The followup to the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film, the second took less of the first run comics and more from the 1987 cartoon, giving us a film that was more comedy than the previous film, but still used quite well. The movie does have some weird parts, like people’s lack of reaction to giant walking turtles fighting with martial arts. This movie also introduces Keno, played by Ernie Reyes Jr, and the mutants Tokka and Rahzar, just like the turtles but without the intelligence.
This movie spends some more time expanding on the background of the turtles and how they mutated to what they are and the chemical that did it. In an effort to learn more, the turtles head to Techno Global Research Industries (TGRI) to learn about this ooze, only to learn The Foot is still around and they want it. The turtles thus must chase after The Foot to learn why.
Some changes have been made, however. Paige Turco replaces Judith Hoag as April O’Neil, Casey doesn’t appear at all, and Francois Chau replaces James Saito as, spoiler, The Shredder. Even Kevin Nash has a part in this film in the third act. The voice cast, however, remains the same. And finally, Vanilla Ice plays a part, also in the third act, in a now iconic scene where the turtles fight Tokka and Rahzar inside a nightclub.
This movie could have gone for an intrigue angle with the ooze and TGRI, much less the return of The Shredder, but it instead opted to delivery a martial arts comedy for fans, which I can respect. The cast and crew knew what their audience expected and they deliver beautifully, not losing sight of their goal. In the end, it’s ninjutsu, martial arts, great jokes, and great laughs are to be had.
If I had to name one TMNT movie to see, this would be the one. As is, it barely beats out the original movie, if only because it was more of the 1987 cartoon I knew than the original comics that the original film drew so heavily on.
It’s also shot with far fewer dramatic camera angles or music, instead opting for a narrative that was constantly moving forward. Which can feel like it’s a loss for a movie that tries to be more intriguing, based on the title, but it’s great for story progression, as it never feels like people are rambling or wasting time. Nearly every scene pushes the story forward, with very little that expands the world. Which might sound like a bad thing, but it’s not. The world was already fleshed out in the first movie, after all, so they didn’t need to spend much time on building.
As is, I would highly recommend watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, but I would also recommend watching the first movie first. A great start to the series.
It’s just too bad the momentum ends here…
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