Classic Movie Review: 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' (1990)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Directed by Steve Barron

Written by Todd W. Langan, Bobby Herbeck

Starring Judith Hoag, Elias Koteas, Sam Rockwell, Corey Feldman

Release Date March 30th, 1990

Published August 2nd, 2023

There is a joy in discovering something that is almost indescribable. It's a kind of unmatched euphoria that becomes less and less available to adults as your sense of wonder morphs into an inability to find many things surprising through age and experience. When you are struck with that moment of discovery, that realization of seeing something that you have not seen before, you need to grab it and ride it out for as long as you can as these moments tend to be fleeting. I experienced the joy of discovery when I saw the 1990 live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie.

That sounds bizarre as this was a major blockbuster movie from my relative youth. I was 14 years old when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arrived in theaters and I was most assuredly aware of the film's existence. I likely would have seen the movie in 1990 but I genuinely do not recall it. I may have caught it on home video or cable television in the ensuing three decades before I actually sat down to watch it for my podcast, the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review Podcast. And yet, when I did watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as an obligation to my podcast partner, Bob Zerull, I experienced what I can only describe as a euphoric sense of discovery.

Having deemed myself too old at 14 years to enjoy anything related to a kids movie, I had spent three decades dismissing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a movie for fans whose brains weren't fully developed. I had made up my mind that only a child could watch and enjoy a movie about guys in rubber turtle costumes spouting canned catchphrases intended to pop the tiny masses of children around the globe. Nevertheless, I did sit down to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for its 30th anniversary and I came away shocked at how lively, funny, and rich the experience was.

I became a fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Something about the 1990 adaptation of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's comic book characters, struck a chord with me. The film is a vibrant, joyous and wildly entertaining family comedy that happens to feature guys in rubber turtle costumes spouting catchphrases and being ninjas. For the first time in my life it clicked with me, Ninja Turtles, as a concept, is kind of awesome. There is an earnest sense of joy and wonder in the creation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that director Steve Barron appears to understand innately.

Leaning in a little on how silly the whole thing is, Barron lets the movie be a little shaggy, a little hairy, while he focuses on crafting set pieces that allow his strange characters to thrive in a movie universe that makes sense for them. Barron taps into the distinctive personalities of the Turtles and uses voice actors who are capable getting the most genuine qualities out of these utterly bizarre ideas for characters. The voice performances, including that of Corey Feldman, of all people, are dynamic and absolutely essential to the enjoyment of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I truly had no idea I could ever have this much fun watching a product that I was vaguely aware of as some kid friendly toys. Director Steve Barron deserves credit for creating a breezy, straight-forward good versus evil narrative, The Turtles are good, Shredder is bad, good battles and overcomes evil and somehow a sequel is teased to keep the cynical money train rolling. That cynicism however, was entirely mine and, quite surprisingly, I had lost most of my cynicism about the Ninja Turtles by the time of the final battle. My cynicism had been fully replaced by a giddy, childlike euphoria, that sense you get when you see something for the first time and feel as if you discovered something.

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