Which company produced the turtle costumes for the 1990 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

Jim Henson’s Creature Shop produced the turtle costumes for the 1990 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The performers inside the turtle suits needed expressive faces and flexible movement, so the production used advanced animatronic and puppetry techniques rather than simple rubber masks. Jim Henson’s Creature Shop designed and built the suits, while performers operated the facial mechanisms and body movements.

The work was a major technical feature of the film. Each turtle costume combined an actor’s performance with animatronic facial controls, allowing the characters to speak, blink, and react on screen. The result helped make the four turtles believable as live-action characters.

Jim Henson was also a producer on the movie, but his company’s creature work is separate from the film’s direction. Steve Barron directed the movie, while New Line Cinema distributed it. This distinction explains why both Barron and Henson are strongly associated with the production.