I found the 1990 Golden Harvest movie today
 

I was at this DVD store where I spotted it. And being a big fan of the 2012 series which referenced it so much and because I saw in the cinema when it came out, I wanted to re-familiarize myself with it.

So I bought it and just finished watching it. Here's my findings.

The Negatives:
- This was one of those video to DVD transfers, as such you couldn't select chapter and there was no making of feature, which I thought was a shame, I love learning how they went to it.
- The image quality was bad as was the sound quality, this movie would benefit from a complete remaster, perhaps there already is one but I haven't found it yet.
- The plot of the Foot Clan getting their soldiers through the dragon gang (The Purple Dragons for all of us familiar with the Mirage comics and the 2003 series) wasn't really worked out all that well, WHY did Danny rebel against his father, what was going on behind closed doors that he felt he had to join that gang? It was never answered.
- The Special effects, oh boy, even with the lousy image quality, green screen was so obvious with some scenes and some of the puppets were moving so unconvincingly, I am familiar with the Fact that Jim Henson's Creature studios did all the puppets but in some scenes, for example Splinter when he's learning his master's moves, the puppets had very little in actual articulation and most of the time it looked like somebody was just moving it back and forth.
- The Fight scenes were of early Power Rangers quality, they posed too much and moved too slow to really make it look convincing and the way that Casey Jones knocked Tatsu twenty feet back by hitting him with a golf club was just ridiculous.

The Positives
- They depicted the Northampton story line accurately from the Mirage comics and little details that were referenced in the 2012 Northampton episodes made me go "Ah so that's where that came from." Yes, I saw the movie but I saw it 29 years ago, so I forgot about those details.
* Michelangelo humming "Old McDonald"
* The way April does drawings of the Turtles during their stay and down to the way she goes "And then there's Casey Jones." Mae Whitman doing the dialog in "it came from the woods" and going "And then there's me April O'Neil." Whitman NAILED the way that Judith Hoag spoke the original line, the articulation is just DEAD ON.
* The Lame insult throwing scene when Donnie and Casey (Raph and Casey in the Mirage comic) are fixing up that old truck in the barn.
* The Blue fire and spiritual connecting with Splinter, that is such a glorious scene.
- I'm a guitarist, when they showed Danny going back to the Dragons' hide out, he walks past a Box which says "Crate" which is a nineties Amplifier brand, I owned one.
https://img.audiofanzine.com/images/...c-xl-47330.jpg
- But also the fight of Splinter and Shredder, I was sitting on the edge of my seat, just as I was when at 14 I saw the movie in the cinema.
- Casey going "Oops" when starting up that garbage truck when Shredder fell in. When I saw the 2012 episode "requiem" and they did that scene I was yelling like a school girl, because I knew that scene so well.

But in general I watched it with a big smile on my face, sure the special effects were bad and the fighting was terrible, who cares, that's part of its charm. I love those Asian movies where the production is really ragged: "Azumi" for example is one of my absolute favorites, even though you can so obviously see when cables were used to hoist actors into the air during a fight scene. Heck "Big trouble in little China" is on my list for that very reason.

It was a trip down memory lane and a pleasant one.

Should watch it again on a nice Blu-ray release.

Wait when was the gang called "The Dragon Gang"? I don't remember them being referred to as anything in the film.

This was never a thing in the movie. This entire post honestly confuses me.

They had bandanas with Dragons and I heard them say "Dragons" a couple of times.

It’s been a while since I saw the movie, but the only instance I recall where the word Dragon was mentioned was then Shredder initiated new Foot members and he refers to their outfit as the "dragon dogi"

The kanji the foot use translate to demon

The original New Line Cinema Foot Clan is in practise a combination of the Foot Clan (Japanese martial arts, ninjutsu) and the Purple Dragons (street gang style).

Yeah, that's what I remember.

I'm actually happy with those 'bad special effects'. ;)

I find it difficult to be critical - in the true sense of the word - when it comes to this movie. Also the sequels - I know the faults, I just don't mind them. I second the recommendation above - The Blu-rays of the 90s movies are well worth owning.

100% this.

There wasn't any green screen work in TMNT 90.

Follow Andrew NDB's advice and seek out a Blu-Ray. 8)

I mean would they have even used green screen for a movie like this back then? :lol:

I'm not sure green screens were already a thing in 1989. As far as I know they only use matte painting in the rooftop scene to show the New York skyline in the distance.

Blue screen was the norm at the time, but the process had been around since at least 1940.

The painting you're referring to is more of background painting. Matte paintings were composited in post, background paintings are on location, photographed in-camera.

"Only effort, discipline, loyalty earn the right to wear the dragon doji!"

Me too... what is relevant about this? From what I can guess, is that the OP basically found an old DVD copy of the first TMNT movie.

I have this movie on VHS, DVD and Blu Ray. There isn't anything special about any of those formats that I can recall.....
I'm not being a smart ass, but I just don't get it.

What am I missing?

