35 years ago, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie became a global phenomenon and the defining comic book movie of a generation with a shoestring budget and only weeks to shoot

Michelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael peeking out from under a manhole cover.

I remember it like it was yesterday. It's 1990. I'm six years old, sitting in a theater with my dad, and my mind is exploding over and over as I watch the greatest movie I had ever seen in my young life – the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action film. It's been 35 years, but watching the just-released 4K remaster of the movie in the theater brought me right back to that moment, putting me on the edge of my seat again nearly four decades later.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles still stands the test of time all these decades later, even in an era of comic book movies with budgets in the hundreds of millions of dollars, massive casts, and sometimes years of production behind them. Sitting down to watch the movie feels just as fresh as ever – a remarkable feat, considering it only had a budget of $13.5 million and just seven weeks to shoot.