Customer Reviews

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - The Original Movie [VHS]

5 star:		(87)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I have always been a fan of the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" cartoons at a very young age. I have a lot of the episodes on tape and love to still watch them. I had heard that there were three non-animation movies out on the series but was never really compelled to see them. But the other day while at the video rental store, I decided to rent all three out. And what a surprise I got when I saw the first film for I actually enjoyed and loved watching it!

15 years have passed since a rat named Splinter (Kevin Clash) found four baby turtles in a puddle of ooze in the sewers. Because of the contact with the ooze, Splinter and the four turtles became mutants. Naming them after Renaissance artists, Leonardo (David Forman), Raphael (Josh Pais), Michaelangelo (Michelan Sisti), and Donatello (Leif Tilden), Splinter teaches them the ancient secret art of fighting. When the mysterious evil Shredder James Saito organizes the Foot Clan formed of young teenagers, causing the city to be in uproar because of vandalism. With the help of reporter April O'Neil (Judith Hoag) and former athlete Casey Jones (Elias Koteas), it's up to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to save the day!

The movie has an interesting story-line if not extremely cheesy and corny but hey, that's how the original cartoons were! In fact, I would have found the movie unlikable if it hadn't contained some of the cartoon aspects of the original series. Also a lot of interesting facts are revealed like how Splinter's past is related to Shredder and the beginnings of the turtles.

Comparing the movie to the series, I was a bit surprised to find that movie usually centers on the character of Raphael. His character is a bit different from the series, a bit more hot-tempered, impatient, and more of a loner. Leonardo is still the leader, Donatello doesn't get much chance to work with gadgets and computers, and Michaelangelo... well... he's still his usual likable self! April O'Neal is also working for Channel 3 news instead of Channel 6 News. The adding of Elias Koteas as Casey Jones was an interesting thread to insert for he was a fun and likable guy.

The martial arts and fighting were well choreographed and was enjoyable to watch. I especially liked the fight at April's place, the end fight with the Foot, and the last fight with Shredder. The movie is also sprinkled from beginning to end with funny parts, quotable lines, and humor. Jim Henson should also get credit for doing an incredible job with the turtles and Splinter.

To sum of the movie, whether you are or aren't a turtles fan, I highly recommend this movie! Lots of fun and great entertainment, it's terrific for the family. The movie is rated PG because of some language, the fighting, and since it has some dark moments. I also recommend the next two "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" movies. The second one, "The Secret of the Ooze" is my personal favorite of the three.

Back in about 1988, a phenomenon erupted. Nobody knew exactly what was so cool about this phenomenon, but every kid in the country had to have the figures, video games, board games, Halloween costumes, etc. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have unfortunately grown old, briefly resurrected by an unwelcome live-action Fox Kids television program a few years ago. But, oh, during the turtle hype... what a glorious time for kids it was. And when their first feature length film came out, kids dragged their parents to go see it. The kids (myself included) naturally loved the film. It was the hot topic during lunchtime in the school cafeteria. The Turtles were dominating EVERYTHING...

Ten years later, for me at least, the film is still as entertaining as ever. When I first saw it, I couldn't have cared any less about the script or plot. I just wanted to see the four boys in action. Yet watching it now, I'm impressed at how well-made it actually is (the lighting, in particular). Is it technically five-star material? I think so. Some would disagree, but you simply can't down a franchise that you grew up with. And you can't expect a 40 year old movie critic to rave about the movie when he has no idea where it's derived from.

What shocks me the most is how people talk about how bad the script is. I'm now 19 years old, and some parts of this movie had me cracking up. ("The only thing safe in the woods... would be the trees!") And it's not just the humor, either. The dramatic elements in the movie are much more tense and involving than they have any right to be.

The bottom line is that this film is VASTLY underrated. And people shouldn't down it just because it was loved by millions of kids across the globe. If you ask me, children have the upper hand when it comes to watching a movie. They want nothing more than to be entertained, and are less demanding than adults are. Give the movie a shot and don't be such a prude. If you're expecting a "kiddie" movie sprinkled in abundance with watered-down action and stupid dialogue, then you're in for a big suprise. This is one of the moodiest PG movies I've ever seen.

"I have always liked... 'Cowabunga.'"

Ahh, the memories, The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles hitting the big screen back in 1990. I was so excited to go see it. I thought it was a great movie at the time, and still enjoy watching from time to time. TMNT stars Judith Hoag as April O'Neal, Elias Koteas as Casey Jones, and Corey Feldmen as the voice of Donatello.
The story takes place in New York, where a popular television reporter, April O'Neal, reports of recent rise in crime which she believes there is more to it then what the police department is saying. Of course, the people doing the crime want her to shut up. They are The Shredder and his group of ninjas called The Foot. During an attack by The Foot, April O'Neal is rescued by one of the turtles and taken to the turtles home. Soon Splinter, the turtles master, is kidnapped and they meet another ally, Casey Jones, who helps to rescue Splinter.
Most critics will write Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles off as a terrible movie. They always do when it's a movie directed towards the young (with Disney Animated features being the exception). It may be no Citzen Cane, then again, it isn't trying to be. More people like it then is willing to admit it, I guarantee that. GRADE: B+

