Listener Mail: Turtle Talk

Once more, it's time for a weekly dose of Stuff to Blow Your Mind and Weirdhouse Cinema listener mail. Plus this time Seth pops in to chat with Robert about TMNT video games...

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of
My Heart Radio. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind.
Listener mail. This is Robert Lamb and I'm Seth Nicholas Johnson.
That's right. Uh, the week we're recording this, Joe is
away from from work, uh, doing something non podcasting, and

(00:23):
so Seth agreed to step in with me here to
cover a couple of listener mails, but also especially at
the start here to talk a little Ninja Turtles with me. Yes. Um,
today's a very momentous occasion. A new TMNT game, very
very exciting. Yeah, this is Shredder's Revenge, teenage muting Ninja Turtle.

(00:43):
Shredder's Revenge just came out this morning on the day
we're recording. Uh. This is from Tribute Games, and uh,
let's see go to MU. I believe it is uh
as opposed to being a Konami game, which is of
course that's the famous realm of Keenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Arc Beat Him Ups? Now, Rob, have you played any

(01:04):
other games from these developers? Most specifically, have you played
the Scott Pilgrim Beat Him Up to D side scroller? Oh? No, no,
I I haven't played that one, but I remember when
that came out. I remember being impressed with the like
the retro look of that game. It's the same people,
the same people, which which I think speaks very highly

(01:24):
of both honestly, because I think both are wonderful games.
This game just came out today, but Rob and I
both have a had a chance to play Shredder's Revenge,
and um, it's actually really fun because, um, they've made
some references to their own past game in this. Maybe
maybe there's more than one, but the main one I've
noticed is one of the attacks as April O'Neil is

(01:45):
almost identical to one of the attacks as Ramota Flowers.
So it's it's um, if you enjoyed that Scott Pilgrim
video game from from a while ago, ten years ago,
I think at this point you're gonna love this one too. Yeah,
so the to take everybody back, so teenage meeting Ninja Turtles.
We're not gonna hit everything here, but I guess that

(02:06):
the basic dates to keep in mind, the comics started
in eight four, we get the cartoon in eighties seven,
and in when we get that first Economi arcade beat
him up. I fondly remember this one. And we've been
chatting about this one off Mike a lot like this was.
This was seemed like it was everywhere. Maybe it was
it pizza hut uh, And of course it was in

(02:28):
arcades and this was one of the arcade cabinets that
it was just a pleasure to hang out around, even
if you weren't playing, and if you didn't have the
quarters on you. I have fond memories of watching other
people play it. Yeah, most definitely it's um it felt
very collaborative in a way that um, I think ultimately
kind of couch co op has kind of needed to

(02:50):
fill that place in today's modern world. But especially too,
I felt like it was a social engagement when you
were at an arcade, whether by yourself or perhaps I
got a birthday party or something. You would just hop
onto these arcades with strangers and you would all suddenly
have like a common goal that you're all working towards.
And uh, it's surprisingly um nostalgic to just just just

(03:13):
play video games in a public space with strangers. But
this one, and I gotta say, a very similar game
in in my childhood was the Simpsons side scroller as well. Uh,
those beat him ups were We're just wonderful for just
hop on putting a couple of quarters, run out, someone
else takes your place. It's just just fun times. Yeah,
now they were real quarter gobblers for sure, but yeah,

(03:36):
X Men was another one. Uh. Later on Konami did
an Alien Versus Predator as well. That was fun, and
I don't think that one's ever been released on a
on a true console or port. I think there's some
sort of a Konami Arcade cabinet you can buy now
and get it that way, which makes me think, well,
maybe there's hope because if they can re license it
somehow to do that, then surely it could pop up

(03:59):
on consoles again. And speaking of kind of pulling up
old licenses, are we going to talk about the Cowabunga collection?
Oh yeah, now that's that's not out yet, but it's
coming out soon, right, And this is gonna be all
the Konami games, including the big arcade games, which again
we have that one nine that was then ported to
an S in ninete. Then there was Teenage Meeting Jinja

(04:21):
Turtles Turtles in Time from ninety one, um, and then
you had some other Konami titles including teenage meeting Ninja
Turtles Tournament Fighters, where there was like one version that
came out on any S super in ne S. I
guess it was one version that came out on Sega
in ninety three, and I think there wasn't any S
traditional ports as well, like it was it was everywhere.

