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by Blender Dumbass

Aka: J.Y. Amihud. A Jewish by blood, multifaceted artist with experience in film-making, visual effects, programming, game development, music and more. A philosopher at heart. An activist for freedom and privacy. Anti-Paternalist. A user of Libre Software. Speaking at least 3 human languages. The writer and director of the 2023 film "Moria's Race" and the lead developer of it's game sequel "Dani's Race".

So in 2007 TMNT by Kevin Munroe our beloved Ninja Turtles help an old suicidal man finally die. Like yeah, the film is supposedly family-friendly and magical. And the whole suicide thing has to do more with the curse of immortality. But yet. The turtles helped a guy kill himself in this film. And he was very happy to die right in front of them.

Okay, so the plot is kind of sort of like this: A 3 thousand year old man, 3 thousand years ago, thought it was a good idea to become immortal. So through some magical magic he made himself immortal, and that is how he is now a 3 thousand year old man. Yet because he lived for 3 thousand years, he realized that living for so long is not a good thing actually. And after all those centuries, his greatest wish is to finally die. So he needs to reverse the magical magic. For that he needs to capture 13 monsters that he released while becoming immortal 3 thousand years ago. And shove them all into a magical portal.

As you can see, while it is somewhat of a magical TMNT movie, it has a rather dark subject matter. But that doesn't stop there. This is a TMNT movie where Leonardo and Raphael are trying to kill each other at one point. So Leonardo, trying to learn how to become a better leader, or some shit, goes to live in the jungle of Mexico. We get to see him protecting the people of Mexico from the cartel. Have I told you that this movie is dark? April O'Neal travels to Mexico on an unrelated work-trip, and ends up talking to Leo, trying to get him to come back to New York.

Meanwhile in New York, the turtles aren't doing any fighting, because Splinter doesn't allow them without Leo. So they do their own stuff. Donatello is working as a tech-support guy. Michelangelo works as a punching bag at kids birthday parties. And Raphael decided to become a night-crawling vigilante type of superhero, directly against the orders of Splinter. So when Leo returns and finds out about Raphael, they have such a major fight about it that they literally want to kill each other for a few minutes. Giving us perhaps one of the most dramatic fight scenes in TMNT history.

Believe it or not John Woo was at some point attached to the project. This explains why the film's animation was done in Hong Kong. Making it technically a Hong Kong action film. Yes, the writer and director Kevin Munroe is a Canadian. And the film was released by Hollywood's Warner Bros. and The Weinstein Company ( which makes it even darker ). But the film was mostly done in Hong Kong. c:0

I would say that the script is descent, but not too good. I very like the fact that the film is trying to be dark. That shit really works. But some of the broader structural stuff appears to make very little sense. We are led to believe that there were 13 monsters released into the world 3 thousand years ago and yet nobody ever saw or heard about them. Okay, them surviving for 3 thousand years is not too out of wack. I mean, the main plot revolves around an immortality curse. But nobody noticing them, and then all of them somehow magically appear to be in New York is a bit baloney. And it is not like they are masters of stealth. Like as soon as the plot introduces them, they are literally on the news. c:0

The 3D stuff, modeling, texturing and animation, is actually really fucking good. It was 2007, so it was a year after Pixar's Cars which introduced technology like ray-tracing and quasi-realistic surfaces to 3D animation. Yet it seems like TMNT still uses a more primitive rasterizer renderer. I don't see any bounce-light, or even ambient-occlusion in the film. But the lighting department ( that is, based on the credits, was the largest department on the film ) did a such a good job lighting it, that the film doesn't need much of this fancy tech. Like, they really know their lighting stuff. And they make it look very good, even if the renderer doesn't help them much with it. When I was a kid, other kids used to call it "this ultra-realistic cartoon about turtles".

In the way, the seriousness of the plot and the fact that it is trying to be this "ultra-realistic cartoon" even though it is still very obviously 3D animation, inspired me as a kid to learn the damn stuff. You could say I know Blender because of this very movie. Like, okay, obviously I liked Pixar stuff, but that stuff was not cool enough. And actual movies, I knew were very fucking expensive to make. At age 11 I remember thinking about this "ultra-realistic cartoon" knowing that all I need to make something like this is a computer and some skill at 3D modeling. This doesn't require too much money. And yet, based on what I saw from this film, I could still make moody, serious pieces of cinema.

If you look at I'm Not Even Human, this is me taking the idea that Kevin Munroe went for in this film, but cranked up to 11. I'm Not Even Human is literally R-rated material. While it is still obviously very 3D animation. Moria's Race is lighter, but it still trying to be intense. If anything Moria's Race was the same exact challenge as what Munroe had with TMNT. He wanted a dark film. As dark as he could get away with, while still being PG. Well, Moria's Race is not necessarily dark, per se, but it is trying to be as intense as it possibly can be while still remaining PG.

Directing-wise I really love the shots that Munroe does in this movie. At some points I could sense the restrictions of some sets or other stuff. And in some places the camera moves a little too fast, for the impact the shot needs to have. Or in other places, the camera is a bit too still, for me at least. But the film is very well directed. Believe me, I know how to make a 3D animated film. And this movie is still a very good time all these years later.

Happy Hacking!!!


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Donghua TMNT.



If the script is descending, then there is no way it can be high quality.

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