Wayback Wednesday / Throwback Thursday / Flashback Friday

In 1988, comic book movies were considered box office poison. The stink of flop Howard The Duck was still pungent in the air, Superman IV: The Quest for Peace had just sentenced the Man of Steel to movie jail and Tim Burton's Batman was still a year away from revolutionizing the genre.

So it's no surprise every major studio in Hollywood turned their noses at a movie about four talking turtles who do Ninjitsu, eat pizza and live in the sewers beneath New York.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles survived script fights, horrific-to-wear 70-pound costumes, and a major studio pulling out at the last moment. After opening 25 years ago on March 30, 1990, the $13.5 million film went on to break the record for the biggest independent film of all time, and for many fans, it remains the definitive big screen depiction of Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello.

Steve Barron, director: I didn't want to do something that was bloody. I didn't want to watch that film. Funnily enough, Batman came out at the same time. It was that sort of tone I was already aiming for. The films that I loved, there was a sense of humor but a sense of peril as well. Of real peril, of grounded peril. Like something that had repercussions for what you did but had a wonderful sense of fun with it. I was a big fan of Ghostbusters.