TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (1990) Directed by: Steve Barron
Genre: Superhero/Martial Arts
THE MOVIE
Having been a kid in the 1980’s as part of the Star Wars/GI Joe/Tranformers/He-Man generation, I narrowly missed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle craze which began with a series of edgy and satirical comic books and carried over into a cheesy cartoon show, toy line, and video game series, all of which exploded in the late 1980's. The movie came at the height of the Turtles phenomenon and was a big hit and, for a time, the highest grossing independent film. It can also be argued that it helped to repopularize the martial arts movie as a genre (as did Mortal Kombat five years later) because in 1990 it would have been unthinkable to have a foreign language martial arts movie showing in wide release and now it’s not uncommon.
The movie takes a tone that is more in line with the comic book than the cartoons and is actually fairly violent for a PG movie. It has a very gritty early 1990's feel, and many scenes take place on dark and wet New York streets full of crime and delinquents. Also typical for the time are the many sinister Japanese accented-characters ("We've been rooking for you, Mss. O'Neir.") as the early 1990's was the heyday of Japan-ophobia in American popular culture.
It is the origin story of the Turtles, four mutant turtle brothers who have been trained as crime fighting ninjas by their mutant rat master, Splinter. The Turtles are caught up in a crime wave brought about by an organization called the Foot Clan, headed by a man named Shredder. Also mixed up in the story is a reporter named April O’Neil and a sports equipment-wielding vigilante called Casey Jones, played by the great character actor Elias Koteas.
THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS
Creature-wise the movie features the four Turtles and Splinter, all created by Jim Henson Studios and are nicely done with very expressive animatronic faces. When you think about it, the amount of martial arts is very impressive considering the bulky costumes. Unfortunately, the Turtles are only really distinguished by the color of their ninja masks and their weapons. With the exception of the bad-ass Raphael and possibly Michelangelo (who speaks in a grating "Valley Dude" style that has not aged well) they are not very well distinguished from one another as characters either via performance or design. The Splinter puppet, however, is quite nicely designed and looks as life like as an aged anthropomorphic rat can.
SEQUELS
There were two direct sequels to the live action movie (of descending quality) and the recent TMNT which is a CGI film in the same continuity as the live action films.
MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE
The Casey Jones/Raphael fight. Although, the sequence of the pre-mutant Splinter practicing martial arts in his cage is memorable for being totally ridiculous.
HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY
Widely available in a no frills DVD release. Also as part of a Bluray set with its sequels, although missing the extra features one would expect.
TRAILER
TRIVIA
Actor Sam Rockwell appears in an early role as one of the teenagers working in the Foot Headquarters.
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