When I was a kid, I was a massive fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. I couldn’t be happier that it was getting a movie like the Transformers got a few years earlier. But nothing could have prepared me for the fact that it would be live-freakin’-action! Using suits created by the Jim Henson’s Creature Shop, each of the turtles could move their mouths and eyes in perfect mimicry of the cartoon. The commercials made it look like the turtles had come to life, and I could not wait to see it.
I ended up watching the movie twice in theaters – the first time with friends and the second during a field trip in school. I was in heaven both times. The suits looked so good, so much detail. The fluidity in the movements was so impressive. Splinter looked amazing, even though he couldn’t move around as much being more of a puppet than the actors in the turtles’ costume, he still looked alive.
But the action? Oh, man, that’s where it was at. Every fight scene was better than anything we saw in the cartoon. Raph got his butt kicked by dozens of Foot soldiers right before a big showdown that ended with April’s place burning down. And finally, when the Shredder shows up, dropping slo-mo onto the roof - that has to be one of the coolest villain intros of all time (they even replicated it in the Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie). He stomps all the Turtles and almost kills Leonardo, only for Splinter to show up and save the day. I was probably crying at that point.
I still hold the movie on a pedestal to this day. Even though more films have come out - two with the same or similar suits, two with pretty atrocious CGI characters, and the last one fully animated - nothing has quite topped the original for me. So, when the first movie came back to theaters for a special engagement, I couldn’t miss it. Even better, it was a chance to see it with my family – my wife, almost as nerdy as I am and a big fan of TMNT, and my 9-year-old son. He knew of the cartoon and the characters, but mostly because of me talking about it. He did watch Mutant Mayhem, the most recent movie, and did enjoy that, so I thought it would be great to see what he thought of the original. I picked out the TMNT shirt I bought for him, and we headed to the theater.
Watching the movie again in theaters 35 years later, I felt like a kid once more. I still got excited at the fight scenes and laughed at the same jokes I did back then. After having seen decades of special effects and computer animation, I appreciated the suits more than ever before. It also made me reevaluate Judith’s turn as April – as a preteen boy, I didn’t like the fact that she looked so different from the cartoon’s design, but watching her as an adult, I found she had great charisma in the role. Even after seeing the actor’s mouth in the back of the turtle's throat, I still loved this movie as much as I ever have.
The movie ended, and I turned to my son to get his opinion. He liked the action and the humor but thought the turtles - and I quote – looked like puke. He didn’t like the texture of the suits, the realism of them. At a few points, the movie was loud enough for him to cover his ears, which also ruined the experience for him a bit. I thought it was too loud at times as well, so it might have been the theater and not the movie itself. Overall, he said he enjoyed Mutant Mayhem more, and I can respect that – I loved that movie, too.
Did he have a good time? Yeah. Do I think he’ll want to go watch The Secret of the Ooze next year? That’s a toss-up, but I know I’ll be there.
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