(paper rustling)
- God, I love the Ninja Turtles.
Comic book movies come in all
different shapes and sizes.
Sure, when we think of comic book movies,
much like we think of actual comic books,
we tend to only think of Marvel and DC,
but there exists a whole host of films
based on other characters and titles
from all across the medium.
Of course, if you watch this show,
then you already know about
all the great comic book movies
based on non-Marvel and DC properties,
great films like "Scott
Pilgrim," "The Crow,"
"Sin City," and some
not so great ones like
"From Hell," "The League of
Extraordinary Gentlemen,"
all the Crow sequels,
but one film that I feel
tends to get overlooked when we talk about
great comic book movies
is the original 1990
Ninja Turtles movie
directed by Steve Barron.
I think people tend to
forget that this is actually
a comic book movie because,
and especially at the time,
it was very closely
associated with a very popular
Saturday morning cartoon
more so than it was
with a weird, underground comic book
that it's actually based on,
but despite first appearances,
this movie is actually one of
the most faithful adaptations
of any comic book I have ever seen,
and even to this day, it's one
of the best representations
of the Ninja Turtles across any platform,
and today in honor of the film's
30th anniversary this week,
we're gonna talk about it.
(upbeat music)
(laser firing)
(upbeat techno music)
(zipper hissing)
Feel like if there was ever a time
to wear this shirt, it's today.
Back in 1990, the Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles
was one of the biggest television
programs in the country.
It captured the hearts and
minds of kids everywhere
with its unique premise
and very interesting
cast of characters,
and beyond the TV show,
the Ninja Turtles were an
action figure juggernaut.
Every kid on the block pretty much had
their own personalized collection of toys.
No two collection was ever the same,
and they were stars of the
video game world as well.
The 1989 arcade game by Konami
is still considered to be
one of the best beat-em-ups of all time,
and the NES game released
around the same era
isn't all that good, but it was one of the
best-selling games on the platform,
despite it being very
buggy and way too difficult
for anybody to actually beat.
Music was banging, though.
And of course, there were
just a slew of imitators,
some good, some bad, some street sharks,
but nothing ever compared to the original.
Of course, something as
popular and as awesome
as Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles would attract
the eye of Hollywood, and eventually,
a live action movie would
manifest itself, right?
Well, not exactly.
Despite being a very hot
property in the late '80s
and early '90s, every
major Hollywood studio
passed on the idea of
making a live action movie
of the turtles.
Seriously, when filmmakers began shopping
this movie around, every
single studio passed on it.
It wasn't until Golden
Harvest who had previously
been known for making
lower-budget kung-fu films
decided to sign on, and the movie actually
started getting made.
Eventually, New Line Cinemas would come on
to further finance the film and handle
distribution to theaters.
Now to be fair, you can sort
of see why a movie studio
would wanna pass on an idea like this.
It's very easy for something like
"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"
to be made for very cheap
and turn out very poorly,
eventually failing its way
into oblivion like
"Masters of the Universe"
and a lot of other movies
based on Saturday morning cartoons,
and to be fair, if you do
watch the movie now in 2020,
it does look like a cheap movie.
All the sets are very small
and claustrophobic, clearly sets.
The lighting is very dark.
Sometimes you can hardly see anything.
Some of the stunts are pretty amateurish,
and despite how impressive
the Jim Henson suits
actually are, they're clearly
falling apart in some scenes,
and yet, somehow, "Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles"
wound up being a box
office hit and has endured
to this day as a classic of the genre.
People remember this
movie incredibly fondly.
I mean, why else would a company like NECA
want to put out
high-quality action figures
of this film in the 21st century,
action figures that I very much want,
but can never find in stores
for a reasonable price for some reason,
and let's not beat around the bush here.
"Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles" is one of the best
comic book films ever made, period.
It's unique, it's well-acted,
it's very faithful
to the source material,
it's fun, it's iconic,
and it presents the turtles
in the definitive state.
It is the definitive
depiction of these characters,
and yet it did this
despite not exactly being
a faithful adaptation of
the Saturday morning cartoon
that was popular at the time.
