Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes told the tale of group of animals are used as lab subjects for a new medication, that later grants these animals intelligence and humanoid capability. Sound familiar?

I can see the filmmakers thought this was a pretty good way to create mutated animals, in a manner that made sense and didn’t sound overly coincidental. Also the IDW TMNT comics and the TMNT 2012 series did a similar concept: the former was research by Krang to create mutant soldiers, and the latter was an attempt by the Kraang to wipe out life on Earth (which didn’t work because mutagen works differently on Earth than from the Kraang’s home Dimension X).

But alas, it just doesn’t fly without Hamato Yoshi. Yoshi is integral to the Turtles’ origin not just for his rivalry with Oroku Saki/Shredder, but for instilling the Turtles with ninja culture from Japanese culture to begin with. Even if it may appear coincidental at times within the saga, it’s the kind of storytelling device/connection that matters and defines a hero/villain rivalry, otherwise the Turtles and Splinter are just ordinary mutants and Shredder is just a showy crime boss (which he was in the original comics, Laird and Eastman didn’t want to go very far with him).

So yeah, removing Hamato Yoshi and trying for an independent origin was a move that didn’t really work out too well. It just ended up a fairly ordinary tale about mutated animals.


07/08/06... 786... the sentinel of Allah has arrived.