's double identity and joins him in hunting criminals. Winters, who is actually Yaotl, reanimates his four stone generals using technology created by his company.

Leo returns to the Turtles' sewer lair, reuniting with Splinter and his brothers. Splinter forbids the Turtles from fighting crime until they can act as a team again. While training, the Turtles encounter one of the 13 beasts, Bigfoot. The Turtles engage Bigfoot, going against Leonardo and Splinter's orders, and coming into conflict with the Foot Clan in the process. While the Turtles and Foot ninja fight, a fleeing Bigfoot is captured by the generals. The next day, Splinter sees a news report of the destruction left in the wake of the battle, and sharply reprimands his sons for disobeying him. Raphael later visits Casey, and they encounter Vampire Succubor, another of the monsters. They witness its capture by the Foot and the Stone Generals, but are spotted. Despite a successful escape, Raph is injured and knocked out. Casey takes Raph back to the apartment while April calls the other Turtles for help and realizes the identities of Yaotl and his generals. After being revived, Raph suggests they pursue Yaotl, but Leonardo forbids him to go until Splinter gives his permission. Raphael angrily quits the team and investigates alone.

Leo, Donnie and Mikey plan their next move, and Donatello discovers the next portal will open over Winters' tower. Splinter tells Leonardo that his team is incomplete, and that he knows what he must do. After 11 monsters have been captured, General Aguila questions Yaotl's plans for them and the portal. Yaotl reveals that he wishes to free his generals from their stone prisons, and break the curse that keeps them alive. The generals conspire to betray Yaotl, wanting to remain immortal. As the Nightwatcher, Raph encounters the Jersey Devil, one of the remaining monsters, but drives it off. Leo, not recognizing his brother, pursues the Nightwatcher across the city, believing him to be nothing but an arrogant thug. After a brief fight, Leo discovers that Raph is the Nightwatcher. The brothers argue about how much things have changed since Leo left. Another fight breaks out, but when Raph breaks Leo's swords and almost runs his brother through with his sais, he flees in a fit of guilt and shame. The generals seize a weakened Leo, intending to substitute him for the 13th missing beast, and Raph decides to make amends by rescuing Leo. As the portal opens, Yaotl discovers his generals' treachery, while Splinter and the Turtles, accompanied by Casey and April, fight their way through the Foot Clan cordon and breach the tower. Yaotl admits to the heroes that he only wants to send the monsters back to where they came from, and the generals reveal that they intend to use the portal to bring in more monsters to conquer the world.

Refusing to betray Yaotl in exchange for serving the Generals, Karai, April, Casey and the Foot Clan work together, searching for the final monster, the Sea Monster, while the Turtles fight the generals. Splinter and Yaotl fight off numerous monsters emerging from the portal. April, Casey, and Karai arrive at the tower with the Sea Monster. The Sea Monster crashes into the Generals, dragging them into the portal before it closes. Karai warns them to enjoy their victory while it lasts, cryptically claiming they will soon contend with faces from their past before vanishing. A now-mortal Yaotl honors Splinter and the Turtles, thanking them for fulfilling his wish before dissipating. Splinter places Yaotl's helmet among his trophy collection, as well as Raph's Nightwatcher helmet and Mikey's "Cowabunga Carl" head. As they return to their roles as the shadowy guardians of New York City, Raph says that the Turtles will always be brothers.

