| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze | |
|---|---|
_poster.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Michael Pressman |
| Written by | Todd W. Langen |
| Based on | Characters created by |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Shelly Johnson |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | John Du Prez |
Production company | |
| Distributed by |
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Release date |
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Running time | 88 minutes |
| Country | United States[2] |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $25 million[3] |
| Box office | $78.7 million[4] |
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze is a 1991 Americansuperherocomedy film[5] based on theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters created byKevin Eastman andPeter Laird. Directed byMichael Pressman and written byTodd W. Langen, it is the sequel toTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) and the second installment in the originalTurtles film trilogy. It starsPaige Turco (replacingJudith Hoag asApril O'Neil) andDavid Warner, with the voices ofBrian Tochi,Robbie Rist, Adam Carl, and Laurie Faso. Not long after the events of the first film,the Shredder resumes command of theFoot Clan out for revenge on the Turtles. When he learns the secret behind the Turtles' mutation, he becomes more dangerous than ever. The film reveals the origins of Splinter and the Turtles and introduces two new villains,Tokka and Rahzar. Unlike the first film, the Turtles mostly fight bare-fisted, to tone down the violence.
The film was released theatrically in the United States on March 22, 1991, byNew Line Cinema. It received mixed reviews from critics, who said it departed from the much darker tone of the original 1990 film. It was financially successful, grossing $78.7 million against a budget of $25 million, becoming the thirteenth highest-grossing film domestically in the year of its release.[6] A sequel,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, was released in 1993.
InNew York City, shortly after the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles defeat theShredder, a youngpizza delivery boy named Keno inadvertently encountersburglars at a mall on his route and tries to stop them. The burglars attack Keno, who proves to be a skilledmartial artist, but he is soon overwhelmed before the arrival of theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They vanish after rescuing Keno, tying the burglars up, and taking the pizza he was delivering, leaving behind the money to pay for it.
Leonardo,Raphael,Donatello andMichelangelo, along with their masterSplinter, are currently living withApril O'Neil in her new apartment while looking for a new place to live. Splinter wants to remain in the shadows, while Raphael thinks they should live out in the open. At ajunkyard where the remnants ofThe Foot and the Shredder's second-in-command Tatsu are hiding out, they are met by their master, who has been disfigured by his previous defeat[a] and vows revenge on the turtles.
April interviews Professor Jordan Perry of Techno Global Research Industries (TGRI) about a possibletoxic waste leak. He assures her that everything is fine, but their scientists secretly discoverdandelions which have been mutated by the leak. Freddy, a spy for the Foot Clan posing as April's cameraman, discovers this, collects one of the dandelions, and reports it to his master, who decides to have Perry interrogated. Back at April's apartment, Splinter reveals to her and the turtles that the canister of mutagen (dubbed "Ooze" by the turtles) which mutated them 15 years earlier was created by TGRI, and they too decide to talk to Perry. The Foot gets to Perry first and kidnap him, salvaging the last canister of ooze in the process. The turtles attempt to get the canister back, but ultimately fail. Afterwards, Keno gets into April's apartment under the guise of delivering pizza and discovers Splinter and the turtles.
At the Shredder's hideout, Perry is forced to use the remaining ooze on asnapping turtle and awolf, which mutates them intoTokka and Rahzar, respectively. Unfortunately, Tokka and Rahzar have the mindset of infants. Shredder considers killing with the creatures until Perry points out their super strength. With the imminent threat to April's safety by the Foot Clan, the turtles begin actively look for a new home. After an argument with Leonardo, Raphael breaks off from the group, while Michelangelo discoversthe abandoned City Hall subway station and deems it a perfect hideout. Raphael and Keno disregard Splinter's orders and recruit Keno into the Foot Clan to find their hideout. However, they are caught and Raphael is captured, while Keno escapes to warn the others. When they come, they are ambushed by the Shredder and the Foot; Splinter saves the group, but leaves as they face Tokka and Rahzar, who prove too strong to defeat. Donatello finds a bound and gagged Perry after being tossed into a building by Tokka, and the five of them make a tactical retreat. Once back in their hideout, Perry explains that the creation of the ooze was an accident, disheartening Donatello, Leonardo and Raphael, who saw a higher purpose for their existence.
The Shredder unleashes Tokka and Rahzar into a nearby neighborhood to cause damage. The next day, Freddy sends a message to April that Tokka and Rahzar will be released intoCentral Park if the turtles don't meet the Foot Clan at the construction site. Perry develops an antidote to the mutations, but it must be ingested to work. When the turtles confront the Foot at the site, they try using donuts to trick Tokka and Rahzar into eating the antidote. Tokka and Rahzar soon discover the trick and brutally attack, throwing Raphael into a public dance club whereVanilla Ice is performing. A big fight ensues among hundreds of witnesses. The club owners consider calling the police but see that their customers are enjoying the show. Eventually, the turtles revert Tokka and Rahzar back to their natural state, using a fire extinguisher. Shredder appears and attempts to take a hostage until Keno appears and interrupts his plans. The turtles and Shredder take the fight to the docks, where Shredder is transformed into a Super Shredder after consuming the last of the ooze. The heavily mutated Shredder is too strong for the turtles to fight, but he rips the dock apart in his rampage, causing it to collapse and kill him, much to the turtles' relief who wind up in the bay.
