If you think about it, the story of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is actually fairly fascinating. It went from cult underground comic satirizing ’80s comic excess to a massive media franchise in less than five years. But it’s hard to get Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird on the record at this point, and summing up a global phenomenon in an hour and a half is a tough job. But, hey, leave it to Turtle Power to try.
The documentary is something of a success story in and of itself. The team behind it has been working on this documentary, on a shoestring, since 2008. Paramount appears to have stepped in and bought the rights, meaning they not only get paid for their work, they also get a wide DVD release. Considering what happens to most documentaries, that’s practically a miracle.
Of course, Paramount is using it to sell the upcoming TMNT movie they’ve got hitting theaters in August; in fact, this comes out on DVD just four days after the new movie arrives, on August 12th. But, hey, a bunch of fans got a chance to make their dream documentary and get it distributed to every Wal-Mart and Best Buy in the nation. So at least one good thing has come out of Michael Bay’s Ninja Turtles, so far.