The film adapts the early Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, with several elements taken from the animated series airing at the time. The turtle costumes were developed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, one of Jim Henson's last projects before his death shortly after the premiere. Filming took place in 1989 in North Carolina and New York City.
In New York City, television reporter April O'Neil reports on a silent crime wave enveloping the city. That night, April is attacked by a group of thieves, and is saved by an unseen group of vigilantes. April's rescuers, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles—Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael—return to their hidden lair in the sewer, where their master and adoptive father, a rat named Splinter, advises them to continue practicing the art of ninjutsu. Raph visits the surface and ends up in a fight with the brutal vigilante Casey Jones, who escapes. An enraged Raph returns home, where he is counseled by Splinter.
April's supervisor, Charles Pennington, visits April's apartment with his delinquent son, Danny. April later investigates the crime wave, correctly theorizing it to be the work of the ninja Foot Clan, and raising the ire of Police Chief Sterns who does not believe her theory. The Shredder, the leader of the Foot, orders her to be silenced. While Danny is arrested, the Foot clansmen attack April in the subway. Raph defeats them and carries the unconscious April back to the turtles' lair, unaware that a Foot soldier is following him. Once April awakens, Splinter introduces himself and the turtles, explaining that they were once normal animals, before being mutated into intelligent, anthropomorphic creatures by a mysterious chemical and trained by Splinter in ninjutsu. After the turtles escort April home, they find their lair ransacked and Splinter kidnapped. They return to April's apartment and spend the night there.
Sterns looks at Danny's mugshot and calls Charles to make a deal. Charles and Danny visit April's apartment. As Charles tries to convince April to drop the investigation, Danny glimpses the turtles hiding and later runs away following an argument with his father. At the Foot's hideout, Shredder informs his followers of the turtles' threat, and Danny reports his findings.
Raph argues with Leo over his leadership and retreats to the roof, where the Foot arrive and lay siege, beating Raph unconscious. The apartment catches fire, and the turtles and April escape with help from Casey; before Casey leaves, he overhears a phone message left by Charles saying that April is released from her job. Guilt-stricken, Danny seeks counsel from the imprisoned Splinter, and runs away from the Foot Clan. The turtles retreat to an abandoned farm belonging to April's family, and Casey informs April that she was fired. Time passes, and Raph recovers while April and Casey begin to bond. As the turtles train vigorously, Leo receives a vision of Splinter and assembles the other turtles to contact him through astral projection. Splinter delivers his final lesson, inspiring the turtles to return to the city.
The turtles find Danny hiding in their lair. While the turtles are sleeping, Danny returns to the Foot’s hideout and meets with Splinter, followed by Casey. Splinter tells Danny the story of how, when he was still an ordinary rat, he learned ninjutsu from his former master, the ninja Hamato Yoshi. Fellow ninja Oroku Saki rivalled with Yoshi over the love of a woman, Tang Shen, who fled with Yoshi to New York to avoid conflict with Saki. However, a vengeful Saki pursued and killed them. Splinter managed to scar Saki's face before getting his ear sliced by Saki's katana. Danny asks Splinter what happened to Saki, and Splinter implies that Danny has been working for him. Shredder discovers Danny and realizes that the turtles have returned, ordering Splinter to be killed. Casey and Danny free Splinter and defeat Shredder's lieutenant Tatsu, before convincing the remaining Foot members of Shredder's manipulations.
The turtles repel the Foot from their lair and onto the streets. Shredder confronts the turtles on a rooftop. After a fierce battle, Shredder overpowers the Turtles and claims that Splinter is dead, causing an infuriated Leo to attack him. He is disarmed, and is about to be killed when Splinter appears. He identifies Shredder as Oroku Saki, who in turn recognizes Splinter as Yoshi's pet rat. Shredder charges Splinter with a spear, only for Splinter to snare the spear with Mikey's nunchaku. Dangling over the roof's edge, Shredder makes a final attempt to kill Splinter with a thrown tanto, which Splinter catches as he lets go of the nunchaku, dropping Shredder into a garbage truck. Casey activates the truck's compactor, which crushes Shredder. The police arrive to arrest the Foot soldiers, while one of the teens confesses where to recover stolen goods from their hideout. The Channel 3 news crew arrives to cover the story, while Danny is reunited with Charles. Charles also gives April her job back, with benefits. April and Casey share a kiss while the turtles celebrate their victory with Splinter.
