After a two-year wait, the Rise of the TMNT Movie is finally here!
In this latest installment, the Ninja Turtles are faced with their greatest challenge yet
- an alien species known only as the Kraang!
With a new Casey Jones by their side, Leo and the gang are going to do all that they
can to save the world!
With old and new characters alike showing up in this movie, which ones have grown to
new heroic heights and which ones are the most evil characters we’ve seen yet?
I’m Kifinosi with WickedBinge, and this is Rise of the TMNT: The Movie - Good to Evil.
MAJOR spoilers will be found throughout this video, so if you haven’t watched this movie
yet, go give it a shot and then come back.
Additionally, while this movie is based off the Nickelodeon TV show, when it comes to
the main and previously established characters, we’re only going to be focusing on their
actions within this film.
With that being said, as always we’re going to be starting with our most noble and honorable
characters.
These characters are The Good.
Getting our Gold Medal of Good is the Rise team’s original leader and the oldest brother,
Raphael.
Prior to the movie premiering, we were told that Leo would be the leader, meaning that
there would likely be some friction between him and Raph.
Thankfully, instead of being jealous of Leo or bitter at losing his rank, Raph’s anger
primarily came from a place of care and concern.
Though he was maybe a bit harsh about it, all Raph wanted was for Leo to take things
seriously and stop taking so many careless risks.
As always, Raph cares about his family the most, even if he sometimes hides it under
anger and frustration.
What truly earns Raph this top spot, however, is the big sacrifice he makes.
When it’s time to retreat, Raph not only blocks a would-be fatal blow but also gives
Leo his escape pod, giving himself up to the Kraang.
Even under threat, Raph refuses to give up any information.
Unfortunately, Raph spends most of the second act under Kraang’s control and thus ends
up fighting his family and assisting the Kraang, but we aren’t going to hold that against
him.
For our Silver Medal of Good, we’re giving it to the mystical Michelangelo.
While being the youngest turtle of the team, Mikey is also the most hopeful and optimistic
of the team - always trying and keeping in good spirits without being oblivious and without
having Leo’s cockiness or arrogance.
He loves his brothers with his whole heart, doing things like cheering Leo on when he
tries to break Donnie’s pizza stacking record and getting Donnie to cover after Donnie loses
his battle shell.
We also learn that Mikey ends up being the most powerful mystic warrior in the world
- and honestly, it’s about time Mikey fans got a win.
Using his mystic abilities, Mikey allows Casey Jones to go back in time to save the world.
However, doing this forces him to make the ultimate sacrifice.
But not only does Mikey give his own life for the cause, he also does it with a smile.
Later on, towards the very end of the film, Mikey nearly does this again when he tries
to use his mystic abilities to save Leo from the prison dimension.
You could argue that this second would-be sacrifice was even MORE noble and honorable
given that this was a young Mikey with his whole life still ahead of him instead of an
older Mikey who would have had to continue fighting Kraang if he hadn’t given his life
to create the time portal.
Between this and Mikey’s ever-present role as the heart of the team, we felt that he
truly deserved to be near the top.
Sticking with the Turtles, We’re going to give our Bronze Medal of Good to Leonardo,
the newest leader of the team.
Now, there are two sides to Leo in this film.
Let’s go ahead and get the negatives out of the way first.
Simply put, after defeating the Shredder and not having any major threats left to face
(as far as he knows), Leo becomes VERY cocky and careless.
He sees Raph’s frustration and insistence that he “grow up” as Raph just being bossy,
and in some instances Leo very much acts like a jerk.
He also struggles quite a bit when Raph sacrifices himself to the Kraang - ironically, he ends
up adapting a personality similar to how Raph is traditionally portrayed, that being hot-headed,
overly emotional and wanting to go in head-first instead of planning ahead like Leo typically
would.
But - again, much like Raph - Leo’s mistakes come from the same place as his strengths:
his love for his family.
The moment Raph’s life is in danger, all Leo wants is to save his big brother.
Even after he realizes what he was doing wrong and changes his strategy, actually being willing
to listen to his team and acknowledging that he doesn’t have all the answers, Leo never
gives up on Raph and is eventually able to bring Raph back by humbling himself.
