Review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) by Emmalicious E — 29 Sep 2008

The Ninja Turtles return! And this time, they're more family friendly. Gone is the moody atmosphere of the original Ninja Turtles film. It's been replaced with goofy slapstick and twice as many one-liners.

In this installment, the Shredder has returned and, rather than returning to his master plans of using ninjas as pick-pockets, he has upped the ante. Shredder has learned from one of his Foot soldiers that a company called TGRI is in the process of disposing of chemical waste that has extreme mutagenic properties; he acquires the chemical ooze and uses it to create Tokka and Razhar, two powerful mutants who will assist him in his revenge against the Turtles.

It's nice to see the Shredder has set higher goals this time around. One would think that, with Shredder's plans becoming more diabolical, the movie would would be as good or better than the original.

Not so. Well, that's not entirely true. When I was a kid, this was my favorite of the Ninja Turtle film trilogy but, since growing up, I realized that was only the case because the sequel is aimed more towards the younger crowd.

I could've done without Tokka and Rahzar, two mutants that look like they could've been a serious threat, acting like ignorant toddlers. Would it have been so bad for them to be a viable, evil threat to the team? Of course it would.

Then the film couldn't have gotten some cheap laughs from two monstrous creatures crying out MAMA at the first sight of a very uncomfortable Shredder. Having been a fan of the cartoon as a child, I would've much preferred bringing in Rocksteady and Bebop, but apparently that was nixed by the comic's creators who didn't care for the idea.

After rewatching it years later, I noticed one MAJOR change from the first film: the Turtles rarely, if ever, utilized their weapons!! The closest Michaelangelo came to using nunchakus was a pair of sausage links in the initial mall fight.

If I'm not mistaken, Donatello was the ONLY member to use his signature weapon, the bo staff. Where's the fun in that? It seems the film took a Jackie-Chan approach of ditching the weapons in favor of hand-to-hand martial arts and the use items in the environment as tools (i.

E. the sausage links). Come on! I wanted to see Raphael wiping out some Foot soldiers with his sai! Plus, I bet the Turtles would've held up a little better against Shredder's "babies" if they'd actually used their weapons.

The humor was amped up in this film. There isn't a minute that goes by that one of the Turtles isn't spouting off a one-liner. That's not such a bad thing, but it definitely took this film more in a comedic direction (rather than action).

Despite this film's catering to a younger audience, it's still enjoyable to all ages and I still enjoy watching this movie, even to this day. Part of me wishes they'd kept the moodiness of the original, but this is still a fun addition to the Ninja Turtle franchise.