(04:42):
I remember that game being on like every console. Everyone
had an opinion on, everyone tried it out. And also
that um, each version I think has had a slightly
different roster of characters too. Yeah, it was. I'm not,
you know, well informed on the process that goes into
these games now much less in but it seems kind
of weird in retrospectives, like they basically had the same idea,

(05:04):
but instead of like creating the same game on two consoles,
they created two different variations on the same theme. It was.
It's it's interesting, yeah, yeah, but but all fun. I
I UM, I have very very fond memories of all
of these old TMNT games, even the strange like just
kind of one off, seeming like disposable whatever games, Like

(05:27):
there was a game Boy one called Follow the Foot Clan. Oh,
it's just ingrained in my brain and in my heart.
They all the TMNT games really do have a fond
place in my memory. Were you were you a turtle
in that one? Or were you like a foot clan
member you were a turtle? It was the traditional uh
four turtles, you pick one, you go through. And I

(05:48):
think this is a very important part of everyone's childhood.
Much like today every child knows which um, which Hogwarts
house they would be in. Back when we were children
in the eighties, everyone knew which to dole they would be, Uh, Rob,
which turtle would you be? Had I faced the same
question when I fired the new game up this morning,
I went. I went right where I would go in

(06:09):
the old days. I went with Donna Tello, with the
big staff. I don't know why, but I could just
I just remember part of me, remember that that's my
my turtle. That's me as well. Hundreds Uh, Donna Tello
is my go to turtle. Um. Perhaps we see a
bit of the intellectual of Donna Tello and we we
we we strive for that. We go, Hey, he's the

(06:30):
smart one. I I see myself. I want to be
an intellectual too. I think I would be the inventor
amongst the turtles. And also with his bow staff he
had a very good reach, which is always just just
a positive as well a good reach, and part of
me wonders if it's okay, it's not a bladed weapon,
so did that have something to do with me being
drawn to the staff. But then again, the nunchucks are also,

(06:52):
uh a blunt instrument. So I don't know. But I
wasn't silly enough to be a Michelangelo as a child,
or now I I I could pull off being a
Donna Tello. Maybe on my worst days, I could be
a Raphael, But I was never a Leonardo. I was
never a Michael Angelo. It just it just wasn't in me. Now,
I don't remember Turtles in Time all that much. Uh So,

(07:15):
I don't know if you had the same options, but
in that first beat him up game, it was just
the Turtles to choose from you. That is correct in
the Turtles and Time game as well. Yes, I think
for most of the entire series, up until the fighting,
you could only be the Turtles. But in this new game,
yeah you can. You can be additional characters, including April O'Neil,

(07:35):
and you can be Splinter. The second time I played
the new game, I I did like an online multiplayer
deal where you can have like six different characters at once.
I went with Splinter, and he's he's a lot of
fun in this as well. I did the same. I
started as Donna Tello, and then I wanted to see
these other characters, so yeah, I switched to Splinter split.
Splinter has got a lot of a great I guess

(07:58):
he's got a great range of martial arts tax which
makes perfect sense for you know, he's their leader, you know.
And uh. And then also I switched over to April O'Neil,
who is also quite good in this new game. And
I've heard I have not experienced this yet, but I've
heard you can play as Casey Jones eventually. Yeah, that
must be an unlock or something. I'm assuming one of
the best things I can say about this game too. See. Um,

(08:21):
you know me, rob, I I love music more than anything.
That's that's my my thing is. I spent all my
time listening to and talking about and doing music. I
I host a music podcast, Rusty Needles Record Club. Um
the um music in this game is so good that
it makes me do something that I never do. I
actually have the volume turned up on my game console. Yeah,

(08:44):
literally one hundred percent of the time when I'm playing
video games, I mute my game console and I listened
to the music that I want to listen to. That's
a hundred percent of the time. It's so good in
this game that I actually have I don't know, got
gone against my own like, uh instincts, and I'm actually
listening to the game provided soundtrack and it's wonderful. That's

