Funny Mom contributor Heather, her son and his friends recently attended the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows premiere in Hollywood and it sounds like they had a great time (all opinions are our own)!!
Thanks to Desiree Eaglin of The Funny Mom Blog, my cool kid got to take a couple of cool friends to the premiere of TMNT: Out of the Shadows at the TCL Chinese Theater in HOLLYWOOD! My kid woke up excited and bounced off the walls all day in anticipation. It was a total surprise to his friends. We swung by their school to pick them up and talked about going to see a movie. We passed the movie theater closest our home and the look on their faces was like I had lost. my. mind.
Girl 1: “ummm. We passed the theater.”
Girl 2: “Yeah, I thought we were going to see a movie.”
Boy: half giggles, half menacing laugh, dash of teenage girl squeel
Me: “We are. Just not at that one.”
Girls 1 and 2: “oh.?”
Boy: bouncing in his seat now, practically forgets to breath as he spills it all in one breath. “We are going to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The new one, Out of the Shadows, before anyone else gets to see it. We are going to see it first and we get to see it in Hollywood.”
Girl 1: “You mean the real Hollywood?”
Girl 2: “Hollywood for real?”
Me: “Yep!”
Kids: “ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhyeahhhyayyyyyyyyyyy! O.M.G., O.M.G., O.M.G. We’re going to Hollywood! HOLLYWOOOOOD!”
I think they were excited. It was hard to tell.
Luckily, there are cool sites where you can prepay for parking thus saving time, money and sanity before you head into areas of town where parking might be considered challenging. Parking was super close, super inexpensive (saved like $30…seriously and zero aggravation…none, zilch, nada) and valet (Or not because I asked if they’d let me park my own little mommy-mobile right up front and take my time unloading and picking french fries out of door jams.) The valets were super cool and totally pretended not to see me bending over and shoving food wrappers into an already overloaded paper bag and tossing it into the wayyy back. Classy, I tell ya!
We made it to Hollywood with time to spare. Yay me! So, we checked out the staircase in the beautiful hotel at which we parked…a few times. Then we checked out the restrooms in the same hotel, only once, and of course the lobby, before heading out the heavy front doors onto Hollywood Blvd and the Walk of Fame. Many names the kids were not old enough to know anything about, so I heard “Did that person pass away already too?” A lot. “No, no, that person is still very alive. I grew up watching that person.” But thanks for making me feel as old as I am. Sigh. So we walked and talked about old actors, actresses, film makers, television stars, musicians, radio personalities and the people that make Hollywood glamorous, weird, vibrant, interesting, exciting, unique.
When we arrived at the theater, we were directed to the 3rd floor where we signed in. That’s when we realized we would be watching TMNT 2 in RealD 3D! The kids were so happy to pick up their 3D glasses and to get their own drink and popcorn. Yep…no sharing! We walked up the stairs into a ginormous theater and sat in the middle toward the back for optimum viewing potential. I swear I heard angels as we climbed those stairs into the theater. It must have been my kids (bwahahahahahahaha). Perfect seats and only 20 minutes until the movie started! 20 minutes felt like days to the kids, but they managed and really were VERY, very good. The lights dimmed slowly and the 3D action started immediately! I’ll be honest. I wasn’t quite so thrilled with the whole 3D idea. You see, I get motion sick. I’m not talking about me being upside down on a rollercoaster and oh my tummy feels weird. I mean, if my eyes convince my brain that I am moving in ways that I am really not, it’s just not very pretty. Okay, TMI, but all of that was to explain this: I did NOT get motion sick during any part of this movie!
Left to right: Donatello, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows from Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies and Platinum Dunes
This was the best 3D movie I have experienced (and yes, I’ve battled through numerous, because I am a selfless and insane mom). I felt entirely immersed. It’s like Mikey, Donny, Leo and Raph were sitting in my kitchen with me sharing a slice. You see, I am also kind of antsy, as is my boy. Feeling immersed in the action without any fear of actually getting hurt and not feeling the need to get up and walk or ninja kick down the aisles about 30 minutes into the movie was wonderful.
The movie also took me back to my youth and the youth of my older boys and made me happy that TMNT can share their story with yet another generation. And, it just keeps getting better.
When the first TMNT movie that was produced by Michael Bay and Nickelodeon and directed by Jonathan Leibesman was released in 2014, I thought the turtles looked a bit freaky. Really, a lot freaky and just not…not quite right. TMNT: Out of the Shadows directed by Dave Green, blows the first one away in my opinion! The turtles look the same, but they felt more real. The kids loved the brief intro of the turtles in the beginning so they could vote for and cheer for their favorite. Boy, he’s a little on the active side and can relate to Mikey (Noel Fisher). Girl 1, she loves Leo (Pete Ploszek). Girl 2, thinks Raph (Alan Ritchson) is brave. As for me, Donny (Jeremy Howard) is my favorite. He’s just so smart, even when he’s not feeling it.
I loved getting to meet Casey Jones (played by Stephen Amell) all over again. Seeing how Be-Bop (Gary Anthony Williams) and Rocksteady (Stephen “Sheamus” Farrelly) came to look the way they do filled in gaps in the story I hadn’t been able to fill in from my childhood until now and really those guys are just fun (You know how you can catch the same cartoon 85,000 times and ALWAYS miss the same part…that was Be-Bop and Rocksteady for me. Now I know! Woot woot!) Splinter is cool in that he is a meditating, butt kicking rat, but being voiced by Tony Shalhoub makes him soooo much cooler! The tension between Casey and April (Megan Fox) was just right. I was fearful that might be changed, but nope! They were keeping it real for the current generation! Their relationship was portrayed perfectly. And the close relationship that April and Donny have was portrayed differently in this film, which I appreciated.
One of the highlights was Tyler Perry playing the almost lovable evil scientist Dr. Stockman. It was really hard to not like him. I wanted to pick him up like a teddy bear and hug him and then have an in your face, heart to heart talk about values and morals and then hug him again. Shredder (Brian Tee) was plenty evil, but also not quite so over the top this time around. I did not realize that Brad Garrett voiced Krang. Krang was just as gooey, evil and tentacle laden as expected and the robot part of Krang was monotone in expression just like my little man’s action figures making me want to head home, lay on the floor next to my boy and pretend to kick some turtle butt!
Left to right: Bebop and Rocksteady in in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows from Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies and Platinum Dunes Productions
After the movie, the kids visited like 5 more restrooms, rode the escalators when no one was around, played tag in the area where spotlights and film equipment had just been removed from a spacious balcony area near the theater, skipped from star to star on the Walk of Fame, fought over who got the press the crosswalk button next, greeted the Mad Hatter about 10 times, frightened Jack Sparrow once, answered many trivia questions at one of the museums, sipped coffee-like drinks (you think I’d seriously give them caffeine before a long ride home?!? are you nuts???) and dragged their little booties back to the car where they fell fast asleep while talking, all at once, of Hollywood, stars and Turtles. Ahhhh what a night!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is in theaters now!
