The Problem with Your Kids Loving the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is now in theatres. All of my kids loved the turtles, however, I never even thought to buy them an actual turtle because of their love of the cartoon.
Apparently, this could be a problem similar to the bunny-buying frenzy that happens around Easter.
In addition to the new movie, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon is airing on Nickelodeon. This is timed to the release of this new animated movie, and a tortoise advocacy group is speaking up about serious concerns.
American Tortoise Rescue (ATR), the country’s first national turtle and tortoise rescue says “History shows that after the release of a series of these successful Ninja movies, turtles lose their lives through the pet trade.” They’re also upset that, “Most of the turtles have been scooped out of the wild to be sold in pet stores or over the internet. After seeing the film and thinking real turtles jump through the air or fly like Ninja Turtles, kids ask parents to buy live turtles.”
ATR also shared that, “Sadly, after bringing the turtle home, sticking it in a small tank and waiting for it to perform, kids abandon interest when nothing happens and the turtle just sits there.”
Susan Tellem, co-founder and executive director of ATR, tells Fox, “I like to say putting a turtle in a tank is how we would feel if we had to live in a bathtub all our lives.” After previous Ninja Turtles movies, Tellem said parents have scooped up turtles for their kids as an uninformed “impulse buy.”
“Turtles can live 25 years or more. Sadly, most of these turtles were abandoned in shelters and rescues or dumped into lakes and waterways or worse, toilets, after the movie’s young fans found out that the real turtles did not fight crime or perform incredible stunts.”
The organization advocates, “The best thing parents can do is purchase action figure toys that actually mimic the ninja movements from the film.”
'Secret Invasion': How It Changes The Marvel Universe
There's At Least One Super Skrull
G’iah now has the powers of lots of heroes and villains. When we see Gravik reading that the blood of Captain America, Gamora, Thanos, Captain Marvel, Abomination, Mantis, Cull Obsidian, Drax, Korg, Hulk, Thor Odinson, Valkyrie, Winter Soldier, are in the vial, he says, “It’s pure. You really wanna die.” After he turns the machine on to merge with the powers, Gravik’s Skrull form attacks Fury, but he blocks the punch with what turns out to be Hulk’s arm and punches him into oblivion. We then see it’s not really Fury, but G’iah. “You killed my mother. My father,” she says to Gravik. The two have an epic fight using these new powers and she stabs him in the chest with an ice arm. They use Captain Marvel’s powers to go airborne, and after Gravik thinks she’s knocked out, G’iah uses Mantis’ powers to make him sleep and crash head first back down. After G’iah rocks the classic superhero landing to end the battle, he says she’s just like her father. Just like “them,” she corrects him and blasts a huge hole through Gravik, killing him.
Rhodey and Ross Were Replaced By Skrulls
Following her battle with Gravik, G’iah goes back to the Skrull compound to free the hostages. Among them is the real Rhodey and Agent Ross (Martin Freeman). G’iah tells a weakened Rhodey that he’s been held hostage “for a long time.” But how long? Rhodey’s personality was obviously changed in Secret Invasion, but it’s hard to tell how long the Skrulls that took over him and Ross were impersonating them. Has Rhodey been a Skrull since the first Iron Man? Does he know anything about superheros? Was it ever him in the War Machine armor? Does he know that Tony Stark is dead? Have we ever known the real Ross? Was the ally of the Wakandians a Skrull the whole time? Was Julia Louis-Dreyfus’s Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine married to and divorced from a Skrull (and if so, did she know it? She seems to know everything).
Ritson Started A War
When Ritson addresses the American people about the motorcade attack, he reveals it was solely the work of the shape-shifting, alien-born species known as Skrulls. He reveals he will be presenting to Congress for immediate emergency authorization to designate all “off-world born species enemy combatants.” He then declared: “We know who you are. We know how to find you. And we will kill every last one of you.” With this kind of call-to-arms, he’s making the dire mistake of not distinguishing between those who want to leave peacefully and those who don’t. Following his announcement, Fury tells Ritson he took a bad situation and made it worse. “That’s real one-term-President stuff. But we have to act now.” As people are getting dropped for being Skrulls, Fury warns that the President’s “hit squads” are now inspired to kill the Skrulls who still want to help them. They are killing innocent people of power with no proof they are a Skrull, or putting themselves in danger of getting killed off by the real Skrulls. Ritson tells Fury that if he wants the Skrulls saved, he’s got to get them off his planet. With this war launched against Skrulls, will Ritson get killed off or be a one-term President like Fury predicted? In the upcoming Captain America: Brave New World, Harrison Ford is set to play President Thunderbolt Ross, so it’s got to be one of those two outcomes.
