YMMV / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

• And You Thought It Would Fail: Many major studios such as Walt Disney Pictures, Columbia Pictures, MGM/UA, Orion Pictures, Paramount (whose parent company Viacom would ironically enough acquire the TMNT property in 2009) and Warner Bros. turned down the first film for distribution as they were worried that despite the popularity of the 1987 series and the toy line, the film would potentially be a box office disappointment like Masters of the Universe was just a couple years prior. The film finally found distribution roughly halfway through the initial production via the then small and independent production company New Line Cinema which at that point had been known more for distributing low budget B movies and arthouse fare. New Line at the time was mainly making its profits at that point from the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies. The film would end up becoming a box office hit, having the second largest opening at the US box office at the time (behind 1989's Batman) and going on to make $200 million worldwide.
• Anti-Climax Boss: The Turtles finally confront Shredder and he spends roughly three minutes defeating them with little difficulty. Then Splinter appears and defeats the Shredder in one move.
• Awesome Music:
  • Turtle Power!
  • The main theme for the Turtles, first playing after their opening ambush on April's attackers.
  • "Shredder's Suite," effectively establishing a much bigger threat than the cartoon ever showed.
  • "Tatsu Attack," cementing the aggressive nature of both the attack in April's apartment and the Turtles' final fight against the Shredder.
  • "Message From Splinter" So awesome and bittersweet that it would be later used to pay tribute to the late James Avery in recognition of his role in the cartoon.
• Complete Monster: Oroku Saki, the Shredder, is the mysterious, hateful leader of the Foot Clan, using it to satisfy his own greed and vengeful goals. Years ago murdering the object of his affections, Tang Shen, and the man she loved to sate his own jealous rage, Shredder lured dozens of troubled youths to join his Foot Clan by preying on their need for a family and turning them into criminals, all while uncaring of their well-being and subjecting them to harsh beatings as part of their daily lives. Capturing and torturing Master Splinter to gain info on the Ninja Turtles, Shredder orders the rat killed before trying to murder his surrogate turtle sons as well, claiming he will spare one of their number if the rest surrender, only to try to kill them all anyway.
• Critical Dissonance: None of the films (before Mutant Mayhem) have gotten positive enough reviews to warrant a Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, although the first film, while not considered a work of art, has a much more positive and enjoyable reception from audiences, particularly among fans of the franchise. Even after the release of the critically acclaimed Mutant Mayhem, a lot of fans still rank this movie over it, when ranking the TMNT movies.
• First Installment Wins: The first film is the only one in the 90s live-action film series whose quality the fanbase can widely regard as good. The Secret of the Ooze has its defenders, but many criticize it for being Lighter and Softer and not having enough action, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III is widely considered the worst film in the entire franchise, and animated quasi-sequel TMNT is a Contested Sequel at its finest.
• Franchise Original Sin:
  • The third movie has many flaws overall, but one thing some people complain about are the spots on the Turtles, but even in the first movie, they always had spots, but they were subtle and the overall design of the turtles combined with the spots made them look much more realistic. But by the third movie, the designs of the Turtles had become so cartoonish and goofy, the spots became more distracting instead of blending in well.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) often gets flack for making April the focus of the story, though the film still centers around the turtles. The Turtles personalities are well done, but they don't get much character development. Lacking Casey Jones^note who was MIA in Secret of the Ooze and putting in a villain (Eric Sacks) who had nothing to do with any of the comics or cartoons prior to that point^note Sacks was originally intended to be the film's version of Shredder, but fan backlash caused this to be altered in reshoots was a mitigating factor too. The thing is that this problem can be found all the way back in the 1990 original. As pointed out by many, Raphael is the only one who gets a character arc of some sort, Leo gets some, and Donnie and Mikey don't get any at all (Mike had an arc in the original cut, but ended up in the cutting room floor due to studio exec interference). Plus, Danny, a minor character, had a sub-plot that while did not take over the whole film, was an odd decision. The reason why it wasn't noticeable back then was due to it being the Turtles’ first film, the hype surrounding it, and a well written story with great practical effects and action scenes as well as faithfulness to the source material. The sequel, Secret of the Ooze, tried to fix the character development issue by putting the focus on Donnie's arc ^note When the turtles find out they were created by accident., but it never really goes anywhere and TMNT III gave Michelangelo and Raphael their own arcs as well. Turtles III and TMNT (2007) both featured villains that had nothing to do with the comics or cartoons, albeit, the latter had Karai with hints of Shredder returning in a sequel that was never made. Tatsu wasn't in any prior media either, acting as a stand in for Karai, but he was the right hand man to Shredder, so that was okay. Karai was still obscure at the time unless one read the original comics or watched the 2003 show, so that was understandable. Ooze had Tokka and Rahzar as expies for Bebop and Rocksteady, because Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman did not want them in the film. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, the sequel to the 2014 movie, attempted to address these complaints by putting more focus on the Turtles themselves, and also included fan-favorites Bebop and Rocksteady.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Any sports fan over the last decade who's read the stories on steroid use can now look back on Raph's comment on Casey's Jose Canseco bat with a whole new meaning.
