Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Director:

Steve Barron

Writers (WGA):

Kevin Eastman (characters) and
Peter Laird (characters) ...

Release Date:

30 March 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Family | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

Heroes in a half shell!

Plot:

A quartet of humanoid turtles trained by their mentor in ninjitsu must learn to pull together in order to face the menace of Shredder and the Foot Clan.

Plot Keywords:

Turtle | Rat | Ninja | Pizza | Sewer

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Josh Pais	...	Raphael / Man In Cab (voice)
Michelan Sisti	...	Michaelangelo / Pizza Man
Leif Tilden	...	Donatello / Foot Messenger
David Forman	...	Leonardo / Gang Leader
Robbie Rist	...	Michaelangelo (voice)
Corey Feldman	...	Donatello (voice)
Brian Tochi	...	Leonardo (voice)
Judith Hoag	...	April O'Neil
Elias Koteas	...	Casey Jones
Michael Turney	...	Danny Pennington
Kevin Clash	...	Splinter (voice)
James Saito	...	The Shredder / Oroko Saki
Toshirô Obata	...	Tatsu (as Toshishiro Obata)
David McCharen	...	The Shredder / Oroko Saki (voice)
Michael McConnohie	...	Tatsu (voice)

Also Known As:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (USA) (long title)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Original Movie (USA) (DVD box title)

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA | Hong Kong

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:10 (original rating) | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Singapore:PG | South Korea:All | Australia:PG | Finland:K-12 | Germany:12 | Italy:T | Norway:15 | Sweden:15 | UK:PG (cut) | UK:PG (re-rating) (2003) (uncut) | USA:PG | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Canada:G (Nova Scotia/Quebec)

Filming Locations:

Castle Hayne, North Carolina, USA

Company:

888 Productions

Trivia:

In the original trailer, there is a shot of the turtles rising up from what looks like a swamp. The shot was cut from the final release but is part of a longer scene that was later used near the end of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Donatello is skateboarding in the sewers to meet with Michelangelo while Mikey is waiting for the pizza, you can see, for a couple of frames, a human hand (which should be Donny's) move in and then out of the camera viewpoint while he is doing a spin.

Quotes:

Chief Sterns: We are presently executing a plan of redeployment that will minimize response time while maximizing coordination between patrol units and a decentralized networking scheme.
April: I'm not sure I understood all of that, Chief Sterns. Would you mind repeating it, in English, perhaps?

Movie Connections:

References Rocky (1976)

Soundtrack:

9.95

This makes it clear...darker is better

On your first read of the title, you may think "Ah...the Ninja Turtles...kid's stuff". That conclusion is partially understandable, considering the fact that most people's minds drift towards the Saturday morning cartoon show, which was made for little kids. But if you are one of the handful of people who remembers the original TMNT comic book and how dark it was, you will probably think more of the name. This live-action version of the Teenaged Turtles reaches back into its comic book origins and sacrifices the kiddie stuff in favor of a darker, more brooding film. This is the key to this movie's greatness. It shows the Turtles how they were meant to be shown. The movie is still fun, though, supplying the viewer with all the early 90's teenager slang and ass-kicking that you can squeeze onto celuloid. The only problem is that the whole Ninja Turtles franchise has come with a love it or hate it tag attached to it, often times giving it a bad rap that it really doesn't deserve. The film is no Blade Runner or Spiderman by any means, but it's still a great little piece of cinema that you can just sit down with a bowl of popcorn (or maybe a pizza) and enjoy without much thought. Sadly, this is as good as the series gets (not that this movie could get much better). The sequels (TMNT 2: Secret of the Ooze and TMNT 3) aren't really that great. TMNT 2 lacks the gritty edge that makes this movie good (having Vanilla Ice on the soundtrack doesn't help much either) and TMNT 3 is obviously aimed directly for the little ones. This is the great little movie. COWABUNGA!!!