Review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) by Steven P — 13 Nov 2010

The first Ninja Turtles movie was a huge hit of $135 million, ten times a miniscule budget of $13.5 million. The blockbuster status was a shocker for the dry spell month of March, but this is the Ninja Turtles we're talking about. These four turtles are some of the most enduring memories of 80s and 90s culture. So, New Line was eager to get this sequel going.

Not everyone was happy with the first. Numerous parents rights groups found the levels of swearing and usage of ninja weapons to be bad for kids. Look, guys, if you don't want your kids to imitate scenes that involve weapons of the Orient, don't let them watch the movie.

As such, the profanity was toned down, and for every scene a katana, sai, nunchaku or bo staff was used, the turtles used toys and foods to do battle with the scum of New York's underbelly. Um, that actually had the reverse affect of what those watchdog groups intended.

Anyway, Shredder survived, and he seeks revenge on the turtles. Concurrently, Splinter reveals what made them who they are-a mysterious green ooze. Shredder steals a tube of it and uses it to create two new mutants for the turtles to fight-Bebop and Rocksteady. The movie may call them Tokka and Rahzar, but anyone knows that they're really Bebop and Rocksteady.

The turtles fight these mutants all over, with even enough time for them to stumble upon Vanilla Ice and have him spontaneously create a rap song about the situation. I know it's crazy, but damn is it cool.

Again, the turtles fight Shredder, who eventually ingests some of the ooze and becomes Super Shredder. He is defeated by a falling bridge. Strange. A normal Shredder can survive being compacted in a garbage truck, but a super Shredder dies from having a bridge collapse on him.

As such, this movie was another huge hit, making $78 million on a budget of $25 million.

Money was certainly worth more in the 1990s, wasn't it?

I noted that I like the first two movies because of the nostalgia effect. However, I'm not going to hold back for my next review. Check back soon for my review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. (shudder).