Ran Out of Money, Fired The Director, Huge Hit!: The Story of TMNT: The Movie (1990)

This movie holds up. The Jim Henson turtle outfits look great, the humor is mostly still spot on, and Elias Koteas has always been an underrated performer.

As a kid it’s amazing to see the Ninja Turtles. As an adult it’s amazing to see actual humans doing backflips and fight scenes in full body suits with remotely controlled animatronic faces.

The plot of this film is so tight. The way it's just barely implied that Chief Sterns uses April's boss to shut April up and eventually get her fired in order to clear the charges on Danny, the way Danny sells out April and causes all the chaos, and the way it trusts the audience to make those connections without showing us any of it is really well done.

This movie is timeless for me. They will never make a better TMNT movie ever IMO.

I only knew of the Turtles because of the cartoon and I was obsessed with the show even though any merchandising including toys was nowhere to be found in my country. One day my uncle calls our home and asks to speak to me to tell me he has a movie of those “Ninja Frogs” that I love so much. I was so confused but after I visited his home a few days after I saw that it was a movie about the TMNT. It was given out with a special meal offer from a local Pizza chain. I watched the movie and I was completely captivated by everything I saw. The TMNT will also forever be connected to a childhood trauma that I had when my country was invaded by Iraq in august 1990 and when we escaped to Saudi Arabia it was safe for us but my grandmother was staying in southern England at the time as she had left there for vacation in July. That’s where we ended up going later in October and discovering everything TMNT related you could possibly think of. My mom bought me the toys, candy, clothing, backpack..and I played the 1989 arcade game and even got a couple of VHS tapes. I also learned how to draw them when I was there. Something that I still know how to do. Believe it or not I’m giving you guys the short version. TMNT was the only thing that made that whole situation bearable for me. I was only 10 years old.

This movie aged like fine wine, i would consider it one of the best comic book adaptations of all time. Loved it as a kid, still love it as an adult. Thank you so much for this episode Dan, you guys rock ❤❤❤ NOW PLZ PLZ PLZ DO AN EPISODE ON WINSPECTOR ALREADY

“Ah, the rat. So it has a name…. It had a name.” Dayumn, that line is still chilling, even 30+ years later. That movie was, and still is, incredible!

The fight on the Rooftop with Shredder was, and still is, one of the best fights in Turtles period. What they did at the time was amazing and has yet to be outdone.

I almost died seeing this movie. I was 4 years old, I was so excited i ran out of my room slipped and fell down a flight of stairs. It did not stop me and it was totally worth it.

I remember seeing it in the theater opening night and all the kids (myself included) squealed and lost their minds when Leonardo jumped out from the shadows as the title appeared. The build up to the reveal was so well done. The filmmakers knew what they were doing.

I firmly believe that TMNT is one of the best movies ever made. shredders plan? One of the best villian plans of all time. “First we steal stuff. Then we sell it.” No lights in the sky. No killing everyone on the planet. Just plain human greed. The scene where Raphael is angry about losing a sai, Leonard gingerly puts his hand on Raphaels shoulder, Raphael swats it away, and then Leonardo punches him, is some of the best non verbal scriptwriting in any film ever. It tells you volumes about two characters, their personalities and their complicated relationship in literally two seconds.

God bless the director and sticking to his guns and making the movie how he saw fit. Definitely one of the best comic to live action movies of all time. And of course big thanks to Jim Henson and his amazing puppet talent.

The soundtrack to this movie was insanely good

This movie came out just a few days before my 8th birthday. It was everything 8 year old me could have ever wanted to see on screen. I didn’t care that it was missing bebop, rocksteady, and Krang. I didn’t care that it didn’t have the blimp or turtle communicators. I didn’t even care that the origin was different from what I knew. The turtles just looked that good. And they still do.

Rewatching this as an adult, I think the reason this movie holds up so well is the character drama, and just how SOLID and grounded the story is. It's a story about family, and what being a family means. When folks tell me it was just a silly kid movie, I always say something along the lines of, "If you simply replaced the turtles and Splinter with normal humans, just orphaned teenagers growing up in a dojo, you wouldn't be saying that. " It would feel like the exact same film, with the same drama, action, and comedy. But, I bet they wouldn't think of it the same manner they did before. I'd almost guarantee they would see it as it really is: A terrific story about what it means to be part of a family. That's how good the story beats and plot are.

Saw this movie when I was 5 years old with my mom. I distinctly recall T-U-R-T-L-E Power being etched in my brain at that point when the credits rolled and it stayed there for years to come. To say the movie holds a high rank in my childhood memories is an absolute understatement

My late uncle brought home a movie and didn't tell us what it was. All of us kids figured it out and were like YES!

Wow, until you mentioned it, I didn't think I had any significant memories of this film. However...I saw this movie with my friend Sean whim I had known since Kindergarten. We were both finishing 8th grade in 1990 when this came out. Although we had been in different schools since 3rd grade because my family moved to the next city over, we still found time to hang out once in a while. 3 months later however I would move 100 miles away, and never see him again. Hard to believe this is coming up on 32 years ago. If you are out there Sean I hope you are well Bro.

Watched it again on HBO Max expecting to just enjoy the nostalgia but was re-entertained. It's actually a pretty decent film!

This film introduced me to the world of pirate movies. It took nearly a year for it to be shown in British cinemas, and by that time everyone has seen it through a bootleg VHS their mates dad had got from some nefarious person.