We’ll also hand it to Leo in that, once he’s called out, Leo does indeed step up
and tries to correct himself for the sake of the people he loves.
This fantastic character arc culminates in Leo sacrificing himself - hey, you guys seeing
a theme here?
Even if it means being trapped in a prison dimension and likely dying at the hands of
Kraang, Leo doesn’t even hesitate, finally understanding what it means to be a leader
AND a hero.
He may have way more flaws than other Leos, but at his core he’s still got a good core
behind all the ego and Ben Schwartz-esque snark.
Next up, we have the teen from the future - Casey Jones.
Technically the second Casey Jones in this universe, named after his mother, Cassandra
Jones.
Though not as crazy as the traditional Casey Jones, this Casey still wants to be a hero
and fight for the greater good.
This includes doing what he can to help out his sensei, Leo - whether it’s saving older!Leo’s
life after he’s struck with a fatal blow or calling the present!Leo out for not listening
to his team.
This also includes following Leo’s lead, even when it breaks his heart - like when
he removes the Kraang’s portal key under Leo’s order, trapping Leo and the Kraang
Commander in the prison dimension.
All in all, this Casey is not really much of a punk or a vigilante and is instead just
a good kid.
But that shouldn’t be too surprising given that he’s voiced by Haley Joel Osmond - AKA
Sora from Kingdom Hearts.
Following him is the future reporter in training, April O’Neil.
Even before the Kraang are released, we see April being active and taking her journalism
major incredibly seriously.
Once she hears that her university is possibly involved in some sort of conspiracy, she takes
it upon herself to investigate and gather evidence.
Furthermore, April uses this evidence - vials of illegal herbicide - as a weapon against
the Kraang, saving Mikey and Donnie from being crushed inside the Turtle Tank. April gets
another awesome hero moment when she uses a crane to trap the Kraang sister, protecting
Casey and Splinter.
In other words, April is just as awesome in the movie as she is in the main series.
Her only real negative moment is when she takes her frustrations out on Splinter when
they’re unable to destroy the Kraang key, but given how tense that whole situation was,
we can kind of understand.
Nearing the end of this tier is the last of our Turtles, Donatello.
Yes, like with our first list, Donnie is still the least moral turtle - though, we aren’t
saying that he’s villainous or anything like that.
In fact, Donnie makes a pretty big personal sacrifice.
Despite his sensory issues and being very obviously grossed out by the Kraang’s tech,
Donnie still gives himself to it so that he can control the Kraang’s ship.
This ultimately doesn’t amount to much, since the Kraang Commander quickly realizes
what’s going on, but hey!
It’s the thought that counts!
We also see Donnie trying to protect Mikey, even without his battle armor.
Nonetheless, Donnie still sometimes struggles to show emotion, resulting in him coming off
as a bit insensitive at times.
This isn’t necessarily a knock against his morality, but it’s still worth a mention.
Finishing up the Good, we have skilled sensei and rat-dad Splinter.
Yeahhh, while we may love Splinter and his absolutely amazing character arc in the main
series, he unfortunately doesn’t get too much time to shine during the movie.
For the most part, he’s the same rat dad he always was, albeit a bit more active and
trying to step in more often.
He does get angry about the Turtles being loud and interrupting his TV shows, which
shows that he’s still a bit of a couch potato, but when his boys are fighting or when Leo
is making mistakes as he’s dealing with emotional turmoil, Splinter at least TRIES
to give them some guidance.
We also have to point out how, even after getting hurt and knocked out briefly, Splinter
doesn’t just stay behind and wait at home.
He’s always doing SOMETHING, whether it’s trying to destroy the Kraang key with April
or helping April and Casey with their fights.
He doesn’t get any big moments of sacrifice like we see in the show, but at the very least
we can say that he’ll stay by his family’s side as he does whatever he can to help save
the day.
Moving on, we’ve now come to the characters who aren’t quite good or evil.
Welcome to the Grey Area.
We actually only have two characters in this tier, and given how close they are we’re
going to pair them together.
Taking the sole spot in this tier are two of the fan-favorite baddies from the series
- Warren Stone and Hypno-Potamus.
