Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze



Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze is a 1991 American science fiction action superhero, comedy film directed by Michael Pressman, based on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters published by Mirage Studios. It is the sequel to the 1990 film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Secret of the Ooze was followed by a third film in 1993, and a fourth (TMNT) in 2007. The film is distributed in the United States by New Line Cinema, and internationally distributed by 20th Century Fox.

The film follows the adventures of the four Turtles: Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael, and their Master Splinter. Resuming from the events of the last film, the villain, Shredder, returns to take back command of the Foot Clan, and work towards getting revenge on the Turtles. When he learns the secret behind the Turtles' mutation, he becomes more dangerous than ever. The film sheds some light on the origins of Splinter and the Turtles, as well as introduces two new villains: Tokka and Rahzar.

Unlike the first film, this entry rarely showed the use of the Turtles' weapons. They instead fight bare-fisted for much of the film, as part of an attempt to tone down the violence of the previous installment. The film was released on March 22, 1991, and received mixed to negative reviews from critics who felt it departed from the much darker tone of the original 1990 film, and was more light-hearted. Despite this, the film was financially successful, and became the 13th highest-grossing film domestically in the year of its release.

Plot
A young pizza delivery boy named Keno inadvertently encounters burglars on his route and tries to stop them. Seeing him as a witness, the burglars attack Keno, who proves to be an expert martial artist, but he is soon overwhelmed before the arrival of the Ninja Turtles. They vanish after rescuing Keno, tying up the burglars, and taking the pizza he was delivering, leaving money to pay for it.

Leonardo, Donatello, Michaelangelo and Raphael, along with their master Splinter, are living with April O'Neil while they look for a new place to live following the events of their last adventure. Splinter wants to remain in the shadows, while Raphael thinks they should live out in the open. At a junkyard where the remnants of The Foot and Shredder's second-in-command Tatsu are hiding out, they are met by their master, who has been disfigured by his previous defeat but did not die as they thought.

April interviews Professor Jordan Perry of Techno Global Research Industries (TGRI) about a possible toxic waste leak. He assures her that everything is fine, but at the same time their scientists discover dandelions which have been mutated by the contaminant. Freddy, a spy for the Foot posing as April's cameraman, discovers this and reports it to his master, who decides to have Perry interrogated. Back at April's apartment, Splinter reveals to her and the turtles that TGRI was responsible for their mutation more than fifteen years prior, and they too decide to talk to him. The Foot gets to Perry first and kidnaps him, salvaging the last vial canister of ooze in the process. The turtles attempt to get the canister back, but ultimately fail. Afterward, Keno gets into April's apartment under the guise of delivering pizza and discovers Splinter and the turtles.

At the Shredder's hideout, Perry is forced into using the remaining ooze on a wolf and a snapping turtle, which mutate into Tokka and Rahzar. With the imminent threat to April's safety by the Foot, the turtles start to actively look for a new home. After an argument with Leo, Raph breaks off from the group, while Mikey, who soon discovers an abandoned subway station, deems it a perfect hideout. Raph and Keno defy Splinter's orders and implant Keno into the Foot Clan to find their hideout. However, they are caught and Raph is captured, while Keno escapes to warn the others. When they come, they are ambushed by Shredder and the Foot; Splinter saves the group, but leaves as they face Tokka and Rahzar, who prove too strong to defeat. Donny finds Perry and the five of them make a tactical retreat. Once back in their hideout, Perry explains that the creation of the ooze was an accident, disheartening Donatello, who saw a higher purpose for their existence.

Shredder unleashes Tokka and Rahzar into a nearby neighborhood to cause damages. The next day, Freddy sends a message to April that Tokka and Rahzar will be released into Central Park if the Turtles don't meet the Foot Clan at the construction site. Perry develops an antidote to the mutations and when they confront the two, Leo and Mikey trick Tokka and Rahzar into eating it. They discover the trick and brutally attack, throwing Raph into a public dance club. A big fight ensues among hundreds of witnesses and eventually the turtles turn Tokka and Rahzar into their natural state, while Vanilla Ice improvises the "Ninja Rap". Shredder attacks, threatening a citizen with a final vial of ooze, but Keno intervenes and the turtles overload an amplifier, causing Shredder to be blasted out onto the docks behind the club. They follow and discover that Shredder had drunk the last vial, becoming a "Super Shredder" who begins to destroy the support structure holding the dock up. Not caring about his own life, Shredder attempts to kill the turtles by collapsing the dock on top of them, but the group escapes the collapse and surface in time to witness Shredder's last breath.

