Journal Article Analysis
Turtle Power!: How Four Mutant
Teenagers Nuked the Entertainment Industry by John Bisges
One of my favorite
cultural icons growing up during the late 80s early 90s was the Teenage Mutant
Ninja Turtles. From their humble origins
in comic books to the transition to a popular cartoon on television, the
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise began to take America by storm reaching
a fever pitch with the release of a full length real life feature film in 1990
titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the sequel in 1991 called TMNT II: The
Secret of the Ooze. In this article John
Bisges analyzes the impact of the TMNT phenomena (through their movies) on our
culture, what these popular culture icons represent, and how this series was a
reflection of our own society and culture at that point in time with
acknowledgement of real world events that had affected American culture shortly
before the TMNT presence in our mainstream media.
John first analyzes
the nuclear related origins of the Ninja Turtles and what messages did this
have on our culture at that time. The TMNT
were not the first characters to gain special powers through mutation, in fact
mutation is not a new topic in the world of comic book characters. For example, in the X-Men series most of the
characters have powers through genetic mutations where they are represented as
unusual leaps in human evolution that are uncommon. In the case of the TMNT origins, these
characters gain their powers from direct exposure to nuclear waste from a
discarded canister. The turtles
(ordinary turtles at first) and Splinter (their mentor and a rat) gain rapid
humanoid growth and intelligence due to exposure from discarded nuclear
material given credence to a more positive “spin” on the effects of living in a
nuclear age where accidents involving nuclear waste/materials can be
commonplace (Bisges, 2008).
John points out
how the series portrays radioactivity as a mysterious force that can give you
powers in contrast to the views of the American culture during the 1950s where
this topic was something that was thought of fearfully. This of course, is logical because unlike the
turtles who gained intelligence and rapid growth, human exposure to
radioactivity would result in sickness and certain death. He further draws an interesting similarity on
how these characters grow and gain powers which they use to “save the day”
using their newfound powers in comparison to the attitudes of countries that
found the power of radioactive materials in the form of nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, these countries did not always
have such a positive attitude in spite of this new “power”.
The TMNT main
antagonist is the Shredder (not mutated, normal human, from Japan), who forms a
group of loyal teenagers to engage in criminal activity and follow his
leadership. John ties this character as
some communist dictator who demands the sacrifice of individualism for the good
of the group which is what the Shredder expected from his followers demanding
fierce loyalty. In the film, the turtles
easily defeat the Shredder, which John concludes represents newly formed
nuclear power of the United States in response to Japan at the conclusion of
World War II. He also finds it
interesting that in this story, the carelessness of having nuclear waste left
in a populated area is not a negative but rather a positive since this is the
source of the humans salvation in the form of the turtles “saving the day”
instead of the whole death by radiation exposure thing.
I think the
authors view on this popular culture subject was very interesting and I agree
with the conclusions that he came up with comparing our culture and social
attitude to this series and what it represented even though the portrayal was
overt in nature. Growing up, I (along
with numerous other kids) simply thought it was form of entertainment with
cleverly marketed characters that gained prominence from a simple cartoon to
pop culture icons that spawned a lucrative franchise. Of course, there was no way I would
understand (at that point in time at my age) the cultural impact and messages
that this series had on American culture.
He draws upon American history and the culture of the time and ties the
background and story of the TMNT to be actually rooted in actual events that
happened in the recent past and attitudes towards contrivertial topics such as
nuclear material.
I think that John
sheds an interesting light, on a very well known franchise and popular culture
icon in American culture from the 1990s.
I think his article was important in analyzing this one small aspect of
popular culture for a particular time period because he points out the social
attitudes of American culture at that point in time which is cleverly masked in
a popular cartoon and subsequent movies that had influence in shaping most of
the people’s opinions about a controversial subject and served as a reminder of
recent historical events. It is
interesting to note that there is news of a reboot film by Michael Bay in the
works scheduled for release in 2014. I am
curious to see how or if this film will address our culture and recent events
that have affected the United States in current times.
Reference
Bisges, John (2008) Turtle Power!: How Four Mutant Teenagers
Nuked the Entertainment Industry. The Journal of Popular Culture, Vol 41,
No. 6, 2008. Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