Only getting a brief cameo in the first act of the movie, Warren and Hypno are technically
the ones who kick things off, being the ones to steal the Kraang key from the museum.
Now, you’d think that this would be enough to put this duo in the Bad tier.
However, it’s pretty obvious that these guys didn’t realize the full implications
of what they were stealing.
Warren even says that he and Hypno were only interested in robbing banks with the Foot,
not really having a desire to take over the world or destroy everyone.
Unlike the Foot Lt. and Foot Brute, they didn’t have any truly villainous motivations outside
of your typical Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain motives.
That being said, they ultimately decide to dip once they see the danger that they’ve
caused, disappearing from the movie completely.
On the one hand, you could call this cowardly since they didn’t even TRY to help with
the fight against the Kraang.
On the other hand, given that the Kraang can take away mystic powers, it’s hard to say
whether or not Hypno and Warren helping would have actually made a difference or if it just
would have gotten them killed.
So, while we certainly call them good guys, we’re going to cut this pair of roommates
some slack.
Finally, we’ve arrived at the most wicked characters of them all!
These characters are the Bad to Evil.
Getting the Bronze Medal of Evil are the heads of the Foot Clan, the Foot Lt. and Foot Brute.
Unlike Hypno and Warren who were naive and never wanted to cause any real wide-spread
damage, the Foot Lt. and Foot Brute aren’t nearly as innocent.
You would think that these guys would have learned after being abandoned by the Shredder
that trying to summon some ‘ultimate power’ is probably not the best kind of plan.
Unfortunately, these two only care about bringing doom to the world and gaining power over others.
Not only are they fairly evil, buuut they’re also pretty foolish.
But while they may be the main catalyst of the Kraang’s return, knowing exactly what
they were doing even if they weren’t necessarily expecting the Kraang to betray them, their
lack of screentime in the film stops them from falling any further.
For our Silver Medal of Evil, we’re giving it to the Kraang Commander’s Brother and
Sister.
Every good villain needs their henchmen, and it’s a bit ironic that the guy trying to
tear our favorite family of turtles apart has a family himself.
While they may not be the ones leading the way, the Kraang Commander’s siblings still
do plenty of evil all on their own.
The Kraang Sister seems especially cruel and bloodthirsty, in that the first thing she
does when she gets out of the prison dimension is ask if she can kill something.
We also see her laughing at April and Splinter’s heartbreak after Leo sacrifices himself.
The Kraang Brother, meanwhile, is silent but deadly, ultimately being the one to trigger
the mass mutation of the Foot Clan and at least several dozen New York citizens.
He’s also the one who controls the Kraang’s portals and defends the ship’s controls,
playing his part in the evil trio well.
But while these two siblings aren’t necessarily stuck in their commander’s shadow, there’s
no denying that there’s still one character more evil than them.
Finally, the Gold Medal of Evil is going to the Kraang Commander.
The Commander is the literal brains behind the entire invasion, wanting his ultimate
revenge against humanity after being trapped in the prison dimension for a thousand years.
Along with being just as cruel as his sister, the Commander is also someone who considers
strength to be the most important thing of all.
In turn, anyone or anything he sees as ‘weak’ is someone he sees as worthy of only death
and destruction.
Throughout the film, he’s constantly taunting the Turtles and enjoys siccing Raph on his
own family, almost seeing it as entertainment.
Even when the Commander is finally defeated, he has no qualms with taking his anger out
on Leo, nearly beating the poor kid to a pulp.
In terms of good qualities, you could argue that there are hints at him having a soft
side for his siblings, not dismissing his sister even after she loses an eye.
Still, given how little he mourns the rest of his species, considering them weak for
not being strong enough to survive the prison dimension, we have a feeling that any sort
of ‘softness’ is minor and ultimately not worth much.
If this movie is truly this incarnation’s last hurrah, then it’s safe to say that
the Kraang Commander is Rise of the TMNT’s Most Evil Character.
But let us know in the comment section if you agree with our ranking, and tell us what
we should cover next!
Remember to hit that notification bell and binge our Good to Evil playlist, where we
break down the morality of the characters in your favorite cartoons, shows and movies.
But most importantly, stay wicked!