Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990): A Retrospective
From their gritty and somewhat satirical comic book origins, to the their ever-evolving portrayal in animation and film, few icons of American fiction have stood the test of time quite like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Since these four mutant turtles and their rat surrogate father/sensei hit the scene in 1984, they’ve consistently found new and fresh ways to appeal to generation after generation. That’s one of the enduring appeals of the Turtles: just how many renditions of them there have been. These different eras of Turtles either endure for years on their own or follow in rapid succession of one another. For my brother, who is 11 years my senior, the Turtles were introduced to him with the Saturday morning cartoon series of the late 80s. The cartoons were basically glorified toy commercials, yet they made household names of Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo all the same. The craze for this cartoon cannot be overstated, so it was only a matter of time before the Turtles would get their very own live-action movie in 1990. Why talk about this all now? Well, this week marks the 30th anniversary of that movie hitting theaters.
As soon as I realized this landmark, I had to give the film a rewatch, and fast. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie, despite being a solid five years my senior, was a movie I’d watch over and over until our VHS player practically exploded. Much of the movie is branded onto my brain at this point, and how couldn’t it be? It was my first proper exposure (that I remember) to the Ninja Turtles.
But how’s the movie looking, at three decades now? With the movie fresh in my mind, and a couple pieces of pizza digesting, let’s dive in, dudes!
The movie, for those unfamiliar, is a fairly basic and clean-cut adaption of TMNT lore. Splinter, a mutated rat versed in the art of Ninjutsu, raises and mentors four mutated turtle brothers in the sewers beneath New York City, all while clashing with the dastardly clan of ninjas known as The Foot. The mutants have a friendly liaison with the human world in spunky news reporter April O’Neil (Judith Hoag). On the flipside of the human world is the Turtles' chief advisory: a shadow from Splinter’s past and leader of the Foot Clan, Oroko Saki is a gigantic Japanese man covered in sharp things and nicknamed, quite bluntly, “The Shredder”.
The film dedicates itself to fleshing out all these classic characters in a way that feels just that, classic. The way this movie portrays the characters of TMNT isn’t exactly reinventing the wheel, and it shouldn’t have to. This movie came to us at the peak of Turtle-Mania, and keeping it classic to what the public wanted from them just works.
For fans of Turtles media that had come before, this movie provides so much to enjoy and more. While strongly inspired by the popular cartoon it preceded, the movie diverts from the cartoon in some welcome cinematic ways. Unlike the cartoon, the movie can get surprisingly dark, both literally and tonally. Around 80% of the movie takes place in either some dark tunnel or the dark of night. These lighting choices benefit the movie by throwing a layer of mystery and grit over the Big Apple, something the cartoon wouldn’t get caught dead doing. Likewise, the tone delves into the dark side here and there too, which is also welcome. For example, the Turtles actually use their weapons from time to time. They swear occasionally. The movie even throws out some adult jokes. And that Shredder guy? Yeah. He flat out kills a woman in a flashback. Sure, you don’t see the katana deliver the blow, but you see the aftermath of it all. Then he gets face messed up by a pre-mutant Splinter. May not sound like much to a hardened adult, but when you’re 6 years old and watching this for the first time, it’s pretty hardcore.
The movie is far from just doom and gloom though—quite the opposite. In fact, the goofiness in this movie outweighs its darker, more atmospheric aspects. The Turtles themselves are the same pizza-chomping, skateboarding, quasi-valley dudes we all know and love, so that throws at least a few pop culture references per-scene at you. The camaraderie the brothers have with their father and other companions is also pitch perfect wholesomeness, working just as well during action scenes as during laid-back pizza feasts. Most hilariously though, the movie is GUSHING with early 90s cheese. The Foot Clan brainwashing a bunch of disenfranchised youth who hang out in a debauched arcade/skate park, to a soundtrack that you could easily imagine bursting from a retro boombox, and that’s just naming some choice cuts of the shlock.
By the end of this most recent viewing of the movie, I came to what felt like a fundamental truth… it’s kind of impossible to hate the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, isn’t it? These four brothers, despite having such a long title to describe them, have an incredibly basic appeal, and that appeal is a celebration of youthful things, no matter your age. Pizza, hanging out with friends, ancient Asian disciplines of combat and assassination, skateboarding. All these things are key to what makes Ninja Turtles work so well, and their first film does not disappoint in delivering what you want from the Turtles.
This is a movie practically anybody can sit down and enjoy. Whether you love the Ninja Turtles for the world they inhabit, or if you just want some fun 90s shlock to distract you from the current state of things, a first watch or a rewatch is well-deserved. While Saturday morning cartoons and even 90s grunge have come and gone, that doesn’t mean you can’t dust off the old VHS (or Netflix password) and take a trip back for a bit. And that? That’s Turtle Power.