I do a lot of talking about Marvel and DC, but given the hit
new movie “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out of the Shadows” I thought I’d
branch out and talk about a character that has ties to neither of the major
comic book studios.
His voice from the 1987 cartoon is forever embedded in my
brain, and that remains the quintessential version of the character, a version
that none has been able to live up to…Casey Jones.
He was without a doubt growing up my favorite
character. I am a child of the 80’s and,
like all kids, I loved the ninja turtles cartoon. As I’ve stated before, I grew up in an area
where I did not get a lot of comic books, so I had no idea who the lean mean
green team were until they were brought to my television set. So here I was enjoying the adventures of four
mutant reptiles with ninja skills, but let’s face it, there’s only so far you can
play as the ninja turtles until you run into an imagination wall…you will never
actually get to be a ninja turtle. Then
came Casey Jones and he was awesome. Not
only was he human, like me and most of my classmates at the time, he was
incredibly easy to play as. You may or
may not have been able to make shift ninja weapons as a kid, but almost
everyone I knew had a baseball bat. I
managed to even get my hands on a hockey stick.
Long story. So while everyone was
Raphael or Michelangelo, there I was, sports equipment in hand, paper plate cut
into a mask on my face, ready to lend aid to the team. It was also great since he wasn’t always with
the turtles, I could go off and have my own adventures.
So here we go, a brief retrospective of the character of
Casey Jones.
Originating from the comics, he was portrayed as basically a
lunatic who almost never took off his signature hockey mask, and this was
directly translated into the cartoon. He
was more than a little militant about his vigilantism, especially in the
cartoon, as he would come down hard on jay walkers and muggers alike, putting
him not only a an ally but also at odds with the turtles who felt some
restraint somewhere was a good thing.
A man with exactly 0 chill and 0 eff's to give!
Coming to life on screen, he was voiced by Pat Fraley, a veteran
voice actor who took a “Clint Eastwood” touch to his voice. Like I said, this voice was embedded in my
head as THE voice for the character.
When the turtles translated to the big screen in 1990, Casey
Jones played by Elias Koteas came right along with him and, frankly he did a
great job in the role. I like that Elias
could play literally anyone, he has that every-man look that would let him
blend into the crowd. This time the
character had more of a “Taxi Driver” feel to him, and one of the best things
about the character is that he had, like in the comics and cartoon, no real
backstory to him.
The comics portrayed him as a guy who became a vigilante
because he watched too much tv. That’s it. All the film did was add that he at one point
played professional hockey. As we will
see later…sometimes less is more.
The 1990 film did, however add one thing to the character as
he soon became the love interest of April O’Neil. This concept has been referred to by some as
the “Forced Romantic Interest” or FRI.
Reasonably speaking, there’s no reason these characters should ever hook
up, but because every action movie needed a love story tacked on, these two characters were paired
off. Granted if April had hooked up with
anyone else in the story it would have been weird and wrong…and disgusting.
But that set a new tone for the character and the romantic
sub-plot carried over to the third live action film of the 1990’s franchise
where Koteas once again took on the role in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3:
Turtles in Time.”
Oh god, that movie was bad.
Let’s move on.
The next time we see Casey in the franchise proper is in
2003 when the turtles get a “4Kids” makeover on Fox. Their look and storylines were updated, with
darker plot lines and more character development, and Casey was given a
backstory.
Uhh...
His backstory is terribly generic in that he and his family
had been wronged by a street gang called the Purple Dragons, led by a guy named
Hun, and that tragedy led him to a life of vigilantism. Once again he’s the FRI for April O’Neil. As much as I like that they included him, and
Marc Thompson did a great job of portraying him, I felt like he was just over
used. He was placed as a member of the
main cast and almost muted down to make him more appealing to April (and thus
young girls) and less awesome than the turtles.
I can understand why they did that, but I felt it short changed the
character and restricted Thompson’s flexibility with the character.
Casey surfaces again in 2007 on the big screen in the
animated adventure “TMNT”. The movie was
alright, but not great. It was
beautifully rendered, but the tone was a little harder to place. Casey is practically neutered in this film
with him being portrayed as the average boyfriend to April rather than a guy
who could hold his own against ninja’s.
He gets a few action sequences here and there, but the character is
played as kind of dull. It didn’t help
that for the feature they wanted to hire name-brand actors rather than voice
over experts, so he’s played blandly by Chris Evans.
Chris is an amazing actor…on screen. Voice over-not so much.
That leads us to the 2012 Nickelodeon TV series, portrayed
by Josh Peck where his character is damaged almost beyond repair. He’s now a teenager with aspirations of being
a gimmick superhero. Gone, just
completely gone is the edge that made the character stand out in the early
days. He’s played as a self-important
jerk who, through reasons that completely baffle me, still has a romantic
relationship with April O’Neil.
I don’t like this character at all.
There was one glimmer of hope in all the scaling down of Jones. That came on YouTube in 2011 when an independent movie was released detailing an origin story for Casey, one that better meshed the "tragic past" with the "kind of crazy" background of the character. Here Hilarion Banks plays the titular character and the whole thing is amazingly done. My one issue, my only issue, is that Hilarion is relatively small in build so he doesn't carry an imposing presence. That can work to the characters advantage as those he comes across underestimate him.
He remembered that his mask is suppose to be ON his face!
But if you didn't like slender Hilarion Banks, web series Super Power Beat Down grants your wish by casting John Hennigan in the role as he battles street superhero Kick-Ass. Being a professional wrestler, Hennigan had the moves to bring Jones to life, but don't expect to much from him by way of acting.
Crazy-Check, Sweaty-Check, alright...ACTION
So, that brings us back into the theatre where Casey Jones is now portrayed by Stephen Amell in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Out of the Shadows”. Again, he’s not edgy, he’s not damaged, he’s a corrections officer who lost prisoners during a break-out staged during prisoner transport. He allies himself with April and the turtles to see justice done. Stephen doesn’t do a bad job in the role, but he’s not playing Casey Jones to me. He’s playing Steven Amell in a hockey mask.
You have failed this cit...wait, where am I again?
Honestly none of the actors have done a bad job, they’ve
just been playing the characters they were given, and like so many franchises
as it evolves and changes hands, so will the characters. So many traits of the characters past have
made it down through the years it’s a shame that Casey lost so much of what made
him memorable in the first place.
Hopefully through it all, you found a Casey Jones that
appeals to you.
Thanks for reading.
No comments:
Post a Comment