The Burnzo Diaries: 35 YEARS OF TURTLE POWER: A Tribute to 1990’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie

I’ve seen a lot of movies in the theaters over the years, but I can only remember a small handful leaving a significant impression on me, and when I say “significant impression,” I mean that it left me sitting in the theater during the end credits, saying to myself, “Wow. Oh wow.”

One movie I know had this effect on me was Karate Kid 2, not that it was a great movie, but it was one of the first movies I ever saw in the theater in my life (I was four years old at the time) and I think it left an impression because seeing a bigger-than-life movie on a theater screen was all so new to me. I remember leaving the theater, listening to Peter Cetera’s “Glory of Love” play over the end credits, and just feeling so dazed (in a good way) by what-seemed-like such a magical experience.

Jurassic Park was another movie that left a similar impression on me. Let’s face it: at the time, that movie was a mind-blower, especially how real those dinosaurs looked. Even by today’s standards, the animatronics are still impressive and still look better than any modern-day CG dinosaurs. Along with its technical achievements, it was a riveting story with an amazing musical score by John Williams. Just like with Karate Kid 2, I left the theater in a daze, completely astonished by what I had just seen.

The movie Titanic also left a lasting impression on me, although I am somewhat embarrassed to admit it. Just like with Jurassic Park, both the technical achievements and the riveting story left me feeling stunned in the cinema afterwards. Titanic became so popular that all the “cool kids” out there pretended they didn’t like it, that it was a cheesy love story and they were over it already. But I actually watched Titanic again recently and I must say scra-heeew those cool kids! Titanic is a really good movie.

And how could I forget Blair Witch Project? I have never had a more terrifying experience than I did when I watched Blair Witch Project in the movie theater. I remember the surround sound making me feel like I was actually right in the middle of the woods in the middle of the night, sleeping in a tent, with noises all around me. When the end credits rolled, I knew I had just sat through something that was not only terrifying but also incredibly unique, even revolutionary (read more about my love for The Blair Witch Project in my blog Revisiting The Blair Witch Project).

But one movie that definitely left a lasting impression on me, perhaps even more lasting than any of the others I just mentioned, was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. And we’re talking the 1990 live-action movie, of course, the only TMNT movie I officially acknowledge the existence of.

The TMNT movie poster.

I was eight years old in 1990 and went to see TMNT at a small, two-screen movie theater in Norwood, Massachusetts. This was not a Hoyts or Showcase Cinema, nor was it even a Loews or General Cinema. I actually don’t think it was part of any larger movie theater chain. It was simply known as the Norwood Theatre.

The Norwood Theatre circa 1980. Courtesy of the Norwood Historical Society.

Back then, matinees only cost about three or four dollars at the Norwood Theatre, so I believe my dad and I went along with my neighbor to see TMNT one Saturday afternoon and I didn’t emerge from the theater that day the same eight-year-old boy.

What struck me the most about TMNT was that it was soooooooo not a kids movie.

Well, ok, it was *kind of* a kids movie, but what I mean is that it didn’t pander or condescend to kids. I guess you could say it was a movie for kids who wanted to feel like and be treated like adults. Or, heck, I suppose you could simply say that TMNT felt like a teenage movie, which made sense, since it was about teenaged mutant ninja turtles.

The opening first two minutes of the movie hooked me in pretty much right away. The movie opens on an ugly yet beautiful late-1980s New York City—Twin Towers in full view—and we hear April O’Neil’s news report voiced over images of the active New York Streets. O’Neil is informing us of a rising crime wave that is getting out of hand in the city. There is a close shot of a man’s trench coat pocket being picked, then close shots of his wallet being passed along from thief to thief on the busy New York streets. The wallet ends up in the hands of a teenager named Danny who then hands the wallet off to a mysterious hand that looks like it’s wearing Samurai-like armor. We will later learn that this mysterious hand belongs to a member of the Foot Clan, an ancient-old ninja gang that has roots in Japan but whose power and influence is rapidly growing in NYC.