Instead, it was more
of a direct adaptation
of the original Mirage comic books made by
Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird,
and I do mean in many cases,
the movie does copy the
comic books beat for beat.
A lot of scenes from the
film are lifted directly
from the original Mirage comics.
The way Casey Jones
meets Rafael for example
is very similar to the
way the two characters
meet in the comics.
The whole middle section
where Raf gets beaten up,
April's apartment gets burned
down, the turtles have to hide
on a farm before eventually
returning to New York,
that whole middle section
is lifted directly
from a story line of the
original Mirage comics.
Just swap out Leonardo from the comics
and replace him with Rafael for the movie.
As a kid, I always
wondered why the cartoon
had robot Foot soldiers
while the movie had
just street teenagers being Foot soldiers,
and eventually I learned it's because
in the original comics, the
Foot soldiers were human.
The robots were created for the TV show.
Of course, that's not
to say that the movie
only took inspiration from the comics.
It did pull some influence
from the TV show as well.
The turtles all wear
different-color bandanas
in the movie like they do on the cartoon.
They love pizza, and some of
them are even surfer dudes
like they are in the cartoon.
April O'Neal's job is
a reporter in the movie
just like it is in the cartoon.
In the comics, she's a lab assistant.
It's this blend of the
dramatic, serious comic books
and the more fun, cartoony
cartoon that makes the movie
so beloved no matter which version
of the turtles you prefer.
It was director Steve
Barron's idea to mesh
these two worlds together, and he does it
with such precision and
ease that you wonder why
other directors who have
handled the Ninja Turtles
in future projects
never really could do it
as well as he could.
I mean, this movie goes
from a scene where Rafael
gets beaten within an inch of his life,
on the verge of death,
then immediately going to
Michaelangelo getting into a nunchuk duel
complete with silly sound effects and yet,
the two tones never feel
dramatically disconnected
from one another.
It all just flows seamlessly
and fits within this world,
but perhaps more than anything,
what makes this movie so
memorable, at least for me,
is the addition of the theme
of family and brotherhood
to the greater turtles mythology.
This really was the first
time we saw the idea
that the turtles and
Splinter were a family.
Sure, the comics and the
cartoon touched upon it
a little bit, but here,
it's the driving force
of the entire plot.
The movie is really about
four brothers who learn
the hard way that they need each other
to survive in this world,
and they learn the hard way
that they're not ready to grow up just yet
without their mentor, sensei,
and father by their side,
and this message extends
to the idea of the family
one chooses as well.
April O'Neal and Casey Jones are accepted
into the turtles' family with open arms.
Even punk-ass Danny learns
that the family you choose
should not be one filled
with murderous ninjas.
The scene where Casey Jones scolds
future Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell
for thinking of the Foot Clan as a family
is one of my favorite scenes in the movie.
It just hits like a sledgehammer
every time I watch it.
- We're a family.
- Family, is that what you said, family?
You call this here and
that down there family?
- God, just everything about
this movie works so well.
Even its flaws work in favor of the movie.
Yes, the whole thing is very dimly lit,
but it creates this very
unique atmosphere to the film.
It doesn't make the film
look like a cartoon.
It's funny sure, but it
shows that the filmmakers
are taking this source material,
taking this property seriously.
They wanna make a serious film
out of this ridiculous concept, and yes,
the turtle costumes are falling apart
in a couple of scenes, but you know what?
They still look incredible.
You believe that a six-foot-tall
turtle is standing there
talking to actual human beings.
The work Jim Henson and
his crew did on this film
really is nothing short of amazing.
It really does say something
about the craftsmanship
of Jim Henson and his creature shop that,
of the five live action Ninja Turtle films
that there have been,
the turtles only looked
even remotely good in
the two that Jim Henson's
creature shop actually worked on.
All the rest really do look like crap,
even the two featuring
state-of-the-art CGI.
(sighs) God, I haven't
even gotten into how much
the music slaps in this
movie complementing
the dramatic elements with the more
comedic fun scenes perfectly.
Haven't even gotten
into how all the actors
are giving 100% to a
movie that they could have
easily have given 25% to.
