I was one of the many that grew up watching Teenage mutant ninja turtles and got caught up in the whole TMNT phenomenon back in the late 80s and the early 90s. That being said, the craze escalated when the guys in green migrated to the big screen and spanned over 2 sequels, which to my opinion didn't match up the level of polish the first one was.
Yes, my family and I watched the new TMNT movie and I was, once again, one of the few or many that wasn't keen about the whole CGI transition and it just looked too kiddie cartoon to me. However, being a fan I am, I went to see the movie anyways because I always have a soft spot for my green heroes. The first live action movie still has a lot of charm to it, although it is almost 2 decades old, and it is really close to the comic book origins. I still, up to this day, have goose bumps while watching it and the one liners still makes me laugh. I realized now why the first one is such classic and the rest just fall flat - the sequels were toned down a bit and they weren't as gritty and mature as the first one was.
Now we are with TMNT - a rival attempt to the franchise- now let me say I totally enjoyed this movie and I think the transition from live to CGI was best suited for the following reasons: 1. It is easier for the viewer to be caught up in the illusion as opposed to the live actions films because we knew that the turtles were fake - guys in rubbery suits...
2. We finally grasp the sense of the turtles being ninjas - in the old films their movements were limited because of the obvious, but here they're more agile and realistic in terms of fighting.
3. Because it is CGI the imagination, scenery, fights can go wild because the sky is the limit with CG as opposed to live action..
I can go on and on, but the movie just fit right with this style of filming. I really enjoyed the interaction with the turtles - Leo character fits right as I remembered him to be; Raf seems complex and different from the bunch, which is true the comics; Donnie, although not much character development, seems to be the same old Don as I remembered him to be; and then there is Mikey....I love this guy as well as Master Splinter even though he look likes Chester Cheetah (from the Cheetos commercials). The comic relief of the film...He's cute, cool, mellow, and just a knuckle head. The animation is top notch, the turtles looked amazing and even more so than the human characters - which needs a lot of work because they looked rather rigid to me. Over all nice work, this movie is must see to all turtle fans.