The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis is hosting Nickelodeon’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Secrets of the Sewer” exhibit, which means nostalgia, curiosity and wonder for all generations, but especially millennials like me.
Last year, when “TMNT: Mutant Mayhem” debuted in theaters, my then 3-year-old daughter Naima, her dad and I caught the movie at Tibbs Drive-In. Naturally, we had to check out the museum’s exhibit.
Naima and I ate pizza and relived the story of Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, Raphael and Master Splinter. When we walked into the exhibit and stepped under the TMNT spotlight, we were drawn in.
The exhibit was created in-house at the Children’s Museum and first opened in September 2015. It has traveled for eight years and is making its final stop where it all started.
Throwing punches and kicks, solving puzzles
Naima ran through a sea of little children to the towering statues of the turtles. Each part of the exhibit held her attention long enough for me to read the description (and almost get run over by excited kids).
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Each part was accessible and easy to navigate.
Naima dressed up in a karate uniform as “Raphael the Warrior.” She threw punches and kicks in a large mirror, as if preparing to be the next generation of the “Karate Kid” movie franchise.
Next, she solved a game that connected the pipes in the sewer. Then, she swiped away at a pizza game that I’m sure her Fruit Ninja game practice prepared her for.
Special activities like a ninja academy and an inventor workshop weren’t open when we were there, but they are available during the museum’s regular hours.
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“For a lot of families, parents grew up with ‘Turtles’ and now they’re getting to share it with their kids,” said Exhibits Project Manager Lauren Wesley. “It’s a cool intergenerational aspect of the exhibit.”
But if you’ve never watched “Ninja Turtles,” Wesley says the exhibit is designed to be fun anyway.
Get advice from Master Splinter and have a slice
My favorite part of the exhibit was Master Splinter’s game, which featured a cheese-wheel phone with pre-recorded wisdom from the rat itself.
Some of my favorite quotes were:
“Perhaps you may sit a while and meditate,” and “Anger is a dangerous ally. Control it before it controls you.”
After running around the exhibit, Naima was ready for pizza. The cheese didn’t drip like in the cartoons, but it tasted great.
On the way out to get pizza, Naima said, “I’m having so much fun.”
Naima said that her favorite part of the exhibit was dressing up as Raphael. I asked Naima if she could rate the exhibit a 1-10. Naima exclaimed, “10!”
Ariana Beedie is Mirror Indy’s community journalism director. Follow her on Instagram at @ari.beedie. Want to join Documenters? Learn more here.
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