Judith Hoag and Elias Koteas
have gone on to star in other,
more dramatic, serious
things, and their acting
is just as good in Ninja Turtles as it is
in future projects, and for my money,
the voice actors of the
Ninja Turtles, Splinter,
and Shredder are the definitive
voices for these characters.
Sure, we all loved Uncle
Phil on the animated series,
and he's good, but
hearing David McCharen's
menacing performance
really is something else,
and he delivers the
second-best I am your father
in movie history.
- I am your father.
- It's a movie clearly
made with a lot of love
and care and attention to detail.
It's a shame that future
movies in this series
don't really match the same passion
that this first film had.
The sequel, 1991's "Secret of the Ooze,"
is technically a better-made film.
It's got better costumes,
better sets, better lighting.
You can see everything
in the film this time,
but it leans too far towards
the cartoonish aspect
of the turtles in all the wrong ways,
and the third film, despite
having a great concept,
often felt much cheaper and shallower
than the original film did.
I don't hate Turtles Two or Turtles Three.
I kinda like them in a lot of ways,
but they're just not the first movie,
not by a long shot, and of course,
the less said about the two
Michael Bay-produced films,
the better, especially the first movie.
The first movie was made clearly by people
who had no idea what the
Ninja Turtles were all about,
and the second film looked
like it was made by people
who were trying to
overcompensate for that fact.
The 2007 animated film though
is actually pretty good.
I'd recommend watching
that if you missed that.
Overall, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"
is a classic movie, an
undisputed gem of a film
within the comic book genre,
or really, any movie genre.
It deserves to be talked
about in the same breath
as other classic comic book
films like "Spider-Man 2,"
Richard Donner's "Superman,"
and "The Dark Knight."
It's not perfect.
I would hesitate to even
call it a masterpiece,
but it is hands-down one of
the best comic book films
ever made, and not just for
Ninja Turtles fans either.
Fans of just good action
movies with likable characters
will enjoy something about this film.
Hell, they would just
enjoy the whole thing.
It's just, it's that good of a movie.
Cowabunga indeed.
Of course, what are your thoughts
on the original Ninja Turtles movie?
Do you remember it fondly?
What are some of your favorite
moments from the film,
or do you think I'm just
being a hyperbolic lunatic?
Let me know down below or
anywhere on the internet.
It's honestly not just nostalgia talking.
I honestly believe that the
original Ninja Turtles film
is one of the best comic
book movies ever made.
Do I dare say it's better
than all of the MCU films?
Yes, yes I do dare.
Incidentally, this is another
movie much like Batman '89
that I can recite from memory verbatim,
but I'm not gonna do that today.
I'm just too tired to
go through with that.
(upbeat techno music)
Are you crazy?
Yeah Leo, I'm crazy, okay, I'm looney.
Why?
Why, why-o, I don't know.
I thought about redecorating, you know.
A couple of throw pillows,
a TV news reporter,
what do you think?
I need help.
The movie is currently
streaming on Netflix
at the time of this recording along with
"Secret of the Ooze" and
the '07 animated film,
not the third film for some reason,
so you do have easy access to go watch it
if you wanna watch it again or
watch it for the first time.
If you wanna actually
own the film on blu-ray,
there's an Amazon affiliate
link in the description below
to the film by itself
and the original trilogy
because why not own them all?
Still waiting for a 4K
re-release of the movie though.
I would buy that in a heartbeat.
I do own the 25th
anniversary collector's set.
It includes the original trilogy
and the '07 animated film.
They don't make this any
more, and that's a shame
'cause this probably is
the best version to get
of the classic series.
Even comes with an awesome
beanie that I wear sometimes.
And of course, don't forget
that we have new videos
on this channel every single
Tuesday and Wednesday,
with Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern
being Wulff Den Live, so
subscribe to see all of that,
like this video, and
share it with a friend,
a friend who does not enjoy
penicillin on their pizza,
and if they don't get that reference,
they're not your friend any more,
and if you don't get that reference,
go watch Ninja Turtles right
now and fix that problem.
Thank you all for watching.
I will see you next time.
Wash your hands.
(upbeat techno music)
