The children’s rendition was actually fairly accurate. The children’s performance intrigued me because it consisted of some opening dialogue with a news reporter and then about 15 minutes of kicking, hitting, rolling around and shouts of “cowabunga” and “hey dudes.” Anti-Asian Prejudiceīefore I went to the movie a group of fourth graders at the school where I work put on their own mini performance of the show, despite the reluctance of their teacher. The similarities with Batman revolved around the decaying state of the two cities, Gotham and New York, and the fact that the antagonists seemed to be able to beat each other to a pulp and yet always get up and keep on fighting. Also, Shredder, the evil villain in the Turtles movie is almost identical to Star War’s Darth Vader, down to the black metal costume and aerated voice. ![]() Splinter is an anthromorphized rat that had been the pet of a ninja master and was later subjected to the same radioactive goop as the turtles. Star Wars, because the turtles’ “father” figure, Splinter, is very similar to Yoda. It had features that reminded me of both Star Wars and Batman. I did not find the film boring or particularly offensive. Just the cost of making the radio-controlled turtle suits was $5.2 million. ![]() Working closely with Golden Harvest, the producer of Bruce Lee’s “Enter the Dragon,” and Jim Henson of the Muppets, New Line produced a non-animated children’s film. New Line, the independent film company that produced the “Elm Street” series took on the project of making a feature length movie. Toy companies began to swing in production. By 1988 an animate TV cartoon series was started by Group W Productions and Archie Comic Publications was printing over a half million comics a month. Mark Freedman, of the Long Island-based Surge Licensing, bought up exclusive rights to the turtles and began an aggressive marketing campaign. They named the Turtles after Renaissance artists: Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello and Leonardo. produced their first “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” comic book. The Ninja Turtles originated in 1983, when two struggling cartoonists, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman of Northhampton, Mass. The movie which took $12 million to produce was actually one component of a several year marketing scheme to increase “turtle mania” among our nation’s children. (Not including sales of real turtles which pet store owner say have surged.) Ron Hingst, spokesman for Domino’s Pizza told Newsweek, “You can be turtled from the time you brush your teeth in the morning until you go to bed at night.” Revenues in 1990 are expected to be much greater. Total revenue for turtle paraphernalia sold in 1989 approached $250 million. Burger King is selling 200,000 Turtle videos a week all laden with Burger King commercials. There are turtle trading cards, turtle cereal, turtle air fresheners, stuffed turtles, plastic action turtle figures, turtle pajamas, and turtle toothbrushes. Over 1000 related products have been produced by some 200 companies. The film grossed $25 million in its first weekend, second only to “Batman” in the history of the US film industry. Many educators and parents are wondering if the Turtles are not mutating the imagination of our children as well. The four talking turtles, mutated in some radioactive goop in a New York City sewer, have caught the imagination of the nation’s children. She added, “Kids are learning to buy the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I do like them.”Īnd so do millions of other children in the nation, thanks to a huge media barrage promoting the film and the increasingly popular CBS cartoon series. “The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are teaching us how to fight and do bad things,” wrote seven year old Katie Castañeda when I asked what the Turtles were teaching children.
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