They`re keen teens who want your green: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the most popular heroes this side of the Batcave, ready for a new assault on the nation`s pocketbooks.
Spearheaded by comic books, video games, a popular syndicated cartoon show (4:30 p.m. weekdays on WPWR-Ch. 50) and a set of toy action figures, the bad-guy-fighting, pizza-chomping shellbacks have just about cornered the market on kid culture, but there`s still more to come: Playmate Toys is introducing a new set of action figures, and, on Friday, New Line Cinema released a live-action movie, ”Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”
If the idea of teenage, mutant, ninja, turtles sounds bizarre to you, you`re not alone. Adults often don`t quite get it, which for kids is part of the appeal. But when Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird created the first Turtle comics in 1984 as a lark, they weren`t sure that anybody would get it.
”We thought if we could sell all 3,000 copies of our first printing it would be the bee`s knees,” Laird says.
Using borrowed money and working on Salvation Army furniture in a Dover, N.H., living room, they formed Mirage Studios and began writing, drawing and publishing the comics themselves. Marked by an original mixture of heroic adventure and offbeat satire, the stories gradually developed a loyal following. Then, in 1987, Playmates launched the syndicated cartoon series, then the toy line, and the earthbound creatures went through the roof.
In the Eastman-Laird legend, recounted in flashbacks in the film, the Turtles began their lives as regular-size pets. Dropped into a puddle of toxic waste, they ”mutated” into muscular green creatures with the size and intelligence of human beings and were taken in by Splinter, a Yoda-like ninja master who brought them up and taught them morality and martial arts.
(Splinter, it should perhaps be mentioned here, is a giant rat.)
Allied with April, a cute (human) TV news reporter, the Turtles fight a bad ninja called The Shredder and other evil wherever it might strike-that is, when they`re not eating pizza, watching TV or playing video games in their sewer home.
At 15, they talk the exaggerated teen-speak made famous by such films as
”Fast Times at Ridgemont High” and ”Bill & Ted`s Excellent Adventure”
(”Hey, dudes, let`s party!” being the prime example). Though it`s difficult for adult eyes to tell them apart (and nearly impossible in the original comics), the Turtles retain distinctive personalities; any youngster will be glad to describe the individual quirks of (yes, these are their names) smart Leonardo, surfer-dude Michelangelo, hotheaded Raphael and mechanical-minded Donatello.
Aside from a few minor changes, the movie version remains faithful to Eastman and Laird`s original story. Aware of the difficulties in translating non-human characters into a live-action format (and remembering some notable failures, such as the 1986 box-office bomb ”Howard the Duck”), producers at Golden Harvest Group turned to Muppeteer Jim Henson`s Creature Shop in London, which utilized foam rubber latex body casts and radio-controlled, computerized facial expressions. The results are surprisingly realistic: If the movie Turtles don`t come across as real, exactly, they never seem simply cartoons or, worse, men in turtle suits.
One of the film`s chief virtues is a modern lost-boy land, an underground criminal lair where leather-and-T-shirt-clad teen runaways play video games and take ninja lessons, all to a heavy-metal beat. That these kids eventually learn the error of their ways doesn`t detract from the overall attractiveness of the setting: It`s a teen dream, juvenile delinquency without the alienation and danger.
Director Steve Barron says that this sort of clean fantasy is in keeping with the film`s tone. ”What we didn`t take from the comics was the blood and violence. We wanted to emphasize the sense of fun and humor, which is what kids really pick up on.
”There are two different lots of people who like the characters,”
Baron, who is British, notes. ”There are the comics people, who came up from colleges and picked up the issues these guys put out before it was made more commercial; now the kids see them as a bit more playful, as wild and crazy guys. We used both aspects in the movie.”
A slicker second line, intended for younger children, contains rather simple, cartoonish color graphics based on the animated television series;
this series is published under the auspices of Archie Comic Publications Inc., best known for documenting the wholesome adventures of Betty and Veronica and the gang at Riverdale High. It, too, deals with some serious topics, however, such as the need to protect the environment.
Positive messages and relative lack of graphic violence make the animated television show a benign presence on the children`s-TV scene. Peggy Charren, president of the advocacy group Action for Children`s Television, says, ”I like the fact that the show grew out of two guys doing comic books, and not as a commercial to sell toys. And there`s an effort to tone down the violence and not make it too much like `Rambo.` ” The problem, to her, is that kids watch it every day, increasing the impact the violence might have on them.
Still, Charren adds, ”any program full of heroes named Michelangelo and Raphael can`t be all bad.”
All this interest suggests that the characters` popularity has gone beyond cartoons and comic books to the level of a genuine pop-culture phenomenon; and if the film is successful, as it almost surely will be, the Turtles` vast green influence will only increase. As befits such multifaceted characters, there is a whole range of opinions about why they`re so well-liked.
Says director Barron, ”These guys (Eastman and Laird) came up with a whole set of bizarre ideas that all jell together as one. There`s nothing that`s cheesy or cop-out or incomplete. Kids pick up on the satire, of course, and the concept that a turtle, which is the slowest animal, could be the fastest. And something about the shell of a turtle is protective and homey. It touches on something in the back of kids` minds.”
To Bourdon, the Turtles reflect modern urban life: ”They`re like the Guardian Angels in New York, teenagers who live underground, come out at night and do good deeds for the city. That`s something today`s kids can relate to.” Says co-creator Laird, ”I think their success is in a large part due to the fact that the Turtles are nice guys; they`re the sort of characters the kids want to be themselves.” Laird notes that kids don`t have as hard a time accepting ”weird stuff” as adults do. ”Most of what goes on in comic books is pretty strange. Superman is pretty weird; a guy dressing up in a bat costume and driving a big car is weird.”
But Laird sees an essential difference between his guys and other comic book heroes. ”Unlike the traditional superhero who goes out looking for crimes to stop, butting in on everyone, the Turtles are basically like other people in that they just want to be left alone, not be hassled. If somebody messes with them they`ll take care of themselves, and if they see someone in trouble, they`ll help them, but basically, they enjoy living their lives, not butting into other people`s business. It`s a noninterventionist stance.”
Dr. Chaytor Mason, associate professor of human factors psychology at the University of Southern California, compares the Turtle books to earlier purveyors of satire such as Bugs Bunny and Mad magazine.
”Satire is a big thing for kids,” Mason says. ”Teenagers see the world in a funny way; they`re testing social values and boundaries. It`s a common thing to want to see characters do what you can`t do and to make light of the things you`re afraid of.”
Mason goes farther, even suggesting that the Turtles` popularity is connected with the rise of urban gangs. ”In the `30s we played with toy soldiers because we expected to go to war sometime. Kids today feel the world is a pretty tough place, and they have to fight their way through it. Maybe identifying with these characters, who know martial arts and are prepared for any situation, is their way of preparing for gang behavior, drug behavior.”
Director Barron has a simpler explanation. ”It`s just fun. Just a bit of entertainment.”
But is there a point to the Turtles story?
Says Laird, ”I sum it up in the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you`d have them do unto you.”
And the moral?
Says Barron: ”The good guys win.”
