The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is a wonder of practical effects and surprising martial arts action.
In 1990 theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were at the absolute peak of their popularity.
Its extraordinarily faithful to the original comics.
So much so thatI wrote an entire article about exactly that.
Heres the short version, though.
Which brings us to…
Its surprisingly dark.
The animated Turtles werent permitted to use their martial arts skills or their weapons to actuallyhitanyone.
Thats anyone, not anything.
The shows sensible solution was to turn the Foot Clan into robots.
The movie stuck to flesh-and-blood (and decidedly non-mutated) adversaries.
There were two versions of the suits, Stunt Turtles and Hero Turtles.
But the foam actually acted as padding, so in some ways that worked really well.
Its true.
Until recently (thanks, Netflix!
The two share a moment of brotherly tenderness and an embrace.
Theres absolutely no reason this sceneshouldwork on any level, but itdoes.
Youll find thatTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtlescomes off better.
Remember how I said that the Turtles were originally inspired by Frank Millers 1980s Daredevil work?
Youreallyget to see everything the Turtle suits (and the Hong Kong stuntment inside them) are capable of.
Shredder kicks each of their asses in turn, before getting taken out in rather chill fashion by Splinter.
Yes, thats formerGoonieCorey Feldman as the voice of Donatello.
Blink and you might miss a 21-year-old Sam Rockwell as the Head Thug of the Foot Clan.
The book is gorgeous and absolutely essential for any TMNT fan.Its available on Amazon.
