Episode 414: Turtle Body Positivity

On the Overthinking It Podcast, we talk “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows”, the rare sequel that manages to surpass its predecessor. Cowabunga!

Peter Fenzel, Richard Rosenbaum, and Matthew Wrather talk about how to make an adult children’s film, about embracing the absurd, why Meghan Fox’s performance is surprisingly good, and why less Krang is more Krang.

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The Overview: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Audio Commentary Track on Overthinking ItGet our downloadable commentaries on the 1990s “Turtles” film adaptation and its sequel, Secret of the Ooze. Check them out now!

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4 Comments on “Episode 414: Turtle Body Positivity”

  1. Margo #

    Shouldn’t they be the Almost Middle Aged Mutant Ninja Turtles by now?

    I’m old enough the remember the Concerned Parent’s Groups of the early 90’s worrying that the twin menaces of the TMNT and the Power Rangers would inspire their offspring towards real-world violence. “But they would learn how to drop-kick someone from watching TV!” A statement which is hilarious to anyone who has actually studied a martial art.

    Reply

    • Chimalpahin #

      WHy yes, yes they would. The latter day Mirage Comics Turtle run dealt with the turtles’ aging and their eventual integration with society.

      I was a kid during the Power Rangers “scare” and to be fair it was that the parents didn’t want the kids jumping around all the time. Which is what I did…. off of everything :/ My parents were more concerned with Pokemon’s possibly satanic links than Power Rangers tho!

      Funnily enough in 1994 New Zealand banned Power Rangers and remained so even when they moved the production to New Zealand! They only just allowed it to air on TV 4 years ago.

      Reply

      • Margo #

        Banned, you say? NZ must have some powerful concerned citizens groups. We Canadians usually only worry about American pop culture warping our fragile little minds.

        Reply

  2. Chimalpahin #

    Wow I just saw the movie and woof. I wish I could see the world thru a fenzelian lens because I was utterly bored with this movie. I really haven’t been this bored in a film in a long time. I really didn’t expect that.

    I’ll take this as a 5 of the Fenzel scale but even then I would say Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance was a better film even under that criteria.

    As to the soft reboot, I think it’s better than the first one in regards to the serious tone. At least this one had a sense of joy, the brothers felt like brothers, April had more to do, Vern; as Rosenbaum noted got over his unrequited feelings but Splinter became a non entity.

    As to women there were three women in the movie and the one woman of color got totally shafted again. The heck? Why was Karai given so little to do? I don’t think she was ever even named, how the hell did Vern and April take her out when she’s always been an equal to the turtles in nearly every other incarnation? *Well in the fighting game she was totally OP*

    Maybe it’s because the 2k3 Turtles used her waaay more but I was not a fan of how she was sidelined. Poor Miwa. Oh well.

    Anyways I liked the Police CHief and I’m glad they didn’t treat her as a joke. April had more to do and felt a little more in control of the situation but ultimately does little reporting. This seems to be a trend with April even with the better adaptations of forgetting about her profession and rendering her dependent on the turtles for her relevance to the story.

    Krang was just boring. Man was he boring, what the heck happened? He just shows up and gives the Shredder video game objectives and he says yes? I waited for the movie to see the Shredder to double cross Krang but he never did. Why did he naively follow Krang, I ain’t down with that.

    The movie also presents Krang as if you were supposed to have met him in movie one and as if he was always the Turtle’s antagonist. Not a fan of that either. and what the hell was up with them freezing the Shredder like that? Why? So he gets to be the shredder but not really?

    Bebop and Rocksteady were cool, they had more of a presence than most of the characters. I don’t really have any attachment to them so I was pleasantly surprised by them. Fun fact Gary Anthony Williams and Sheamus, Bebop and Rocksteady respectively, had never met before this and now they’re BFFs! That’s the best outcome of this movie to me :)

    I never expected them Tyler Perry to be the highlight of this film but he was. I really hope they don’t turn him into a fly. Also I don’t get why the Shredder hates Stockman so much in this movie. It feels like setup to turn him into a darn fly. In the 2k3 one he mutilates Stockman but never has any strong feelings about him beforehand. Even after he reduces him to a head he’s just annoyed with him.

    As to Rosenbaum, yeah there was a an uproar when it was announced that a white man would be playing Oroku Saki, The Shredder. To their credit at least they changed it back.
    An article about it at the time
    http://blog.angryasianman.com/2013/05/is-tmnt-movie-whitewashing-shredder.html#more
    http://www.themarysue.com/white-shredder-tmnt/

    Reply

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