Cowabunga.
Hm?
Huh?
Cowabunga!
The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
is one of the finest comic book adaptations ever produced.
It has complex characters, real weight to its narrative,
and murky cinematography steeped in atmosphere.
And the sequel has this.
Around the world!
And this begs the question, where did the Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles go wrong?
But before we get started, be sure to like
and subscribe to Nerdstalgic if you haven't done so already.
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.
After ushering in the black and white explosion
movement in comics, the four turtles
set their sights on Hollywood.
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.
But there was one mountain left to climb, a live action feature
film.
Despite being a juggernaut in the Saturday morning slot,
the live action version of our favorite heroes in a half shell
actually had a very circuitous road to the big screen.
After going through multiple directors,
the main issue preventing New York's finest
anthropomorphized ninjas from making their debut
seemed to be that no one could agree
on what the tone and demographic of the film should be.
New Line execs seemed to be consistently
changing their minds on if the film was for kids.
Was the film for adults?
Or was it a teenager's matinee fare?
This was largely due to the dual fact
that the comics were created for an older audience,
and the animated TV show was aimed at a much younger
demographic.
Thus, making two distinct paths forward.
Well, Steve Barron, known at the time
for directing Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean" music video,
would prove to be instrumental in this.
He was the one who made many of the key decisions that
propelled the film into being a cultural phenomenon.
In an early production meeting between Eastman, Laird, Barron,
and the writers, Barron had a collected edition of the comics
with post-it notes splayed throughout it.
He then re-pitched the idea of making the movie more
gritty and grounded, like the original self-published comics,
instead of the glossy, more child-friendly cartoons that
were so popular at the time.
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 $200 million worldwide
during its theatrical run, and then pulled
in even more money on VHS sales, one of the first movies
to do so.
Barron was also obviously instrumental
in casting the movie, which featured
a great mixture of new, fresh faces and established stars.
For the turtles themselves, Brian Tochi
was cast as Leonardo, Josh Pais for Raphael,
Corey Feldman as Donatello, and Robbie Rist as Michelangelo.
And, of course, the imitable Judith Hoag
as April O'Neil, and Elias Koteas
as everyone's favorite hockey stick wielding
vigilante, Casey Jones.
However, before everyone could enjoy the success of the film,
boycotts happened.
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.
This widespread controversy caused New Line Cinema
to do, well, a few things.
They fired Steve Barron.
They did not invite him back for the already in-development
sequel, not wanting the media blow back, but wanting
to quickly cash in on the success of the first TMNT.
It was quickly decided that this film would be explicitly
for younger children, and have a much more
approachable visual aesthetic.
New Line hired director, Michael Pressman,
to oversee the project.
He was primarily a TV director, and this aesthetic
is clearly evident in the finished film.
Yeah, April?
It's Mikey.
I'd just like to say, hello.
[KISSING NOISES]
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.
The budget of the project was doubled, but the rush in time
had the expected results.
Ninja cowboy!
For some bizarre reason, a large portion of the film's budget
was put toward music licensing rights,
with an even more bizarre decision of commissioning
Vanilla Ice to create an original song
and cameo in the film.
Ninja rap, baby.
Ninja rap.
Paige Turco replaced Judith Hoag as April,
Casey Jones was not included at all.
And both Corey Feldman, the voice of Donatello,
and Josh Pais, the voice of Raphael,
did not return for the film.
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's film, so he was not invited back.
Pais, on the other hand, who acts
as both Raph's voice and his suit actor in the first film,
has never gone on record saying why he didn't return.
Fans have speculated he didn't return because he suffers
from claustrophobia, and wearing the costume was hard on him.
Debuting on March 22nd, 1991, a mere seven months
after the original film, it generated only roughly $100
million worldwide.
While a sizable haul, it was only half
of its predecessor's accomplishments.
The film was also lambasted by both critics and the fan
community.
It was perceived as being too immature
and had a distinctly flat visual style.
Ultimately, this proved to be a pivotal moment that
would define the live action Turtles
franchise moving forward.
By discarding Steve Barron and many of the original cast
members, the franchise completely lost its way.
It lost what made it special, not only from the other films,
but from other team and team merchandise that
would be produced at the time.
With the cartoon show lasting 10 seasons,
finally wrapping up in the fall of 1996,
multiple successful video games and an army
of action figures, the mature themes and elevated execution
is what set the live action Turtles apart.
However, after the bumble of Secret of The Ooze,
New Line Cinema opted to double down and release Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles III in March of 1993.
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.
This time, the Turtles feature film
would capitalize off of a streamlined adaptation
of the highly popular Turtles video game, Turtles In Time.
Overall, the film attempted to split
the tone between the first two.
And ultimately, just failed.
It was met with widely negative feedback,
and grossed only $54.4 million worldwide.
It was here that New Line decided
to pull the plug on any further live action Turtles films.
Now, there were plans for a fourth TMNT film titled,
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles The Foot Walks Again,
that was rumored to have introduced
a fifth turtle, code-named Kirby,
after the comic book illustrator and Marvel Universe
creator, Jack Kirby.
Three drafts of this script are known to exist.
But obviously, that never happened.
However the idea of a fifth turtle
wouldn't make it into the TV show, The Next Mutation.
But, the less said about that, the better.
Let the Turtles be as one.
Uh-oh, magic overload!
Ultimately, TMNT had a meteoric rise
to the top of global culture.
From a self-published black and white comic book,
to taking the world by storm in just a few short years.
It's a once in a lifetime accomplishment
for everyone involved.
However, if the other New Line executives
had been better able to see the cultural landscape,
the Turtles might have had a much longer run
with the original franchise.
And really, the decision to discard
the vital creative elements that Steve Barron,
the original cast, and the truest execution of Eastman
and Laird's creative vision, proved
to be a fatal one for the longevity
of the initial theatrical franchise.
Even just the misstep of not bringing back Barron
to direct part two after the runaway success
that the first one had proved to be,
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,
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,
and true to the immersive reality in the first film
that fans fell in love with in the first place.
Secret of The Ooze literally doesn't even
tell you what the secret of the ooze actually is.
That's how poorly thought and phoned-in it is.
Even the most recent attempt at making Turtles,
the Michael Bay produced CGI mess,
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?
This is not what we're here for.
These films had like 10 times the budget
of Barron's TMNT films, and they had about 10%
of the energy and mystique.
[BEAT BOXING]
If you're out here looking for new Turtles material,
the real answer is IDW's long-running comics.
Sophie Campbell's run on the book has been great.
The whole mutant town era is fantastic.
Jennika, the new fifth turtle, is super cool.
Or even the Turtles getting their own Days
of Future-past-esque story line, Last Ronin.
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, they learned the right lessons.
Don't use weird CGI Turtles with lips,
and have actual rubber suits yelling, cowabunga dude.
Cowabunga!
And well, that's it for this one.
What do you think?
Should Tokka and Rahzar have just been Bebop and Rocksteady?
Did they return to shredder in the foot too soon?
Have you seen Casey Jones: The Movie?
Let us know your thoughts down below.
And as always, please like and subscribe
for more videos like this from Nerdstalgic.