Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I'm going to talk a little bit about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The foursome of mutant misfits, led by a wise rodent and assisted by a news reporter and a hockey-loving loner, fought shredder in two movies and then decided to hitch a ride to the past.

The turtles were one of the last of the big cartoon shows before live-action surrealism destroyed what was left of traditional moving ink. Computers then stepped in to do the animation, and now we're somewhere else I guess. I know nothing about the history of animation so I'll stop this thread where it is.

But the turtles were more than just the typical continuation of hero myths. They weren't just outcasts from normal society making good. They weren't just outcasts making good while all others seemed to give up. Sure, that is the typical myth. when other people try to forget, delivery man remembers and saves the day! The turtles movies certainly had that element. Especially the first movie which not only emphasized the courageous actions of the turtles and that of Casey Jones, but also emphasized the apathy and inability to act on the part of April O'Neil's boss, Chief Stern, and the rest of the "authority"

But as I said, the turtles always represented more. There was an attempt to emotionalize the foursome with their individual interests and social expertise. For instance, long before Spiderman got all angsty about his vocation, Raphael huffed and puffed his way around the city only to eventually get the shell kicked out of him from a bunch of feet.

Michelangelo of course was the least interested in anything serious while Leonardo was the big brother/sister character always trying to look out for what was best for the siblings. Donatello, my personal favorite, was the geeky hipster of the foursome, a snot, but an intelligent one at that.

Even though "kid"-ed down for younger viewers, the first movie in particular tackles some truly adolescent issues through Raphael's angst, the loss of their mentor/father figure, questions about revenge, anger at "the man," family, respect of the past, violence etc.

The turtles movies discussed what it was like to make choices in the world...through the singular lens of adolescence. Making a good choice is the most important responsibility a respectable citizen can have, and I think the way most of the choices in this movie play out really help kids to understand that. Unfortunately, as a kids movie, adults miss how this really can adapt well to their life. I think a lot of adults fail to make good choices and I think a lot more adults don't even think about choices.

The movie purposely emphasized desperadoes doing the fighting against evil, because after all, in many adult's minds doing good just means ignoring bad. And somebody fighting evil out front tends to draw attention to it. Most adults want to spend their time eye-balling this or that person, wondering what their problem is, who does he think he is. Making up evil in their heads. There are only two ways somebody sees evil anyway. Actual evil is happening one way or the other, it's just a question of where does the idea come from. You could be imagining evil by way of your own dark inspiration, or you may be physically seeing evil.

I suggest most of the time the type of evil we are tempted into seeing is the former, not the latter. When real evil happens, and it happens all the time, it's easier to just look away and go on like Cheif Stern.

Luckily, Ninja Rap rewrote the seriousness of the first movie and made sure there was a heavy dose of humor, goofy humor in II, The Secret of the Ooze. The messages and characters were a little less set in stone, the plot was definitely up for grabs, but I think the overall character message is the same through all three.

Sometimes the messages are a bit forced, that's true. I don't think Raphael really needed to repeatedly point out to the audience how he was telling little Yoshi to "watch his temper." I think subtlety could have worked too. But keep in mind the end goal, the target audience for these films was adolescents. Some people say adolescents need these messages bashed over their heads over and over again so that they think about it. I fall victim to this myself with my bellwork assignments, I suppose. I guess I've always looked at it that adolescents appreciate not-so-subtle messages because they ARE thinking about this stuff on a regular basis. They ponder ethical and moral dilemmas all the time although never in such a stodgy philosophical-course-in-college kind of a way. I think adolescents ponder this stuff far more than adults do.

So adults want the subtly not because they have refined their philosophies, and they are better off then adolescents, but on the contrary, I think many adults want subtlety in messages and opinions because they don't want to have to think about it too much. They've gone to high school, some to college, they have their job, they have their family. And nobody's going to tell them what to do or how to do it.

Adolescents are much more open to ponder arguments of ethical and moral positions because the whole process is new them. They're developing their logic and argument skills as we speak, where many adults are counting their blessings when they don't have to go to that office party or neighbor party and sit near that one dude who can't stop pontificating about how culturally significant the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies are.