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Traveta reviews
The Secret of the Ooze
New Line Home Video
- Cert: PG
- Cat.no: N5568
- Running time: 88 minutes
- Year: 1991
- Pressing: 2002
- Region(s): 1, NTSC
- Chapters: 20
- Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: English
- Widescreen: 1.85:1, Standard: 4:3
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: No
- Disc Format: DVD 9
- Price: $14.98
- Extras:Theatrical Trailer and Pick That Flick game
Director:
- Michael Pressman
Screenplay:
- Todd W. Langen
Creature Animatronics:
- Jim Henson Studios
Cast:
- April O’Neil: Paige Turco
Keno: Ernie Reyes Jr.
Shredder: Francois Chau
Tatsuo: Toshishiro Obata
Professor Jordan Perrt: David Warner
Voices for Animatronics:Raphael: Laurie Fasco
Leonardo: Brian Tochi
Donatello: Adam Carl
Michaelangelo: Robbie Rist
Splinter: Kevin Clash
You might be wonderingwhy New Line waited until 2002 to produce thisdisc along with the third film. The first film came out on DVD in Fall1997 and 4½years later we’re getting the sequels. While Iwould complain and all that, I’m actually glad they waited. For onething, New Line now knows better and they’ve dropped those terriblecardboard snapper cases with keep cases. In fact, New Line dropped themfrom all their titles. Plus, the studio has learned quite a thing or twowhen it comes to transferring and getting rid of compression artifacts.
So, I’m glad we had to wait five years but this film and the third havebeen on my most wanted list for awhile (I even started an onlinepetition, pothetic as it sounds, about a month before they wereannounced and I actually got quite a few signatures). Here it is then, arelease five years in the making or better yet, eleven years of sittingin a vault.
For the entire back story on the way the Turtles came to be, read myreview of the first film. The wise-cracking, pizza-eating, mutant ninjaturtles have returned one year after their fist flick. The story takesplace a mere few days after where the first film ended and we find ourheroes living with human friend, April O’Neil. However, the evilShredder has returned, with a scar forged by them he sets out forrevenge of any kind.
A chemical testing company called TGRI has a secret. They producecanisters of mutagen and one of them was actually the one thattransformed the turtles. After large dandelions are found, a Foot Clanscouter reports back to Shredder. Shredder sees the oppurtunity andorders Tatsu and the Foot to kidnap TGRI’s doctor and the mutagen.
TGRI’s Professor Jordan Perry is disposing of the last canister whenShredder’s little band of flunkies steps in. But the Turtles arrive too,looking for answers to their origin and get into a trademark fight!Exciting……… for what it is.
Shredder uses the mutagen to produce two mutants, Toka and Razar. Tokais a giant snapping turtle and Razar is a wolf. Of course, theanimatronics are great. This becomes the Turtle’s main goal. Infiltratethe Foot, seek answers, and defeat the two mutants and Shredder.
This sequel and it’s predecessor are clearly different animals in termsof content. While the first film had a distinctly darker atmosphere witha dose of cartoon thrown in, this one ditches the former and feels morelike the latter. Now that’s not a bad thing though. This sequel stillkeeps the first one’s fun nature and throws higher production values inand more cast members. Not as good as the first time but still cool. Oh,I almost forgot. There’s one thing that will forever date this otherwisegood movie, a climax that features an appearance by rapper Vanilla Ice!The horror, the horror!
Into the disc. New Line has produced a very stellar transfer here. Forbeing a film that’s been locked away for 11 years, this looks great.I’ve never seen it at home in it’s original aspect ratio so this is verycool. Compression artifacts and pixelization are nowhere to be found andcolors are nicely done. The picture is considerably sharper than thefirst disc and more care was taken with it. However, while not as grainyin dark scenes as the first disc, I still spotted some grain in the sametypes of places. But the bottom line is that it’s never looked thisgood.
New Line dumped the foreign language track from the first disc(something New Line has been doing lately) and focused mainly on English5.1 and 2.0 tracks. I listened to the 5.1 track and it’s definitely moreagressive than the first track. While the first disc’s sound wasawesome, this is even better. Dialouge is louder and the action isdefinitely more dynamic. New Line would have included a DTS track, I’msure, if this wasn’t apart of their recently released kiddie fare line.Too bad too, becaue most people who will get this will be the fans andthey’re definitely not kids anymore.
Now here’s where the disc falls from it’s ladder. Like the first disc,minimal extras are included but less interesting. Here’s how it stacksup.
That’s it. I remember that there was a VHS tape made that featured adocumentary on the making of this film. New Line could have includedthat but no dice. Oh well, for such a cheap price this isn’t all thatbad.
The menus are animated and are suprisingly cool. While I’m not too muchof a fan of animated menus, these were done well. Before we hit the menuwe’re shown a cool clip of all the Turtles. The scene selections are setup like a comic book and cheesy music plays in the background of eachmenu. The front packaging takes advantage of the cool theatrical poster.
For only $14.95 this is an easy recommend for fans. Non fans who don’twant to take a trip down the early 90s memory lane will avoid this butthis is clearly for the fans. I’m just happy that we finally got thisand it’s widescreen as well.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALLEmailTraveta
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.