#teenage mutant ninja turtles II: secret of the ooze

[tvneon]

[ariel-seagull-wings]

[adamwatchesmovies]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze (1991)

While I didn't enjoy this film, that doesn't mean you won't. No matter what I say, the people involved in this project did it: they actually made a movie. That's something to be applauded. With that established...

To a certain extent, children who are fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be happy to see ANY rendition of their favorite characters but a part of their subconscious will realize Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze is an inferior sequel. It’s less violent and more kid-friendly, which means uppity parents will be pleased. Well, being pleased is a stretch. The quality of the writing ensures no one will be satisfied.

In New York City, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Leonardo (voiced by Brian Tochi), Donatello (voiced by Adam Carl), Michelangelo (voiced by Robbie Rist), and Raphael (voiced by Laurie Faso) - are searching for a new home with the help of news reporter April O’Neil (Paige Turco this time) while their sensei, Master Splinter (Kevin Clash), begs them to remain hidden. When The Shredder (played by François Chau, voiced by David McCharen) returns, he forces Professor Jordan Perry (David Warner) to use the same ooze that created the turtles on a pair of ferocious animals: the first members of his mutant army.

Right away, it’s a disappointment to see April O’Neil recast and the absence of Elias Koteas as Casey Jones - the character doesn't even get mentioned. Also frustrating is the new kid sidekick who hangs out with the turtles: a pizza delivery boy and martial arts expert named Keno (Ernie Reyes Jr.). Our heroes already have a human friend. Why do they need another?

The most striking difference from the first picture is the overall tone of The Secret of the Ooze. The first movie might not have been fantastic - the four adolescent reptiles were basically interchangeable, the villains bland, there’s a long stretch in the middle where they retreat to a cabin in the countryside that’s as dull as a normal turtle practicing karate - but at least it had ambition. The movie wanted to be awesome. It wanted you to take the action and the premise seriously. It knew kids watching wanted the movie to be what they imagined it would be: a “grown-up” version of what they saw on TV. Director Michael Pressman doesn't even try. The jokes are so bad, so juvenile you'll want to crawl inside your shell and die of embarrassment. The gags make the villains complete non-threats, which robs the plot of any tension. TMNT II is a perfect example of the conservation of ninjutsu rule: the more ninjas on-screen, the less effective they are.

The most baffling aspect of this film is the titular "secret". There comes a point when our heroes get their hands on a canister of the green liquid (whose technical name is apparently “ooze”) and are crushed when they learn their inception was an accident. Well of course it was! You were raised in a sewer! By a rat! You spend your time hiding in the shadows! Did you think you were anything BUT a mistake of creation?!

Oh right. The animal monsters that supposedly pose a threat. They don’t. In another example of bad writing, the creatures - Tokka and Rahzar (not Beebop and Rocksteady, which means another disappointment for the fans) - are initially rejected by The Shredder. He doesn’t think they’re intelligent enough because he expected them to emerge not only super-strong and ferocious but also with genius-level intelligence despite being alive for less than a day. Oh, and then we get ANOTHER explanation for their stupidity: seems Professor Perry tampered with the mutagen to ensure they would be intellectual nincompoops. Because one reason wasn’t enough?

To throw some compliments in its direction, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II once again features impressive costumes/special effects and decent fight choreography considering the restrictions the performers were under. It has the occasional funny gag and if you wanted a less violent movie, you got it. Will this outweigh the horror of an impromptu rap number by Vanilla Ice? I’ll let you decide.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze is a major letdown. It also fails to give fans of the characters what they want and suffers from a major lack of ambition. This plot is so basic you’ll be bored. Well, when you’re not groaning at the deluge of corny gags. (January 1, 2021)

[crazy56u]

Okay, so, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II has officially become the darkest campaign Film Reroll has yet done.

It has also now entered my Top 5.

[90ssuperheroes]

[tmntkiseki]

I have finally watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (beware for OPINIONS)

And the tl;dr opinion: I am surprised by how much I liked it

Obviously, it wasn't as good as the first movie and I definitely have a few issues with it, the biggest one being that with the exception of Donatello, the turtles barely used their weapons. I know this was because people complained that the first movie was too violent, but C'MON, PEOPLE. If Leonardo has a pair of swords strapped to his back, he should be using them, damn it!

My other big issue is Casey being completely absent from the plot. I might have been forgiving towards this if they provided an explanation somewhere in the script (something like "His mother is not doing well and he needs to take care of her,") but he's just gone with no acknowledgement that he even exists and it is so jarring when he was such a prominent member of the cast in the first film. Subsequently, I'm extremely divided on Keno. I do really like him as a character, and I wouldn't mind if they brought him back in another iteration at some point, but he ultimately feels like a substitute for Casey that they didn't actually need.

