I'm about to get really nerdy. Be warned.

So I finally saw TMNT today, and I absolutely loved it. Walking out of the theater (while at target, and on the way home), I kept exclaiming to Aubrie how fantastic the movie was, and it's only after thinking about it for hours while I threw boxes that I figured out why. The Ninja Turtles have always been THE franchise for me. Yes, G.I. Joe and the Transformers were cool, but nothing was as prevalent in my youth as the Turtles. When I visited my grandparents in Florida for two weeks one summer, the friends I made there I made because of my Baxter Stockman as Fly-man action figure. There were numerous Turtle themed birthday parties here in the city, and one lucky bastard's birthday was on the day the second movie came out (and his parents bought us all tickets to go see it), so of course everyone showed up to that party. Even when I was home alone, it was a good bet that Raphael would win the Battle Royale that included Cyclops, Magneto, Optimus Prime, the Cobra Commander and others.

TMNT succeeded, more than any other movie in a long time, in taking me back to that time. This is the kind of movie Superman Returns wanted to be: paying tribute to the stories already told, capturing the magic for a new generation, and serving as a launching point for future stories.

At first viewing, TMNT takes all of the strengths and none of the weaknesses from the previous incarnations. Yeah, it has it's cheesy moments, but compared to even the first movie, it's been toned down a lot (I have it on both VHS and DVD and will be happy to lend them out if you don't believe me. I think I even have an episode of two of the old show around here someplace for further comparison). It's darker than the other incarnations, but still manages to bring the humor. The foot clan isn't a group of robots or street thugs, but an group of real ninjas and are believable as a threat. The movie focuses a lot on the Ralph/Leo conflict, which in my mind is fine because I've always been a sucker for that, but Mikey and Don do get pushed to the sidelines. I'll probably go back and see it in the theater again, and I'll be more critical regarding the animation and some aspects of the plot. It's not a perfect movie, but for two hours it was like 16 years ago, and that was perfect.