A good deal of the first movie takes place in the darkness of the sewers and the dimly lit salons where Splinter and the turtles hide out. The turtles are generally nocturnal, so their forays into the city tend be at night as well. The first movie puts the noise issue to the test, and the results are, well, variable at best. Mostly, the image is simply thin and grainy. I can't say I was distracted by artifacts or other problems since the murkiness of the image took precedence. Your average decently produced DVD will look better. I didn't notice print damage, so there might have been some clean-up at work there. It is entirely possible this movie, and the first sequel – which looks a lot like the first, only worse – represent what we would have seen theatrically almost 20 years ago.