A Shell of a Good Hit: A ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie’ Retrospective, Part Two: Urban Locales and Moody Visuals
An important part of selling Henson’s Turtles as living beings is John Fenner’s cinematography. His use of shadows and musty lighting gives the film a sense of visual rawness and keeps the Turtles grounded. As a result, the moody imagery softens the rubbery texture of their foam latex suits. Moisture was also applied to give their “skin” a sweaty, oily look.
Visible grain adds an extra layer of visual style, perhaps best characterized as “urban punk.” This is best showcased in two flashback sequences, filmed in Super 8 with subjects placed against an empty black screen. The footage is then blown up to 35mm, giving these scenes a minimalistic yet hip vibe.
Fenner — who also served on The Muppets Christmas Carol and The Borrowers — uses a considerable amount of natural lighting and the result feels absolutely genuine. This is especially prominent throughout the farmhouse excursion in the third act. One image that comes to mind is an epic shot of all four Turtles standing in a field out in North Carolina, bathed in a rich golden hour sunset, ready to take on the challenges that lie ahead. An image so natural and grand that it is difficult to doubt its legitimacy — these are four living, breathing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Adding to the illusion are the set design and location work. The world in which these characters navigate isn’t glossy. The streets are dirty. The buildings are decrepit. Their sewer lair actually looks like a sewer lair. It’s messy. The furniture is moldy. Junk is piled everywhere. And to tell you the truth, it looks like it smells something fierce.
Comparable to the look of a gritty comic, the set design compliments the characters perfectly, as they embody a world in which crime runs rampant, populated by mutants and ninja thieves — a world very much in need of heroes such as the Turtles to save the day.
A significant portion of the movie was filmed at De Laurentiis studios (now owned by Screen Gems) in Wilmington, NC. This includes a number of its exterior sequences where the city backlot set doubled for the streets of New York. The look is quite grungy. Dirty old brick buildings. Rusty fire escapes. Boarded up windows. As an extra perk, Fenner uses the tried-n’-true method of wetting down the streets prior to filming to give it that shiny reflective appearance, and the look is just sublime.
A select number of scenes were also filmed on location in New York City, including the Hoyt-Shermerhorn subway station in Brooklyn and Central Park, where Raphael watches Critters and battles Casey Jones. The on-location work doesn’t always match the backlot material filmed in North Carolina. But as these moments appear just as grimy as the rest, it is enough to sell the idea that giant turtles live in the sewers of New York.
Admittedly, there is also something about a Ninja Turtle stopping a purse thief on the real streets of New York that is just… really really cool.
