elvisdo's Full Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 - The Secret of the...
Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.
You can’t keep a good turtle down, or four of them for that matter. The success of the live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie proved to be a success that a sequel was made not even one year after the first one. In 1991, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze continues the story of those four teenagers who are green around the ears (actually, I don’t even think they have ears… at least none that I can see), their pet rat, and a guy named after a kitchen appliance as they all discover the truth to the Turtles’ origin.
Oozing Into Trouble
The Turtles and Splinter are crashing at April O’Neil’s apartment since the Foot Clan knows the location to their sewer lair. But things aren’t that bad as the Shredder is no longer alive. At least that’s what they assume. Shredder did indeed survive his battle against Splinter and vows to get his vengeance. The first order of business is to reassume leadership of the Foot. The second is to create freaks, which he can control, in order to defeat his enemies.
April does a news report on a company known as TGRI. Professor Jordan Perry, a scientist from TGRI, discovers that the waste produced by the company has had some strange mutating effects on the flowers nearby. Shredder sees the results and proceeds to get his hands on some of that waste.
Splinter also sees the news report and realizes that the broken ooze canister that mutated he and the Turtles came from TGRI. The Turtles go to investigate TGRI and get the ooze only to run into the Foot. But the Foot manages to steal the last canister of ooze and kidnap Prof. Perry as well.
Shredder has great plans for the ooze. He needs to create his own freaks in order to fight freaks, and does so by mutating a snapping turtle and a wolf to humanoid form. Tokka and Rahzar are born as a result, but their intelligence is extremely infantile though their strength is immense.
The Turtles are extremely outmatched when they meet their new foes. They need to find a way of reversing the mutating effects. It becomes even worse when Shredder uses the ooze on himself to become the unstoppable Super-Shredder. The odds are against the Turtles and they need to pull out every rabbit from the hat in order to survive.
TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze may continue the story from the first film, but the tone is drastically different. Instead of the dark and gritty feeling established with the first movie, it has now become a brighter and more cheery atmosphere; it went from its dark comic book roots to the sunny disposition seen in the animated show. This was done to appease parents’ wishes of wanting a more kid-friendly movie.
Personally, I think this is what could have happened with the first movie as it became, dare I say it, campy in quite a number of places. The jokes and humour were corny. And the fight scenes were parried down as well. The use of weapons decreased greatly focusing more on the hand-to-hand combat style.
The obvious change is the actress who originally played April O’Neill. Judith Hoag didn’t return to reprise her role as Paige Turco took over from her. Turco did a good job despite the fact that April’s role wasn’t as prominent in this film.
Ernie Reyes, Jr. received a bigger role as Keno, the pizza delivery boy. He was actually in the first film but you wouldn’t have noticed him at all as he was Donatello’s fight double. I guess the producers liked him enough to give him an actual role for the second film.
And what happened to the vigilante Casey Jones? He just disappeared after getting a nice spotlight from the previous film. I expected him to be a part of this movie. But no, instead of him, we are “treated” to a cameo appearance by Vanilla Ice as he starts rapping “Go Ninja” to everyone’s mortified expression.
At least Corey Feldman didn’t return voicing Donatello. Otherwise I would almost have to be convinced that he got his life back on track.
Trivia note: wrestling fans will find it amusing that wrestler Kevin Nash (also known as Big Daddy Cool Diesel from WWE) dressed up for the role of Super-Shredder.
Jim Henson’s Creature Shop once again stepped up their work in the puppetry and animatronics department to make these characters come to life.
The story wasn’t bad but the execution didn’t have that same gritty feeling from the first movie. If anything, this movie felt too polished. Maybe I was expecting more shadows in this world than the bright colours that were seen instead. I can understand wanting to make this movie more appealing for children, but the transition from the first movie to this one felt awkward with a different atmosphere enveloping this production.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze capitalized on the popularity known as “Turtle Power” and succeeded to some degree. It may have its flaws but it’s a good enough bookend to close the chapter from the first movie. It wouldn’t be as bad if I didn’t have to hear Vanilla Ice rap “Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!” That’s just messed up.
When reporter April O'Neil does a story on Professor Perry and his efforts to uncover a certain toxic waste the evil Shredder concludes that this is w...More at Family Video
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