Toshishiro Obata as Master Tatsu, Shredder's second-in-command
Sam Rockwell as Head Thug, an unmasked gang member
Skeet Ulrich and Scott Wolf appear as unnamed members of the Foot Clan, in uncredited roles. TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman has a small cameo as a garbage man. According to him, he was supposed to have an extended spot, but it ended up being a background cameo instead.[8] Peter Laird said in the 2014 Turtle Power documentary that he politely declined the offer as he was not comfortable with cameos in general.
Voice cast
Brian Tochi as Leonardo, the leader and most mature of the Turtles and the closest to Splinter
All four actors who played the in-suit turtles also appeared in cameos, with David Forman (Leonardo) as a gang member, Michelan Sisti (Michaelangelo) as a pizza delivery man, Leif Tilden (Donatello) as a messenger of The Foot and Josh Pais (Raphael) as a passenger in a taxi. Pais was the only actor to portray a Turtle on screen and also provide his voice.
Production
Jim Henson on set with the suit actors. The film was released less than two months before Henson's death.
The script is based mainly on the early Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, including the stories of the turtles' origins, rooftop battle, sojourn to the farmhouse, and battle with Shredder. Elements were taken from the 1980s animated series, such as the Turtles' colored bandanas and love of pizza, elements of Michelangelo's character, and April O'Neil as a television reporter instead of a lab assistant.[9]
The film's budget was $13.5 million.[1][3] Much of the production took place in North Carolina, with a couple of location shoots in New York City during the summer of 1989 to capture famous landmark areas, such as the World Trade Center, Times Square, the Empire State Building, and the Hudson River.[7] Filming in North Carolina took place at the North Carolina Film Studios, where New York rooftop sets were created. Production designer Roy Forge Smith and his art director, Gary Wissner, went to New York City four months prior to filming and took still photographs of rooftops and other various locations. While in NYC, Smith and Wissner were allowed to explore an abandoned Brooklyn subway line, as they could not gain access to a city sewer, but the structure of the subway had the same principle as a sewer. They also went to a water tunnel which had large pipes running through it.[10]
After design sketches were created, the construction team used the studios' backlot to create some of the sets. There were problems with the manholes that led to the turtles' home, in that an eight-foot square room had to be constructed beneath them, but found water at about five-feet, and thus had to pour concrete into the underground rooms to keep the water out. In order to make the sewer authentic, a tide-mark was given, and it was covered with brick, plaster and stucco paint to give the walls a realistic look.[citation needed]
The turtle costumes were created by Jim Henson's Creature Shop in London.[7]Jim Henson said that the creatures were the most advanced that he had ever worked with. The creatures were first made out of fiberglass, and then remolded out of clay.[11] They were produced as molds to cast the whole body in foam rubber latex. The work at the Creature Shop was completed within 18 weeks.[10]
The costumes used state-of-the-art animatronics to make the face masks expressive. The masks included a set of internal animatronic mouths, eyes and eyebrows which were managed by a technician with the help of a computer. The computer could codify set of expressions, such as anger or awe, which were later programmed into the keys of a joystick handed by the technician. Capture of movement was also used for the lips. The technician could wear a special helmet with cameras recording the lips when pronouncing a phrase, and transferring to the mechanical lips embedded in the masks.[12]
According to Brian Henson, the film was finished in post-production largely without Barron. Editor Sally Menke, who later edited many films by Quentin Tarantino, was removed as production company Golden Harvest did not like her work.[13]
Live Entertainment Inc. announced that the film would go to VHS via its Family Home Entertainment label on October 4, 1990. The suggested price was $24.99 per cassette. Pizza Hut engaged in a $20 million marketing campaign tied into the film (despite the fact that Domino's Pizza was used as product placement in the film itself). Items included advertising in print, radio and television, and several rebate coupons.[14]
Alternate versions
The UK version removed Eastern fighting weapons like the nunchaku, using alternate shots of Michaelangelo in order to conceal his nunchaku weapon, or omitting the show-off duel between Michaelangelo and a member of the Foot clan. Also, the scene of Shredder in the garbage shred was heavily edited and the Turtle Power song was edited to change the word 'ninja' to 'hero' as per the UK television series. The unedited version was released on DVD in 2004 in the UK.[15]
The German theatrical voice-dubbed version is identical to the UK version, i.e. it omits the usage of the nunchaku. Furthermore, the German dubbing audio track contains several "cartoon-like" sounds in order to soften the violence of the fight scenes. Although the German dub of the film was released with unedited pictures on DVD, the German dub audio version with the cartoonish sounds were still kept, because they were permanently merged into the German voice-dubbing audio.