TMNT - The movie!!!
this is the best movie with turtles in it... really its a truely a classic for its genre. I loved the cartoon and watching the movie was an even better experience. This film has a great story, characters, action, and turtles what more can you ask(no don't even think about it). One particular aspect I loved about the film and was so glad that they did it and did a superb job at it too... was the themes of master and student, of unity. The loyalty, the friendship, the value of ethic and code of honor( also the father and son thing and it adds depth to the emotional level). Its not an easy task to tackle these deep and meaningful issues but when done properly it elevates a films to a greater film...this film could have easily just been a action flick, ass kicking turtle to entertain the kids but it didn't and i am soo glad it didn't... It goes to show what good film makers can do to even the simplest stories...thats why TMNT the original movie is one of my old time favrioutes...

Lets examine the tutles, those wonderful green characters of the film... each has their own personality, thoughts, feelings, and styles but all are discplined under one master splinter, he is as much a master as a father to the turtles and looks forward to the day his sons learns the true art of fighting and true value of each and others. The film is clever in the sense its very well balanced for example you have your heroes, the turtles but you also have your non believer which is april who later became a close friend of the turtles, again you have turtles who fights the bad guys but the turtles have limitations and they are binded to the code of honor hence introduced cassy john an independent crime fighter who believe in taking justice in his own hand and has no limitation to what he can do... so you have a clever mix of characters that balances out all the bump of the film...

another aspect of the film looks at the struggle of a leadership in the turtle 4some team where raphel is stubborn and independent whereas lenoardo seems to be the natural leader but he's more cautious and more of a team player but in the end they both recongnise the power and strength of ONE... ofcos this also indicates that our turtle heores goes through a learning curve and matures into the heroes in the end.

There are plenty of memoriable bits in this film and i will try to list some of them... the most memorable for me was the scene when leonardo and the others rescue raphel and has retreat back to april's country cottage and lenoardo is sitting on the chair nurturing raphel and april takes the time to draw leo that was the moment that send me in tears, the next bit is when cassey john and april heats up i like this scene cos its a nice change and it really ease the pace of the film giving it warmth... next scene is when the 4 turtles trains hard and sits together and meditate then establish a mental connection with splinter and splinters tell he loves all of his sons(turtles) that send me in tears again... the final fight scene with shradder and shradder captures one of the turtle and forces the others to lose their weapons, further re-enforce the bonds they have for one another... and then splinter shows up and uses one of the nun chunk to send shradder to his pitful end in the dump that bit send me cheering! yeah!!!! plus i love the beginning scene when we are first introduced to the turtles, mic dancing to the music and raphel is so much more mature. April meeting the turtles is a great scene too... hmmm i think i am listing all the movie here you guys know what i mean....

what can i say Turtles rocks! big time !!!

i give a 5 / 5 stars cos 4 for each of the turtles and 1 more for its great entainment value...

cowabunga!!!

I watched this when i was little, and i am so glad to own it on dvd now. This movie is what inspired my lifelong habit of eating as much pizza as i can. When i was little everytime we ordered a pizza i would bring out this movie and stick it in the vcr. My parents, and grandparents never really complained, as the must have seen it hundreds of times already. But it never got old. This movie is everlasting, so what are you waiting for order a pizza and put on the movie. You wont be dissapointed.

P.S. Beware people who dont like all those 80's & 90's words (Radical, Dude, Righteous etc..)Watch out because that is how they talk.

P.S.S. This movie is also why my favorite color is green. I guess you can say this movie inspired a piece or two of my life. Pizza and green, and whatever else i might not realise.

P.S.S.S. I know reviews are suppose to be about the actual thing, but seeing as this is my favorite i cannot say how much i like it without explaining the whole story.

I have to say i give the crew behind TMNT a lot of credit, dealing with the low budget they had, and able to create the wonderful costumes for the turtles. I'm not good with the names of the people in the costumes but i have to say, they are truly talented in the 3 movies in this series. This movie does seem to slow down in the middle of it, but the fight scenes are amazing. A lot of great directed shots by Steve Barron, this is probably one of his best. With the low budget they had, they were limited on set design, which is noticeable, do to the fact, that some of the shots are actually from New York, and the house that they are in after there first encounter with The Foot is a real house. As we can all tell, the costumes probably took a great deal of percentage out of the 13 million dollar budget. But overall, this movie is just plain fun, and great adventure.

