Four teenage mutant ninja turtles emerge from the shadows to protect New York City from a gang of criminal ninjas.Four teenage mutant ninja turtles emerge from the shadows to protect New York City from a gang of criminal ninjas.Four teenage mutant ninja turtles emerge from the shadows to protect New York City from a gang of criminal ninjas.
- Awards
- 3 wins & 3 nominations total
Brian Tochi
- Leonardo
- (voice)
Corey Feldman
- Donatello
- (voice)
Robbie Rist
- Michaelangelo
- (voice)
Kevin Clash
- Splinter
- (voice)
David McCharen
- The Shredder
- (voice)
- …
Michael McConnohie
- Tatsu
- (voice)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaRobin Williams, who was a big fan of the franchise, provided Judith Hoag with information regarding her character through his comic book collection; the two were co-starring in Cadillac Man (1990) when the Turtles film went into production.
- GoofsWhen Raph and Leo are arguing in April's apartment, there is a crew member with an orange baseball hat on trying to hide under the table.
- Quotes
Donatello: You're a claustrophobic.
Casey Jones: You want a fist in the mouth? I've never even looked at another guy before.
- Crazy creditsThe film title appears from behind the corner of the sewer, just before the Turtles come around it and are fully seen for the first time.
- Alternate versionsGerman theatrical version was based on the cut British version. In addition it was heavily dimmed and cartoon-like sound effects were added to the fight scenes. This version was also used for TV airings and VHS home video releases. Only in 2010 the film was released uncut on DVD.
- ConnectionsEdited into To Tell the Truth: Yulia Sukhanova/Thomas DeMarco/Josh Price (1990)
Featured review
Forget the "kid friendly" sequels, forget the Michael Bay remakes, forget the CGI experiment. This, right here, is and still remains the definitive Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. This got the vision laid out by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird most accurately: A dark, edgy, tongue-in- cheek parody to Frank Martin, Daredevil, Cerebus and New Mutants. Sure, you still had some of the cartoon elements thrown in for good measure (the colored masks, the surfer lingo), but compare this one to the other movies and this one followed the closest to the original comic book series, which was written for adults. The violence has been toned down significantly, as has the cursing, but it's there, on a lower level. As a kid, I was confused about why this was so dark and almost scary. Later, reading the underrated comic books, I learned this was what TMNT was originally envisioned as. Eventually, toy sales and Saturday morning TV won over the comic book, but here, for one brief movie, the turtles, as they were meant to be seen by their original creators, got their time in the sun. The writing isn't terrific and the acting not award winning, but still a fun movie to watch from time to time.
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $13,500,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $135,384,756
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $25,398,367
- Apr 1, 1990
- Gross worldwide
- $202,084,756
- Runtime1 hour 33 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.85 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content