The subversion of healthy development and play: Teachers' reactions to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Abstract

In the spring of 1990, theTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) movie was released to the biggest grossing box office sales of a spring release movie in history. The movie followed on the heels of more than a year of the TMNT television cartoon and its accompanying line of toys. After the movie's release, interest in the Turtles was kept high by the daily dose of the TV cartoon, TMNT home videos, video games, and the presence of more than 1,000 toys and other products marketed with the TMNT logo. And then, a year after the first movie, on March 22, 1991, the sequel,TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze, opened at cinemas around the country.