When the Wall fell, popular culture rose to a new level of social relevance. Wind of Change? More like a tsunami! The Nineties washed over the increasingly globalized media landscape in a tidal wave of catchy tunes, cult movies, TV series and show stars. FACES rolls up the decade – and publishes an encyclopaedia on the age of grunge, girl groups, GZSZ and – the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles.
The initial situation alone is so absurd that Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman would probably have been put in straitjackets – had they not been responsible for a great moment in cartoon history.
Okay: A rat raises four chemically contaminated turtle pups in the sewers and names them after Italian artists. So of course they eat pizza. But they can also do karate, skate and make slogans like world champions. So far, so good. Now they have to rid New York of an army of riff-raff that includes a talking human brain and a warthog with a machine gun. Yes. Something like this. What have the authors got themselves into, please?
In 1987, the first TV adaptation of the animated adventures from the pen of steampunk Peter Laird and comic nerd Kevin Eastman went on air. After a rocky start, the reptiles have become a Saturday morning must-see for fans from Sacramento to Berlin to Tokyo (and the title tune drives parents to white heat). Merchandise in all shapes and colors flooded the market, bed linen, action figures, tableware sets… The exploitation of the hype surrounding the mutants culminated in an almost embarrassingly cute movie in 1990. The fact that it grossed over 200 million dollars worldwide seems as absurd today as – well, like four ninja turtles named after Italian artists in a NYC manhole.
