I was chatting with a friend today, and had a sudden moment of clarity.
TMNT
We were chatting about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We’d gotten onto the subject because I was wearing my Michaelangelo sweat-band. As can be seen here:
My Michaelangelo Sweat-Band (purchased from 80's Tees)
We began talking about the Ninja Turtles (or the Hero Turtles as they were known here in the UK), and how much we both loved the show, as kids.
My friend Ash and I are, pretty much, the same age.
Anyway, while we were talking about the show the conversation – quite naturally – took a turn towards the film from 1990. We started discussing our favourite scenes – all of which, coincidentally, involved Raphael in some way. Quite simply put, this is the greatest TMNT scene EVER captured on celluloid:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8k-obRa90k]
This, despite the both of us conceding that Mickey and Donny are the best characters in the entire show/film/cannon.
Come on. It’s 198, one of the characters is the comic relief and the other is a genius. That’s just how kid’s shows worked back then – they made the comic relief and the genius into the best characters.
The Voices
Then Ash dropped this bomb:
It had always bugged me that, in the film at least, Raph has a full on New Yorker slash Brooklyn accent whereas the other turtles has a Californian one. Then, of course, I realised that Raph is the outsider of the bunch. He spends most of his time walking the city (that’s how Casey Jones finds him) or training on the rooftops; it’s only natural that he has a thick accent. But why should the other three sound like Californians?
Then it hit me. They spend all of their free time watching the TV, and a lot of TV is made in California. Not only that, but they speak like “Surfer Dudes,” could this be a hidden or subtle connection to the ocean? They are turtles, after all?
Talk about, “woah!”
Until next time,
J
I’m just gonna leave this here
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=avHVOHsN3T0]