Then we see several other thefts take place on the city streets. All the stolen goods are packed into a van driven by masked members of ‘The Foot’. They slam the van doors shut and then the movie cuts to an old abandoned warehouse on “Lairdman Island” (a fictional island in NYC, most likely alluding to Staten Island). This is apparently a hideout for the Foot Clan and all the teenagers who the clan has recruited to steal for them. This hideout is like the best clubhouse you could ever imagine. Teens are skateboarding there, they’re eating Burger King, they’re playing video arcade games (specifically NARC), they’re gambling, they’re even smoking cigars …

The opening two minutes of the movie.

Again, this is all in the first two minutes of the movie. And it’s underscored by this incredible music that is so badass I still occasionally hum it to myself to this day. The musical score (composed by John Du Prez), featuring a distorted-sounding electric guitar, sounds like it was recorded by a group of teens in some basement or garage. It’s honestly one of my favorite soundtracks in any film, ever.

The rest of the movie is no less awesome. April O’Neil leaves her TV station late at night after her newscast is over and is jumped by some thugs who are no doubt part of the city’s crime wave that O’Neil has just been reporting on. They try to steal her purse, but some mysterious vigilantes save her from the thugs. These vigilantes are the teenaged mutant ninja turtles.

In the process of rescuing O’Neil, however, the turtles have to be very ninja-like and skedaddle before they are identified. In the process, Raphael leaves his sai behind, April O’Neil takes the weapon into her possession and Raphael’s really bummed about this. Looking on from beneath a manhole cover, he sees April put the sai in her purse and he says, “Oh, maaaan. DAMN.” From here, we go into the sewers with the turtles and there is an awesome title sequence with the electric-guitar infused main musical theme of the movie.

After the titles, the main storyline takes off. The leader of the Foot Clan, a Japanese man named Oroku Saki, who calls himself “the Shredder,” wants April O’Neil silenced because she’s doing too much reporting on the city’s crime wave, and how a gang known as ‘The Foot’ may be behind all of it. While alone in the subway one day, April is attacked by the Foot Clan, but Raphael saves her once again and is happy to regain possession of his sai in the process.

April, however, is really banged up by The Foot and has been knocked unconscious. Raphael takes her back to the turtle’s hideout in the sewers, but unbeknownst to him, a member of The Foot follows him there. Now the location of their hideout is blown!

While the turtles are out taking April back home to her apartment, the turtles’ Master Splinter (a mutant rat) is left alone in the hideout, gets kidnapped by The Foot and is held captive by Shredder in the Foot Clan’s warehouse hideout. The turtles must rescue their master and put a stop to the evil Shredder before he brainwashes all of New York City’s youth into joining his evil Foot Clan cult.

Now, it’s hard to put into words how an eight-year-old like myself felt after first seeing TMNT. I remember sitting in my seat at the Norwood Theatre somewhat surprised but yet delighted that the film had ended up being so, well … cool. Again, I expected TMNT to be a kids movie, something similar to the animated series that was on TV every day after school (i.e. what the sequel Secret of the Ooze turned out to be, hence why it’s terrible), but the movie actually ended up being much darker and grittier. I mean, one of the first lines in the movie, voiced by Raphael, is the aforementioned, “DAMN.” As soon as you heard this line, you immediately knew you weren’t going to watch a kiddie movie. You were going to watch a movie with an edge and an attitude.

And this edginess stays consistent throughout the movie. You have kids smoking cigars and being offered cigarettes (there is the famous line, “Regular? Or menthol?” voiced by Sam Rockwell), you have the badass-looking Shredder who is, frankly, scary, and then you have the ending of the movie, where Casey Jones comically says, “oops” and then “accidentally” pushes a button that crushes Shredder in the hydraulic compactor of a garbage truck. In short, the director (Steve Barron) kept it real, as it were, and stayed as true to the original TMNT comic book as he could, which is dark and much more violent than you would think.

The Foot Clan warehouse hideout.

The Shredder’s badass entrance.

By the way, a little nugget of trivia about the director Steve Barron. Before he did movies, he directed a lot of music videos, which makes sense if you think about it, because the TMNT movie is so music-driven. But Barron did one of the most famous music videos of all time, which is Aha’s “Take on Me.” He also did the video for Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and Dire Straits’ “Money for Nothing.” In fact, he seemed to shine more as a music video director than as a film director, because the only notable movie he directed other than TMNT is Coneheads.

