Which Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Movie Was Filmed in Oregon?
One of the greatest things about being a parent, at least in my experience, is watching your children form their own interests. Sure, I've introduced my kids to my passions but when they start to put their little feelers out into the world, I love seeing them find new things to obsess over.
For my oldest, it was Ghostbusters first. We took a trip down to Long Beach, Washington during the pandemic. I'd always wanted to take my little girl to a movie. Fortunately, there's a cute little 'mom & pop' movie theater near the beach. They were showing two movies that week, Unhinged and the original 1984 Ghostbusters. That was my daughter's first movie experience and she's been busting ghosts ever since. She also likes Scooby-Doo, Sonic, and Pokemon. But lately, she's been feeling that Turtlemania.
This Christmas, I went all out on turtles. I want to foster my daughter's imagination and interests and support what she's into. So I bought her the entire original Ninja Turtles cartoon series on DVD. Then I bought her a Ninja Turtles game for the Nintendo Switch. Then I bought her the other Ninja Turtles game for the Nintendo Switch.
My wife may be "Ninja Turtled out" but I love hearing my daughter yell "Turtle Power!" She turns five in the spring and she's asking us for a TMNT-themed birthday party. It's just the cutest.
While the original cartoon was quite popular, Turtlemania didn't really take a death grip on the world until the 1990 release of the first live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. It was the final feature that Jim Henson worked on before his untimely passing. It was a huge success, grossing over $200 million while "only" costing $13 million so of course, sequels would be on their way. In 1991, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Secret of the Ooze would hit the big screen, pulling in over $78 million. The third live-action film, considered the worst of the original, was released in 1993.
Despite being a fairly bad movie, people living in Washington and Oregon should watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles in Time simply for the fact that a lot of it was filmed in Astoria, Oregon. Astoria plays the role of feudal Japan, where the turtles end up time-traveling to. The city sewers of New York City were also actually in Astoria.
Astoria has a long-lasting relationship with the movie industry. Movies like Kindergarten Cop, Free Willy, and of course, Goonies were filmed in the beautiful oceanside town.