When it comes to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, I always expect a feel-good movie that makes me walk away from the theater laughing. The new TMNT: Out of the Shadows does exactly that, while giving you hints of an emotional journey that makes you feel for the turtles. With a pretty awesome performance by the cast and great computer graphics, the on-screen dynamic is worth seeing in 3D.

This movie has the villain Shredder escape from police custody in order to join forces with a mad scientist, Baxter Stockman, to take over the world using a teleportation device. Yet, little does Baxter know that Shredder has also teamed up with Krang, an alien wanting to take over Earth. Krang gives Shredder a serum that helps turn humans into mutants, which Shredder then uses on Bebop and Rocksteady, turning them into a warthog and rhino to one-up the turtles. We also meet Casey Jones, a soon to be detective who uses hockey for his anger management.

The cast themselves did a wonderful job! Megan Fox as April wasn’t only stunning on screen but provided a strong female character and a stronger sense of family for the turtles. Protective over her old pets, she doesn’t disclose their information and tries to bridge the gap between the turtles and the NY police force. Stephen Amell plays Casey Jones and brings a pretty lovable guy on screen. He is picked on by the turtles a little as the “new guy” but comes off as fun-loving and vigilant on screen. Also, I can’t get enough of Stephen’s smile. Gary Anthony Williams and Shaemus are Bebop and Rocksteady, the villain mutants who bring a silly sense of humor to the film. These two have such a comedic dynamic and play the roles of the characters so well, I was in tears from laughing.  Yet, my favorite character was Baxter, portrayed by Tyler Perry. With his nerdy laugh and awkwardness on screen, Baxter was the icing on the cake. The relationship between Baxter and Shredder is pretty much a very tolerant mother with a extremely annoying nerdy son, until Shredder no long has use for him.

Lastly, the CGI is the key to this movie. The way these turtles were designed with different builds, facial features and expressions, made them easily relatable by the audience. I can’t get over the detailed expression in each of the turtles’ faces (especially Mikey’s). The watery eyes he has multiple times through the movie really tug at your heart strings. Each turtle’s personality really shows through their faces and body language. The creators did a great job, and I really feel they need to be applauded!

Even though the movie was great, it wasn’t perfect. It’s really hard to pack all the back stories and information about characters that we have learned about for years into one movie. Yet, TMNT: Out of the Shadows did a pretty decent job of trying to cover all bases in a short time period. The movie did feel a bit rushed, and I do wish they spent more time on the inner struggles that Mikey and Raph were having with accepting who they were, but they had limited resources.

This movie is good if you don’t want a disappointment, but also doesn’t need to be the best movie you’ve ever seen.

I give them 4 pizzas out of 5.