Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

1990 "Hey dude, this is NO cartoon."
6.8| 1h33m| PG| en| More Info
Released: 30 March 1990 Released
Producted By: New Line Cinema
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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A quartet of humanoid turtles, trained by their mentor in ninjitsu, must learn to work together to face the menace of Shredder and the Foot Clan.

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Director

Steve Barron

Production Companies

New Line Cinema

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Audience Reviews

Mjeteconer Just perfect...
Baseshment I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.
Zandra The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.
The Grand Master My younger brother and I were big fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon when it was on TV and watched it religiously. The both of us also owned all 4 of the turtle figures. However we weren't sure what the movie was going to be like given the dark content matter when it was first released in 1990. When I was able to hire the movie out on video as an 8 year old back in 1992 I absolutely loved it and for the 7 days that I had the movie my brother and I watched the movie countless times. Although we didn't buy the movie, whenever the movie was screened on TV we always watched it. I hadn't seen the movie in over 20 years, thinking that the movie would be disappointing and simply one of those movies that I liked as a child but not as an adult. Upon buying the movie on Blu-Ray and finally watching it, it's all coming back to me as to why this was one of my favourite movies as a child and as a 33 year old, I had a great time revisiting old childhood memories.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wastes no time getting started as New York City is being plagued by a crime wave where mysterious thefts are taking place and the perpetrators have not been seen. Covering the story is Channel 3 reporter April O'Neil (Judith Hoag) who has uncovered that the mysterious Foot Clan is behind the crime wave. Chief Sterns (Raymond Serra) is increasingly frustrated as to why the NYPD have not been able to stop the crime wave. Unbeknownst to the citizens of New York City, four mutated vigilante turtles trained in the art of ninjuitsu are stepping up to battle the crime wave. The four turtles are affectionately named Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Rachel. Master Splinter acts as a father figure to the turtles as well as guiding them in the ways of the ninja. The turtles find themselves heading towards a collision course toward the mastermind behind the crime wave Master Shredder (James Saito) and his right hand man Tatsu (Toshishiro Obata). Aiding the turtles in their war against the crime wave is the masked hockey-loving vigilante Casey Jones (Elias Koteas).While Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stays faithful to the cartoon and the comics, the tone is noticeable darker similar to Batman (1989) although it has plenty of light moments. The action is fun and keeps the story moving along. There also brief moments of humour which the series is well known for.I loved how Jim Henson's Creature Shop (well known for their work with the Muppets on Sesame Street) brought the turtles to life through puppetry and life like animatronics. Their work was amazing! There was no such thing as Computer Generated Imagery many years ago, which nowadays dominates many movies and television shows.Director Steve Barron, who cut his teeth directing music videos for A-Ha, Bryan Adams, and The Human League does a terrific job bringing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to life on the big screen.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was one of the best movies of my childhood, and now as an adult I still appreciate that it is still an enjoyable movie. I thought I'd be cringing through some of the one liners that I used to emulate, however I just had to accept the fact that I was just a child and that's the way I was. Glad to see that my childhood memories are still preserved.8/10.
mwcrunner This is a movie that most people who grew up in the 90's remember seeing this along with its sequels. This movie has pretty good action and lots of funny humor in it. One of the very funny parts of the movie was when Michelangelo and Donatello were putting a pizza to rest after finding it was spoiled. Also this is also the first time we get to see the face of the Shredder also known as Oroku Saki. Splinter is also cool in this movie and the only moment that the turtles all say cowabunga was at the very end. The soundtrack to this movie is pretty good too especially T.U.R.T.L.E Power. It's also pretty dark cause the Shredder does get crushed by Kasey Jones in a garbage truck at the end. All in all this is a super hero movie that anyone can make good complements about.