  • It was a two-for-one sale.
  • Donatello gets ragged on by his brothers for trying to make the word "Acapella" sound cool. Years later Eminem finishes what Don started, by using that word and the meaning behind it in a crucial moment against Papa Doc in 8 Mile.
  • In one fight scene, Casey defeats Tatsu by swinging a golf club at him, and he promptly kisses the club, saying, "I'll never call golf a dull game again." There's a ninja game for the Atari called Ninja Golf.
  • The song "Turtle Power" has Raphael erroneously identified as the leader. And then comes Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, where Raphael actually is the leader of the turtles.
  • Kids nowadays, watching the scene with the teens in the warehouse, may have trouble understanding what is so subversive and rebellious about using an indoor skateboarding park, playing an electric bass, spraypainting a wall clearly set up for the purpose of spraypainting, playing arcade games, and doing a little recreational gambling. Now it seems that the least horrifying thing in the '80's ("Regular, or Menthol?") is the only bad behavior in the entire scene.
  • During the first rooftop battle, Raph mocks the Foot ninjas by saying "You guys must be studying the abridged book of ninja fighting". In the 2014 reboot, Splinter learnt and taught Raph and the others ninjitsu by studying a book he found in the sewers, meaning Raph himself learned the art of ninja by essentially studying the abridged book of ninja fighting!
• Humor Dissonance: April's uproarious laughter to Michelangelo's celebrity impressions. Even if you were a kid who got them, they were moderately amusing at most.
• Magic Franchise Word: "Man, I love being a turtle!"
• Memetic Mutation:
  • God, I love being a TURTLE!!!^ExplanationMikey says this after ducking his head into his shell to dodge an attack. The phrase has appeared in subsequent films and other media since.
  • DAMN!!!^ExplanationRaphael chases after Casey. Cut to Distant Reaction Shot of the New York skyline. Raphael yells.
  • Ninja kick the damn rabbit!^ExplanationMikey's reaction as he and Donnie watch a cartoon based on "The Tortoise and the Hare".
  • You dirty rat! You killed my brother!
  • Do you like penicillin on your pizza? (Proceeds to hum "Taps".)
  • Wise men say: forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza.^ExplanationMikey shortchanges the pizza delivery guy for being late and gives this line when he protests.
• Once Original, Now Common:
  • This was one of the first live-action adaptations of an animated property ever to become a major unqualified success, paving the way for future adaptations like the 1994 film adaptation of The Flintstones, the 2002 live action adaptation of Scooby-Doo, and Disney's whole slate of live-action remakes. If you're used to those sorts of films being semi-regular fixtures at the box office, it can be difficult to imagine what a big deal Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was in 1990 (indeed, many people at the time were flabbergasted when news broke that it would be live-action).
    • However, contrary to popular belief, this movie is actually a comic book movie, since the movie borrows more heavily from the Mirage Comics than the 1987 series and successful comic book movies have existed long before this movie came out like Superman: The Movie, Superman II and Batman (1989).
