It's hard for me to fathom how many times I watched this when I was little. The Coming Out of Their Shells Tour (which now sounds unfortunately gay just in name, not that there's anything wrong with that) was in NYC in September of 1990, and I saw it live and then watched a taped PPV version for quite a time afterwords. As a die-hard Ninja Turtles fan it was just great to see them all on stage live, singing songs and fighting the Shredder and saving the world for all music's sake. Seeing it today again for the first time in over a decade, I'm surprised at how...dated it is, I suppose. It's like a mix of Paula Abdul and MC Hammer songs, with a touch of an extra power ballad or surfing song and even one that comes close to sounding like Jack and Diane, done to different lyrics with pizza among other things. The dancing is choreographed in modes ranging from not bad (the foot soldiers are actually some of the better ones) to being actually kind of bad (the turtles dance, now that's a little gay, isn't it?)
It was good in a nostalgic sense to see this all played out again, in all its ultra-cheesy glory and farcical tone, but seeing it from a more critical eye it's a bit shocking to see how stupider and more poorly made it was when looking back as a kid. Being so into the Ninja Turtles (most of the toys, video games, movies and episodes from the TV show on tape, lunch-boxes, etc), and just being young in general, it was maybe being less discriminating and having less of a critical eye for stuff like this that led me to watch it to the point where the tape wore out. But what am I to make today of enough tilted camera angles to make Fay Grim look straightforward? How about pyrotechnics that seem to have come out of a second hand store? Maybe the best character of all- in an awesomely stupid sense- is the Shredder, who's song I Hate Music is the closest to true camp, and who even talks with the audience like it's a night at the improv! It's altogether strange, eerie, delirious, stupid, and something I will probably leave to watch again in another 15 years or so.
That being said, as a fan, if you've never seen it, continuity and all, it's worth seeing. Once. And maybe never again. Unless on a double bill with the Star Wars Holiday Special.
