Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Gets A 17-Minute Preview And Three New TV Spots

By Brent McKnight | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

Apparently Nickelodeon did something called the Kids’ Choice Sports Awards for the first time the other night. I don’t know why I’m telling you this, of course you tuned in, why wouldn’t you? But for those few of you who weren’t fortunate enough to catch this monumental, world-changing event live, you may have missed out on this massive, 17-minute behind the scenes look at Jonathan Liebesman’s upcoming reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that is full of new footage. Lucky for you, it’s online now and you can check it out at your leisure. And if that isn’t enough of a Turtle fix for you, there are also three new TV spots, just because.

Hosted by human stars Megan Fox (April O’Neil) and Will Arnett (Vernon Fenwick), this video takes great pains to make you aware that these Turtles are bigger and, more importantly, better than any versions that may have come before. They seriously say the phrase “bigger and better” a lot, but no matter how many times they assure that these Turtles are really, really cool, you may not be entirely convinced. Bigger, sure, but better is definitely a matter of opinion, and the public response has been mixed at best.

This does feature a ton of new footage, most prominently a breakdown of that big chase in the snow that has figured in so many of the trailers and commercials that we’ve already seen. This may not be a Michael Bay-directed movie—he produced the picture—but it certainly looks like one. The action is frantic and jumbled and as messy looking as everything we’ve seen before. If you weren’t already excited to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, then this isn’t likely to change your mind. And I’m pretty sure they made April O’Neil a roller derby girl, because they’re hip and know what the kids are into.

Teenage mutant Ninja TurtlesYou do get a good behind the scenes look at the production, with an extra special eye placed on the special effects side of things. I think I like the way the actors in the bulky motion capture suits way more than the actual Turtles that will appear in the movie. Various producers, actors, and key players spend a great deal of time explaining how this is the perfect time to revisit this franchise, mostly because of the advances in special effects, not because of any more substantial reason, but movies have been made for far less, so we’re still willing to give this the benefit of the doubt.

You can tell how irreverent these adolescent reptiles are because they mock their own name, claiming that all of the various elements—teenage, mutant, ninja, and turtle—when taken together, sound stupid and ridiculous. This video also quickly scrolls through their various personality types. Leonardo is the Zen leader, Donatello is the smart one, Raphael is the badass loner rebel, and Michelangelo is, well, he’s just Michelangelo. If nothing else, at least this new incarnation seems to have gotten the characters right. If that turns out to be the case, I still have a modicum of hope that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could be good. Not high hopes, but there’s at least a spark.

If you’ve always wanted to see a Turtle surf down a snowy avalanche on top of an SUV, this is your lucky day, because that happens in this video. There is also a ton of bouncy action in this TV spot, along with a glut of mid-1990s style teenage slang that you probably haven’t heard since the last movie.

Whoopi Goldberg does not believe that there are giant, walking, talking Turtles running all over New York City, practicing their martial arts out in the open. Boy is she going to be surprised when this movie opens everywhere on August 8.