Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
Short description
The four martial-arts-trained turtles Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello have settled into life in New York with the journalist April O'Neil, but their enemy Shredder has survived their earlier confrontation and is rebuilding the Foot Clan. He seizes the scientist Jordan Perry, whose research concerns the same mutating substance that once turned the turtles into what they are, and turns two newly recruited creatures into powerful mutant warriors. To stop Shredder from assembling an army of mutants and threatening the city, the turtles have to step in, with help from their teacher Splinter, April and the pizza delivery man Keno.
Michael Pressman directed the film, which followed in 1991 as the fifth feature of his directing career after Those Lips, Those Eyes, Some Kind of Hero and Shootdown. Todd W. Langen wrote the screenplay. The voice cast includes Brian Tochi, Laurie Faso, Robbie Rist and Adam Carl as the turtles, while Paige Turco plays April and David Warner appears as Professor Perry, among 66 credited cast members. It was produced by New Line Cinema, Orange Sky Golden Harvest and Mirage Studios on a budget of 25 million dollars, and its worldwide gross of 79 million dollars recouped that cost several times over.
Audience response was moderate but positive: on IMDb the film holds 6 out of 10 from around 64,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.2 out of 10 from roughly 1,300 votes. A critics' rating of 4.5 out of 10 from 43 reviews places professional assessment below those viewer scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- For the majority of the film, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles do not use their weapons, as parents of young viewers of the first film were dissatisfied with the excessive amount of violence on screen.
- Producers were pleased with the acting of Ernie Reyes Jr., who played Donatello in the fight scenes in the first film, so they wrote a separate role for him as Keno, an ally of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- The creators of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, were against the inclusion of Bebop and Rocksteady, villains from the 1987 animated series, as they considered them silly and irritating. For this reason, the creators came up with new mutant characters – Tokka and Razhar. According to producer Thomas K. Gray, the introduction of new characters was beneficial from a business point of view – it allowed the film's creators to claim royalties for their subsequent use.
- Filming took place at a film studio in North Carolina, where parts of the sewers and rooftops were recreated based on photographs of New York City.
- TMNT creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were against the appearance of Bebop and Rocksteady, villains from the 1987 animated series, as they considered them stupid and annoying. For this reason, the creators came up with new mutant characters—Tokka and Rahzar. According to producer Thomas Q. Gray, introducing new characters was advantageous from a business perspective, as it allowed the filmmakers to claim royalties for the subsequent use of these characters.
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