Home media
On October 4, 1990, the film was released to VHS[16] and reached No. 4 in the home video market.[17] The film was released to DVD in Region 1 on September 3, 2002; it includes only minor special features, such as a trailer and interactive menus. The film was also released in the MiniDVD format.
On August 11, 2009, the film was included in a special 25th anniversary box set (commemorating the original comic book), released to both DVD and Blu-ray formats. It also contained Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, and the animated release, TMNT (2007). No additional features, other than theatrical trailers, were included. In Germany, a "Special Edition" was released on March 12, 2010, with additional features, including an audio commentary by director Steve Barron, an alternate ending, and alternate takes from the original German release, where Michelangelo's nunchaku had been edited out.[18] Warner Home Video released the film along with Secret of the Ooze and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III as part of a "Triple Feature" on Blu-ray in June 2012, minus the fourth film TMNT. Warner Home Video released the film separately on Blu-ray on December 18. In the UK, Medium Rare released the film along with its sequels in a 3 DVD set on 28 October 2013.[19] Bonus features included a 30-minute documentary entitled “Making of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and trailers. The film was added to Paramount+ on September 19, 2023.
Reception
Box office
The film opened in the United States on March 30, 1990, and was number one at the box office over the weekend, grossing more than $25 million, the biggest opening weekend an independent film had ever had up to that time.[20][21] It went on to gross $32 million in its opening week, making it the second biggest US opening ever up until then (after 1989's Batman).[22]
The film turned out to be a huge success at the box office, eventually making over $135 million in North America, and over $66 million outside North America, for a worldwide total of over $200 million, making it the ninth highest-grossing film of 1990 worldwide.[3] The film was also nominated for awards by The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films.[23]
Critical response
On the film's initial release, Roger Ebert gave 2.5 out of 4 stars and concluded it to be "nowhere near as bad as it might have been, and probably is the best possible Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie. It supplies, in other words, more or less what Turtle fans will expect". Ebert singled out the production design, which he described as a "low-rent version of Batman or Metropolis."[24]Variety praised the film's tongue-in-cheek humor and "amusingly outlandish" martial arts sequences, but thought it was "visually rough around the edges" and "sometimes sluggish in its plotting".[25]Janet Maslin of The New York Times criticized the cinematography, stating that it was so "poorly photographed that the red-masked turtle looks almost exactly like the orange-masked one".[26]Kim Newman wrote in the Monthly Film Bulletin that he found the characters reminiscent of the early 1970s Godzilla film series, describing the turtles as "loveable monsters in baggy foam rubber suits" who "befriended lost children and smashed things up in orgies of destruction that somehow never hurt anyone" and "drop the occasional teenage buzzword but are never remotely convincing as teenagers, mutants, ninjas or turtles".[27]
Variety, the New York Times, and the Monthly Film Bulletin all noted the Asian villains of the film; Variety described "overtones of racism in its use of Oriental villains", while Maslin stated "the story's villainous types are Asian, and the film plays the yellow-peril aspects of this to the hilt".[27][26][25] Newman noted a racist joke in April O'Neil's response to the Foot Clan, "What's the matter, did I fall behind on my Sony payments?", finding that the film expressed a "resentment of Japan's economic strength even while the film is plundering Japan's popular culture".[27] Ebert felt there was "no racism" in the film.[24]
Lloyd Bradley of Empire gave the film four out of five stars, stating: "A well-rounded, unpretentious, very funny, knockabout adventure – subtly blended so that it's fun for all the family".[28]Owen Gleiberman, writing for Entertainment Weekly, gave an F rating, finding that none of the four turtles or Splinter had any personality, but felt that a young audience might enjoy the film, noting he might have "gone for it too had I been raised on Nintendo games and the robotic animation that passes for entertainment on today's Saturday-morning TV".[29]
Entertainment Weekly and The New York Times praised the work of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, with Maslin stating "without which there would have been no film at all".[29][26]
As of 2023, the film has an approval rating of 42% on Rotten Tomatoes based on reviews from 55 critics and an average rating of 5.10/10. The website's consensus states, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is exactly as advertised: one-liners, brawls, and general silliness. Good for the young at heart, irritating for everyone else".[30] On Metacritic, it has a score of 51 based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[31]
After a 14-year absence from theaters, a standalone sequel, TMNT, was released in 2007, though unlike the previous films, this was a CGI-animated film.
Notes
^Also known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie[5] and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Original Movie.[6]
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