Coming Out of Their Shells

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Coming Out Of Their Shells was a live musical tour that occurred in 1990. A VHS recording of one of the tour's stops was made available, as was a soundtrack. The tour is generally lambasted for its terrible costumes and wafer-thin plot. The band featured Donatello on keys, Leonardo on bass guitar, Michangelo on guitar/lead vocals & Raphael on drums/percussion/tenor saxophone/vocals.

The tracklist of the soundtrack is as follows:


 * Coming Out of Our Shells!
 * Sing About It
 * Tubin'
 * Skipping Stones
 * Pizza Power
 * Walk Straight
 * No Treaties
 * Cowabunga
 * April's Ballad
 * Count on Us

Also used in the tour but not included on the soundtrack, was Shredder's ironic rant song, "I Hate Music".

The band had made special appearances on Regis & Kathie Lee as well as Larry King's prime time special on NBC.

Quotes
Michelangelo: "Sometimes you feel like a foot, and sometimes, you don't!"


 * - Uh.....what?

Baxter: AHAHAHAHAHAHA....AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Shredder: Oh....shut. UP.


 * - Shredder says what everybody in the audience wishes they could to Baxter.

(The following exchange appears exclusively on the VHS Tape)

Shredder: *pointing to kid in audience* What's your name? Kid: Peter! Shredder: ....is that your sister? Kid: Cousin! Shredder: Cousin? What's the matter, couldn't get a date?


 * - Shredder is not above taunting children in the audience. On that note, BURN!

(The following exchange appears exclusively on the "Getting Down in Your Town" version of the show.)

Casey Jones: Mom and Dads, dudes and dudettes, feast your eyes on the criminal mastermind of all ages, Shreddaaaaaaah....

Michelangelo: Shredder?! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!

Donatello: No! LOOK AWAY!

Raphael: Check it out, it's Edwards Scissorsface!


 * - Casey Jones and the Turtles attempt to pump up the audience....and fail miserably at it. (See the Trivia section below.)

Costume/Special Effect Errors

 * Shredder's mouthpiece is actually below his mouth, making it quite visible. This might have been intentional as the audience mightn't understand him talking through a closed mouthpiece, but it looks very odd. Moreso when it makes the fact that the actor playing him is trying not to laugh that much more apparent.


 * There are black spot splatters all over the Turtles' stage costumes. Not only is this a continuity error with the smooth green costumes we see in the behind the scenes footage, but it looks less organic, and more like somebody sprayed ink all over their heads.


 * The backstage costumes don't fare much better. While the stage costumes have their problems, at least they were limber enough to move around freely. This set, on the other hand, is stiff, cause the actors to lean awkwardly to one side, and have a problem where the Turtles' mouths continue to hang open.

Production Errors

 * There were times when the Turtles would appear on stage, and the music would begin before the Turtles started to play their instruments.


 * There are way too many times where a Turtle would talk or sing, but his mouth would either stay shut, move completely out of sync with the words, or remain completely open.


 * The colours of Mike and Raph's bandannas made it difficult for some people to tell them apart. Luckily, they wear big, black armbands with their initials on them during the show.

Logic Errors

 * Shredder sings a song called "I Hate Music". Wrap your head around that one. (On another note, it's one of the songs not featured on the soundtrack album.)


 * Whose bright idea was it to make Baxter Stockman perform an extremely loud, shrill laugh during a music concert?


 * When Michelangelo tells Leonardo that "There's no need to be buggin'!" he strums his microphone on his guitar, producing some notes. However, the way he's rubbing it can't possibly produce those chords (or any at all, since he's basically moving the microphone along the string.)

Trivia

 * For a show that's regarded as pretty awful, the "Coming Out of Their Shells" tour has at least one crowning moment of awesome. This tour gave the world the song "Pizza Power", which was used as the title theme in the Arcade version of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time"


 * There was a second tour in continuity with this called "Getting Down in Your Town", which was featured in amusement parks. A new character featured was good old Casey Jones. Who rides around on a scooter. And needs to shave his armpits. Ew.
 * On that note, on the VHS tape of that tour, it occassionally flashes to reactions from the crowd to the shenanigans on stage. And by reactions, we mean none. Absolutely none.


 * The VHS tape has the concert at Radio City Music Hall. In the middle of the show, a reporter (not April) interviewed kids asking about the Turtles' whereabouts. David Ruphrect of Supermarket Sweep (1990) played the reporter.


 * It's called "Coming Out of Their Shells" because the stage performers have no shells! Get it? That's the joke.


 * There were apparently two sets of Turtle costumes made for this production. One was used for the behind the scenes footage (the ones that leaned awkwardly) and the other set (the ones without the shells) was used for the show.


 * Splinter is the one who sings "Skipping Stones" during the concert. Unfortunately, he ends up sounding a bit constipated during the song (especially during the "AH! AH OOOOH YEAH!" parts.)


 * "Tubin'" features alligators with coconut bras and long grass Hawaiian skirts. As they have no further relevance to the rest of the show and are never referred to again, you have literally seen |the show's Big Lipped Alligator Moment.


 * Shredder's voice is strangely distorted for this production.


 * ....again, is it any wonder why the Mirage Turtles refer to the others as sellouts?