bh_tafe3 Well, my 250th review for this site, so I'm going to try to talk about a film it's simply impossible for me to be objective about. Along with Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (RIP Alan Rickman), this was one of the films I watched obsessively as a child. The VHS came coloured green and I liked it oh so much better than the cartoons. This movie made me a fan of Elias Koteas. That's right: my watching The Prophecy, Fallen and Thin Red Line all started here. This was the first movie soundtrack I owned and I listened to it repeatedly, going into random, and usually unwanted, renditions of 9.95 and MC Hammer's "This is What we Do." Watching this movie for me is like having a wave of nostalgia washing over me, every line of dialogue in every scene is like meeting up with an old friend. Later in life I lived with a flat mate who was equally obsessed with it growing up. We could re-enact every line of dialogue in the film.The movie introduces us to a dark New York City, being vandalized by an increasingly large ninja Klan known as The Foot, led by the mysterious Shredder. We get a nice montage showing just how widespread and organized their crime wave is as journalist April O'Neal (Judith Hoag) reports these happenings on the news. April's attempts to expose The Foot Clan draws their ire and the Turtles come to protect her as the baddies attack, kicking their asses. But Raphael loses a Si, but don't worry, it ain't gone. He CAN GET IT BACK man! Raphael is the brooding loner of the group and decides to go to the movies (Critters 3, Leonardo DiCaprio's first movie) where he is unimpressed with what he sees, but ends up meeting a vigilante Casey Jones (Elias Koteas) and getting his ass kicked by him after revealing he doesn't understand either crumpets or cricket, two of the best things in life. Raph then gets his Si back after saving April from another Foot Clan attack and he's forced to take her back to their sewer hide out where Splinter can reveal their backstory. The Turtles go to check out April's house where The Foot attack again. Raphael gets severely wounded during the attack while at the same time the hideout is ravaged by The Foot and Splinter kidnapped and tortured. This leaves the Turtles to escape into the country along with April and Casey and train themselves up for the final showdown with Shredder.OK, I can see flaws in the story, but really, it satisfies me on just about every level. The Turtle puppets are reasonably convincing and mainly kept in darkness. The main cast put around them are all adequate at worst, and Hoag and Koteas are both good. We also have a young Sam Rockwell on screen for a couple of scenes as one of the Foot leaders. The film flows effortlessly from scene to scene and never feels slow or bogged down. It just rollicks along at a good clip, mixing fun, action and some nice messages for the kids. I've heard people say it's too dark, but it never bothered me either visually or in terms of atmosphere.In the end, I can't view this objectively, no matter how hard I try. This is more than a movie, it's an old friend, and like any friend, you accept it faults and all. That old, worn green VHS that gave me hours of enjoyment as a youngster and is still worthwhile more than 25 years later. That's a rare type of connection that only films can give us, and the reason we continue to love movies well into our dotage.
joshuadrake-91275 My sister Shaliyah loves things that boys watch, so I wanted to review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles because I have already done the original Power Rangers movie review, so I am going to do not only the original, but the 2007 and 2014 films as well.TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES is a 1990 American live-action film and the first film adaptation of the TMNT franchise. It was directed by Steve Barron and was released on March 30, 1990.This film presents the origin story of Splinter and the Turtles, the initial meeting between them, April O'Neill and Casey Jones, and their first confrontation with The Shredder and his Foot Clan.The film kept very close to the dark and violent feel of the original comics while also staying true to the 1987 TV series of the same name.The movie was very light hearted and dark at the same time and I first got my first watch in 2008 and I absolutely enjoyed this feature film. I never read any of the comics at all, but I have seen all of the movies and I really enjoyed it. It is so cool in everything it does.The acting was fantastic. Judith Hoag plays the role of April O'Neil and she did a really good job. Elias Koteas played Casey Jones and he was an amazing job, but I had to say, he was awesome in some of the action sequences.The voice actors are Brian Tochi, who plays Leonardo, Corey Feldman as Donatello, Robbie Rist as Michelangelo and Josh Pais as Raphael and they do really good jobs voicing the titular turtles and they are all fantastic and spectacular.Kevin Clash as Splinter did an incredible job playing the role and the other two David McCharen and Michael McConnohie as Shredder & Tatsu were really good and I could have not thought of better actors to play these parts.The turtles look so good and I give credit to the late Jim Henson and his creature shop for staying true to the source material and making sure that they had the color bandanas.A lot of movie companies did not wanted to release this film in theaters including Paramount, Warner Bros. Pictures, Columbia TriStar and 20th Century Fox, but this was financed by Golden Harvest and distributed by New Line Cinema.This film did not have the highest budget in the world and it was $13.5 million dollars and this film proves that you do not need a bigger budget to make that cool and great film that you wanted to make.The film was criticized for it's level of violence and it was not at all violent as the critics and parents said to be and this also had problems with "Batman Returns", the second film in the original BATMAN film series and I think this movie is awesome as hell.The violence and the action sequences were just as incredible and spectacular and my favorite action sequence is when it gets to the middle of the film.The music by John Du Prez is just spectacular and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme is a classical film and it is just an amazing feature film and became a hit with fans, but was met with mixed reactions from critics.Overall, I love this first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film and it is just one film that I don't think can be taken for granted.10/10.