When Sam Rockwell’s character tells the police to “go check out the East Warehouse over at Lairdman Island” this is a nod to the comic’ creators: Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.ħ. Sam Rockwell gives a shout out to the comic’s creators. “I wanted the ‘fluff’ back in the script and I wanted conditions on the set to improve. This was the primary reason that Hoag did not reprise her role in Secret of the Ooze. Michelan Sisti “Michelangelo” - Is the pizza delivery man who delivers the turtles pizza in the sewer. Lief Tilden “Donatello” - Plays the foot messenger that meets April in the subway station.ĭavid Forman “Leonardo” - Portrays a gang member at the warehouse when Casey Jones fights with Foot Clan leader Tatsu. Josh Pais “Raphael” - Plays the passenger in the back of the cab when Raph leaps onto the cab’s hood.
The actors who played the turtles all have cameos in the movie without their turtle suits on.
The turtles’ indie crown was lost a few years later when Pulp Fiction passed it by making $213 million.Ĥ. At the time of its release, TMNT was the second highest-grossing indie film ever, raking in $201 million at the box office. Not even the big, bad studios of Hollywood could stop the wave of turtle power, and the turtles were making bank in 1990. For a time it was the highest-grossing indie film. Besides being hot, heavy, and prone to damage, the turtle costumes were also too big to fit in a manhole, forcing producers to have custom manholes built.ģ. Replacement limbs were kept on supply so they could be switched out when needed. The costumes also didn’t hold up that well and took a lot of wear and tear. The costumes had nearly 60 pounds of animatronics inside them, so this coupled with the summer North Carolina humidity caused each of the actors to lose almost 20 pounds. The costumes were incredibly hot, way too big, and fell apart. Pais would immediately remove his mask after every cut.Ģ. The actor was the only one to provide his own character voice, but wasn’t a fan of wearing the turtle mask because of severe claustrophobia. Actor Josh Pais had anxiety about wearing his Raphael mask. Consider these 12 pieces of childhood nostalgia a look behind the shell.ġ. Bringing the turtles to life wasn’t an easy task, in fact, it was actually quite a grueling process for the actors and creature creators involved. It’s little tweaks like that though that made the cartoon and movie that followed so damn appealing to a 90s kid. The turtles’ love of pizza, Michelangelo’s surfer speak, and the overuse of “cowabunga” can be attributed to the cartoon. As much fun as the 1990 movie was, it didn’t stay true to the comic books and took most of its cues from the popular cartoon.
The 1990 film was a monster success, spawning a number of sequels, as well as the very popular “Coming Out of Their Shells” live tour - I’m still bitter about missing out on that. There’s still time to enjoy some of the TMNT nostalgia before the franchise is forever altered, and that’s where movie trivia comes in. Your childhood is just days away from being forever crushed by Michael Bay and his CGI turtles in a half shell.