(09:06):
that's a great point. Yeah. I I often do the
same thing with video games. I'll play SOFM over it
and just have the game itself muted. But yeah, with
this one, they've really done a great job creating the
the feel and the sound of of a nineties arcade game.
And I I can't stress enough just how how how
good a job they seem to have done with it,

(09:26):
because I've seen other games come out that are kind
of like a rehash, that are just kind of they're
they're tapping into the nostalgia, but they're not really doing
something with it like this game seems to have been.
It seems to be true to that original vibe, but
they've also updated a little bit. You know, there's sort
of uh, some of the gameplay elements. I guess make
it feel more like a modern game without feeling like

(09:47):
it's you know, gone beyond its roots. I guess I'll
stressed real quick though, this is not an AD. We
just really like this game. Yeah, yeah, this is not
paid for or anything. Um, but they exist. I think
they also got some of the old voice actors in
there too. Um oh yeah. Really. I don't think they've
gotten all of them, because I know some have sadly passed,

(10:08):
but I do believe the four Turtles at the very
least are the original voice actors from the original eighties
animated series, and so great. It just you get that
instant rush of nostalgia and it's it's wonderful. All right. Well,
as long as I've got you in here talking about
about the Turtles, Seth, what are your thoughts on the movies?
I love them. I mean I I grew up through

(10:31):
all three of them, obviously. Well, and it's funny we
call them three. I think at this point there's got
to be at least eight or nine, you know. Oh yeah,
they've been various animated projects over the year, not to
mention those live action Michael Bay, I forgot about those. Yeah,
I haven't seen any of those I am. I am
a purist when it comes to Ninja Turtles. I stopped

(10:51):
after the nineties. The nineties were the end of Turtles
for me and um, but the original run, the original
three I love to death. The first one felt very
gritty and like, very mature, so I felt like kind
of like an adult watching it, like you know. And
then um, Secret of the Us was a lot of
fun because you know, to my childhood sensibilities, it had vindillies,

(11:13):
had things like that. And then three three is such
a strange thing, like I don't know the accuracy behind this.
This is just like my own vision in my mind
was that some screenwriter went out there and wrote a
a like feudal Japan, like you know, melodrama, and you know,

(11:34):
almost like Princess Mononoke asked of like you know, warring
factions and all that kind of stuff. And then someone
was like, oh, well, I can't sell this. Why don't
you put some Ninja turtles in it? And so they
just do a pass on this script, and in certain
Ninja turtles in they're traveling through time and being becoming kappa,
you know, these demons that resemble turtles and uh. And

(11:55):
then somehow Ninja Turtles three came out of that. But
um no, I I loved the film franchise as a child,
and I've actually gone back and rewatched the first one
a couple of times as an adult, and I gotta
say it holds up pretty well. I haven't revisited two
or three in quite a while, though, how about you. Okay,
I haven't watched the three of them as so I

(12:16):
don't think I ever saw the third one, but I
did watch the first two, saw the first one in
a movie theater as a kid, and uh and and
loved it at the time. And I've been tempted to
show it to my son, who's now ten, and I think, yeah,
it sounds like it would be be decent to show
to him. You got the I believe Jim Henson's creature
shop did the turtle effects. One of the last things

(12:40):
Jim did while he was still alive was was those Turtles. Yeah.
I think he also had some inputs on the Dinosaurs
television sitcom, but I know that premiered after he had
already passed. But but yeah, Ninja Turtles was one of
Jim Henson's last projects, which is which is fascinating cool. Yeah,
I remember really digging Shredder in it, because Shredder was

(13:01):
always a cool, cool character I I it was. It's
weird looking back because at the time when Turtles was big,
I thought I was too old for the the action figures.
And I wasn't, but I but I wanted the action figures,
so like I really wanted a shred or action figure.
I really wanted a Crane action figure. But um, but

(13:22):
for some reason, I was like, no, I can't. I'm
not supposed to have action figures anymore. There's definitely like
a an imaginary line, you know, at all children's minds
when they crossed beyond childish things, and it's way too early,
like like that line is drawn by the child at
a very early age to go no, I can no
longer watch cartoons, I can no longer buy action figures.

