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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze – 30th Anniversary

By Reggie's Take on March 28, 2021

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze is the sequel to the 1990 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The Shredder, returns to take back command of the Foot Clan, wanting revenge on the Turtles.

Less than a year after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) was released to theaters, director Michael Pressman decided to continue the Turtles story, with a bigger budget, more martial arts, and enough villains for the pizza loving turtles on a half-shell to fight.

With “The Secret of the Ooze” the studio had to find a way to deal with the backlash from the first movie. Due to “darker” themes used in the first movie the studio made the decision to take a lighter approach with the second, writing it more as a fun science fiction movie and not as gritty as the first.

After the success of the first Turtles movie the studio moved quickly to ramp up production on the sequel and in doing so not everything worked out. Changes in actors were one of the casualties as a different actress was cast for the role of April O’Neil, with Paige Turco replacing Judith Hoag from the first film. Corey Feldman did not return to voice Donatello in the second movie after pleading no contest to a drug possession charge in December of 1990 and fans who were hoping to see the character of Bebop and Rocksteady had to settle for Rahzar and Tokka after Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird objected.

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop returned to do the movies animatronics and having a bigger budget were able to create costumes that were more mobile and better lifelike movements. “The Secret of the Ooze” was dedicated to the memory of Jim Henson, who had died the previous May. This was the first movie dedicated to Henson, the second being The Muppet Christmas Carol in 1992.

The Secret of the Ooze was released to theatres in the U.S. on March 22, 1991. The movie was the number one movie in theaters its opening weekend and would go on to earn over $78.6 million dollars on a budget of just $25 million. The success of “The Secret of the Ooze” would earn the franchise a third film in 1993 with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III.