With the success of the first Turtles movie, things got kicked into high gear immediately for a sequel. Unfortunately, the second film lost some of the charm of the first movie and decided to go for a more silly, kid-friendly approach (something that would plague the third film as well).

There are some change-ups in the cast, Elias Koteas as Casey Jones is missing completely. Paige Turco takes over as April O’Neil,Josh Pars didn’t return as Raph and Corey Feldman (Donatello) who had a stint in rehab wasn’t invited back because it could have brought negative publicity.

Eastman and Laird the Turtle creators were a little less than thrilled with this entry. They wanted something more in line with their comics, than the super-kid-friendly show.

Shredder (Francois Shau) returns, thoroughly trounced and the Foot Clan is beaten but determined to exact revenge on the Turtles. Conveniently, the plot offers an opportunity. April is doing a report on TCRI and its head scientist, Professor Perry (David Warner).

And that sparks a memory for Splinter (Kevin Clash) and a plan for Shredder. TCRI was responsible for the ooze that originally mutated the turtles and Splinter. Shredder plans to use it to create his own mutants to defeat the Turtles.

The Turtles are still a lot of fun, even if their characters don’t really grow. Still it’s still fun to spend time with Leonardo (voice by Brian Tochi, body by Mark Caso and fights by Larry Lam) is still the leader, Donatello (voice: Adam Carl, body: Leif Tilden) is still the brainy, geeky one, Michelangelo (voice: Robbie Rist, body Michelan Sisti) is the party-dude, and Raphael (voice: Laurie Faso, body: Kenn Troum with fights by Hosung Pak), who is still struggling with his anger and impatience.

Yes, it’s silly. But the thing that aged the worst? Vanilla Ice showing up for a musical number during the climactic fight sequence.

With the removal of Casey Jones, the film introduces a younger character, a would-be avatar for the kids watching the movie, Keno (Ernie Reyes Jr.).

Through the course of the story, the gang find a new place to live (their last one was trashed in the first film), eat lots of pizza, banter, and square off against the baddies. It’s still fun and entertaining, but lacks the darker edge of the first film, and consequently that has a negative impact on the film.

The first was a fun film for all ages, this time out, it definitely skewed younger, and that may have helped with the series’ diminishing returns.

Still, I hadn’t seen this one since I owned it on VHS back in the day. I still had a really good time with it, and it brings back the memories of yesteryear for me, but it’s not as good as the first. We’ll see how the third one fares next week.