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

Once there were these guys that had an idea that was doomed to failure. They decided to make an independently-funded, black and white comic book about four mutant turtles, who were also somehow teenagers, who learn the art of ninjutsu from a mutant rat and fight an evil crime empire of ninjas in New York City. If Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird weren’t goofing off with the sketchbooks one night while watching “bad 80s television,” then we would never have gotten that pop culture juggernaut called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Thirty years later, a group of filmmakers from rural Ontario painstakingly followed the journey of TMNT from their inception to global phenomenon.

Director Randall Lobb and his crew spent five years chasing down the various players involved in the franchise, searching them out online or meeting them at various comic, sci-fi and animation conventions. New interviews with Eastman and Laird, other members of the Mirage Studios team, the creators of the Playmates toyline, the animated series and the original TMNT film trilogy are combined with archival footage and home movies from those carefree days when the Turtles were just the scribbles of a couple of guys working out of their living room studio. The result is part time capsule, part oral history and part fan service that’s actually quite exhaustive considering its relatively slick 90 minute running time.

Considering that this is Lobb’s first film, Turtle Power is a very competent and very professional effort that offers a straightforward glimpse at how an indie comic published in 1984 and selling 3,000 copies in its initial run became a juggernaut. Clearly, Lobb and his team are fans, but this is no fan effort, and something tells me that even hardcore fans might discover a bit of previously unknown Turtles trivia in this doc. With the pending release of the newest TMNT movie by producer Michael Bay, interest in the franchise is high once again, but more importantly, Turtle Power is a reminder that big things have small beginnings. It’s also a reminder that there’s no such thing as a stupid idea, or at least that there’s no such thing as an idea so stupid it can’t make a billion dollars.