But otherwise, most of my complaints range from minor nitpicks to stuff that I'm not necessarily sure is actually a problem. For instance, the turtle costumes don't look as good, but I feel like that's more to do with the brighter lighting rather than a genuine decline in the overall quality (the darker lighting of the first movie did a lot to hide the imperfections in the suits.) April being played by a different actress certainly is weird, but Paige Turco does a pretty acceptable job playing our intrepid reporter, even if I do still prefer Judith Hoag. The overuse of slapstick comedy is a little grating at times, but there were a lot of jokes that made me laugh so I can let it slide. You win some, you lose some.

The really interesting thing though is that unlike the final two seasons of the 2003 series, the tonal change didn't actually bother me all that much. I think it was because despite the tonal change, the turtles, for the most part, still felt very in character when compared to the first movie. In Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer, there were a number of lines that genuinely went into "He would not fucking say that" territory, but here? Yeah, it' still the same turtles from before, just a little bit goofier.

And now for a bulleted list of pretty much everything I liked or am at least accepting of.

Even if I'm sad that Leo, Raph, and Mikey barely use their weapons, the fight choreography for the movie was still fantastic.

I know that both Raphael and Donatello's voices were recast for this movie and in terms of Raphael, Laurie Faso does such a convincing impression of Josh Pais performance that you can barely tell that the actor was changed.

As for Donny, I actually like Adam Carl's voice for him better than Corey Feldman's (not sure if this is a controversial opinion or not, but that is how I feel)

Speaking of Donny, they did put more emphasis on him being the tech guy of the turtles. That was the only thing I found off about him in the first movie, so I'm glad about this.

Listen, I know Jordan Perry's character is basically a stand-in for Baxter Stockman and he might as well just have been Baxter Stockman, but there is something I just absolutely love about him and his dumb bow tie.

Tokka and Rahzar... not entirely sure how I feel about these two? I think I like their concept enough and for the sake of the movie's plot they were utilized reasonably well. I just wish they had more personality than "literal infants." (Also, I feel dumb. I've been pronouncing Rahzar's name as "Raah-zahr," but for most of the movie, it's pronounced like razor.)

Even though there aren't really any significant character arcs in this movie and thus very little character development for the turtles, I did really like the brief angst that Don and his brothers had after finding out their mutation was a complete accident.

Frikkin Super Shredder. His appearance was extremely brief, but I can understand why the concept has been revived so many times in the franchise since this movie because it is so cool.

Do genuinely love the movie's soundtrack. Who the hell is Vanilla Ice, though?

[crazy56u]

Ditto. That would be a fucking brilliant plot twist if Paulo decided to do that.

Also, I know this isn’t true but I hope that the ecoterrorist professor is the same professor that Andy seized as an npc in the first episode

[familyofpaladins]

@tmaynt Day 27: Favorite Mutant/Alien Villain

There's so many good villains it was really hard to choose. So I decided to give a shout out to Tokka and Rahzar from TMNT II: Secret of the Ooze, because this part made me laugh SO HARD, I had to pause the movie and take a couple minutes to calm back down lol

bonus:

[pyxaperson]

i love the turtle designs in Secret of the Ooze so much i had to draw out this gif i couldn't get out of my head

(gif by @/isitdonproof)

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

𝔗𝔢𝔢𝔫𝔞𝔤𝔢 𝔐𝔲𝔱𝔞𝔫𝔱 𝔑𝔦𝔫𝔧𝔞 𝔗𝔲𝔯𝔱𝔩𝔢𝔰 ℑℑ: 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔖𝔢𝔠𝔯𝔢𝔱 𝔬𝔣 𝔱𝔥𝔢 𝔒𝔬𝔷𝔢 (յգգյ) 𝔡𝔦𝔯𝔢𝔠𝔱𝔢𝔡 𝔟𝔶 𝔐𝔦𝔠𝔥𝔞𝔢𝔩 𝔓𝔯𝔢𝔰𝔰𝔪𝔞𝔫

[incorrectlooneytunesquotes]

Foist, we must obsoive the ancient ritual of the, eh... traditional pre-fight carrot.

Bugs Bunny

[bobauthorman]

Team SSSN fighting Grimm

Scarlet: You take the ugly one!

Sage: No, you take the ugly one!

Sun: I’ll take the ugly one!

Neptune: Which one’s the ugly one?

[bed-wed-behead-your-fave]

Mutant Shredder from ninja turtles 1990 movies (specifically the second)

[ragnarockz]

Cleaning out my closet (again) and found this gem! I don't even remember owning this🐢🍕

[crazy56u]

Big Fucking Spoilers for Part 5

If ya know, ya know.

[90ssuperheroes]