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

Tagline:

Lean, Green And On The Screen.

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:

Chillin' | Reporter | Electronic Music Score | Anger | Male Female Relationship

Awards:

1 win & 3 nominations

Cast

Judith Hoag	...	April O'Neil
Elias Koteas	...	Casey Jones
Josh Pais	...	Raphael / Man In Cab (voice)
Michelan Sisti	...	Michaelangelo / Pizza Man
Leif Tilden	...	Donatello / Foot Messenger
David Forman	...	Leonardo / Gang Leader
Michael Turney	...	Danny Pennington
Jay Patterson	...	Charles Pennington
Raymond Serra	...	Chief Sterns
James Saito	...	The Shredder / Oroko Saki
Toshirô Obata	...	Tatsu (as Toshishiro Obata)
Sam Rockwell	...	Head Thug
Kitty Fitzgibbon	...	June
Louis Cantarini	...	Cab Driver
Joe D'Onofrio	...	Movie Hoodlum #1 (as Joseph D'Onofrio)

Also Known As:

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

Runtime:

93 min

Country:

USA | Hong Kong

Language:

English | French

Color:

Color (DeLuxe)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 (video rating) | South Korea:All | Singapore:PG | Iceland:10 (original rating) | 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 the Foot clan bring out the axes to fight with in April's apartment, the floor already looks like it's been hacked into before the first ax touches the ground.

Quotes:

Donatello: Good thing these guys aren't lumberjacks.
Michaelangelo: No joke. The only thing safe in the woods would be the trees.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in Robin Hood: Men in Tights (1993)

Soundtrack:

SPIN THAT WHEEL

The best movie ever made on the subject of radio active turtles

I dare anyone to hate this movie. Come on. I triple dog dare you. Sit in front of the TV with a bunch of your friends and just try not to like it. You can't. It's impossible. I was a full fledged turtle fan back in the day (I don't think the fad lasted long enough for us to earn Trekker-type names) and of course at that point, I thought it was the Gone With the Wind of our time. That, obviously, it's not. But there is something just incredibly charming about a bunch of giant turtles acting like typical sit-com kids. One even gets yelled out for sneaking out past curfew to see Critters 2. If it comes on TV, even my dad has to pause to watch at least one fight scene. If someone in a college dorm pops it in, legions of kids will exclaim "Holy sh*t! Is that Ninja Turtles?" and then plop right down in front of the TV to watch. You have to give a lot of credit to the guys who made this film. It was released in the height of the craze so they could have thrown anything on the screen and it would have been a hit. (See Ninja Turtles 2). But instead, they tried to make it the best film they could, despite the subject matter. They came up with an almost relevant, after school special type plot. The jokes and references range from Moonlighting to John Steinbeck, and the fight scenes are done in the spirit of a Jackie Chan flick. Add the fact that there are giant turtles doing the fighting, and you get a funny, imaginative, and just plain likeable movie no matter what your age. Sure, it's about pizza loving ninja turtles. But it is the best movie that could ever be made about pizza loving ninja turtles. That has to count for something.