The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie opens this weekend, so before everything goes turtles, we should look back at the first TMNT. The 1990 film was a huge success, even to the point of inspiring a live tour. It was a technical nightmare, though, before the computer generation that the new film relies on.
2. The costumes were incredibly hot, way too big, and fell apart. 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 also didn’t hold up that well and took a lot of wear and tear. Replacement limbs were kept on supply so they could be switched out when needed. 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.
10. The movie caused a battle of the corporate pizza giants. Never before had a movie caused the pizza business to see so many dollar signs and Pizza Hut and Domino’s both wanted a piece of the pie. Pizza Hut was able to secure a $20 million marketing campaign with the movie, but it was Domino’s who got the privilege of feeding the reptiles in the movie. In the end though, Pizza Hut steamrolled over everything turtle-related, sponsoring the “Coming Out of Their Shells” tour and all video games.
That’s just a taste; go see the rest of the TMNT trivia list at Uproxx. After the kids see the new film this weekend, all this will be the stuff "old fogies" know.