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Why The 90s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles HAD To Change
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Mar 31, 2025
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been entertainment icons ever since the original comics made their debut. Through countless comics, tv shows, and movies, the Heroes in a Half Shell have seen many different iterations. None more drastic than the tonal change between their first few live action movies. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continue to push themselves into new territory, but it makes you wonder how they would have been perceived if they followed the tone of the original TMNT movie.
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The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of the finest comic book adaptations ever produced
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It has complex characters, real weight to its narrative, and murky cinematography steeped in atmosphere
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And the sequel has this. And this begs the question, where did the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles go wrong
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The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in the pages of their self-published title, released May 5th, 1984
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After ushering in the black and white explosion movement in comics, the four turtles set their sights on Hollywood
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After signing a licensing deal on the back of a napkin, Eastman and Laird quickly found overwhelming success when a TV show, toy line, and video game adaptation cemented their characters as newly minted cultural phenomenons
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But there was one mountain left to climb, a live-action feature film
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Despite being a juggernaut in the Saturday morning slot, the live-action version of Our Favorite Heroes in a Half Shell
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actually had a fairy circuitous road to the big screen. After going through multiple directors
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the main issue preventing New York's finest anthropomorphized ninjas from making their debut seemed to be that no one could agree
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on what the tone and demographic of the film should be. New Line execs seemed to be consistently changing their minds
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on if the film was for kids. Was the film for adults? Was it a teenager's matinee fair
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This was largely due to the dual fact that the comics were created for an older audience
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and the animated TV show was aimed at a much younger demographic, thus making two distinct
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paths forward. While Steve Barron, known at the time for directing Michael Jackson's Billie Jean music video
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would prove to be instrumental in this, he was the one who made many of the key decisions
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that propelled the film into being a cultural phenomenon. In an early production meeting between Eastman, Laird, Barron, and the writers, Barron had
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a collected edition of the comics with post-it notes played throughout it
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He then repitched the idea of making the movie more gritty and grounded, like the original self-published comics
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instead of the glossy, more child-friendly cartoons that were so popular at the time
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Released in March of 1990 by New Line Cinema, the film went on to become the highest grossing independent film of all time until it was eventually surpassed by Blair Witch Project in 1999 It grossed over million worldwide during its theatrical run
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and then pulled in even more money on VHS sales, one of the first movies to do so
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Baron was also obviously instrumental in casting the movie, which featured a great mixture of new fresh faces and established stars
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For the Turtles themselves, Brian Tochi was cast as Leonardo, Josh Pace for Raphael, Corey Feldman as Donatello, and Robbie Rist as Michelangelo
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And of course, the admittable Judith Hoag as April O'Neil, and Elias Kodias as everyone's favorite hockey stick-wielding vigilante, Casey Jones
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However, before everyone could enjoy the success of the film, boycotts happened
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That's right, multiple parents' organizations and children's advocacy groups were upset by the dark tone of the film and the violent subject matter
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This widespread controversy caused New Line Cinema to do, well, a few things
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They fired Steve Barron. They did not invite him back for the already-in-development sequel
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not wanting the media blowback but wanting to quickly cash in on the success of the first TMNT
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who was quickly decided that this film would be explicitly for younger children
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and have a much more approachable visual aesthetic. New Line hired director Michael Pressman to oversee the project
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He was primarily a TV director and this aesthetic is clearly evident in the finished film
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Right on my dear. Yeah. April, it's Mikey. I'd just like to say, hello
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Would you give me that? The film was rushed into production with the goal of releasing a sequel only one year after the original's debut
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The budget of the project was doubled, but the rush in time had the expected results
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Ninja cowboy! For some bizarre reason, a large portion of the film's budget was put toward music licensing rights
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with an even more bizarre decision of commissioning Vanilla Ice to create an original song and cameo in the film
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Ninja rap, baby. Ninja rap. Paige Turco replaced Judith Hogue as April, Casey Jones was not included at all
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and both Corey Feldman, the voice of Donatello, and Josh Pace, the voice of Raphael, did not return for the film
