If you’ve been following us for any amount of time, you’d know that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is another one of our loves. This year is the 35th anniversary of the second live-action movie, “The Secret of the Ooze,” and it has a limited return to theaters to celebrate that fact. Rachel and I were able to go and see it, enjoying it especially because we weren’t able to see these movies in such a way when they were first released.

Of course, “The Secret of the Ooze” came out in 1991. I was a one-year-old, and Rachel didn’t yet exist.

Despite my young age, I was first introduced to the Ninja Turtles from the ’87 cartoon. I recall watching episodes early Saturday mornings, but not as many episodes as I would like. I kept enough interest in the franchise to be excited with the 2003 cartoon came around, and that is my favorite adaptation to date. I roped Rachel into watching the 2003 cartoon with me, and we both have loved the Ninja Turtles ever since.

When Rachel and I first started Double Jump ten years ago, Ninja Turtles was a topic that helped us find and connect with other nerdy fans. We’ve met some fantastic friends through this franchise, and the Ninja Turtles continues to be a common love for us. Turtles in Time and the GameCube Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games are some of our favorite co-op games, and it’s a marvel to me how much of an influence this comic has had on us.

Case in point, the movie theaters isn’t a place we go to often at all — in fact, the last time we were in the theaters was in January when The Lord of the Rings trilogy had been re-released, and before that, the last movie I saw was the Lord of the Rings spin-off “The War of the Rohirrim” at the end of 2024 — but we were absolutely fine with venturing out to watch the Ninja Turtles. We were fortunate enough that “The Secret of the Ooze” was playing at our local theater. The place was much bigger than it had any right to be, but our seats were comfortable and it wasn’t too crowded. We would have loved to see that a Ninja Turtles movie had sold out the showing, but it was also nice that we had breathing room in the theater. The silly quips and jokes in the movie made laughter ripple around the room, and it was delightful.

While we are a little disappointed that we missed the first movie’s anniversary last year, we were glad to get the opportunity to see this movie. The sheer nostalgia from the movie, the jokes, the Ninja Rap, and enjoying the show with other like-minded fans made for a wonderful evening.

The sibling and found family themes,  highlighting the importance of getting along with others who may be different from you, being tolerant of others, always trying to do what is right despite the world being against you… These are core themes that Ninja Turtles and other superhero comics and video games have taught me while growing up. I will forever be thankful for this franchise for expanding my mind, bringing me joy, and just being fun.

Do you enjoy the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise?