BSP 2014 Advent Calendar: Day 6

Welcome to Day 6 of Bam Smack Pow’s 2014 Advent Calendar! Only nineteen more days left until Christmas, and that means nineteen more superhero films will be mined for trivia. For Day 6, we give you …

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

The 2014 version may have more advanced visual and special effects, but in terms of story and characterization, the 1990 version surpasses it by light-years. By staying true to its comic book roots, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was praised by fans and became a commercial success. Though the critics were mixed in their reviews, they acknowledged that it was a fun movie and had a good balance between its humor and its darker elements. The film went on to gross over $200 million worldwide, making it the ninth highest grossing movie of 1990.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was directed by Steve Barron, written by Todd W. Langen and Bobby Herbeck, and starred Judith Hoag as April O’Neil, Elias Koteas as Casey Jones, Brian Tochi as the Voice of Leonardo, Josh Pais as the Voice of Raphael, Corey Feldman as the Voice of Donatello, Robbie Rist as the Voice of Michelangelo, Kevin Clash as the Voice of Splinter, James Saito as The Shredder, David McCharen as the Voice of The Shredder, Toshishiro Obata as Tatsu, Michael McConnohie as the Voice of Tatsu, Michael Turney as Danny Pennington, Jay Patterson as Charles Pennington, and Sam Rockwell as Head Thug.

Trivia

In the 1987 to 1996 animated series Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, April O’Neil worked for Channel 6. In the film, April O’Neil worked for Channel 3.
In one scene, street punks tell the police chief to check “East Warehouse and Lairdman Island.” This is in reference to the creators of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics — Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
April O’Neil’s yellow raincoat is a modernized version of her yellow jumpsuit from the 1987 to 1996 animated series.
Judith Hoag befriended Robin Williams when they starred in the Cadillac Man (1990). Because Robin Williams was a huge fan of the Turtles, he lent Hoag his comic book collection so that she could study up on the character of April O’Neil.
Kevin Clash, who voiced Splinter, is also famous for being the voice of Elmo on Sesame Street.
In the German version of the DVD audio commentary, the movie was originally intended to be made and released in the mid-1980s as a direct adaptation of the comics. But only France and Germany were interested in investing in the film.
The actors who voiced and did in-suit performance work for the Turtles also made live cameos in the film: David Forman, the in-suit performer for Leonardo, plays a gang member in a warehouse; when Raphael jumps on the hood of a cab, Josh Pais, the voice of Raphael, plays the passenger; Leif Tilden, the in-suit performer for Donatello, plays the Foot Messenger who meets April O’Neill in the subway; Michelan Sisti, the in-suit performer for Michelangelo, plays the pizza delivery man.
Three anchorwomen mentioned in the film have character names that are actually months of the year: April, May, and June.
Disappointed by extensive editing of her scenes, Judith Hoag turned down an offer to be in the sequel.
Some of the film’s dark and violent subject matter created some disagreements: Jim Henson, whose company provided the puppets, was upset with the level of violence; Playmates Toys, who created Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys from the 1980s to the 1990s, declined to produce movie versions of the toys because of the film’s violence.
Boxes in the Foot warehouse/hideout read Mirage. This is a direct reference to Mirage Comics — the original publishers of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic book.
Josh Pais, who was the voice of Raphael, suffered from extreme claustrophobia. After finishing his scenes, he had to immediately take off his bulky Raphael mask.
The martial arts stunt double for Donatello was Ernie Reyes, Jr., who was the youngest child in the history of martial arts to be rated in the adults professional division. He would later star in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze as Keno, a pizza delivery teen who befriends the Turtles.
The character of Splinter was performed by three people: Kevin Clash did the voice and overall body; a remote puppeteer operated his facial expressions; and another puppeteer operated his arms.
Even though the story was set in New York City, much of the filming was performed in North Carolina. Only exterior shots of famous landmarks were filmed in New York City.

Make sure to come back each day because we still have nineteen more days worth of superhero film trivia for you!

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A special thanks to Eric Dufresne for his amazing geometric superhero art that’s being used as the background for the advent calendar.

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