In a press release, April reads a note from Perry, thanking the turtles for saving him, and when they return home, they deny being seen by the humans, but Splinter holds up the evening's newspaper on which they are plastered across the cover. He then orders the four of them to do flips as punishment, chanting the theme song they were dancing to at the club "Go Ninja, Go Ninja, Go!" exclaiming he made another funny as the scene freezes.

Live-action actors

 * Paige Turco as April O'Neil, a news reporter, and the human companion of the Turtles and Splinter. Paige Turco replaced Judith Hoag for this film and the following film.
 * David Warner as Professor Jordan Perry, the Techno Global Research Industries (TGRI) head scientist. He works with the Turtles to create an antidote for the mutated Tokka and Rahzar.
 * Ernie Reyes, Jr. as Keno, a pizza delivery boy who meets the turtles in the beginning of the film and befriends them.
 * François Chau as Oroku Saki / The Shredder, the main antagonist of the film. He survived the climatic battle against the Turtles and Splinter from the first film, and is now out to get revenge.
 * Kevin Nash as Super Shredder, the mutated form of Shredder. As a result of using the ooze, the Shredder becomes a large behemoth.
 * Toshishiro Obata as Tatsu, the Shredder's right-hand man and temporary leader of the Foot Clan in the aftermath of his presumed death.
 * Vanilla Ice as a club performer who is inspired to perform "Ninja Rap" after witnessing the TMNT fight.

Voice cast

 * Adam Carl as Donatello, one of the four turtles, who is known for his technological expertise. He wears a purple bandana and carries a bō staff on the back of his shell.
 * Laurie Faso as Raphael, the most fiery and hot-tempered of the four turtles. He wears a red bandana and carries two sai in his belt.
 * Robbie Rist as Michelangelo, the most happy-go-lucky of the four. He wears an orange bandana and carries dual nunchaku on each side within his belt.
 * Brian Tochi as Leonardo, the fearless leader of the Turtles. He wears a blue bandana and carries two katana on the back of his shell.
 * Kevin Clash as Splinter, the master and father figure of the turtles, who is a mutant rat.
 * David McCharen as Oroku Saki / Shredder
 * Michael McConnohie as Tatsu
 * Frank Welker as Tokka and Rahzar, an alligator snapping turtle and Gray wolf duo that were mutated by the Shredder using the ooze canister from TGRI.

Puppeteers

 * Robert Tygner as Leonardo (facial assistant)
 * Mark Caso as Leonardo (in-suit performer)
 * David Greenaway as Raphael (facial assistant)
 * Kenn Troum as Raphael (in-suit performer)
 * Rob Mills as Donatello (facial assistant)
 * Leif Tilden as Donatello (in-suit performer)
 * Mak Wilson as Michelangelo (facial assistant)
 * Michelan Sisti as Michelangelo (in-suit performer)
 * Rickey Boyd as Splinter (facial assistant)
 * Kevin Clash as Splinter (puppeteer)
 * Sue Dacre as Splinter (assistant puppeteer)
 * Rick Lyon as Tokka (facial assistant)
 * Kurt Bryant as Tokka (in-suit performer)
 * Gord Robertson as Rahzar (facial assistant)
 * Mark Ginther as Rahzar (in-suit performer)

Production
Due to the massive success of the first film, it was generally expected that a sequel would follow. The film was produced on a budget of $25 million (USD), higher than the budget of the 1990 film, which was $13.5 million. Like the first film, New Line Cinema distributed The Secret of the Ooze. Both the voice actors of Michaelangelo and Leonardo reprised their roles in the second film, while Corey Feldman did not voice Donatello and Josh Pais did not voice Raphael in the second movie. Also, a different actress was cast for the role of April O'Neil, with Paige Turco replacing Judith Hoag from the first film. The character of Casey Jones, who was prominent in the first movie, did not appear here (though he did return in the following movie). Ernie Reyes Jr., who was Donatello's fight double in the first film, was cast as a new character, Keno, as the producers admired Reyes and his performance in the first movie so much they asked him to join the sequel. Todd W. Langen returned from the first film to write the screenplay.

Originally, the studio wanted Bebop and Rocksteady, from the cartoon, to appear. However, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird were not in favor of it, partially due to having to go through legal clearances for the characters, so Rahzar and Tokka were created.

