Strap on your bandana, because Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the Greatest Movie EVER!
Click on the movie poster or the title above to download our review of the film, featuring Sean “Hollywood” Hunting.
Review in a Nutshell: Nostalgia notwithstanding, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles holds up surprisingly well for a children’s film. The action and humor are solid, and the special effects and puppetry still look great even 20+ years later.
This movie contains:
Ninjas.
Casey Jones.
Underage Smoking.
Sam Rockwell!?!
The Greatest Movie EVER! Podcast 
Paul and Sean, thank you for this gift. It’s like mana from the heaven. Bless you both!!!
One of the very best comic book movies, if not the best. Shame it led to such awful sequels and sub-par TV series.
Thank you for reviewing such a fun movie.
It has always been and will always be… Raph. Even when he was the absolute WORST in the NES video game. (Is there any reason that a game for kids should ever be that amazingly hard?)
Keep up the good work.
Donatello was favorite since he was technically oriented turtle. I think in second film he got to use his skills in setting up the new HQ and figuring out how to defeat Shredders mutants.
The Turtles franchise was just fun. I was junior high when the show came out. The show was just plain fun. This film series was just plain fun.
Great show.
I loved the movie when I was a kid. What confused most of my peers seeing it was that the movie is HEAVILY influenced by the original (more mature) Mirage Studios comic book rather than the cartoon. My friends and I had just started reading the comic the year before, so we felt pretty savvy, but most other people I knew were turned off by the unfamiliar material.
I’m one of those jerks who didn’t grow up on the Ninja Turtles. By the time the cartoon was on, I was in high school, and by the time of this movie, I was in college and had moved on to more sophisticated, grown up material, like Son of Hercules vs the Fire Monster
I feel your pain Inspector_Zenigata, I don’t think I was EVER able to finish that NES Turtles game.
Few people can boast your level of sophistication, Keith.
Also, why aren’t we reviewing The Dungeonmaster RIGHT NOW!?! That film has too much high power, man.
This was the first movie i ever saw that i was really into, since i was a huge turtles fan as a kid.
This movie is totally awesome, I revisited it in college with my friends and have since rewatched it several times. The cinematography is great and really do wonders for the film.
An incredibly film nerdy thing we did was turn the saturation on our TV all the way down to watch the film in black and white. It totally works because of the great contrast in the cinematography.
Oh snap! You mentioned the cricket bit in the movie. You just made this Australians day.
For reference hitting a six is when you hit the ball over the boundary rope (out of the park for the baseball people). However if lands, but still reaches the boundary rope its counted as four runs.
Hope you’re looking forward to the cricket world cup happening during March in India. Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi.
Thank YOU Paul Chapman!
You guys left out the coolest line in the whole movie
“Death comes for us all, Oroku Saki. But something much worse is in store for you, for when you die it will be…..without honor”
I’ve been a fan of the Turtles since the first series, but then i went and started on the original comics, and the movie echoes those stories in a lot of ways:
*In the first story, the turtles knock shredder off a roof and kill him.
*Raph and Caseys friendship when they meet while out vigilanting.
*April, who is Baxter Sotckmans lab assistant, also lives above hre fathers antique store whih she inherited. She then starts running it after Baxter tries to killer her.
*The Shredder returns, and fights the turtles. However it is LEO that is severely wounded and the other three have to fight their way out with him. Casey rescues them there also.
*The stay at the farm is MUCH longer, and has a lot more soul searching and side adventures.
*The return to New York is an EPIC part of the story and results in the 2nd death of Shredder.
Worth finding if u can. Also the 2003 series did a very good job of mashing the original comics and the animated ones, mix and matching both continuities.
Final interesting fact: TMNT was the last project Jim Henson was personally a part of. He died very shortly before the release of the film, having never seen its completion.
Just watched this movie this weekend with my 4 month old daughter. I decided it was time to start introducing her to the classics. Love the Movie, Love the Soundtrack, Love the cartoon, Want to start reading the comics. I am TMNT 4 life. Donatello was always my favorite and could be a reason why I am in the IT field now.
My favorite part is the Alphabetical insulting between Casey and Donatello.
“Well, it’s sort of like meditating.”
Great episode. I rewatche this movie recently and it still holds up well. I could have sworn you reviewed this movie with Catherine years ago… maybe I’m hallucinating episodes. You’ve done so many its hard to keep track.
I love that you did this but seriously shame on Sean for forgetting one important small fact involving Ernie Reyes Jr. and that was he was the stunt double for Donatello. Overall very awesome review.
I watched this movie not even a month ago with my buddies and we were still finding new things that we never noticed before. When they were in the sewer with Casey after they came back to NYC, Ralph makes the line about him being claustrophobic, there’s a pause and Casey just casually remarks that he’s never even looked at a guy. We lost our minds when this happened and couldn’t believe they got away with something like this. There are so many great moments.
Also to note, the sequel is something I’ve seen probably 100 times because it was one of the first tapes I had as a kid and watched the hell out of it. I would be remissed if I didn’t mention the POWER of the soundtrack, for both movies, T U R T L E POWER.
So happy to get a podcast review of this movie from you, thanks! 😀
I am horribly guilty of being a huge TMNT nerd, the 1990 and 2007 movies are some of my favorite movies to marathon while I’m sewing, since I’ve seen them so many times I can just listen to them and know what’s happening.
And I believe that Sean was talking about the cassette tape “Coming Out of Our Shells”, which I think, even as a kid, I realized it was bad. Which doesn’t really explain the fact that I’ve somehow managed to track it down on the internet and can now pass it along to you folks, if you so desire (though I can’t recommend it): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=X4EBH31Y
Also, I’m feel like I should put in my two cents, about my favorite turtle. Donatello was actually always my favorite when I was a kid, I remember pretending to be him by wrapping 2 tied purple socks around my head, and scribbling all over boxes with markers to make them look like “inventions” of my creation. I’m pretty sure that Raphael was my favorite in the movies, though he definitely is now (as you said, it seems most people come to like him the best as they get older).
And on one last note, could I bother you for a link to the podcast you mentioned that covered all of the TMNT movies? Thanks!
Another amazing episode! Y’all touched on a film that was a staple of my childhood!
~_M.H._~