Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) - re:View

The time has finally come for three middle aged men to talk about a children's franchise. On the internet!!! Nobody has ever done this before! Rich and Jay are joined by DC Comics artist Freddie Williams to talk about the 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film! Freddie has drawn Ninja Turtles comics and Rich has read many Ninja Turtles comics, so they're the perfect duo to explain all this nonsense to Jay, who just liked to see the silly rat say "Cowabunga" at the end of the film when he was 10 years old.

[AVGNROCKS]

Knowing Freddy drew the famous “This is where my parents died Raphael” blows my mind.

[JoshAddison]

There's a number of things I like about this specific Re:View...

1) Rich's joy at a franchise he loves.
2) Jay's familiar/knowledgable, yet, emotionally distanced POV.
3) Freddie's knowledge of/anticdotes related to his TMNT work.

Just a fun episode.

[judithhoag-goddessonfire]

The reason it seems like there are a lot of little things that are somewhat at odds with the tone of the film is because the final cut was not Steve Barron’s. In the end he was prevented from editing the film and bringing his full vision in the screen. The classic clash between art and commerce.

[Jimbo]

Rich really does hit the nail on the head. The reason TMNT has stayed so popular is that it’s such a goofy premise that you can go any direction: dark or light hearted, serious or off the wall stupid. And it ALL feels in character and believable.

[uncleshouty]

Freddie's astonishment at Rich Evans remembering how Shredder came back was incredible

[morganfellows]

The reason the Turtles were called "Hero Turtles" instead of Ninja Turtles in the UK was that the word Ninja was essentially banned from appearing in movie titles at the time, bizarrely. This followed the craze of ninja films in the 80s that Rich references. This was partly driven by the moral crusade against "video nasties" of Mary Whitehouse (who was also responsible for the word "Chainsaw" being similarly blacklisted) but her focus was more on gory horror movies.

The other, probably larger, reason ninjas were banned was that the craze surrounding the films led to a lot of people importing throwing stars and nunchucks. A friend of mine who must have been about 10 had a genuine, razer-sharp throwing star. He took it out and threw it at a telegraph pole, into which it embedded impressively. Unfortunately (or fortunately, really) a few throws later he missed the pole and it soared through a hedge, into a wheat field, and was never found.

Anything with nunchucks in was heavily cut by the BBFC, presumably to discourage the spate of idiots smashing themselves in the balls with the things. The Turtles films were cut in the UK because of this, and had much less nunchuck action. I remember at the time we just knew it had been cut, and this led to wild rumours about what the uncut American version contained. Someone I knew claimed to have seen it and painted a vivid picture of multiple beheadings and a turtles on April O'Neill gangbang.

Even The Secret of the Ooze was cut! The scene where Michaelangelo uses the sausages as weapons was cut because they looked too much like nunchucks. Arguably the only good thing to come out of the whole video nasty era was a note from the BBFC instructing the filmmakers to "Reduce to a minimum the dazzling display of swinging sausages" although now I think about it, it is possible they were referring to the scene with Splinter on the roof.

[Summas]

Of all the guests over the years, I think I've missed Freddie the most. So happy to see him return!

[mikeox]

Of all the guests over the years, I think I've missed Rich Evans the most. So happy to see him return!

[nicholas_james]

I've watched this movie nearly 100 times and I never noticed Raph has a scar on his face. I wish a modern Turtles movie would replicate the tone and aesthetic of 1990 Turtles. Those original full-body suits and animatronics still look better to me than any iteration since. This will always be one of my favorite movies.

[medioa]

Honestly, Splinter as a pre-mutation rat practicing Yoshi's moves is one of my all time favorite movie moments. It hits the perfect tone of goofy and awesome!

[annie_]

Stories from Rich’s childhood always feel like relics: precious, rare pieces of history.

[philbattiste]

I would love to see a re:view of the Dark Crystal. The Jim Henson and puppetry discussion was really interesting, and it'd be a good movie to go into that more.

[TelenTerror]

I wish I could take credit for the observation but I appreciated it: Someone noted all the turtles are given weapons antithetical to their personalities. Sais are basically really close-in defensive weapons, and they were given to Raphael, the most aggressive of the turtles. Michelangelo is the most carefree and lackadaisical, so he was given the nunchuks, which will hurt the user if they're not used carefully. Donatello is the tech nerd who loves complication, so he gets a wooden stick and made to work with simplicity. And Leonardo is a good guy and most moral/heroic of the bunch, so he was given swords to make him have to use lethal force because sometimes it's what you need.

I have no idea if that was intentional writing or not but it makes Splinter come out looking like a genius to make them all have to grow and develop their character and round them out. And ever since it was pointed out to me I notice it in Turtles media.

[TheDreamsEndOfficial]

Really happy to have Freddie Williams back. One of my favourite guests. Very cool

[zachanikwano]

The worms thing was absolutely hilarious to witness. Freddie in utter disbelief at Rich's recollection as Jay just loses it. Also Freddie's recollection of learning about the worms

[kevinoneil]

When you look at movies like this and The Dark Crystal, seeing how well Jim Henson's talent translated into more mature settings... it's heartbreaking to think of what he could have given us with more time.

[PolloCatalan]

One thing they sadly didn't touch on was that the movie had a real theme - fatherhood and growing up. Not only between Splinter and the Turtles, but also between teenage boy Danny and his dad. Even April talks about how she still lives above her late father's antique store and can't part with his things. Man, what a multi-layered movie about humanoid reptiles.

[KoboldGamer]

This is honestly one of my absolute favorite movies. I just wish they would have talked about the foot clan's hideout. That place was like a 80s-early 90s adolescent/teenagers dream world.

[bloodrunsclear]

I love that the original film has the turtles outside of their costumes! The guy in the back of the cab, the guy who delivers the pizza, the foot soldier who ‘delivers a message’, and one other extra are all the actors inside the suits.

[tonyblock]

The Red Letter Media guys are such good interviewers. They don't interrupt people too much and always build off what someone just said.