Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 is beloved. Fans of the iconic half-shelled heroes swoon for it. Yet the film has struggled for outsiders’ support.
With the popularity of the TMNT animated TV show, comics, and merchandising ($1.1 billion of toys sold between 1988 and ‘92), you’d think film studios were locked in a guns blazin’ biddin’ war to get the movie rights.
But the failure of Cannon Films’s He-Man movie, Masters of the Universe, scared away distributors like Walt Disney, Columbia, 20th Century Fox, Universal, and seemingly every player in that era.
It’s another essay, but I’m pretty sure Masters of the Universe’s failure had something to do with the wildcard decisions of Cannon films (makers of movies like Over the Top or Death Wish 3), not the viability of kids’ shows as film adaptations.
Anyhow, halfway through production, New Line Cinema (then mostly known as the Freddie Krueger company) came on board.
And when the film cha-chinged its way to over $200 million at the box office in 1990s dollars against its $13.5 million budget, those film execs who passed must have felt that humbling.
But the hurdles for Turtles didn’t end there.
Critical appreciation for this movie is STILL in the basement. Take its current 43% Rotten Tomatoes critics’ score against its 81% audience score.
I want to do my part to right this critical wrongdoing.
So is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 a good movie?
The Plot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990:
New York City is in the midst of an unprecedented crime wave.
News reporter April O’Neil (Judith Hoag) links the thefts to a Japanese ninja clan. Her rewards are irritating Police Chief Sterns (Raymond Serra) and getting attacked by the gang.
Coming to her rescue? Four teenage mutant ninja turtles – Leonardo (Brian Tochi), Rafael (Josh Pais), Donatello (Corey Feldman), and Michaelangelo – (Robbie Rist) and their mutated rat master, Splinter (Kevin Clash). Also chipping in is Casey Jones (Elias Koteas), a friendly vigilante.
As the new friends battle the Foot Clan, they tangle with the gang’s leader, the mysterious Shredder (James Saito).
Meanwhile, young Danny Pennington (Michael Turney), the son of April’s boss, Charles (Jay Patterson), is caught in a crisis of conscience between joining Shredder’s Foot Clan or helping team turtles.
Fun Fact: I never realized the Head Thug of the Foot Clan, the guy who cynically gives out cigarettes and tells newbies to do whatever the hell they want, is played by the venerable Sam Rockwell.
The Rest of the Main Cast Includes:
- Toshishiro Obata as Master Tatsu, Shredder’s second-in-command
- David McCharen as voice of Oroku Saki / The Shredder
- Michael McConnohie as voice of Master Tatsu
- Kevin Clash as Splinter (puppeteer)
- Rickey Boyd as Splinter (facial assistant)
- Robert Tygner as Splinter (assistant puppeteer)
- David Forman as Leonardo (in-suit performer)
- Martin P. Robinson as Leonardo (facial assistant)
- Leif Tilden as Donatello (in-suit performer)
- David Rudman as Donatello (facial assistant)
- Ernie Reyes Jr. as Donatello (in-suit martial arts stunt double)
- Reggie Barnes as Donatello (in-suit skateboarding double)
- Josh Pais as Raphael (in-suit performer)
- David Greenaway as Raphael (facial assistant)
- Kenn Troum as Raphael (in-suit martial arts stunt double)
- Michelan Sisti as Michaelangelo (in-suit performer)
- Mak Wilson as Michelangelo (facial assistant)
(Note: the final film has improved voice acting over the trailer)
- Mak Wilson as Michelangelo (facial assistant)
What’s Working Well Here:
A Little Portrait of Crime in New York, +1 Point
The film begins with a crisp, cinematic expositional sequence.
We open on the hustle and bustle of New York streets as April O’Neil, in voiceover, reports on the recent crime wave.
And with that brooding, page-turning sound of “Shredder’s Suite” (at ~1:27), we watch the trail of a pickpocketed wallet passed through a ring of mysterious hands. A truck of goods is liquidated in seconds, and a television is lifted practically right in front of a citizen’s eyes.
When I watched this in theaters as a child, I was blown away by the quickness of the cuts and the sleekness of the Foot Clan’s crime operation.
Seeing it back now, I still am.
Grainy Tone that Borrows this, Invents that, +2 Points
Despite the popularity of the campy children’s show and the PG rating, the film’s tone is closer to the original gritty comics (though they eased up on the violence).
The sewers are dark, Shredder’s hideout is rundown, and the nighttime streets of New York City look like Tim Burton’s Gotham City (Batman ’89).
When we visit Shredder’s hangout, there are young kids up to some serious no-good behavior parents must have gawked at, including smoking and drinking lots of Cola (though you wonder why Shredder wouldn’t have his ninjas’ diets locked down for performance).
And Rafael even drops “Damn” a few times.
Still, there’s a blend here. Silly bits from the TV show, like the love of pizza and phrases like “tubular,” are alive and well. And the turtles’ colored headbands made it in (though that feels a practical choice to tell them apart).
The tone is an excellent marriage for fans on the comics or TV show sides of the aisle.
Far From Simple Muppets, +8 Points
Forget the script, tonal decisions, and casting. If the turtles came out looking like garbage, the kids and comic book nerds would have slain the movie dead at the sight of its trailer.
Luckily, the turtles are old-fashioned magic. With their physical depth, full range of motion, and details like spots and wrinkles, they’re still bang-on 30+ years later.
Even in close-ups or during a fight scene, they keep the illusion.
The Turtle effects were a triangle team:
- There was a performer inside the turtle body made from foam rubber latex.
- A technician and computer using Animatronix would operate the facial expressions.
- A voice actor would record the lines.
