I first heard about this one from Tony Thaxton, the host of the outstanding Bizarre Albums podcast. He has the full story, but the extra short version is that in 1994 or so, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live-action movie franchise was running on fumes. Rather than spend big and come up short with a fourth film, TMNT producers decided to make a pair of direct-to-video releases.
And for whatever reason, both videos were musicals. Instead of fighting Shredder or saving the world with their ninja skills or whatever, Mikey, Leo, Raph and Don sing and dance. In “We Wish You A Turtle Christmas,” the mission of these super-powered martial artists is to find a present for their sensei at the last minute. Somehow they also have time to sing a bunch of songs. Notable here is that the singing voice of Donatello is provided by Johnny Kemp of “Just Got Paid” fame, so literally out of nowhere one of the Turtles develops a Bahamanian accent, then loses it when his non-singing voice actor returns at the end of the song.
Or maybe it’s a Christmas miracle?
