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The three theatrical Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films essentially straddle the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles “boom” of the early 1990’s perfectly.
The property began as a black and white indie comic in 1984 that was a tongue in cheek parody of Frank Miller’s run on Daredevil, but a toy industry desperate for the next big thing after Masters of the Universe and G.I. JOE turned the comic for adults into a smash hit moneymaker with kids.
It’s hard to imagine any FOG! reader not knowing, but for the uninitiated: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael: four turtles who were exposed to radioactive waste as babies and have become bipedal, pizza loving, ninja protectors living in the New York Sewers.
They’re supported by their sensei and father Splinter, a similarly mutated rat and their best friend April O’Neil, a TV reporter.
They end up battling the Foot, a clan of criminal ninjas led by Shredder– the ninja master who killed Splinter’s former owner.
Hong Kong producers Golden Harvest, who had been desperate for a crossover hit in the West since co-producing Enter the Dragon in 1973, partnered with New Line Cinema for the films and were rewarded with what was at the time the highest grossing independent film in American box office history as the bizarre property caught the cultural zeitgeist perfectly.
Which leads us to…
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
Directed by Steve Barron
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an origin film with the titular turtles trying to stop a crime wave in New York that’s secretly controlled by the Foot clan and Shredder (James Saito). When the Foot clan try to knock off TV reporter April O’Neil (Judith Hoag) for reporting on their crimes, Raphael brings her back to the Turtles’ sewer home and unwittingly is followed by a Foot soldier. The Turtles are driven from their refuge and must team with sports-obsessed vigilante Casey Jones (Elias Koteas) to stop Shredder and make the city safe again.
I don’t see how a movie made in 1990 about mutant turtles could possibly be better than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It has an absolutely perfect tone, one seldom replicated in comic book film franchises where the balance between grit and levity is expertly maintained. It simultaneously works as an adaptation of the Eastman and Laird comic book and an introduction to the Turtles who were appearing on Saturday Morning.
It starts with technical decisions: Steve Barron was the MVP of early 80’s MTV with several of the most famous music videos of all time under his belt. He’s someone who had the patience and skill to get good work done under the enormous technical constraints of location shooting a movie that stars four human sized animatronic suits. He’s also a lot more daring with editing and transitions than one would expect from a movie like this, particularly in the first reel. Shredder’s introduction with a sweeping overhead tracking shot is burned into my memory as one of the first times in my life I really noticed that a camera movement was special, even if I was too young on first viewing to articulate exactly what I was seeing.
Speaking of those suits, New Line and Golden Harvest contracted Jim Henson’s Creature Shop to actually create the Turtles and they, along with the voice acting cast, bring not only authenticity but personality to each of the four turtles. The reality of the film flows from how convincing the Turtles are.
You also have to highlight the performances from Judith Hoag, Michael Turney and Elias Koteas who are the human actors who interact with the Turtles most often. They bring a grounding to all the ridiculous mutant ninja plot threads that feel real. We believe them, and it greatly aids in our ability to believe the Turtles.
Technical craftsmanship, fine performances, and a perfect job walking the razor’s edge between grit and levity. That’s the recipe that keeps this film a classic.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)
Directed by Michael Pressman
TMNT 2 was released in 1991 near the apex of the Turtles’ popularity as a children’s property and it shows. The delicate balance between serious combat and the goofy premise is dismissed in the first fight scene where the Turtles eschew their ninja weapons for trashcans and sausages. The edge from these characters has been sanded down.
The plot concerns April O’Neil (now played by Paige Turco) investigating a toxic waste leak from TGRI, a chemical conglomerate. The Turtles become interested when they learn from Splinter that it was TGRI waste (the titular “ooze”) that transformed them in the first place, but what they don’t know is that their old nemesis Shredder (now played by François Chau) has kidnapped Professor Jordan Perry (David Warner) and forced him to expose the ooze to a snapping turtle and a wolf to create his own mutant warriors.
This film is still technically very impressive: the animatronics are much improved in terms of performance and the new super-mutants are really impressive as practical effects. It’s kind of amazing how much physical comedy and expression can be mined from the Turtles as performers, and the opening scene genuinely has some funny gags.
The problem is that the energy, grit, and danger of the first film is completely missing. The razor’s edge of tone that the first film walked was thrown away for this one and a much safer film for children is the result. This is the kind of martial arts film where no one actually ever gets hurt, and at any point where the action builds to its logical climax it is deflated with humor. The recasting of Shredder and April doesn’t help: Turco and Chou aren’t horrible but they play their parts broadly and that feeling of authenticity is gone.
Director Michael Pressman translates that homogeneity visually with a film that has lost all its visual identity in favor of nice even lighting. Everything is professional, but nothing is special. The late great David Warner adds energy and class to proceedings but TMNT 2 is really a movie for small children, it doesn’t hold up except for extreme nostalgia or rabid Vanilla Ice fans.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993)
Directed by Stuart Gillard
TMNT 3 came at the tail end of the 90’s Turtle boom, and the quick turnaround after the second film can be attributed to Golden Harvest looking to milk the property for maximum profit while it was still viable.
Unfortunately, unlike the second film which had been thrown into turnaround instantly after the first film’s release, this time they would have to pacify the other stakeholders in the project.
Creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were taken aback by just how kid friendly Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze ended up, and got hands on with the third film at the script stage. They were looking for a story that gave the Turtles their edge back and avoided using the Foot clan and Shredder. Unfortunately no one could agree on a basic premise until director Stuart Gillard pitched a time travel plot that would send the Turtles back to Sengoku era Japan.
You can see the skeleton of the initial idea for a darker film in the finished product: the film opens with the Turtles doing playful weapon katas and Elias Koteas triumphantly returns as both Casey Jones and a 17th century ancestor, Whit. The medieval Japanese setting should have given ample opportunity to give the film a unique visual identity and a real sense of danger without jeopardizing the PG rating they were locked into.
Unfortunately this film was an absolute rush job and used Oregon to double for Japan. Elaborate, expensive sets were constructed… and then washed away in Pacific Northwest flooding. The weather delay allowed studio committees to get their hands on the script and once again, sand down anything that might jeopardize a Pizza Hut promotion and the finished product is essentially TMNT 2 with a change of scenery.
Paige Turco returns as April, and she’s just kind of along for the ride. Koteas and Stuart Wilson (who plays the main villain) fare much better, and honestly put in more heart to their performances than the final film deserves.
The first Turtles truly holds up for almost any audience, but the sequels are strictly nostalgia-bait or kid food.
Extras include Audio Commentaries, interviews, featurettes, TMNT2 archival featurette, alternate UK version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, alternate TMNT ending, alternate TMNT3 UK opening, Alternate Korean Footage for TMNT, trailers, and image gallery.
