I loved the Teenage Ninja Turtles as a kid. After Ghostbusters, it was easily my favorite entertainment franchise — I even went to one of those cheesy live arena shows for kids where the Ninja Turtles come out and fight Shredder and the Foot Clan. I had all the toys — I was way more into collecting TMNT figurines than I ever was GI Joes.
I think I dressed up as Raphael twice for Halloween, because Raphael is the best.
When the live action movie came out in 1990, I was five. But I vividly remember those amazing cityscape establishing shots of New York City and the World Trade Center. I think, deep down in my subconscious, my infatuation with “ending up in New York” started because of the Turtles and Ghostbusters, in a very weird way. It is, after all, a city with dark secrets and pizza so damn delicious it will make you yell cowabunga.
The Turtles have changed a lot over the years, from the comic books to the animated show to the live action movies. So we made a little video documenting their evolution over the years.
I gotta admit, while on the subject. Megan Fox as April Fox is one of the best things to happen to the Turtles. I’m not really into the whole CGI wrestler look they have going on, but as long as Fox stays in the franchise it will have my support.
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Left to right: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Megan Fox as April O'Neil, Raphael, and Donatello in TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES, from Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies.