After covering the lack of Oscar nominations for “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” and the sequel’s expected commercial success, Barbara Walters tees up one final question for the Turtles. “Do you know who your parents were?” she asks.
Donatello starts bawling in response, tears visibly cascading from his turtle costume’s eyes. The interview then breaks down completely as the other three Turtles start chastising Walters, who then starts laughing at the absurdity of the situation. Of course, that absurdity is predicated on making fun of a teenager upset about their absent parents.
The Oscars implemented Representation and Inclusion Standards to address criticisms of a lack of diversity in films recognized at prior years’ awards shows. The Barbara Walters interview undermines a call for Oscars diversity that ultimately reshaped the awards’ criteria decades later. After that, it’s capped off by an unrelated joke about the Turtles’ parentage some viewers might also find insensitive. Altogether, Walters’ sit-down with the Turtles is very much a relic of a bygone era.
