For anyone not aware, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise was a bit of a big deal during the late 80s and early 90s. A widespread merchandise spawning craze that was almost as massive as Pokemania (the one that dominated my childhood). The first of the TMNT live-action films was released during the height of the hype, adapting the storyline from the comic books and taking some of the fun elements of the cartoon series. Like many first superhero movies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles centres on the rise of the crime-fighting creatures, explaining their origin and establishing their main villain, Shredder, along the way.
One of the greatest achievements of the franchise (well the first two films anyway, I’ll cover this later) is the fantastic animatronic work performed by Jim Henson productions (the creators of The Muppets). The turtles’ faces are incredibly expressive and it is the only way the characters could have been realistically created at the time. Splinter, the giant rat sansei of the group, in particular looks amazing and was apparently the most elaborately created puppet at the time. If you can see past the fact they are guys in suits it is quite a good effect and allows you to just enjoy the story.
The dialogue of the the film could use some serious work. There is little here to amuse adult audiences with its slapstick humour and child friendly jokes. The film is also a bit lacking in terms of plot. The bad guy shows up, they fight a bit but the turtles lose, they regroup and beat Shredder. The film does attempt some subplots but they aren’t exactly interesting. The son who has become a criminal disappointing his father being the most snore-worthy. The romance storyline between the turtles’ human friends, reporter April and vigilante Casey, doesn’t feel particularly genuine, with their kiss at the end seeming the least realistic of all. The fight scenes are quite fun, even if the final showdown is a bit too quick. But by looking past these elements and enjoying the fun the first film can at least be an interesting way to kill an afternoon.
The sequel, Secret of the Ooze, is a little harder to enjoy as it has a tendency to be even sillier than the original. The first film at least had some elements of darkness but Ooze is more ridiculous and frankly a bit hard to watch. Shredder returns to New York, having somehow survived being crushed in a garbage truck and uses the same radioactive material that made the turtles to create two super-strong monsters that he controls. The monsters are in no way threatening, in fact being totally laughable, making it hard to get the teams fear of them.
The subplot about the turtles discovering their true origins also doesn’t really go anywhere. We saw how they were created in the first film and no new information is actually given. A new character is introduced with some hints of him joining the gang, but he ends up with nothing to do. The film hits a real low-point when, during a fight scene in a night club, a new dance move is created along with the turtle rap. It’s a total palm to face moment that I can’t believe was deemed to be a good idea.
The final film in the set, Turtles in Time, is the worst of the lot, revolving around a hokey time-travel device that throws the gang into the middle of a war in feudal Japan. Including cliché villains like a malicious British smuggler and an angry Emperor, along with some sort of boring story about preventing a war that only seems to affect two small towns, the movie does little to really draw focus. Turtles in Time also suffers from a loss of the Jim Henson team, meaning that this time around the shell-heads are about as expressive as well, shells. Casey returns from the first film but does nothing but babysit the samurai warriors who are dragged forward in time in exchange for the turtles going back. Splinter is also still there, although his role amounts to giving lectures to a Japanese prince. The turtles adventures feel rather pointless as well, as they engage in battles to stop a war which will prevented upon the return of the prince anyway.
The only bonus feature of note across the whole set is Behind the Shells: The Making of Teenage of Mutant Ninja Turtles. While not a new feature, it seems to have been made just before the second film was released. It is a wide-spanning 30 minute feature that explores the mania, the franchises comic book origins, the animatronic effects and a great deal on what there is to look forward to in the second movie. To be honest it probably covers the second film in too much detail and if you haven’t seen Ooze you should maybe watch it before watching the feature. It might of been nice if they had made new features covering each of these aspects in more detail but at least there is something.
Overall Verdict: As a whole the trilogy is a bit of a letdown to the franchise, a silly and at times dull set of films that doesn’t do much with the concept. The first film is at least interesting but with each sequel the stories get worse and the level of interest drops. Should probably be avoided unless you are the biggest TMNT fan ever.
Special Features:
Behind the Shells: The Making of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Promotional trailers
Stills gallery
Reviewer: Matt Mallinson