I still remember the countdown i had going on back in the first grade when it came out. I remember seeing a local channel run a contest were you could win a pair of tickets to see it.. never entered though. I remember driving my mom bonkers about it coming out, and she knew as much as she hated going to the movies, she was gonna have to go for this one.

The night it came out we went to a movie theater in pasadena with my best frined his mom and his cousin. we stood in like almost 2 hrs i beleive, just to get to the window and be told that they just sold out for the last showing. There I was crushed not having seen my heroes on the big screen. My friends mom suggested another theater we went, but same thing... sold out. Our moms took us for chinese food when (and Im not sure how they knew about this) they said we could go to the mall because the turtles would be there. So we went and sure enough (not sure if it was Sears or Montgomery Ward) but there were two workers dressed in turtle outfits (ralph and leo i believe). That just further fueled the fire to see the film. We got up early the next day and went to the now defunct Gulfgate mall.. Now all you Houstonians who remember what that malls theater was like can imagine this. The walkway that lead to theater from the mall was packed full of people. We waited a good 2 hours (atleast... remember this was 1990 so some details get a little blurry for me). Finally we get our tickets.. find our seats and boy did my eyes light up when I sa wmy boys flash on screen for the first time! To be in a theater full of fellow turtle fans..my mom and bestfriend... now better way to enjoy that. Of course I went home and pulled out my huge ass collection of turtle toys and spent the rest of the afternoon playing.

I brought this thread up because recently my 2 year old son has discovered his new favorite film... Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1 and 2.. Granted he still cant speak much just seeing him enjoy a film that I consider to be one of my all time favorite films brings great joy to me, and makes me remember the good ole days of Turtle Mania.

Yep! When we went to see it, it was the first ever (and after the only time I saw it that big was for twister)time that we went to a theatre where the line was wrapped around the block and totally sold out, so we had to wait a few weeks to see it.

I went with my parents to see it at the Loews theater in Spring, TX next to where the Goodyear blimp base used to be. We may have went to see it a few weeks after it came out because it wasn't that packed from what I remember. I was like 14, so I didn't get the same enjoyment you did from it, but I did like the movie. I till have the VHS I bought when when it first came out in stores. I honestly never knew their were long lines for it. Now I remember the long lines going to see the Batman movie the year before.

I don't remember the hype, but I remember the movie (though I can't remember for certain if I watched it in the theater or on VHS. The rinky-dink theater in our rinky-dink town only got 10th-run movies, so sometimes you could get them on tape at about the same time they hit our theater.)
I had mixed feelings about it. On one hand I liked it overall, but at the same time so much of it was just so "wrong". The evil mutants for example, "whereTF are rocksteady & bebop, and whoTF are these goons?!?", not to mention splinter's origin story (although the movie version made more sense than the 80s cartoon one. "The mutagen turned you into what you last touched. The turtles last touched me, but I last touched a rat." What?? You last touched the TURTLES.)

Maybe the turtles touched him and then didnt touch anything else but then a second later he touched a rat. But uh, yeah, I don't remember the origin from the cartoon myself but that does sound really lame.

I watched the movie a couple of months ago and found it mostly embarrassing. Too bad. I still like the original comics. I think the movie studio must have insisted that the movie be goofy because if it was too dark then parents would complain. They'd rather have a travesty than a PR issue. Well that's all big studios isn't it?

I wonder how Eastman and Laird felt. They refused to allow Bebop and Rocksteady into the movies so they clearly took some issue with the whole thing. I wonder if they could have gotten an R movie made, but somebody said with the cartoon etc. all the audience is kids so it has to be family-friendly or it will lose tons of money.

I never watched that CG TMNT movie that came out a few years ago. It looked cool, but it also looked similarly lame. That line in the commercial about "Got any moves left?" was just groan-inducing.

I saw the recent TMNT CGI movie. It impressed me so much that I can't remember a single scene right now. :-S I know that I didn't think it was too bad, it just clearly wasn't all that good either.

I've never read any of the comics, old nor new (except for some newspaper strips a number of years ago).


In the original cartoon, april o'neal once asked about their origins & splinter told the story. It showed him (as a human) walking in upon the turtles (as normal turtles) covered in the glowing mutagen. He picks them up & wipes them off with a rag. They immediately become humanoid, and he immediately becomes rat-oid. The cartoon clearly depicted that there was no time between when he wiped off the turtles & when he became ratlike.
Also, it stated that splinter was hamato yoshi himself, not yoshi's pet rat.

I vaguely remember initially seeing the comic book ads for the film. Eventually I saw the trailer on television, but I don't really remember all of the hype surrounding the release.

It was probably one of the most hyped up movies ever. I'm just glad it actually lived up to the hype and was a real childhood classic for me.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but was'nt pizza hut doing advertisements for the movie and instead they ate dominos pizza in the movie, not pizza hut. Thats hilarious.

I was less than 3 months old when it came out so I don't remember the hype but most of my childhood was surrounded by ninja turtles. i loved this movie. i had it on VHS and DVD and soon, blu-ray. I used to rent the 2nd one all the time.

In my fifth grade class, we has this massive corkboard. Our teacher would let us bring in favorite posters from home and hang them up. I brought in my Turtles poster. I don't have that anymore (ebay, here I come!) but I do still have a color by number poster of the Turtles hanging up that I did back then. Along with a Batman 1989 poster and stickers, a Swamp Thing poster, and some Back To The Future II stickers.

I can see where people are coming from with the third Turtles movie, but I like it. Is it good? Of course not. Primarily because of the deficient masks of the Turtles, but it's a lot of fun to watch. I love the bad guy in it. Of course, my favorites are the first two. I won't acknowledge the CGI one. I will never watch it....for a multitude of reasons.

I can't say I remember the hype, but I remember seeing the trailer a lot! "What was that!" "It looked like a big turtle in trench coat... You're going to Laguardia right?" And then the part of the trailer with Shredders speech creeped me out as a 5 year old.

The third movie was the one where they went to ancient china or something, right? I don't really remember that movie much (took me several minutes even to remember it at all). I think I remember being underwhelmed by it, but not thinking it was horrible.

It was ancient Japan. Not a great movie, but enjoyable for what it is and who it was made for.

I see nickelodeon's going to be doing a new turtles cartoon series in 2012. Apparently it's going to be CGI and michelangelo will use a sickle & chain instead of nunchucks and donatello will use a spear instead of a staff.

Speaking of odd TMNT series, does anyone remember "the next mutation", the short lived live action series?

A sickle and chain??? Personally I'm not complaining, but I remember when he had to get rid of the nunchuck b/c parents complaining they were too violent.

Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. Then again, I think the issue with the nunchucks were specifically related to ninjas, just like the title had to be changed to "hero turtles" in some countries. (Although why ninjas specially were banned in those places is beyond me.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kusarigama
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naginata

I know the UK had the title changed to "Hero Turtles." Do you know of any others?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles

"Upon TMNT's first arrival in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Poland, Austria, Germany, and some other countries in Europe, the name was changed to "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" (or TMHT, for short), since local censorship policies deemed the word ninja to have excessively violent connotations for a children's program (in Ireland, however, the first season aired as "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" before changing to "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles").[35]"

Agree I loved the movie for the time it came out and still do, its a great memory and I hope they make a comeback with the new live action movie set to come out eventually, turtles 43ver