Review for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie Collection

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was everywhere in the 1980s and early 1990s. It was a cartoon, a comic, toys, breakfast cereals, pizzas. You name it, they had their faces on it. Everyone knew their names and in a way many kids discovered four classical artists based on them alone: Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael.

With their huge success it was only natural that someone would make a movie out of it. That they did, with the cinema debut of the Turtles in 1990, followed by two sequels Secret of the Ooze in 1991 and Turtles in Time in 1993. For the first time they are all brought together in one boxset and you would think that being the twentieth anniversary of the last one and the upcoming Michael Bay CGI-fest that this would be a set that celebrates the old films. Oh wrong. So so, wrong!

First up the set includes all three films and they all look great, these do appear to be the full cuts and not the ludicrous BBFC take out all the nunchukas including the sausage on string that might be nunchukas scene. Looking back it is amazing what Jim Henson's company who created the costumes were able to do in the early 90s. It is actually surprising that they did not get nominated for make-up or effects (as the team had done on other films like Bigfoot and the Hendersons) but maybe because of the kid-friendly nature of the film it sunk under the Academy's radar. That being said, the original film was a huge success

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles explains the origins of the Turtles and their Master Splinter as well as showing the origin of Shredder. It does differ slightly from the cartoon and comic, but that can be expected. With reporter April O'Neil (Judith Hoag) investigating a slew of crimes from a gang known as The Foot who are recruiting delinquent kids (including a young Sam Rockwell?!) to steal anything and use martial arts to strike fear in New York. Attacked, April is saved by the Turtles who then reveal who they are. Obviously, shocked at first she forms an attachment with them, mainly through offering them pizza.

Attacked, kidnapping Splinter and leaving Raphael for dead, the Turtles regroup with new ally Casey Jones (Elias Koteas) and they come back stronger than ever to fight the evil Shredder and the gang.

The first film is a lot darker than I remember it and because of that some of the action and comedy does not mix well. Sadly, it is this reason why the two other films are so goofy. However, the action scenes are well choreographed and though you could argue that in this CGI/Wire-work world that it is a little primitive it serves its purpose. Enjoyable and certainly the best of the three, it does feel a lot more grown up and you may consider watching it first before you allow any smaller children to watch it.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Secret of the Ooze is a mess of a movie. If you break it down it is literally two or three scenes stretched out over 90 minutes. Shredder is back and discovers the Ooze that transformed the Turtles. Using it he creates two mutant henchmen Tokka and Rahzar who the Turtles fight a number of times including a bizarre scene with Vanilla Ice (Remember him?) singing a song about NInjas (how convenient that he had a song all ready?). This leads to a confrontation with a Super Shredder after he has used the Ooze and a final, pointless battle ensues.

This film is awful. It is painfully bad. I would say that it is unwatchable, but it does at least recast April with the much hotter Paige Turco. The problem with the film is that the people who made it obviously took the 'first film is too violent' to heart and made this film so devoid of violence that it made the fight scenes pointless. The Turtles very rarely use their weapons and in one scene even use a foam bat, rather than the sword or any other weapon they had. This also includes the ludicrous scene of Michelangelo swinging sausages as nunchukas, rather than his actual nunchukas??

If you can excuse all that, the film is just dumb fun, aimed at kids. More one liners than James Bond and just full of ludicrous moments that makes you understand why it made less than the first one. If it ain't broke don't fix it.

Finally, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Turtles in Time is possibly the worst of the three. But I can't blame them for trying. Having seen the reviews that said 'aimed too much for kids' I feel like the writers went 'what do you want from us? too dark? too kid friendly? make your minds up?' This film follows the Turtles, who thanks to April are transported back in time to 17th Century Japan. This is never really explained, other than magic staff creates time warp which replaces someone from their time with you. If you can accept that then that's fine. At first it seemed to almost get it right with the return of Casey Jones who they then promptly waste in being the babysitter for all the Japanese warriors who are flung into the future.

The Turtles then spend the rest of the movie not doing much. Getting into hijinks, trying to make pizza and trying to fight off the evil Walker or Lord Norinaga (I can't quite figure out which one was suppose to be the evil one?). It is sad, that nothing much was made out of the time travel hijinks unlike something like Back to the Future. Beyond the Turtles trying to make pizza not much else was done and so any obvious jokes, such as April's walkman being found by someone called Sony or something equally silly could have made the film a bit more interesting. Instead, they focus on the character of Whit who is played by Elias Koteas as well and how April thinks it is actually Casey.

At times, it feels like this is just a time travelling film that just happens to have the Turtles in it. The absence of The Shredder hurts it and with no other tie in to the Turtles' Universe it makes the film utterly redundant. It is almost like if they hadn't made the film it wouldn't have mattered and to be honest it is doubtful that anyone will watch this film more than once. Unlike the other two which do have their moments and even Secret of the Ooze, which is dumb still has that 'so bad it's good' feel to it at times, this film is just boring.

Of the three, you know that the first is going to be the best one, and it is. Even if it is too dark at times somehow it works and if some of the silly bits had been cut out it could have been a very strong film altogether. As a piece of nostalgia it is great and hearing some of the catchphrases and that Turtle Power song at the end reminds me of how I begged my parents for the album when I was a kid. The other two films are weak, with the third being almost unwatchable.

The lack of extras is something that really hurts this set. The main selling point being that all three are together for the first time is not so much a selling point. If I'm honest I would have preferred a two disk version of the first film with some extras, commentaries and maybe more of a look at how they created the film itself.

The extras that are included are simply just cobbled together from previous sets and this is very weak. Extras include two trailers for the first film, one each for the second and third and photo gallery for each film. On the first disk there is also a thirty minute documentary and though it does look at the creation of the original comic and the first film it is more focused on the second film and very bizarre. With so many interviews and behind the scenes featurettes that exist out there it is surprising that they were not all brought together and the fact that they couldn't find someone ANYONE to do a commentary is a missed opportunity. Even if they had brought the voice actors together for a discussion about their experiences would have been interesting.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Boxset is a one note set. If you loved the Turtles like I did as a child you will enjoy watching the first film and you may get some enjoyment out of the other two. If you are a kid new to the Turtle universe, maybe just caught on to the new series or discovered the old one then you may enjoy the films. For me this is not a set to say Cowabunga to and maybe if they had focused on the first one alone it could have been Turtley Awesome!