The abandoned subway station, which serves as the new lair for the Turtles, is based on real-world decommissioned New York subway City Hall Station, of the former Interborough Rapid Transit company. However, the station is not completely abandoned, as it appears in the movie. Trains currently pass through the station daily as they turn around to head uptown, passengers are allowed to ride through the station, but the train does not stop and so they cannot disembark. During filming of the scene where the Turtles are trapped in the net and fall to the ground, one of the stuntmen broke an ankle. Some filming took place in North Carolina, much like the first, where the New York City skyline was created at the North Carolina Film Studios. The building used for the entrance to April's apartment is the office of the New York location of Jim Henson's Creature Shop, which did the animatronics work for the film as well as its predecessor. The film is dedicated to the memory of Jim Henson, who had died the previous May. This made it the first movie dedicated to Henson, the second being The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992). This is also the first TMNT film to include a dedication; the second would be TMNT, which was dedicated to the late Mako, the voice actor for Splinter in that film.

Reception
The film was released less than a year after the first, using the taglines "Back by bodacious demand" and "Cowabunga, it's the new turtle movie". The Secret of the Ooze was released in theatres on March 22, 1991 in the United States, and subsequently in numerous countries from June through to August.

Like the first movie, the second film received generally mixed or negative reviews from critics. Based on a sample of 40 reviews, the film holds a 33% "rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the consensus "Not only is the movie's juvenile dialogue unbearable for adults, but the turtles' dopey and casual attitude towards physical violence makes them poor kids' role models." The film was number one in North America on its first weekend of release, taking in over $20,000,000 (USD), and eventually making $78,656,813 in total. The film was a success at the box office, but made less than the first film. Some fans noted that there was also a reduction in the use of weapons by the turtles in the film, perhaps due to violence in the first film. (Leonardo and Raphael only use their weapons once each in the movie, for example.)

Like its predecessor, the second Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles installment was censored in the UK due to usage of forbidden weapons (the nunchaku), most notably during the opening credits sequence where Michelangelo imitates their use by swinging a pair of sausages. The edits were waived for the DVD release in 2002. The German version was not censored visually; however, funny cartoon sound effects to soften the violence were added to the fight scenes (as with the first film).

Merchandising
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise was arguably at the height of its popularity around the time that The Secret of the Ooze was released in theatres. A number of tie-ins were brought out alongside the release of the film. A new line of toys were introduced for the release of the film, including "Movie Star" toys of all four turtles, with the box art depicting stills from the film, as well as a cartoon rendition of the turtles gathered around a canister of ooze in the top right corner of the package. In contrast to the usual Turtles' figures, the film series figures were softer and more rubbery, to better reflect the look of the animatronic costumes used in the films. They also featured ball joints at the neck, shoulders, and hips, and each figure came with a small, plastic canister with a sticker of "Ooze" wrapped around them. An official film adaptation was also released by Eastman and Laird.

Figurines of Super Shredder, Tokka and Rahzar were also available, though they were not as closely aligned to the film as the four turtles were. The Playmates company produced the figurines. The Turtles franchise had by now also immersed itself into the food industry, with characters from the franchise appearing on numerous food products. Royal Gelatin Desserts adapted the "Ooze" name into their product, and featured the Turtles on the packages. The boxes included various recipes involving ooze in some form.

Music


An original motion picture soundtrack was released alongside the film in 1991 by SBK Records.

The soundtrack featured 10 tracks from the film, and music from artists such as Ya Kid K, Cathy Dennis and David Morales, Tribal House and Dan Hartman. The most famous song featured on the soundtrack was "Ninja Rap" by rapper Vanilla Ice.

The song featured strongly within the feature film, as Ice makes an appearance as himself, and begins to freestyle a ninja rap song when the turtles end up fighting Tokka and Rahzar within the club where he was performing. In terms of the plot, this song was to trick the audience into believing the fight was a harmless "show" and thus not to panic.

A music video was also produced for "Ninja Rap" at the time of the film's release. The soundtrack also features two original pieces from the Orchestra On The Half Shell. The original music was done by John Du Prez, who won a BMI Film Music Award for his work.

Home video releases
The film was originally released on VHS in North America on July 31, 1991.

The film was later released to DVD in Region 1 on 3 September 2002; it contained only minor special features and interactive menus.

On 4 August 2009, the film was included in a special 25th-anniversary boxset, released to both DVD and Blu-Ray formats. It contains Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, and 2007's animated release, TMNT.