  • The animatronics themselves also fall under this. While they were groundbreaking for 1989/1990, not only was this process used for the sequels (the third to not as successful results) and other projects by Jim Henson's Creature Shop; but many other effects artists would use similar methods to build upon and advance animatronics both for People in Rubber Suits effects and in general.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • The gang member who snitches to the cops at the conclusion is a young Sam Rockwell. He also delivers the line "Regular or Menthol" when asked if he had smokes.
  • For a voice-only example, there's Michael McConnohie, aka Emperor Charles zi Britannia, who dubbed Tatsu's dialogue.
• Shocking Moments: Kids and reviewers, including Roger Ebert, were shocked the film was live-action.
  Roger Ebert: I was surprised to discover it's a live-action film. I expected animation - a spinoff of the Saturday morning Turtle cartoon show. But no. These are actual human beings for the most part, including stunt men inside the life-size turtle suits (certain other characters have been created artificially by the Jim Henson folks).
• Signature Scene: Mikey's nunchuck duel and the Turtle's "COWABUNGA!" in the finale.
• Special Effect Failure: While most of the effects work still holds up, there are instances where it does falter.
  • A clearly human hand swings in front of the camera as Donatello does a spin on his skateboard, there's a moment where you can clearly see a microphone cord dangling from Raphael's shell, a few instances where the head and neck seams aren't bended in properly (Michelangelo when he and Donatello are talking about what Splinter told them while waiting for the pizza being a notable example), and a moment during Raphael's recovery where you can see the teeth of Donatello's actor Leif Tilden peeking though his mouth.
  • The switch from the hero suits (with the animatronics) and the stunt suits (with the static faces) is rather obvious, most obviously when Michaelangelo is doing his nunchuck routine against the Foot ninja just before the big fight in April's apartment.
  • The scene with the turtle yelling out Splinter's name is supposed to be Raphael, but you can see nunchucks (Michelangelo's weapon) on the side. This was to try and cover up a deleted subplot involving Mikey.
• Unintentional Period Piece: The first film is a nice little snapshot of very, very late 80s culture: New Jack Swing soundtrack? Check. Skateboard ramps inside Shredder's warehouse? Check. Bulky Macintosh computer in April's shop? Check. Spiked hair and Casey mistaking Raphael for a punk? Check. April's gigantic, Kenny G-style perm? Check. Animatronic and puppet effects for the main characters? Check. And then there's Michaelangelo's James Cagney and Rocky Balboa impressions, and the appearance of Aesop and Son on the TV in April's apartment, which dates the movie with what was nostalgic at the time.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Above errors aside, the animatronic suits and puppets still look unbelievably good even today; they should, since they were created by the Jim Henson's Creature Shop and were the predecessors of all the current systems used for their full-bodied animatronics. The film even used Henson's involvement as a selling point.
• What Do You Mean, It's for Kids?: One of the biggest complaints from critics, parents, and Moral Guardians regarding the film; and not necessarily without merit. Not only do the characters frequently brandish their weapons, but they suffer Family-Unfriendly Violence to varying degrees: Raphael is beaten to the point of becoming comatose; Splinter reveals his Backstory Horror, where two characters are killed onscreen; and Shredder is (supposedly) crushed to death in a trash compactor. There is also the occasional use of the word "Damn" peppered throughout the film, along with some Product Placement from Domino's. In response to these complaints, the sequel was made Lighter and Softer — maybe too much so.
• Woolseyism: The European Spanish dub of the film is a rather infamous example, and also overlaps with Spice Up the Subtitles as well: Unlike with what happened with the dubs of the animated series and later movies, the famous "Cowabunga!" was translated as "¡De puta madre!" (literally "That's fucking great!") at the end of the movie. The worst part of the whole thing is the fact that Master Splinter, of all people, was the one who came out with the idea of using that word. It should be noted that latter reruns of the movie in Spaniard TV gets that word censored through.

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