Film Appreciation - Go Ninja Go Ninja Go!

Cody Hamman raps about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II for Film Appreciation.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze is a film that is able to, to some degree, remind me what it was like to be seven years old. That's how old I was when it was released, and I still have memories from that time. As a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cartoon series and of the 1990 live action feature film, and as a collector of the toys, I was extremely hyped for this movie when it was coming out. The Secret of the Ooze reached theatres eight days shy of a year after its predecessor, but when you're a kid a year doesn't feel like it goes by so fast, so by the time this sequel came along I was very anxious to see the Turtles on the screen again.

The first movie had been an independent production that was picked up for distribution by New Line Cinema and became one of the highest grossing independent films of all time. The film had been closer to the dark and gritty comic book source material by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird than it was to the lighthearted cartoon, and Eastman and Laird were hoping the follow-up would be the same. That's not how things turned out. Another New Line Cinema release, this bigger budgeted sequel is a much lighter, more polished film than the first one; not as outlandish as the cartoon, but still basically a live action cartoon. While I appreciate the tone of the first movie, I don't mind the style of The Secret of the Ooze. I certainly didn't have any problem with the change in tone when I was seven.

TMNT '90 director Steve Barron was replaced by Michael Pressman, who did a fine job with the goofier approach, and the previous film's co-writer Todd W. Langen returned to earn the sole writing credit on this one. The story of the sequel picks up right after the events of its predecessor, so soon after that the garbage truck the villainous Shredder fell into at the end of the previous movie has only just dumped the load of trash he's in at the landfill. From the trash rises Shredder (Francois Chau, delivering his lines through a metal mask), battered but alive... and angry. He wants to get revenge for the Turtles making a mockery of him and his army of ninjas, the Foot Clan.

Another replacement was made for the role of April O'Neil, the Turtles' human news reporter friend. Judith Hoag played the character the first time around, and apparently - according to online trivia - butted heads with the producers over some issues, so the role was handed over to Paige Turco for this one. It doesn't feel like Turco was given as much to do as Hoag was, especially since April's love interest Casey Jones isn't in this movie (that is one thing that did disappoint me when I was seven years old), but she plays the character well. One thing Turco had to play as April is frustration, as the Turtles have moved into her new apartment with her and they are not ideal roommates. The Turtles had to give up on their original sewer den because the Foot Clan found out where it was located, but that turns out to be for the best. They find a much better home in The Secret of the Ooze: an abandoned subway station.

 

The Turtles - Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael - were once again brought to life by actors in animatronic suits, and these things look incredible. They're very convincing, I can totally buy that these guys are living, speaking, fighting creatures, and since the budget was increased the effects are even better. Brian Tochi and Robbie Rist were brought back to provide the voices of Leonardo and Michelangelo again, but for the voice of Raphael Josh Pais was replaced by Laurie Faso and for Donatello Corey Feldman was replaced by Adam Carl. Raphael is close enough to the original voice to my ears, but Carl sounds very different from Feldman's Donatello. I don't dislike Carl's voice, it's just obvious that it's not Feldman. Kevin Clash reprises the role of Splinter, the Turtles' rat mentor / father figure.

These mutant creatures exist because fifteen years ago a rat and four baby turtles were doused in a mysterious radioactive ooze that came from a canister that fell off a truck and into the sewer, where it shattered. As the subtitle indicates, this sequel tells us exactly where that canister of ooze came from - the labs of Techno-Global Research Industries. In the source material the ooze had alien origins, but here it was manmade. A scientist involved in the making of the ooze was Professor Jordan Perry (David Warner), who is now seeking to clean up all trace of the ooze and properly dispose of what's left of it. Perry and his associates successfully dispose of every bit of ooze except for one last canister before the Foot Clan shows up at the TGRI lab, steals that canister, and abducts Perry.

