Truth be told, I should actually have watched "The Secret of The Ooze" for the "How Did This Get Made" podcast but it has been years, decades probably, since I watched the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" film, so I decided to watch that one first. There's something to be said for its practical charm, but it's quite a dated film.
New York City is undergoing a crimewave, the thefts and intimidation being undertaken by young men, fallen under the spell of the Foot Clan, and their dangerous leader "The Shredder" (James Saito). With the police overwhelmed, increasingly the fightback is falling to Vigilantes, such as Casey Jones (Elias Koteas) but the best hope for the city lies with four turtles, mutated to stand on their hind legs, to grow to adult human height and to talk, and then taught the art of ninjitsu. Shredder learns of the existence of the turtles and kidnaps their sensei Splinter (Kevin Clash).
In these first three movies the Turtles are made as life size puppets, with an actor inside, puppeteers controlling the face and the voice sometimes provided by a third actor. There' something to be said for this method as the puppets to still look reasonably good by todays standards, whereas I'm not sure the animation from say "TMNT" will have done quite as well. It's definitely a family film though, not quite as colourful as the animated series, but nowhere near as dark as Eastman and Laird's original work. A lot of the humour of the film is more stilted that I remembered it being and naturally, given both the limitations of puppetry movement and the rating of the film, the fight scenes aren't particularly violent.
The Turtles truly are a sweet spot in my life, I was exactly the right age for them. I had the toys, I watched the cartoon, I think I even had the soundtrack for this film on tape, but having seen it again now, thirty years on I think I can leave this particular one back in the past.
New York City is undergoing a crimewave, the thefts and intimidation being undertaken by young men, fallen under the spell of the Foot Clan, and their dangerous leader "The Shredder" (James Saito). With the police overwhelmed, increasingly the fightback is falling to Vigilantes, such as Casey Jones (Elias Koteas) but the best hope for the city lies with four turtles, mutated to stand on their hind legs, to grow to adult human height and to talk, and then taught the art of ninjitsu. Shredder learns of the existence of the turtles and kidnaps their sensei Splinter (Kevin Clash).
In these first three movies the Turtles are made as life size puppets, with an actor inside, puppeteers controlling the face and the voice sometimes provided by a third actor. There' something to be said for this method as the puppets to still look reasonably good by todays standards, whereas I'm not sure the animation from say "TMNT" will have done quite as well. It's definitely a family film though, not quite as colourful as the animated series, but nowhere near as dark as Eastman and Laird's original work. A lot of the humour of the film is more stilted that I remembered it being and naturally, given both the limitations of puppetry movement and the rating of the film, the fight scenes aren't particularly violent.
The Turtles truly are a sweet spot in my life, I was exactly the right age for them. I had the toys, I watched the cartoon, I think I even had the soundtrack for this film on tape, but having seen it again now, thirty years on I think I can leave this particular one back in the past.