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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Credits
Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Genres: Superhero fantasy
Action
Directed by: Steve Barron
Written by: Bobby Herbeck
Todd W. Langen
Produced by: David Chan; Raymond Chow; Graham Cottle; Kim Dawson; Simon Fields; Gary Propper
Music by: John Du Prez
Cinematography: John Fenner
Edited by: William D. Gordean
Sally Menke
James R. Symons
Production
Distributed by: New Line Cinema
Released: March 30th, 1990
Rating: PG
Running time: 93 min.
Country: USA
Language: English
Budget: $13,500,000
Gross: $135,265,915 (US) [1]
$201,965,915 (Worldwide) [1]
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an American independent film of the action and superhero fantasy genres. It is based on the popular comic book series created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. The film was directed by Steve Barron with a screenplay written by Todd W. Langen and Bobby Herbeck, based on a story treatment by Herbeck. It was released through New Line Cinema and premiered in the United States on March 30th, 1990.

Regarding its "human" cast, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stars Judith Hoag as gutsy investigative journalist and broadcaster April O'Neil as well as Elias Koteas as the masked vigilante Casey Jones. Other non-reptilian cast members one can expect to find in this film is James Saito in the dual role of Oroko Saki and uber-baddie, the Shredder, Toshishiro Obata as ninja clan master, Tatsu, Michael Turney as Danny Pennington and Jay Patterson as Charles Pennington.

As the men behind-the-shells, we begin with David Forman, who plays both Leonardo as well as one of the Foot gang members. He is voiced by Brian Tochi. Donatello is played by Leif Tilden, who likewise plays a gang member as well. The voice talent behind this particular turtle is '80s teen icon Corey Feldman. For Michelangelo, we have Michelan Sisti, who also doubles as the pizza delivery guy. Michelangelo is voiced by Robbie Rist. Lastly, there is Raphael, who is voiced by actor Josh Pais. Pais also plays a passenger in a taxicab in the film. For the character of Splinter, the part is played by an animatronic puppet, but vocalized by actor Kevin Clash.

Plot[]

Cast[]

Live-action cast[]

Actor Role
Judith Hoag April O'Neil
Elias Koteas Casey Jones
Josh Pais Passenger in cab
David Forman Leonardo/Gang member
Leif Tilden Donatello/Foot messenger
Michelan Sisti Michaelangelo/Pizza man
James Saito The Shredder/Oroko Saki
Sam Rockwell Head thug
Toshishiro Obata Tatsu
Michael Turney Danny Pennington
Jay Patterson Charles Pennington
Raymond Serra Chief Sterns
Kitty Fitzgibbon June
Louis Cantarini Cab driver
Joe D'Onofrio Movie hoodlum #1
John Ward Movie hoodlum #2
Ju Yu Shinsho
Cassandra Ward-Freeman Charles' secretary
Mark Jeffrey Miller Technician
John Rogers New recruit
Tae Pak Talkative Foot #1
Kenn Scott Talkative Foot #2
Robert Haskell Tall teen
Josh Lozoff Beaten teen
Winston Hemingway Police officer #1
Joe Inscoe Police officer #2
Curtis Bush Foot soldier

Voice cast[]

Actor Role
Josh Pais Raphael
Brian Tochi Leonardo
Robbie Rist Michaelangelo
Corey Feldman Donatello
Kevin Clash Splinter
David McCharen The Shredder
Michael McConnohie Tatsu

Notes[]

  • "TMNT 1990" serves as a shortcut to this page. This is for the benefit of visitors and editors who wish to return to this page without typing out the full title in the search engine.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is based on the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book series by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, which began publication by Mirage Studios in 1984. The comedic tone of the movie however, actually takes its cues from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series by Murakami Wolf Swenson and Fred Wolf Films, which aired for ten seasons from 1987 to 1996.
  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released on DVD in Region 1 format by New Line Home Video on February 24th, 1998. The DVD included an interactive "Sewer Maze" game. The movie was also included on a "4-Film Favorites" collection along with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, and TMNT. The collection was produced by Warner Home Video and released on September 7th, 2010. The four films were also packaged as a 25th Anniversary Blu-ray collection, which was released by Warner Home Video on August 11th, 2009. [3][4][5]
  • The backstory of Splinter, Shredder, and the Turtles, as presented in this film, is actually quite faithful to the original Eastman & Laird comic book stories. The origin of the Turtles was first presented in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #1.
  • April O'Neil first appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2 in October, 1984. She is a mainstay character in the franchise, and is often romantically associated with Casey Jones.
  • Casey Jones first appeared in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Raphael #1, which was a micro-series published in April, 1985. The comic version of Casey Jones maintained the same motif as the movie version, but was much more violent and emotionally disturbed.

Taglines[]

Taglines and marketing slogans for this film include:

  • "Heroes in a half shell!"
  • "Hey dude, this is NO cartoon".
  • "Lean, green and on the screen".
  • "This ain't no cartoon".
  • "They're mean, green and on the screen".

Related pages[]

See also[]

External Links[]

References[]

Keywords[]

1980s; Crime boss; Gangster; Superhero; Thug; Turtles



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