(13:43):
And I think you get over that after you cross
another threshold, like decades later, you're on eBay looking up
those those action figures that you decided you were too
old for, and you're like, should I pay a hundred
and fifty dollars for this? I don't know, I feel
like I should. Yeah, yeah, now that's Um, I think
that's the stage of every adult's life, is trying to

(14:04):
re buy their childhood on eBay. I I know I've
gotten through that stage, so it's it's out there all right. Well, hey,
we'd love to hear from anyone out there who has
thoughts about teenage meeting Ninja Turtle games, TV shows, and movies.
I mean, it's a in comics, it's a it's a
media empire. There's been so much of it. I don't
really know my way around anything, aside from some of

(14:26):
the video games, some of the movies, and of course, uh,
I guess some of the television series episodes because I
don't think I ever watched it all in its entirety. There's, um,
if you play this new game, audience, uh, there's a
lot of fun references to all of the weird little minutia.
I'm I'm very very because well versed in the animated

(14:47):
series of Ninja Turtles. I own the whole series. I've
sadly watch it pretty regularly, and um, there's a lot
of fun little references in the new game Shredder's Revenge
to the old series. Like here's one of many examples.
There's a lot of unlockables and hidden items hidden throughout
the stages. You find one and it's Irma. Irma is

(15:10):
April O'Neil's like best friend that works with her at
the news station. You find her diary and you can
hear Irma's voice going, remember that one time I grew
really really big and it's like that was That was
an episode of the series where Irma became like, you know,
a giantess and she was like, you know, uh much
like a Godzilla film rampaging through New York and the

(15:30):
Turtles had to help fix this. That's awesome. Yeah, there's
there's there's clearly a lot going on visually in on
each level. There's a lot of cool, funny stuff going
on in the background. Uh so, yeah, it's a lot
of a lot seemed to have gone into this game. Yeah,
not an AD, but if it wasn't that I recommend it. Yeah. Yeah,
we'll make it fixt your not an AD by not

(15:52):
telling anybody where they can buy it. That's you're on
your own. This were an AD, we'd we'd give you
more instruction, right, all right, But this is technically listener mail.
So I do have a couple of listener mail here
to go through and uh and and Seth is going
to join me here for this I've got I've got

(16:15):
one for stuff to blow your mind in one for
weird house. So we'll start with stuff to blow your mind,
all right. This one comes to us from Adam Adam Rights. Hello,
Robert and Joe. My name is Adam and I'm from Ohio.
I've been listening for two years and I am catching
up on some of your recent episodes. And I just
found the Cauldron Part one and two. And oh boy,
I have a great example of a very great cauldron
slash jar. You must see elden Ring Possible two Game

(16:39):
of the Year features one of my favorite characters in
any video game named Iron Fist Alexander, who is a
glorious giant sentient pot image included below for listeners. Alexander
has stubby little legs and long arms that he utilizes
for his legendary spin attack. You first encounter Alexander partially
stuck in the ground, and you help him out by
knocking him out of the hole. He tells you that

(17:01):
he is on a journey to be the greatest warrior
in all the lands. Throughout the game, you find him
in various wild environments that signify his quest for strength
and glory. You will later find Alexander inside of a
volcano because he is attempting to harden his shell in
order to be a stronger fighter. Spoilers. This epic quest
line comes to an end very near the final boss
of the game, where Alexander knows things are coming to

(17:24):
an end and wishes to fight you, and the bitter
sweet fight does not end well for him. Side note.
There is also a well hidden, tranquil little town in
one of the first areas of the game called Jarberg.
All of the residents of Jarburg are also sentient pots
from small to giant, possibly suggesting the small pots maybe children.
This is a peaceful town and it is very much

(17:44):
frowned upon by the Elder Ring community to disrupt their
way of life. Though this has no scientific, historical cultural relevance,
I'd still wanted to share this wonderful gym of characters
with you guys. Cheers, Adam, I'm looking at pictures of
Iron Fist Alexander now, and he is beautiful. Yeah uh Now,
I was familiar with this game, I haven't played it.