In a press release, April reads a note from Perry, thanking the turtles for saving him. When they return home, Splinter orders the four of them to do ten flips as punishment for being seen by humans, as evidenced by the morning's newspaper.
The cast also includesFrançois Chau as theShredder (voiced by David McCharen), the Turtles' and Splinter's arch-nemesis, withKevin Nash playing his mutated form, Super Shredder. Kurt Bryant and playTokka and Rahzar (both voiced byFrank Welker), a mutatedalligator snapping turtle and a mutatedwolf, respectively, created by Professor Perry under orders from the Shredder using a canister of ooze stolen from the TGRI company. DirectorMichael Pressman plays Channel 3's news manager and Mark Caso portrays a staffer who informs April of the Turtles' phone call; Pressman's parents, Sasha and David, play the older couple who witness Tokka and Rahzar's night attack. Mark Doerr plays Freddie, a Foot Clan messenger who poses as April's cameraman. Additional Foot Clan members are portrayed by Leif Tilden (Foot #3) and Dewey Webber (Foot Recruiter).Vanilla Ice andEarthquake respectively appear as a performer and a disc jockey at the Dockshore Club.
Due to the massive success of the first film, a sequel was expected.[7] The film was produced on a budget of US$25 million, nearly twice the budget of the 1990 film, which was $13.5 million.[8] Like the first film,New Line Cinema distributedThe Secret of the Ooze. BothRobbie Rist andBrian Tochi reprised their roles as the voice actors of Michelangelo and Leonardo in the second film, butCorey Feldman did not voice Donatello in the second film after pleading no contest to a drug possession charge in December 1990,[9] although he would later return as Donatello's voice inTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.Josh Pais did not reprise the role of Raphael, and he was replaced by Laurie Faso andKenn Scott (who is credited under the name Kenn Troum) as the voice andcostumed performer, respectively; Scott was previously Raphael's in-suit fighting double. Cast as April O'Neil,Paige Turco succeededJudith Hoag from the first film, for this film andTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.[10] According to Hoag, she was not approached to reprise the role because the producers thought she complained too much during the first film about the strenuous shooting schedule and amount of violence.[11] The character ofCasey Jones, who was prominent in the first film, did not appear here though he returned in the following film.Ernie Reyes Jr., who was Donatello's fight double in the first film, was cast as a new character, Keno, as the producers admired Reyes and his performance in the first film so much they asked him to join the sequel.François Chau replacesJames Saito as the Shredder. In July 2022,Kevin Nash revealed thatKevin Peter Hall was originally cast as the physical actor for the Super Shredder.[12] Todd W. Langen returned from the first film to write the screenplay.
The characters ofBebop and Rocksteady, who were popular villains in the1987 animated series, could not be used due toPeter Laird objecting, with the latter stating that "their constant one-note shtick in the first animated series [was] extremely annoying and silly to the point of being stupid".[13] As a result, Tokka and Rahzar were created.[14][15] However, Eastman states that he and Laird initially intended Bebop and Rocksteady to be in the film, but ultimately decided to do new mutants to expand the franchise.[16]
The Turtles fight bare-fisted for much of this film, to tone down the violence.[17] The abandoned subway station, the new lair for the Turtles, was based on the real-life decommissionedCity Hall station of theNew York City Subway, built by the formerInterborough Rapid Transit Company. The station is not completely abandoned, as it appears in the film. Trains pass through the station daily as they turn around to head uptown, and passengers ride through the station, but the train does not stop and so they cannot disembark. During filming of the scene where the Turtles are trapped in the net and fall to the ground, one of the stuntmen broke an ankle. Some filming took place inNorth Carolina, like the first, where the New York City skyline was created at the North Carolina Film Studios.[18] The building used for the entrance to April's apartment is the office of the New York location ofJim Henson's Creature Shop, which did the animatronics work for the film andits predecessor. The film is dedicated to the memory ofJim Henson, who had died the previous May.
An original motion picture soundtrack was released alongside the film in 1991 by SBK Records.[19] The soundtrack featured 10 tracks from the film, and music from artists such as Magnificent V11, produced by Troy Duncombe and Mickey Mahoney of Cat and Moose productions,Ya Kid K,Cathy Dennis andDavid Morales, Tribal House andDan Hartman. The most famous song featured on the soundtrack is "Ninja Rap" performed by rapperVanilla Ice and written byFrank Miller. The song featured prominently, and Ice makes an appearance as himself. This song tricked the audience into believing the fight was a harmless "show" and thus not to panic. A music video was produced for "Ninja Rap".