Shredder's plan is to use the ooze to create two mutant creatures like the Turtles and Splinter, but ones that will do his bidding. His human soldiers have failed him, so now he intends to pit "freak against freak". And even though every kid who watched the cartoon before seeing this movie probably expected the two new mutants to be Bebop and Rocksteady, Shredder's mutant rhino and warthog henchmen who were a major presence in the cartoon, the filmmakers chose not to bring Bebop and Rocksteady to the screen. Fans wouldn't get to see those characters in live action until 2016's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. Instead, Shredder sends his right hand man Tatsu (Toshishiro Obata) out to bring him the two most vicious animals he can find, and Tatsu returns with a snapping turtle and a wolf that get mutated into characters called Tokka and Rahzar.

Shredder was hoping that Tokka and Rahzar would be horrifying monsters, but they're actually the silliest aspect of the movie, because they turn out to be giant infants who see Shredder as their surrogate mother. They are large and strong, but they're babies and call Shredder "mama". They look comedic and cartoonish, but also kind of awesome, and I enjoy having a couple extra mutants in the film.

My favorite of the Turtles was always Raphael, the brooding one with a bad attitude. Revisiting these movies after a couple decades, I was surprised to find that Raphael gets knocked down a peg in both the '90 movie and part II. In the first one he takes a beating and spends a stretch of the film unconscious, and here he takes a beating and gets captured by the Foot Clan. He gets tied up and used as bait - to rescue him, the other Turtles have to infiltrate the Foot Clan's junkyard hideout, where Shredder is waiting to ambush them with Tokka and Rahzar. I still like Raphael the best, but it never occurred to me when I was a kid that my favorite got a little nerfed in both of these movies.

Raphael has his own side mission in The Secret of the Ooze, which is how he gets in trouble. Irritated - and understandably so - that his brothers focus on searching for a new home when they know the Foot Clan have stolen a canister of ooze, he teams up with their new human ally, martial arts practicing pizza delivery boy Keno, to find out where the Foot are staying. Keno is played by Ernie Reyes Jr., who was Donatello's fight double in the first movie. The character of Keno was created specifically for him, and Reyes makes him quite endearing while also showing off impressive skills in fight scenes. Raphael gets into the Foot Clan's junkyard H.Q. by having Keno go undercover as a new recruit... but things don't go smoothly.

 

As the story progresses, the Turtles find another ally in Professor Perry, and Warner proves to be a fun presence in the film. Perry's knowledge is helpful to the Turtles in their climactic confrontation with Tokka, Rahzar, the Foot Clan, and Shredder - who goes out like such an idiot, it's almost enough to make you wish he had just stayed dead after his dive into the back of the garbage truck.

A portion of that climactic fight takes place in a nightclub where Vanilla Ice happens to be performing on stage, because this movie was made during the fifteen minute window when Vanilla Ice was popular. I can't say I was ever a fan of him, but the "Ninja Rap" he brought to the table here was innocuous enough that I never had an issue with him being in the movie. Back in '91, I even had to assure someone that his guest appearance didn't drag the movie down.

When I was a child, I would often play with the kids who lived directly across the street from me, twins who were my age. I was able to go see the movie before they did, so before their parents took them to the movie their mom told me she was uncertain about Vanilla Ice being in it and asked me how his scenes were. It makes sense that she was wary of having to watch Vanilla Ice, as they were a classic rock family. I told her that Vanilla Ice's part was good, and after they saw the movie she agreed that he didn't ruin it.

Vanilla Ice may date the film, but even with him around for a sequence The Secret of the Ooze still holds up twenty-nine years later as a very satisfying, entertaining sequel. It lost the grit of its predecessor, but it stills works nearly perfectly on its own merits. (The final moments with Shredder are the only thing I would really change about the movie, but even that I thought was awesome in 1991.) Keno and Professor Perry were great additions, Tokka and Rahzar are fun and I like the design of them, and the interactions between the Turtles - and the fights they have with the villains - are highly enjoyable.

I remember the days when I was looking forward to this movie's release. I remember the preview I got of the nightclub fight in a flipbook that was the special prize in a box of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cereal - cereal which I ate out of a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bowl. The time I spent reading and re-reading the comic book adaptation (and the adaptation of the first movie). The many viewings I had of it on VHS. The Secret of the Ooze was a major event when I was seven, and I will always have appreciation for it because of that.