(18:05):
I think Joe might have some apologies Joe for for
jumping ahead and looking at this one. We can always
come back to this in another listener mail. But Seth,
have have you played this game? I haven't. I I'm
in the same boat as you. I've I've heard that
it's a wonderful game. I've seen people enjoying it in
the world. But man, this this is gorgeous. So many

(18:25):
um images of Iron Fist Alexander on the Internet, and
so many art projects people have made in in um
in tribute to Iron Fist Alexander. My favorite one I'm
seeing here lots of Etsy stuff. One it looks almost
like a little chia pet version of him, so growing
out the top of the cauldron is a nice little

(18:46):
fern and beautiful, beautiful stuff. I'd love to jump into
this series sometime because everyone who talks about it speaks
so glowingly of it and and clearly is connecting to
on such a such deep level. I'd heard that it
had like really weird bosses, and I heard that it
was really hard, but I didn't know that it had

(19:07):
any kind of humor to it. So it's I'm actually
more inspired learning that there's a character like this in
a town like this in this game. I completely agree.
I've played so much Legend of Zelda and um that
that classically has a lot of humor and frivolity, and
you know, I guess wonder to it. And I always
pictured the elden Ring series being kind of like a

(19:29):
grim dark modern take on that same kind of fantasy
adventure and seeing a creature like this, this feels like
a Zelda character looking at these images, and you're right,
it does. It changes my perspective on this series. It
makes me think I need to play it. And I
will say I this is I think ultimately culturally relevant
to our discussions here on the show. So thanks for

(19:51):
writing in. All right, this next one is going to
be a weird house cinema suggests, and um, I guess
both of these have a lot in common. They're both
suggesting bits of media that I haven't checked out. Uh.
This is from a listener by the name of Rob.
Rob writes in and says, I think both of you
all are fans of Jorge Louis Bohees, so you might

(20:13):
enjoy tackling the Alex Cox film Death and the Compass,
starring Peter Boyle and Christopher Eccleston. It's an expanded adaptation
of Boroo short story of the same name, in which
a detective investigates what appears to be a series of
ritual murders by Hastim. I haven't seen the film in

(20:33):
a few years, but I recall that it's very weird
in a number of respects narrative structure, dialogue performances, score
by the post punk group Prey for Rain, and superstylized
cinematography incorporating lots of fish Is lenses, blurring effects, and
so forth. I think it's weird enough for WHC. It's
certainly an obscure film, and one that is perhaps of

(20:54):
interest only to Alex Cox completest and Bohey enjoyers, since
it is, to my knowledge, the only feature link adaptation
of a Bohe story. It seems to be available on
Amazon Prime Video and on DVD. Wonderful. Yeah, thanks for
writing in about this, Rob. I have not seen this film,
but I was looking it up a little bit. Um.
I guess the first thing I have to mention is

(21:16):
that I haven't even seen Alex cox Is Repo Man,
which I realize is probably a kind of a cult
film heresy to admit if you've seen repo man, I've
seen a number of them. So which which one is
the Alex Cox one? Is that the one where they
are stealing the organs of people? Because because there's there's
a musical, which I believe is like what read both

(21:37):
of musical, right, And then there's like the one I
think there's one that has the Mighty Ducks guy in it.
You know, Oh, yeah, that's the one that's the Alex
Cochlinx one has Harry Dean Stanton and Emiliustz. That's the
one I've seen. I apologize Emilio for referring to you
as the Mighty Ducks guy. I'm sure you've enjoyed that.
But yes, I have seen that. And yeah, that that's
that is definitely yeah cult film Cannon, But no, I

(22:02):
I've I've the funny thing when you were describing this,
I definitely haven't seen the film, but I think I
might have read the book so or or the short
story more specifically, So, yeah, that this sounds fascinating. Yeah,
the short story I'm more familiar with. Certainly, it's kind
of a noir detective tale that involves like the ultimate

(22:22):
over in textual intellectualized string of murderers and the ultimate
over intellectualized investigation of said murders. Like most Bohe stories,
it's it doesn't just scream for cinematic adaptation, So it
would be interesting to see how they ended up tackling
it and putting it together on screen, expanding it and
so forth. Um. There's been a number of i think

(22:44):
generally short adaptations of Boree stories over the years, and
I've never actually checked one out. I don't know. They
tend to be very I guess high minded, artsy attempts,
which is kind of interesting given that just on paper,
a whole lot of Borhe stories have some sort of
speculum element to them. They would seem to line up
with a lot of you know, weird films and horror

