Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Pixar's near flawless run of movies indicates that a successful kids movie can't pander to children. A kids movie should contain mature themes and ideas. Not rape and murder mind you. But themes like the ones in Up. A kids movie should not stoop down and assume its audience is comprised of idiots or people who cannot comprehend a “real” movie. Pixar does not pander to its audience. Pixar does not compromise the foundation of a good story to make sure kids “understand” the film.
This isn't just for the benefit of adults watching a kids movie. A kids movie that has nothing to offer an adult (no inside jokes, no believable characters, no relatable themes) can lead to an I-wanna-blow-my-brains-out reaction. Mature themes in kids movies serves two functions: one, it challenges the child viewer; two, it subtly expose kids to more complex emotions and ideas about the world around them.
Point one: The best art challenges the viewer. I don't really believe in revenge, but after seeing something like Oldboy, (in which the main character is imprisoned for 15 years for seemingly no reason), you might have to re-evaluate your opinions on revenge.
Point two: “Subtly expos[ing] kids to more complex emotions and ideas...” might sound like when Fox News complains about the Hollywood Liberal Agenda indoctrinating kids. But for the record, if a kid sees Wall E and decides it's probably not a good idea to pollute the Earth, I'd chalk that up in the win category.
So far what I've written might seem like I want movies to be a catalyst for social change. Not true. The idea behind making kids movies that aren't pandering is to make kids into better movie goers. It's to make sure they grow up to have good taste. If kids are challenged by art at a young age, they'll have a desire to challenge themselves with art later on in life. Starting kids early on good movies is the arguably the best prevention for this:
Based on the above, it might seems surprising that I picked Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as the best family friendly martial arts movie from the 90s.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a movie that does not suffer from the nastiness of nostalgia. I envy kids today for the quality of movies made for them. Nine times out of ten when I revisit a movie from my childhood, I think, “What the hell was wrong with me?” Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, however, is a movie that holds up in every conceivable aspect: plot, characters, acting, action, humor, and special effects.
Not only does the movie hold up, but it is rife with mature themes and actions. A quick rundown:
- Two characters have a conversation about vigilantism. Not a conversation about whether it's good or bad, but a conversation about the best weapons to use.
- One character is tortured.
- One character almost dies and we see an extended sequence of the attack on him.
- A woman gets the shit slapped out of her.
- One supporting character robs a main character's wallet.
- Donatello: Ha. You're claustrophobic.
Casey Jones: What? I've never even looked at another guy. - Sam Rockwell is in it.
- The villain is crushed by a garbage truck.
- One character comes dangerously close to sexually assaulting another.
While the above descriptions may seems really out of place in a kids movie, the genius of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is that none of it is so explicit that the movie ventures into PG-13 or R rated territory.
The filmmakers of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles not only managed to take the most insanely popular intellectual property of its time and turn it into a great movie, but they also managed a movie that would help viewers investigate, explore, and appreciate movies to the fullest extend later in their lives.
If all the above didn't convince you, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has amazingly good fight choreography. I'll leave you with one of my favorite fights in a movie ever.
-Harrison
The Last Dragon
The martial arts film has been a theater presence since the early 1970s when action films from Hong Kong began kicking their way into American cinemas on the shoulders of Bruce Lee. For most of us born from 1975 onward the martial arts film have been a mainstay due to the 1990s subgenre of the Family-friendly martial arts film. While our debate is about the best Family-friendly martial arts film of the 1990s and I too have fond 1990s memories: seeing 3 Ninjas with my uncle (who is only 8 years my senior) and bringing home the newest karate-filled feature from my local video store. But, this subgenre truly began June 22, 1984, when Columbia Pictures released a PG rated martial arts film called The Karate Kid.
What happened wasn't earth shattering, the film only pulled in $5 million it's opening weekend, but it continued to make around $5 million for the next eight weeks. The Karate Kid remained in or around the top 5 from June 22 to September 21st. It proved to be a reliable money maker, the fifth highest grossing films of 1984, behind only Beverly Hills Cop, Ghostbusters, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and Gremlins, and earning more than $90 million dollars. Pretty good company, eh?
The other studios scrambled, green-lighting similar family friendly martial arts films to some success. Columbia immediately produced a sequel that the fourth highest grossing film of 1986 raking in $115 million dollars. Thus the genre was born and we were given such "hits" as Three Ninjas, Surf Ninjas, Street Fighter, and the ultimate in 1990s family friendly entertainment the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.
Don't get me wrong Teenage Mutant Turtles is a solid choice, but I can't ignore a disturbing trend in this subgenre; the weird trend of white people surpassing minorities, especially asian minorities, in martial arts matches and fights. This is a trend in Hollywood: Kevin Costner out Indian's the Indians in Dances with Wolves, Tom Cruise out samurai's the samurais in The Last Samurai. What is particularly nefarious is when white people are the good guys and minorities are the bad guys. 3 Ninjas is notoriously bad for both of these; watch three preteens beat up a bunch of Asian henchmen:
Even Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is guilty here. Granted it's turtles, but there is a capable white "martial artist" in Casey Jones and two Asian baddies: the Shredder and Tatsu who are not the best role model for young Asian children watching these films.
Enter my choice for best Family friendly Martial arts film, the Last Dragon (1985). Am I bending the rules? Yes. But this film offers not only a less racially insensitive alternative to most other family friendly martial arts films, but it offers several positive role models. Leroy, is a young African American martial arts student (played by actual martial artist Taimak) whose role model is Bruce Lee. He is often called Bruce Leroy throughout the film. His enemies in the film are the evil Sho'nuff a martial artist and gang leader, and a gangster and rescue the girl, Laura Charles, played by Vanity. Simple enough plot, right?
Does the Last Dragon have training scene montages? Yes. It contains most of the same features of the early nineties and late eighties martial arts films. It also contains some good performances from Taimak and Vanity and some interesting visuals. What separates it apart from the rest of them is it's incredible heart. The Last Dragon isn't the most successful on a filmic level, but everything is done with a quirky admiration and an immense respect for Asian culture and Martial Arts cinema. If you're going to watch a subgenre of film that owes itself to the larger genre of Martial Arts film why not watch a film that admires and respects its forefathers instead of just cashing in on them. Unlike Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles it's more than simple parody it's homage.
And the best part: its planned remake is set to star Samuel L. Jackson.
-Josh E.
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