Tycoon behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys dies, aged 87

Hong Kong tycoon Chan Tai-ho " the founder of Playmates toymaker which gave the world the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle action figures " died on Thursday aged 87.

His wife called police after a domestic helper found Chan unconscious in bed at his luxury flat at Altadena House, Barker Road on The Peak shortly before 12.30pm.

He was taken to Ruttonjee Hospital in Wan Chai, where he was declared dead at 1.20pm, police said.

A force spokesman said initial investigation found nothing suspicious about the death and an autopsy would be carried out to ascertain its cause. It was understood Chan had an illness.

Chan, born in 1932, established Playmates in the city in 1966, running a factory in Tuen Mun.

The company set up a network of distributors in the United States in 1978 to sell a range of dolls and preschool toys marketed under the Playmates brand name.

In 1984, Playmates Holdings became the first toy company to list on the Hong Kong stock market.

The company's greatest successes came in the 1980s with its Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures, as well as Baby Crawl-Away and Cricket dolls. It also produced figurines from The Simpsons and Star Trek television shows.

The action figures from the comic book and television show, which chartered the adventures of four anthropomorphic turtles named after Italian Renaissance artists, was launched in 1988 and went on to become one of the most successful brands in the history of the toy industry, according to the company's website.

Playmates was also involved in property and investment from the 1970s, when it developed and managed an industrial premises for its own use, then covering more than 300,000 sq ft in floor space, before moving deeper into the sector and other business activities.

Copyright (c) 2020. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Review: 'Ninja Turtles' gets dark, digital reboot

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were first seen in comic books way back in 1984. Since capturing the fancy of the audience, this franchise spun off to have its own cartoon series, toys, video games, and of course, films.

The first TMNT live-action film was shown in 1990, followed by two sequels. In 2007, a CGI-animated film simply entitled "TMNT" was shown. This current TMNT film is a live action-computer-generated motion capture combination-style reboot of the franchise, produced by Michael Bay and directed by Jonathan Liebesman.

In this reboot, we start at the very beginning again, before the world knew about the turtles. April O'Neil (Megan Fox) is a TV journalist who desperately wants to be taken seriously at work. When she incidentally witnesses shadowy figures fighting against some criminals, she reports them to her boss, who of course does not believe her. She later discovers that these unseen vigilantes are actually four young overgrown turtles with ninja fighting skills.

From there, we will again be told the origins of our four "heroes in a half-shell" who are named after Italian Renaissance painters. There will be certain big changes in the story of how the turtles came to be from how we used to know it. Their Sensei rat Splinter learned his awesome martial arts skills from a book. It also showed how April first knew the Splinter and the turtles as a little girl in her scientist dad's laboratory.

When main villain Shredder (this time in an all-metallic suit armed with boomeranging blades) finds out where the turtles' lair was, he and his henchmen attack it and abduct three of them captive in order to suck out their blood to extract the secret super formula that runs in them. Of course, the bad guys leave one turtle, as well as April and her driver/admirer Vernon (Will Arnett), to save the day. You know how this story will end, so that should not a spoiler, is it?

When Michael Bay's name is attached to a film, we expect wild action and big explosions, and we won't be disappointed here in that regard. The "cowabunga" action sequences still ruled! Even Splinter had a grand martial arts fight scene with Shredder. This reboot is for the young kids of today so it is acceptable and understandable that everything felt so juvenile. The sense of humor in these action scenes is also juvenile, most of the visual jokes would be best appreciated by young kids. Most adults could muster a smile at least.

Megan Fox seems to be Michael Bay's muse, as she also appeared in Bay's other franchise, "Transformers." She is no doubt beautiful, but unfortunately her acting sadly remains to be very amateurish. David Arnett is not really any help if his function here is to be the comic relief. His character was actually extraneous with corny lines.

However, the best part of film remains to be the Turtles themselves. They are as we know them: Leonardo, the serious leader; Raphael, the hotheaded one; Michaelangelo, the whimsical one; and Donatello, the smart one. They were made to look a little darker, heftier and angrier, like most classical superheroes are expected to look these days. No more bright cheerful colors allowed, it seems.

Nevertheless, these Turtles are still fun and funny for the younger set, and fondly amusing for the parents. That silly elevator scene is proof of this appeal. These cool Turtles will endure despite the uneven quality of this film reboot. 5/10

This review was originally published in the author's blog, "Fred Said."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com