Since I’m on the topic of music videos, I would be completely remiss if I didn’t talk about the Partners in Kryme “Turtle Power” music video that was made to promote the TMNT movie. I have no idea if the rap group Partners in Kryme have any other hits or any other songs for that matter, but “Turtle Power” is a badass song and, again, not a kidsy song. There was clearly a conscious decision made by New Line Cinema and the producers of TMNT, or maybe even the director himself—who knows—to make this TMNT live action “vehicle” very not-for-kids. And this included the “Turtle Power” music video, which comes off, not as a kids music video, but like any other music video you would see on MTV during the time.

The Partners in Kryme “Turtle Power” music video.

Anyway, I left the movie theater that one Saturday afternoon a changed man. I had liked the teenage mutant ninja turtles before, but now I was, like, REALLY into them. I bought the Playmates TMNT action figures … I played the Konami Nintendo game … I somehow acquired the hot Partners in Kryme cassette single for “Turtle Power” (I believe I borrowed the tape from a friend and never returned it, for which I am apologetic) … I hung a framed TMNT movie poster on my bedroom wall that I purchased at a Christmas Tree Shop down on Cape Cod … and I, of course, rented the TMNT movie when it came out on video. Multiple times. Come to think of it, I feel like I may have actually seen TMNT in the theater a second time as well, but I’m not absolutely sure about this.

The "Turtle Power" cassette single. I still have it to this day!

More than any other part of the movie, I became very obsessed with the aforementioned 2-3-minute pre-title sequence where we see the NYC crime wave in action and hear that awesome, distorted-guitar-heavy soundtrack. Soon after seeing the movie, I remember I was playing flashlight tag with my friends. I have a distinct memory of me humming this TMNT soundtrack to myself while I tried to evade being caught by whoever was “it” with the flashlight. I pretended like I was a member of The Foot and creeped around in the dark like I was a ninja of the night.

Years later, around the year 2004, there was this video store called Massive Video in Norfolk, MA. that was going out of business and selling off all their video rentals. I managed to acquire a VHS copy of TMNT, which, in hindsight was a really good get; I’m surprised nobody else had gotten it before me. Unfortunately, a couple years later, I sold this VHS to a friend and I don’t think I have ever done anything more foolish in my life.

TMNT VHS cover art.

About ten years later, I was at the local library and miraculously found a used DVD copy of TMNT that they were selling for only a dollar. I still have that DVD today and that’s usually what I will watch when I have a hankering to see the movie, although you can occasionally catch TMNT on Netflix or some other streaming platform.

This year marks the 35^th anniversary of the movie and, although there have been many different TMNT movies since this initial 1990 version, none have been even close to being as good as the original. I’m kind of surprised that nobody has attempted to go full Jim Henson again and try to do a live-action reboot that captures the dark, badass tone of the original movie. You would think with all the superhero comic book movies that have been made over the past 20 years, somebody would have thought it would be a good idea to do a TMNT movie that captures the vibe of the original. But it hasn’t been done. What is the reason? Do they think that audiences will be too underwhelmed by Jim Henson animatronics and men wearing turtle suits? Do studios think audiences want computer animation as opposed to pure live action? Who knows.

All I know is that, with NYC in the crime-ridden state it’s in these days, there’s no better time to make a TMNT movie that feels very realistic, as in it actually sells the idea that there are real-life mutant turtle vigilantes stopping all the horrifying crime we see taking place in the Big Apple. I think that would be really cool. The Foot Clan could be like an Antifa group and Shredder could be some cult leader who claims to be fighting fascism or something but is really looking to poison young minds, subvert society and accumulate power. I mean, these days with all the genetic engineering that is being researched and experimented with, audiences could probably buy that some sort of genetically-modified DNA mutation inadvertently turned small turtles into human/amphibian hybrids or rat/human hybrids. At least, I could buy it! Could you?

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MATT BURNS is the author of several novels, including Weird Monster, Supermarket Zombies!, The Woman and the Dragon and Johnny Cruise. He’s also written numerous memoirs, including GARAGE MOVIE: My Adventures Making Weird Films, My Raging Case of Beastie Fever, Jungle F’ng Fever: My 30-Year Love Affair with Guns N’ Roses and I Turned into a Misfit! Check out these books (and many more) on his Amazon author page HERE.