It was 1990, and I was barely 10 years old—ripe for what was coming to the local moving-picture hall…
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
And a year later, the sequel, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.
Understand, for those of a particular age today (middle—the particular age is middle), these are looked back on with the softest of soft spots.
At that point, there were comics.
There was a cartoon.
There were toys—so many toys.
But this was our hero-folk made real, long before CGI was a thing.
People “have no idea” what went into that , says actor Kenn Scott.
Scott was one of several people who brought Raphael to life in the first film and its sequel.
“There’s what we call the suit actor—that’s the guy that wears a Turtle suit with an animatronic head that’s got 27 different electronic motors in it ... that operate the eyes and the cheeks and the lips and all that,” he says.
“Then, off-camera, the second guy is the puppeteer from the Henson organization, and they’re using this incredible remote control system ... to actually control the (animatronic head).
“The third guy wears the Turtle suit with no animatronics in it, and he does all the action and fighting.
“And then, the fourth guy comes in during post-production and lays down the voice.”
This year is the 35th anniversary of the first film.
The second… close enough.
Scott and a number of actors from both movies will be at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, Thursday through Sunday.
There will be autographs signed.
And photos opportuned.
And many a tale told of their time together.
It’s a time Scott looks back on fondly.
“It catapulted that thing to a whole other level, and I don’t think anybody expected that,” Scott says.
Among the actors will be François Chau, who took over the role of the villain, Shredder, for the second film.
“When you do something, you always think, ‘Oh, this is going to be good,’ and sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t. This is one of those things where it all came together,” he says.
“I’m still astonished at how it’s still such a big thing.”
Chau had it a little easier, he says, as far as bringing his character to life.
“I was very lucky. My costume was not like the Turtles. ... For them, it was not easy. All I did was stand around and order people around,” he says.
For both Scott and Chau, doing the convention circuit has been a blast.
Scott says it’s kept everyone together in a way that isn’t always possible in their line of work.
“What’s been so great about this comicon world is it’s allowed our Turtles family to kind of stay together, travel together and really bring an amazing amount of love out there into the world,” he says.
And they get to meet all those 1990 kids.
“You’re often getting to meet fans and it’s their first time meeting an actual human being face-to-face that represents this franchise or this property that’s meant so much to them,” Scott says.
Being a later-comer to the franchise, Chau says it’s doing the cons that has allowed him the chance to bond with the others.
“Once you finish (a production), everyone sort of goes their own way (and) maybe if we’re lucky, we’ll do something else together a few years later,” he says.
“I really got to know these guys a lot more once we started doing these cons than I ever did when we were shooting.”
More information about the show can be found at fanexpohq.com/calgaryexpo/.
