In the near-25 year history of the TMNT, there have been a lot of high points and a good fair share of low points. A lot of awesome merchandise and some... not so much. "Kazoo with [the] TMNT" would fit into that last category. Or, perhaps even more accurately, into the, "We're willing to approve anything you'll give us money for," category.
Before I go any further I should put forth the disclaimer that I absolutely
love the entire musical history of the TMNT. Seriously. Even the stuff that's cheesy as hell is, at worst, a guilty pleasure for me. Even though my sincerity behind any positive words for "Kazoo with [the] TMNT" would be weak, I couldn't deny that it fills me full of giddy laughter.
Here's the premise of "Kazoo with [the] TMNT":
You get a book with very basic sheet music for eight songs from the soundtrack of the first live action movie. You also get four kazoos (bonus points if you can guess the colors of the kazoos). You are meant to kazoo the sheet music. Ok, sure. Why not? Kids like kazoos and Ninja Turtles, it can't be that bad. Right?
Wrong. This perfectly innocent package becomes the stuff of legend with the inclusion of a simple cassette tape. A cassette tape that features all of the songs in the book played by an electronic orchestra and...
someone playing the kazoo!! This may be the only example in history of a dedicated kazoo recording. And there's a reason for that.
It's just hard to take the kazoo seriously as a solo instrument. The novelty of it wears off in about 10 seconds, but here it supports eight songs that are 3-5 minutes long. It also, by design, produces a lot of spit, and the producers of this product really didn't make any effort to try to hide that. But then again, did the producers of this product really think they were releasing something stellar? Nah, it was all for the quick buck.
To experience "Kazoo with [the] TMNT" for yourself, you can download the contents of the cassette tape, for a limited time,
here.
