Turtle Power: The Definitive History of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Randall Lobb's slick documentary, released to coincide with the Michael Bay-produced 2014 reboot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (trailered here, but otherwise not plugged), chronicles the history of the martial-arts reptiles/pop-culture phenomenon. Created by New England indie comics artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird as a one-off spoof, teen terrapins Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo unexpectedly made a big impact on readers. A canny agent convinced toy retailers that the Turtles would be an action-figure bonanza—as long as a TV cartoon was produced, which followed (at one point running seven days a week!). A lengthy sidebar on the first Turtles live-action movie (1990) details the artistic/technological triumph for Jim Henson's SFX team (Sesame Street's former Elmo, Kevin Clash, puppeteered Splinter the Rat). But later TV iterations, the CGI TMNT movie, and subsequent Nickelodeon series' are all ignored here (as is Venus de Milo, the first female Ninja Turtle). Spottily addressed are the professional travails of Eastman and Laird, who became comics superstars but found that wealth and business deals eroded their creative partnership. Interest may be limited to Turtle fans (and those with an urgent need to know who first said "Cowabunga, dude!”), but that fan base is both large and loyal. Although hardly the definitive history, this should still be considered a strong optional purchase. Aud: P. (C. Cassady)