(23:04):
and supernatural. You've got minotaurs and stabbings and dream people
coming to life and haunted books that go on forever.
I think y'all could have some fun with us, for sure. Yeah,
so I'm gonna add it to the list. Uh, got
a growing list of films to consider and uh, and
then you know, week to week, it's also just kind
of based on on what what we're interested in and

(23:25):
what's drawing in our attention. It really is a never
ending list. No matter how many films, uh, you guys
go through on Weird House Cinema, the list just always
going to grow. I mean, I mean, there are so
many films perpetually in production, things from the past that
get resurfaced, and it's just wonderful. As long as I'm
here on the show, I'm gonna make a suggestion for

(23:45):
this list. You ready, Robin, Oh, yeah, let's have it.
One of my favorites in the realm of Weird House Cinema.
You know, I have an animation background, so there's a
very u soft place in my heart for this film.
It's from It's Yon spank Mars Alice. Have you ever
heard of this? Um, I haven't seen it. I think

(24:07):
I've seen the case for it at Video Drome, and
I think I've seen some shorts from the filmmaker in question.
Yeah so so. Jan spank Mar is a wonderful surrealist
U animator, usually stop motion style, and this was his
first film in after he'd been building up to it
for like decades of making these shorts and um, yeah,

(24:30):
it's it's just the Alice in Wonderland, you know, adaptation
that we've seen many many times before, but it all
takes place with a live action girl playing Alice, and
whenever something changes her size, she'll shrink down into like
literally a doll, like a China doll, and then she'll
like grow up and it'll just be like these extrange

(24:51):
limbs and everything she encounters within like a dilapidated house.
That's all Wonderland is, and so therefore all the creatures
she interacts with are like taxidermied animals, or like a skull,
or like um, I don't know, a jar filled with
thumb tacks, like just whatever strange things, or would be
sitting on a shelf in an old, dilapidated house. Those

(25:12):
are the elements that come to life there. There's one
of my favorite parts when the caterpillar uh comes to life.
It is an old sock with a pair of dentures
in its mouth, sitting on a door knob. Absolutely beautiful.
So imagine that stop motion animated. It's just incredible. Anyway,
I could give you guys a million recommendations, but um,

(25:34):
I always think to myself, that's the one I want
Robin Joe to watch, all Right, we'll put it on
the list. Yeah, I've never seen it. I think I
saw his two thousand film Little Oh Tech. And and
of course I've seen some films by the Brothers Quay
who were very much inspired by his work. Yes, yes,
Brothers Quay are definitely in the same realm for sure. Yeah. Yeah,

(25:55):
I think I went through a phase at one point
where I was like, this is what I'm gonna be into.
I'm gonna be into weird Europeans stop motion films. And
I might have been off more than I could chew
at the time, so it end up not lasting super long.
But I saw a few things in there that would
be be need to dive back into that world at
some point. All right, well we're gonna go ahead and
close out this episode here. Um so just to to

(26:16):
remind everybody stuff to blow your mind. Find it wherever
you get your podcasts. Uh. Listener Mail publishes on Monday
their core episodes on two season, Thursday's short Form Artifact
or Monster Fact on Wednesdays, and then on Friday's most
serious matters are set Aside and It's weird. How cinema time?
Uh seff tell us one more time where folks can

(26:36):
find Rusty Needles Record Club. Sure. If you like hearing
me talk um, you can hear it every week every Friday.
I host a show called Rusty Needles Record Club. You
can find it in all the standard podcast places wherever
you listen to podcasts. Basically, myself and a guest we
listen to an album and then talk about it. It's
like a book club, but for music instead. That's what

(26:58):
we like to say. And uh, it's a good time
if you like music, if you like chit chat about music,
and you don't really have any like, you know, music
friends around you, you want you want that surrogate to
to have some uh music nonsense chit chat at about
That's That's what I'm here for, all right. Yeah, Joe
has been on there at some point. I'll come on there,
just waiting for the stars to align on that. Yes,

(27:19):
all right, And hey, if you want to reach out
to any of us, just drop us a line at
contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff
to Blow Your Mind is a production of I Heart Radio.
For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the I heart
Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

(27:42):
favorite shows.