OP is from the Netherlands, so English could be a second/third language.

OP found a TMNT 90 DVD, rewatched the movie after not seeing it for a while, and posted their thoughts. I disagree with their thoughts on the creature FX. :lol:

I can see where they're coming from on the Purple Dragon/Foot Clan thing. The young punker kids are reminiscent of the Purple Dragon members.

OHhhhh now I understand. Hence the "Mae Whitman" comment, whom I now assume is the netherlands actress who did their voicedub for April.

Got it. Cool thread.

Thank you.

Mae Whitman voiced April in the 2012 CGI show, which often made reference to this film.

https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media...hr5tfinnlh.jpg
Nope, Mae Whitman is the American Voice actress for THIS April.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/sN...UwnHrlY-w=s412

You also might know her from voicing Katara in "Avatar, the last air bender"
https://theblueraft.files.wordpress..../08/katara.png

Also seeing as how I'm spending more and more time in England and thus have been speaking English on a daily basis, it is rapidly becoming my first language.

Her? (...and Ann from Arrested Development!)

You're right. Thank you, I didn't know the difference between matte and background painting technics.

You're very welcome! Both practices are extremely cool. Matte painting is INCREDIBLY interesting, though. They used to paint ON GLASS! Insane.

https://conceptartempire.com/matte-painting/

IIRC model makers would make glass forms and paint spaceship colors on them so that when they scratched the paint off it would look like the appropriate illumination from inside.

I also remember the days of blue screen special effects. That's back when a "making of" special was awesome because there was so much to talk about. Now, generally speaking it's "how did you pull off those amazing visual effects?!?"

"Computers".

That's the end of the special other than watching some rich Hollywood people talk about storyboards and their brilliance.

Speaking of, a Ghostbusters making-of documentary I'm producing will have a release date announced SOON! :lol:

https://i.postimg.cc/MpBLrV2K/poster-small.jpg

Oh, well that's something I would watch! -big thumb's up-

For sure. Can't Green Screen large Green turtles. They disappear too. :D

:toops:

well now.

Maybe best not move on to Secret of the Ooze right away... :)

"WHY did Danny rebel against his father, what was going on behind closed doors that he felt he had to join that gang? It was never answered."

Its like kids today wants everything pre chewed.......its not impossible that he joined due to peer pressure among other things , he felt the father didnt have enough time for him

I suspect nobody even questioned that at the time. Danny was a teenage boy, therefore he was liable to rebel against his dad - With Charles apparently being a single parent and a lack of real communication between the two, the rebellious teen was even more to be taken for granted.

But you wouldn't even be able to use green screen back then for this movie due to the TMNT colour.

Yeah I understood that even at the time. His father even has to be corrected by the end on what to call his son which shows the complete lack of communication between them both.

Sorry, I only know her from Independence Day. :D

Are physical matte paintings even done any more? I get the impression it's nearly all digital matte paintings which I don't feel work as well.

Is it still going to be in two parts? Or are the Buenos releasing it as one massive doc?

I wouldn't be shocked if some artists still use physical painting techniques, but the compositing is absolutely all digital now.



Two parts-- one feature length documentary per film.

Cleanin' Up the Town covers the Ghostbusters. Too Hot to Handle covers GB2. Current plans are for extended editions later on down the line.

I read an old interview with Harrison Ellenshaw yesterday about how when he worked on Superman IV he had real trouble finding matte painting artists in the UK. I'm guessing it was a dying artform even back in the late 80s when it came to doing the art physically.

When you say extended do you mean for the blu-ray releases or will different versions of both docs be released?

Can't wait! I feel like I've been waiting on this documentary for about a third of my life. :D

Wow-- I guess I have, too! Are you 36/37ish?

It's been screening in Canada with a great response from fans. The movie is in the hands of the distributors now, so we're in the dark on details. I'll definitely post when I know something, though.

pferreia, no details have been confirmed, but we're working on the longer version of Cleanin'. My first cut was around 4 hours, I'm guessing the more refined long version will be around 3.5.

I'm thinking Too Hot to Handle will be the same-- shorter version, longer version kitchen sink version.

The Buenos shot SO much interview material on GB and GB2, keeping it all limited to one documentary would have been a disservice to the fans and artisans behind the original films.

I'm 33. Once these docs go up for order, I'm gonna snatch 'em up as fast as I can. They sound meaty and full of info, which is my kind of documentary. Can't wait to review them. :)

There are also Robocop, Beetlejuice and Gremlins documentaries I've been dying to see, but there hasn't been any momentum from them lately, at least as far as news go.

The last I heard the Robodoc one was in its final stages of completion.

It's great they're doing this. As a big GB fan I'm really looking forward to these blu-rays. I'll also be interested to see if they include any extras for them. :)

What a nice review!
https://setthetape.com/2019/11/28/cl...NZx2RAYjjA3UK4

...and hey, a new trailer, too!
https://youtu.be/S5QFRaf6Z1o