TMNT - 22 Years Later

Heroes in a Halfshell

Last night I had the opportunity to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - the original film released in 1990 by Golden Harvest - on the big screen. The last time I'd had that opportunity was way back around March/April 1990 when the film was first released.

I won't go into too much detail, but when I was a kid, I was slightly obsessed with the Ninja Turtles. Most kids were. I watched the TV show constantly, played with the action figures and video games, and then here comes along the live-action movie.

My mom always recollects the first time I saw them on screen. She said my eyes practically popped out of my head. I don't remember the experience fully - I was 7 - but I do recall the first time I realized Raphael (my fave Turtle) cussed on screen. He had already said "damn" twice previously, but right after he fights Casey Jones and Casey gets away, he lets out a really violent yell of, "DAMN!" as the camera cuts to New York City from above; I near crapped myself.

Anyway, getting to see the movie again last night was a real treat. My fiancée and I made sure to get there a little early to get a good seat. There were so many people! And a lot of them were serious turtle fans. Three girls were dressed up as their favourite Turtles (Leo was missing); there were multiple fans in t-shirts and memorabilia. It was really cool.

Unfortunately, most of the people there were pretty young. Like, late-teens, early-20s age-range. It was surprising to me at first, because I knew most of them wouldn't have been old enough to see the movie when it first came out, let alone alive at the time, but I thought, "I'm sure they saw it at some point over the years."

I don't want to rag on the whole showing, because honestly it was overall a great experience, but the one major complaint I had was the younger crowd's reactions. They were definitely excited to be there. When the title card hit the screen everyone cheered and clapped, at the end when all the Turtles yelled, "Cowabunga," and Splinter "made a funny", everyone clapped and stood; it was pretty awesome.

The issue was that they also laughed their holes off for the majority of the movie. In the scene where Splinter explains their mysterious origins to April O'Neil and when he's telling Danny about his history with Oroko Saki, the whole theatre was in hysterics.

If that wasn't bad enough, when April is doing her monologue and drawing the Turtles at her farmhouse most of the theatre was losing it laughing. I really didn't get this one. When were leaving, I even heard some kid saying, "I can't believe they had an inner monologue! That was so funny." When did that become hilarious? Isn't that in movies still?

Also, during that same scene, when she's explaining Leonardo watching over Raphael, the whole place turned into a comedy show. I mean, they exploded. I was thinking, "What is so friggin' funny?" They certainly didn't laugh like that at Donatello's jokes. The final straw was when the four brothers commune together and speak to Splinter, a pretty heart-breaking scene. You could barely hear Splinter's speech about how his sons finally mastered their minds and become true ninja, and that he loved them.

It was seriously pathetic.

I get that the movie and it's methods are a little dated and I guess I expected some laughter at the suits, but this was a pain. And I mean, what did they want/expect? Would they rather CGI? Is it a generational thing that that looks good to some people? I think it looks like crap. I'd much rather the costumes. Also, they realized they walked into a 22 year old movie, right?

Anyway, like I said, it sounds like I'm really pissed about this, but more like mildly annoyed. I still really loved getting the chance to see the movie again. I just wish that more people could've been on-board with my sentiments and tried to enjoy the movie for what it is.

This getting old thing is for the birds,
RyHo