The 1st TMNT movie from 1990 will turn 25 Years Old

[Bry]

I'll always be impressed by how much emotion they got across with those puppet heads. A lot of it is the voice acting, music, and the shooting angles they used, but it's still remarkably effective.







The Henson Company, man. 25 years old and still better than most modern CGI can accomplish.

[Leo656]

I believe those things are usually referred to as "subtlety", and "film making".

And yeah, it's pretty much extinct. It's odd and sad how movies let us "see" more now, but it all generally looks so much worse.

[Bry]

Originally Posted by Leo656

I believe those things are usually referred to as "subtlety", and "film making".

And yeah, it's pretty much extinct. It's odd and sad how movies let us "see" more now, but it all generally looks so much worse.

Filmmm... maaaa... king?

(Ha.)

But that's exactly it - talented filmmakers can make things work and use what they have to their full potential. The old Turtle suits should be limited and look goofy by today's standards, but they don't; they hold up remarkably well while a lot of today's CGI looks fake and dated by the time it hits theatres.

It's just especially impressive considering how long ago this was, and how small the budget was compared to what movies like this get now. Nothing beats those Henson suits.

[Sabacooza]

Originally Posted by Bry

I'll always be impressed by how much emotion they got across with those puppet heads. A lot of it is the voice acting, music, and the shooting angles they used, but it's still remarkably effective.

The Henson Company, man. 25 years old and still better than most modern CGI can accomplish.

I agree. It's such a beautiful film even till this day. I like how the color pallet and lighting is more realistic. The world they portray in this also looks old, lived in and dirty which is what I imagine a TMNT film to be. The script is also solid. In movies these days depending on the cg used, looks so fake and video gameish, paint by numbers. Hollywood has lost it's way unfortunately.

[Candy Kappa]

One of the big advantage practical effects have, is that they will have the same light falling on them like the rest of the environment and the actors present in the scene.

if a CGI creature (or any CGI effect) don't have the matching render and texture work to blend with the live-action, the model can be as photo-realistic as humanly possible and it will still look fake.

[Leo656]

I watched "The Dark Crystal" for the first time over Christmas and couldn't stop saying out loud, "This sh*t much have cost a fortune". Also, holy crap, that same exact movie, done today, would look horrific. Even though Obvious Puppet Main Character Is Obvious. Doesn't matter. That movie is a friggin' masterpiece, the type we can never and will never see again. They did so much world-building and unique-looking creatures with so much personality in them.

You just don't get that with empty "CGI Balloon" characters. Movies all look like video games now, not even movies anymore. Even guys like Jackson are giving up and making increasingly sh*tty movies "because it's easier". Well, I'unno if it's easier, but it sure looks like it took a lot less effort to produce, I'll give ya that. Not a compliment, though.

Pretty soon they're gonna forget about actors entirely and just CGI them, too, and everything will be like frickin' "Beowulf", because "if we can, why not?" See, people take Dr. Malcolm's speech about "so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should" at face value, as if it only had to do with the ethical dilemma of cloning dinosaurs. But *I* think when they made that movie they had a feeling that CGI was going to become blatantly over-used to the point of being ridiculous, and were warning everyone not to do that. Hollywood, as usual, took the wrong message from the material.

[Candy Kappa]

beowulf would have been an amazing movie, if it was in the hnds of a person that actually understood animation and how to animate.

there is some deep BS that some people believe that CGI is just pushing buttons and voila! And some of then are the people behind beowulf and Polar Express, where they Motion Captured and thought the workday was over.

Motion Capture is barely half the work. even 1st year 3D students are taught that you must animate over Motion Capture, so it will look good. Motion Capture alone looks like stilted crap. Beowulf and Final Fantasy Spirits Within are movies that are shown to students as how NOT to make animation.

[Sabacooza]

I do like big epic action in certain movies but it's gotten to the point where it's too unbelievable, almost cartoonish.

[raph27]

Hoping this means a possible big Blu-Ray release with lots of bonus features. Plus remastered. The DVD is extremely grainy. (How good was the old Blu-Ray?)
Oh, and if we could actually get some statues or figures (Playmates' sh*t last year doesn't count) that would be amazing.

