Steve Barron directs Judith Hoag, Elias Koteas and Corey Feldman in this superhero action comedy about Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, Heroes in a half-shell – Turtle Power! They’re the world’s most fearsome fighting teens, They’re heroes in a half-shell, and they’re green…

I’m going to chalk this up as a pleasant surprise. I hadn’t revisited this since the height of the toy craze, when my height was at least a foot shorter… but as a colourful entertainment it holds up rather well. Corners have been cut in the production, there are obvious padding sequences to separate the more expensive fight and FX work (which in the main is cartoonishly tactile – a positive) and the humour is obscurely adult… not in a blue way either, just in a would-kid’s-ever-get-some-of-the-reference-points-in-the-quips? weirdness. But April, Casey Jones, Splinter and the main four are a likeable bunch and when they get into rumbles they are kinetic and threat filled. What more could you ask from a blockbuster adventure made on a shoestring and a prayer the Turtle bubble wouldn’t burst before the celluloid was developed.

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