The soundtrack features two original pieces from the Orchestra On the Half Shell. The original music was composed byJohn Du Prez, who won a BMI Film Music Award for his work.[20][unreliable source?]
The Secret of the Ooze was released in theaters on March 22, 1991, in the United States, and subsequently in other countries from June through to August. The film was number one in North America on its first weekend of release, taking in overUS$20 million,[21] and eventually making $78,656,813 in total,[3] generatingtheatrical rentals of $41.9 million.[22] The film was a success at the U.S. and Canadian box office, but made less than the first film,[8] becoming the second highest-grossing independent film ever, behind the original.[22] Overseas, the film did not do so well, with20th Century Fox acquiring the foreign rights for $25 million but the film only earning them rentals of $12 million.[23] In total, the film had worldwide rentals of $54 million.[24]
Like its predecessor, the sequel was censored in the UK due to usage of forbidden weapons (thenunchaku), such as during the opening credits sequence where Michelangelo imitates their use by swinging a pair of sausages. The edits were waived for the DVD release in 2002.[25] The German version was not censored visually; as with the first film, funny cartoon sound effects were added to the fight scenes to soften the violence.
The second film received mixed reviews from critics. OnRotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 35% based on reviews from 43 critics, with the consensus: "Not only is the movie's juvenile dialogue unbearable for adults, but the turtles' dopey and casual attitude towards physical violence makes them poor kids' role models".[26] OnMetacritic, the film has a score of 45 out of 100 based on reviews from 20 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[27]
Dave Kehr ofThe Chicago Sun Times calls the film "a fast, funny, engagingly unpretentious 88 minutes that, moving between martial-arts dustups and random satirical jibes, achieves a more successful mix of action and humor than the first. There is plenty for adults here as well as children".[28]
Janet Maslin ofThe New York Times noted that "the Turtles fight less, clown more and stray too far from their beloved sewers" and called it an improvement, and was relieved that they had at least made a mainstream movie.[17] Maslin stated that the Turtles "clean up their act" in the movie and also praisedSecret of the Ooze for containing scenes referencing then-growing popular culture trends which were considered major competitors to the TMNT franchise's "greatest assets," such asrap music andBart Simpson.[17] Lloyd Bradley ofEmpire gave the film three out of five stars, saying, "This lacks the darkness and subtlety that makes the first film so good, and so adult, but its simplified plot and gags will appeal to the under tens".[29]
Gene Siskel atThe Chicago Tribune was just as unimpressed by this film as the first, calling it "a martial-arts movie in rubber uniforms". Siskel considers that he is an adult "forgetting the sort of mindless entertainment that he himself enjoyed as a child" but rejects the idea and calls the fight scenes "more depressing than joyful".[30]Roger Ebert ofThe Chicago Sun Times complains that the Turtles look essentially the same, and suggests they are an "emblem of our drab and dreary times" and that they are "an example of the hazards of individuality". He says kids are getting a bad deal and compared to the comic book heroes he grew up with they are being robbed of "a sense of wonder".[31]
TheTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise was arguably at the height of its popularity around the time thatThe Secret of the Ooze was released in theaters. A number of tie-ins were brought out alongside the release of the film. A new line of toys were introduced for the release of the film, including "Movie Star" toys of all four Turtles, with the box art depicting stills from the film, and a cartoon rendition of the turtles gathered around a canister of ooze in the top right corner of the package.[32] In contrast to the usual Turtles' figures, the film series figures were softer and more rubbery, to better reflect the look of theanimatronic costumes used in the films. They featured ball joints at the neck, shoulders, and hips, and each figure came with a small, plastic canister with a sticker of "ooze" wrapped around them. An official film adaptation was also released by Eastman and Laird.[33]
Figurines of Super Shredder, Tokka and Rahzar were also available, though they were not as closely aligned to the film as the four turtles were.[34] The Playmates company produced the figurines.[35] The Turtles franchise had by now also immersed itself into the food industry, with characters from the franchise appearing on numerous food products. Royal Gelatin Desserts adapted the "Ooze" name into their product, and featured the Turtles on the packages.[36] The boxes included various recipes involving ooze in some form.[36]
A third film, titledTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, was released 1993 to a smaller box office take and is the final of the original trilogy.
The film was originally released onVHS inNorth America on July 31, 1991.[37] It sold 5 million units.[38]
The film was later released onDVD in Region 1 on 3 September 2002; it contained only minor special features and interactive menus.
On 4 August 2009, the film was included in a special 25th-anniversary boxset, released to both DVD andBlu-ray formats. It containsTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, and the animated release,TMNT (2007).
In December 2025,Arrow Video released the film on both4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and Blu-ray formats, along with the first and third ones in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada.[39]
It is true that I didn't want them in any of the movies, which is why instead of Bebop and Rocksteady in the second movie (The Secret of the Ooze) there were Tokka and Rhazar. If memory serves, Kevin was equally opposed to the inclusion of Bebop and Rocksteady in the movies.
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