[LeoRaph]

I'm hoping that it will first get 'Officially Acknowledged' For it's 25th Year Milestone from the powers that be, we know it, we care but do the Big Wigs in charge care? And if they do, can they give us the version we want, you know the 'German One or Better' or will we just get another cover change or something lame like that...this movie deserves so much better, it was ground breaking with what they did and how well they did. It's about time we got The Special Edition

[sgtfbomb]

Originally Posted by RaphaeltheAwesome

The DVD is extremely grainy. (How good was the old Blu-Ray?)

The DVD was a mess. The Blu Ray release is considerably better. There is still grain, but it is not as bad. However, grain is still evident and most likely goes back to the actual negative. I suspect the grainy look, in many scenes at least, was actually intentional in keeping with a gritty, urban look and most likely a stylistic choice for the flashback scenes, which are the most grainy, at least on the Blu Ray release. (On the DVD, the shots of Casey outside the warehouse had a great deal of noise, almost like watching it on a channel with mediocre reception in the days before digital antennas.) I personally think it looks great on Blu Ray. It could be better, but it's probably the best we're gonna get for a long while. Even if we get deleted scenes and documentaries, I doubt they'll opt to go back to the original negative for a meticulous restoration over simply re-using the current master. And, if they do, I hope they don't attempt to impress the cynical youngsters who don't understand what grain is by over-doing the DNR. Too much of that makes even living, breathing people look like automated wax figures, as removing grain also removes details such as texture, which I'm sure would be a disservice to Jim Henson's work on the film.

If you want to sample it, though, I'm sure that the master streaming on Netflix is the HD one.

[monsterocket]

I used to enjoy the 2nd film much more, but that has certainly changed over the years. I miss the magic of animatronics and puppets... the CG stuff just doesn't feel the same.

[d_osborn]

Originally Posted by sgtfbomb

I suspect the grainy look, in many scenes at least, was actually intentional in keeping with a gritty, urban look and most likely a stylistic choice for the flashback scenes, which are the most grainy, at least on the Blu Ray release.

My background is in cinematography and I'm a raging huge film historian/preservation/restoration nerd. The BR transfer looks as good as the movie is probably going to ever look. It's not at all reference quality, but the transfer shockingly nice, all things considered.

After Golden Harvest saw the rough cut, they felt the film was too dark (exposure AND tonally, but that's a whole other discussion). Golden Harvest chemically pushed the film exposure in dark scenes to lighten the image, which intensifies the grain. I've read that Barron fought them pretty hard on this, which is one of the reasons why he was cut out of most of the post-production.

The Casey exterior warehouse shot was just really high ASA film, which brings out even more grain. Gotta love old school, low-budget indie films! The flashback scenes were intentionally designed to look like the way they do. I'm pretty sure they were shot on fast 16mm.

With the final master of the film consisting of pushed exposure dark scenes, even the best copy of the film is going to be grainy. Personally, I feel this adds to the whole thing. The graininess gives the images a ton of character, and like you mentioned, brings out a gritty, urban, nasty 80s NYC feel.

Whoever produced the new BR transfer did a pretty good job with it. It definitely looks like there was some light restoration done in the process, while avoiding scuzzy DNR and sharpening.

Now if they would only give us a release with some supplemental content...

[Ville Leskinen]

Jim Henson's Creature Shop Challenge was likely the closest thing to puppets that are likely to happen anytime soon on film or tv. Sadly. And even that show got cancelled to my understanding.

So a special edition of the 1990 movie would be more then welcome. Didn't Canadian Turtle say there was some (not much though) BTS stuff left out from the turtle documentary? A retrospective documentary about the technology used and the puppets along with Barrons commentary would be great!

...But it's unlike will get anything so I propose we hunt down the best source of the tv shows that show some of the BTS stuff and make it ourselves! Who's with me?!

[TheCanadiandrome]

Originally Posted by TigerClaw

The original TMNT film debuted on March 30th 1990, And this year marks the 25th anniversary since it's release in theaters.
http://tinyurl.com/mhew3om

dear lord! i echo most here when I say i feel old

[Mellie]

25 years already?

I love this movie so much. Oddly I have a hard time watching it because I get so sad afterwards. I'm not sure why.. it means too much to me I guess.


I really hope the anniversary is acknowledged in some way.

[Leonardo87]

Fingers can only be crossed to get the proper DVD/Blu Ray release we have all been waiting for.