Disc Reviews

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy Blu ray Review

• 28th Oct 2013

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are an institution. You’d be hard pushed to find a child of the 90s that doesn’t have at least one TMNT related memory.  They are ingrained in our psyches as a collective. So to be able to get our hands on this holy trilogy for the first time on Blu-ray in time for Christmas is the 20-something’s dream.

It may have been more than twenty years since the first Turtles film was released but it is still as fun and enjoyable as ever. It may not be jam-packed with memorable voices and faces but it does star one of the biggest young

actors of the time, Corey Feldman, as the voice of Donatello and a rather small Sam Rockwell as the head thug. April O’Neill (Judith Hoag) may be a bit on the creepy side, the way she likes to sketch the Turtles unaware but somehow you manage to forgive her for that. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) is definitely the strongest of the three films in this box set but there’s no surprise there. This is 93 minutes of pure fun and, even after all this time, it’s still funny.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) is by far the most ridiculous of the three. With no real returning cast members, not even the same April O’Neill (Paige Turco) despite them both featuring heavily in their respective films, maybe they thought that the added Vanilla Ice cameo would be a big enough to no longer need Feldman as a Turtle. This film was definitely trotted out to cash in on the back of the success of the first one and it shows. It feels wrong commenting on the absurdity of the story line and the creation of two new mutants when the whole idea of four mutant turtles that have been brought up, looked after and taught martial arts by a mutant rat is ridiculous in itself. The addition of the performance of Vanilla Ice in the club where the final fight scene is a personal highlight of the film, not even the most intricate of jiujutsu moves performed by the turtles or any of their ninja enemies can beat the dodgy dance shapes Ice and his band throw.

Come 1993 they upped the stakes again and brought back Corey Feldman back as the voice of Donatello and Turco reprised her role as O’Neill. Even Elias Koteas returned in the shape of Casey Jones from the original film. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles in Time somehow feels like a truer sequel to the first film which only highlights the feeling that The Secret of the Ooze was shoehorned in to cash in on the hysteria surrounding these oversized reptiles. This one could be the craziest of the trilogy with a magic sceptre transporting April O’Neill back to 17^th Century Japan and sending the Turtles in hot pursuit to save their friend.

Re-watching this trilogy certainly makes you remember these creatures fondly and almost gets you excited for the upcoming Michael Bay re-boot due next year. It also makes you sad that the new version won’t feature any puppets from the Jim Henson Studio and that the innocence of them all won’t stay either.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy is released in the UK on Blu-ray and DVD on Monday 28th October.

Laura Johnson