The success of the immensly popular kids show "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" lead, of course, to a live-action movie. Obviuosly most of theater flockers would be the millions of saturday morning kiddies who love the cartoon, but the producers didn't want to forget those whose support of the original grittier version of TMNT (in the b&w comix) that spawned the toys and the cartoon in the 1st place. So they decided to mesh the two. (Aside from new characters created exclusively for the film) only characters from the original comix were used: the TMNT, Shredder, April, Casey, Splinter. No Krang, Technodrome, Dimension X, Rocksteady & Bebop or footbots. (However April is still a reporter though.) But it was done in the style of the cartoon; lots of joking around, lots of pizza munching and even multi-colored bandanas and pupils were given to the turtles. But none of it is done to the point where a fan of the comix couldn't stand it, actually most of it is quite funny. The plot was even based upon the original comix following TMNT vol. 1 #1, Raphael #1 (loosely), Leonardo #1 (very loosely), TMNT #10, 11 and 19-21 (Return to New York). Of course some editing is done to adapt all of these comix into a 100m film and I must say it's done quite well, still us true TMNT fans await a cartoon or film adaptation based ONLY upon the original comix, but hey this is good too. Also, Jim Henson's Turtle costumes were wonderful.

What an interesting film this remains, even to this day. I'm happy to see it's been released on DVD. It deserves it. What has always struck me most about this film is how incredibly dark and violent it was for a PG movie geared towards children. The best way to describe this movie and it's lame watered down sequels, is well, think of Batman and it's sequels. You've got the first two Batman movies directed by Tim Burton. Both were very dark and serious movies for what they were based on(a guy flying around the city dressed as a bat), that came across quite well with adults and in turn were a huge a success. Then you have the Hollywoody sequels designed for 8 year old kids, most notably "Batman and Robin"(i'll admit "batman forever" was still pretty good, mostly because of jim carrey's performance). The first Ninja Turtle movie is very dark and dramatized with a surprising amount of character depth. The reason for this I believe is because this movie is based on the true origin of the Ninja Turtles, a comic book, which in turn was designed for young adults, not kids. The sequels on the other hand seem to mimic the morning cartoon show that's for 5-10 year olds. I've watched this movie recently and I find it to be a better film than when I first saw it in the theatre. Which is strange because I'm 10 years older now, which further proves my point that it's strangely good for adults. The music, dark production, the fantastic costumes, and drama are really well done, despite what some ignorant critics may say. I assure you this is a movie that can be enjoyed by people over the age of 13. I encourage anyone who hasn't seen it to at least go rent it. I know the fact that it's a movie about mutated turtles who live in the sewers, eat pizza and perform martial arts seems incredibly stupid and in concept it is. But the surprisingly serious and dark tone of the film and how well the whole thing was made really does it make it an enjoyable movie, even for adults. Just watch it with an open mind and you might find yourself actually liking it. And if you do like it and decide you wanna see the sequels as a result of that, DON'T! The second movie, despite trying to still appeal to adults, falls flat on it's butt for the most part. It just couldn't help but succumb to Hollywood's desire to water down something good and appeal to younger age groups. The film is somewhat decent at best. The turtles do a rap with Vanilla Ice in it for gods sake!!! Need I say more? And don't even get me started on the third film. What a piece of garbage that is.

So I dare anyone who hasn't seen the movie, regardless of your age, to go rent it and watch the entire thing with an open mind.

Easily one of my favorite movies of all time. The turtles, and especially Splinters costumes look terrific, and I love watching today,just as much as I did back then. I've had this movie on VHS for 15 years now, or since it came out on tape, so maybe 14. Its the oldest movie I have on tape. Not the oldest movie by year, but its the movie I had on tape the longest. And still do. I bought the dvd which is great but I'm so disappointed there are no extras. For a movie like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you should definately have extras. Behind the scenes footage, bloopers, the making of it, retrospective, cast interveiws, commentary, by actors or director, this movie should have it all, and it doesn't. A special two disc edition of this would be the greatest thing ever! With all the extras I listed above of course. I loved Elias Koteas as Casey Jones. A wonderful actor. Classic movie, that unfortunately didn't get proper attention on dvd.

I pulled out my old tape last night, that my parents bought me when I was 8, almost 14 years ago. The first movie I ever owned. I can't believe it still plays, remarkably well too. From the opening Pizza Hut commercial (old school fans know what I'm talking about) to the cheezy T.U.R.T.L.E. Power song (where he calls Raphael the leader!) I love this movie so much. It still gets me riled up, wanting to kick some serious foot clan ass, as they seem to just keep on coming. The idea of a faceless, numberless enemy, and this loveable, ass-kicking quartet, that makes it so effortless, is so fun to watch. When you're a child its everything you want to be, four brothers/friends, a great old sensai (Splinter) an intimadating but friends helper (Casey Jones) and of course the babe (April O'Neil), they fight best together, as you see when Raphael cannot defend himself alone on the rooftop, and the one-liners are still as funny as ever: "Whoa, time to switch to decaf April!" It's true I can quote this entire movie, it's true I watched it every single day when I was a child, but the fact I can still pop it in and enjoy every second, that's a classic flick. There's also a gritty edge to it, its not just a kids movie, they really stayed in line with the original comic in that sense, its dark and smart, and well made. I love this movie, I can't wait for a multiple disc Special Edition to come out, I would give anything to just have a few outtakes or bonus scenes, that'd be...AWESOME!