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Feldman did not reprise his role due to the fact that he pleaded no contest to drug possession charges in December of 1990 This was thought to be inappropriate for an actor of a children film so he was not invited back Pace on the other hand who acts as both Roth voice and his suit
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actor in the first film, has never gone on record saying why he didn't return. Fans have speculated
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he didn't return because he suffers from claustrophobia and wearing the costume was hard on
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him. Debuting on March 22, 1991, a mere seven months after the original film, it generated only
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roughly $100 million worldwide. While a sizable haul, it was only half of its predecessor's accomplishments
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The film was also lambasted by both critics and the fan community. It was perceived as being too immature
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and had a distinctly flat visual style. Ultimately, this proved to be a pivotal moment
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that would define the live-action Turtles franchise moving forward. By discarding Steve Barron
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and many of the original cast members, the franchise completely lost its way
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It lost what made it special, not only from the other films, but from other team-in-team merchandise that would be produced at the time
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With the cartoon show lasting 10 seasons finally wrapping up in the fall of 1996
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multiple successful video games and an army of action figures, the mature themes and elevated execution were what set the live-action Turtles apart
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However, after the bumble of Secret of the Ooze, New Line Cinema opted to double down and release Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3 in March of 1993
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At the time, this was New Line's release strategy. They used the same churn-em-out approach that other franchises had, like Nightmare on Elm Street
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This time, the Turtles feature film would capitalize off of a streamlined adaptation of the highly popular Turtles video game, Turtles in Time
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Overall, the film attempted to split the tone between the first two, and ultimately just failed
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It was met with widely negative feedback and grossed only $54.4 million worldwide
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It was here that New Line decided to pull the plug on any further live-action Turtles films
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Now, there were plans for a fourth TMNT film, titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Foot Walks Again
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that was rumored to have introduced a fifth turtle, codenamed Kirby, after the comic book illustrator and Marvel Universe creator Jack Kirby
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Three drafts of this script are known to exist, but obviously, that never happened
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However the idea of a fifth turtle wouldn make it into the TV show The Next Mutation but the less said about that the better Ultimately TMNT had a meteoric rise to
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the top of global culture, from a self-published black and white comic book to taking the world by
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storm in just a few short years. It's a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment for everyone involved
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However, if the other New Line executives had been better able to see the cultural landscape
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the Turtles might have had a much longer run with the original franchise
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And really, the decision to discard the vital creative elements that Steve Barron
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the original cast, and the truest execution of Eastman and Laird's creative vision
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proved to be a fatal one for the longevity of the initial theatrical franchise
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Even just the misstep of not bringing back Barron to direct Part 2 after the runaway success that the first one had proved to be
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just underscores the ineptitude of New Line at the time. Let's consider for a second if a slightly more sanitized, all-ages tone had been given to Barron
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Wouldn't he have still been the person to bring the new Turtles film to life? In his hands, it would have felt cinematic and lived in
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and true to the immersive reality in the first film that fans fell in love with in the first place
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Secret of the Ooze literally doesn't even tell you what the secret of the Ooze actually is
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That's how poorly thought and phoned in it is. Even the most recent attempt at making Turtles, the Michael Bay-produced CGI mess
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couldn't get the delicate balance of the heroes in A Half Shell right. How many times are we going to do weird Megan Fox butt shots, guys
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This is not what we're here for. These films had like 10 times the budget of Baron's TMNT films
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and they had about 10% of the energy and mystique. If you're out here looking for new Turtles material
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the real answer is IDW's long-running comics. Sophie Campbell's run on the book has been great
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The whole Mutant Town era is fantastic. Jenica, the new fifth turtle, is super cool
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Or even the turtles getting their own Days of Future Past-esque storyline, Last Ronin
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But the past is the past, and we can't do anything to change it. Fingers crossed the next time the inevitable Turtles big screen reboot happens
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they learn the right lessons. Don't use weird CGI turtles with lips
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and have actual rubber suits yelling Cowabunga, dude
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