Voice cast

 * James Arnold Taylor as Leonardo: the leader of the group, who has been away training in Central America.
 * Nolan North as Raphael: the hotheaded brother who has been secretly operating as the vigilante Nightwatcher.
 * Mikey Kelley as Michelangelo: the light-hearted and carefree brother, who has been operating as a birthday entertainer, "Cowabunga Carl".
 * Mitchell Whitfield as Donatello: the genius brother, who has been operating as an IT tech support.
 * Chris Evans as Casey Jones: April's boyfriend and friend of the Turtles, who still engages in crimefighting.
 * Sarah Michelle Gellar as April O'Neil: a female friend of the Turtles who owns a shipping company.
 * Mako Iwamatsu and Greg Baldwin as Splinter: a mutant rat who is the Turtles' sensei and father.
 * Patrick Stewart as Max Winters: a businessman who is really the immortal warlord Yaotl, who desires to be mortal again.
 * Zhang Ziyi as Karai: the Shredder's former second-in-command and new leader of the Foot Clan.
 * John DiMaggio as Colonel Santino: the leader of a group of South American bandits who has been extorting protection money from the local villagers.
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as General Aguila: the leader of Yaotl's four generals (his name is Spanish for "eagle").
 * Paula Mattioli as General Serpiente: one of Yaotl's four generals (her name is Spanish for "snake").
 * Fred Tatasciore as General Gato: one of Yaotl's four generals (his name is Spanish for "cat").
 * Frank Welker as General Mono: one of Yaotl's generals (his name is Spanish for "monkey").
 * Kevin Smith as an unnamed cook at a diner where Nightwatcher fights the Jersey Devil.
 * Laurence Fishburne as the narrator.

Development
A computer graphics imagery (CGI) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) movie was first announced in 2000, with John Woo supposedly at the helm. That movie languished in development hell and Woo ultimately moved on to other projects. TMNT, executive produced by the TMNT co-creator Peter Laird, departs from the previous films' live action style and is the first and only CGI film in the series. Writer/director Kevin Munroe said that he wanted to do total CGI instead of live action and CGI turtles because it would be easier for the audience to "suspend disbelief for such an offbeat story" as there would be no break in the reality between CGI and live action. Producer Tom Gray explained that the decision to depart from the live action series was due to escalating budgets for the three films, and with each film making less than its predecessor, a CGI film became a reality. For example, the first film made $135.2 million on a budget of $13.5 million, and the third made $44 million on a budget of $21 million. Orange Sky Golden Harvest's rights to the franchise had expired, and Gray said the question arose there over a CGI TMNT film in 2004.

Writing
Munroe stated in terms of the story line that ideas were floated as extreme as the Turtles being in space, but eventually it just came back to New York City, and the theme of the family that had fallen apart. When developing the screenplay, Munroe wanted to take on a less lighthearted tone or "less Cowabunga" and place an emphasis on dark elements as shown in the original comics to appeal to the mature audience: "I had a very specific tone because mixing that sort of action and comedy is a very specific thing. Most people were just coming and wanting to make it too funny. I think that version of the movie could do really well, but we wanted to do something where it sort of pushes the envelope a little bit more and says that animation is more than just comedic animals bumping into each other and farting!" Munroe said that in design and in the rendering of the animation, he was after the feel of a comic book. Karai was one of Munroe's favorite characters from the comics and he "was the one who really pushed for Karai" to appear in the film. TMNT co-creator Peter Laird stated it takes place in its own universe separate from the previous films, but director Munroe says the film exists in the same continuity as the other films, which was supported by the memento wall at the end of the film.

Animation
Development and pre-production for TMNT began in June 2005 at Imagi's Los Angeles facility and the CGI animation was produced in Hong Kong, followed by post-production in Hollywood. In designing the New York backdrop, art director/concept artist Simon Murton stylized the familiar Manhattan skyline and urban landscapes: "We began with cinematic cues from certain black-and-white films from the 1940s and '50s. I really wanted to push the lighting and the environments to create the look and feel of an alternate reality". The animators that worked on the fight sequences were inspired by Hong Kong action films. Animation director Kim Ooi explains said that because of CGI they were able to "push and stylize beyond the limits of live action." Imagi used Autodesk Maya with Pixar's RenderMan for the production pipeline's back-end.

Casting
Jim Cummings was the only past TMNT actor to appear in this film, where he had previously contributed voice-work in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. The film also features three voice actors for Ratchet in the Ratchet & Clank series, Mikey Kelley and Kevin Michael Richardson from the first game, and James Arnold Taylor from the others, playing Michelangelo, General Aguila, and Leonardo, respectively. TMNT would be Mako Iwamatsu's final acting role. Mako was announced as the voice of Splinter at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 20, 2006. He then died the next day, aged 72. A dedication to Mako appears at the end of the film's credits. Although Mako is the only actor credited in the role, Greg Baldwin performs a substantial portion of Splinter's dialogue in the finished film; Baldwin had already mimicked Mako's voice when he took up the late actor's role as Iroh in the concurrently-produced animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender, and used this precedent to successfully lobby to join the cast of TMNT as Splinter following Mako's death.