At the time, Jim Henson called the molds and Animatronix the most state-of-the-art products he’d worked with. The tech was so advanced that the computer could transfer a recording of human lip movements when pronouncing words and emulate those movements in the lips of the Animatronic turtle mask. Not bad for ~1990.
It’s not all flawless, though. There is this gaffe where you can see the human performer’s mouth inside a laughing Donatello. There is not enough mind soap to wash that one away.
And there was suffering for this art. The performers lost pounds each day playing the turtles due to the extreme heat inside the suits. And one version of the suit weighed 70 pounds.
You won’t find TMNT 1990 listed along with creature effects masterclasses like Predator or Terminator, but they deserve their praise.
Full Characters and Story, +4 points
The film is well-paced and balanced, with two large action scenes and several skirmishes.
And the writing is sharp and professional, giving characters dynamics and little setups and payoffs.
Take young Danny, a teen who clashes with his father and seeks refuge in the Foot Clan.
Danny is this little bee who connects all the characters. You wonder if the writers Todd W. Langen and Bobby Herbeck created him out of plot necessity.
A continuity plug, Danny leads The Shredder to the turtles for the initial confrontation. He leads the Turtles/Casey Jones to the Shredder for the end confrontation.
As a minor character who glues the plot together, Danny could have been a throwaway or just annoying.
Instead, he’s rounded. All movie long, he’s a confused, angsty teen, waffling on what to do.
At film’s end, he returns April the money he stole from her, completing his decision to give up on ninja thug life.
And the film has winning camaraderie among the characters.
Donatello and Michaelangelo gravitate toward one another’s playful spirit. Leo and Raph bicker because they’re the serious crew.
As a kid, I didn’t like Raph. He was by far my least favorite because he’s a sour drag.
But as an adult, you recognize he’s the most compelling ninja turtle. And he’s the only one who gets a side quest, leaving the sewer in a huff and bumping into Casey.
The later portion of Act II, when the heroes regroup at April’s farm, was the dragging part of the movie when I was a kid and probably led to the fast-forward button on my VCR remote.
But the sequence efficiently fills everything out before Act III. Raph heals. The turtles conquer the ninja spirit of the mind, and they commit to rescuing Splinter. Their return to New York City is dramatic and full of anticipation for the final act.
Call it a kids’ flick, but it’s all stuff adult movies would do. And back in 1990, that was novel.
Fight Scenes, +2 Points
The action sequences are damn good for overheating stunt performers in costumes.
And like the tone, they combine harrowing adult danger with childlike silliness.
There’s the fire in April’s apartment, upping the stakes to a desperate escape (the desperate portion of that “Shredder’s Suite” ripping through, ~2:37). And there’s Shredder’s real threat to kill Leonardo in the end conflict when he’s got the tortoise under spear.
Yet Donatello is delighted rather than alarmed when Foot soldiers dunk his head in a fish tank. Instead of drowning, he rises and spits water at them. And Michaelangelo sets aside his nunchucks to dispatch foes with cymbals, tip-toeing around the battlefield making a joke.
It’s a mix of actual martial arts and unrealistic turtle tactics that fit.
Voice Acting, +1 Point
Corey Feldman’s Donatello is the forever bar other Donatello’s will be forced to bow to. Something about his voice and the wiggling of that puppet’s mouth is a total universe syncing.
The rest of the cast also has a pitch that fits their personalities. Josh Pais nails Raph’s sass. Brian Tochi hits Leo’s leader tones. And Robbie Rist bursts with Mikey’s charm.
What’s Not Working So Well Here:
Finishing Moves, -1 Point
**spoiler alerts here**
The end fight with Shredder lives up to the billing. As a child in the theater, I felt the ante totally upped when Shredded plopped down from nowhere onto the roof, badass spear in hand. The tension in, once again, that “Shredder’s Suite,” as he very well could kill my heroes, kept me in peril.
The only problem is the anticlimax. Splinter gets the better of Shredder in essentially one move. It struck me funny as a child and still bothers.
But it’s tough to ping that as a negative. I doubt the crew could do much combat with that Splinter puppet.
But the way Casey Jones defeats Shredder’s main crony, Master Tatsu, is also weak. Casey gets his ass handed to him until he lands on a golf club to KO Tatsu with. It’s true to Casey’s character, but I wish for something more clever.
Vigilante Depth, -1 Point
Casey Jones is well-played by Elias Koteras, but the character could use more dev.
You feel one or two of his scenes were cut from the film, possibly at the farm.
The movie shows just a minute or two of him and April together to set up the Taming-of-the-Shrew-style romance that is brewing for later. He briefly mentions his hockey career.
But I’m curious to know why exactly someone decides to go vigilante all over the city, and I don’t think we get it.
Go Watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990
Total Arbitrary Points Score: 16 Points
As a kid, I saw this movie in theaters and dressed like the main characters for Halloween. The nostalgia deck is stacked for me to like this one.
Still, as an adult, there are so many creative things about this film that you can appreciate that you couldn’t in your youth. So I think the praise is merited.
Art is a matter of both opinion and execution. You can dislike something well-made while still acknowledging its craft.
For that reason, critics are wrong about TMNT 1990. You don’t have to be a turtlehead. You don’t have to like it. But I’ll defend the creativity of this film and its whopping technical achievement of puppetry any day.
And with a solid script, fun voice acting, clever fight scenes, and that dark, gritty tone, it’s an excellent entry into the TMNT universe. It banked its box-office dollars; now, let’s give it its due.
Enjoyed this Post?
Thank you so much. If you’d like to get a ping when I have a new article, you can join my newsletter below.
Disclaimer:
This review’s factual information was gathered through online sources, like Wikipedia, IMDB, or interviews. Misrepresentations and errors are possible but unintentional.
Making art is hard. This is a fan’s blog. Any criticisms are meant to be constructive.