Soundtrack
The licensed soundtrack TMNT: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released by Atlantic Records in 2007.

Release
The film was originally set for release domestically (USA and Canada) on March 30, 2007, which would have been the 17th anniversary of the release of the first TMNT film. The March 30 date was advertised in the teaser trailer and early posters, but the release was moved up to March 23.

Marketing
At the 2006 San Diego Comic-Con, the TMNT panel screened an exclusive preview that contained a Splinter voice-over with facial tests, concept art, muscle and dynamic fight tests, and a few comedic scenes. A sneak peek booklet containing storyboards, environment designs and character designs by comic artist Jeff Matsuda was also distributed at the convention. Several tie-in products were released in 2007. The McDonald's fast-food chain had the film-based toys to collect with the purchase of a Happy Meal. A series of action figures based in the film's characters was released by Playmates Toys. A novelization, adapted from Munroe's screenplay by Steve Murphy, was published by Simon Spotlight. A five-issue prequel comic miniseries was published by Mirage Comics.

Home media
A home media edition of TMNT was released on August 7, 2007, for the DVD, HD DVD and Blu-ray. In 2009, a box set with all four TMNT films was released to celebrate the franchise's 25th anniversary. The DVD release contains several special features, including commentary on the feature by writer/director Kevin Munroe; an alternate opening and an alternate ending to the film, and interviews with some of the featured voice talent as well as the filmmakers.

Box office
TMNT ranked number one at the box office on its opening weekend, beating 300 (the top film of the previous two weeks), The Last Mimzy, Shooter, Pride, The Hills Have Eyes 2, and Reign Over Me. Weekend estimates showed that the film made $25.45 million over the weekend of March 23–25, 2007. The film grossed over $95 million worldwide, including over $54 million domestically during its 91-day run in the 3,120 North American theaters.

Critical response
, the film holds a 35% approval rating on the review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 119 reviews with an average rating of 4.96/10. The critical consensus states, "TMNT 's art direction is splendid, but the plot is non-existent and the dialogue lacks the irony and goofy wit of the earlier TMNT movies". On Metacritic the film has a score of 41 out of 100 based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". According to CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an "A-".

Claudia Puig of USA Today gave a negative review, stating that the film "is trying for a new image. But it takes more than an awkward title attempting to sound cool to overcome its mundane plot and silly dialogue". Michael Ordona of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "despite the doll-like cartoonishness of the human figures, the filmmakers seem to expect us to take this animated romp seriously. Too seriously". Wesley Morris of the Boston Globe called the film "a junk-food pastry. The plot is the wrapper. The action is the oily sponge cake. And the message—family, family, family—is the processed cream filling".

Conversely, Todd Gilchrist of IGN gave the film a positive review, calling it "a fun, action-filled adventure that will satisfy longtime fans and generate a legion of new ones, whether it be by virtue of simple storytelling, solid CGI, carefully- [sic]choreographed action, or just the spirit and energy that only the Turtles can create". Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post felt that the film "is technically superb and quite enjoyable as long as you don't bang your head against the plot, which will cause hot flashes, premature aging and fallen arches". According to Steven Rea of The Philadelphia Inquirer, the film is "not so dark or scary as to keep most kids away" and it "has a cool, noirish sheen. There's an attention to detail in the visuals and sound design that pushes it up several notches above most kiddie fare".

Accolades
The film received nominations for the Annie Award for Best Storyboarding in an Animated Feature Production and the Golden Schmoes Award for Best Animated Movie of the Year.

Video games
Three beat'em up/action adventure game/platformer adaptations of the film were developed and released by Ubisoft in 2007 for a variety of video game consoles. A mobile game TMNT: The Power of 4 was also developed by Overloaded and released by uClick that same year. In addition, characters from the film are available in Ubisoft's 2009 Wii and PlayStation 2 fighting game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Smash-Up, while artworks from the film are available in this game as unlockable content.