Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1984, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles debuted in the world of comics, published by independent publisher Mirage. The comic focused around the four anthropomorphic turtles, who as one would infer from the name, are also teenagers, mutants and ninjas.

The concept was apparently borne from a comical drawing that played upon the inherent contradiction of a slow, cold blooded reptile and the speed and agility of the japanese martial art.

Disposed of in a sewer, the four turtles were accidentally exposed to a liquid mutagen that caused them to "mutate". Also exposed to the mutagen was a rat, former pet of ninjitsu expert Yoshi Hamato. Hamato emigrated to America and was dispatched by rival Saki Oroku (later to become Shredder), leaving the rat homeless. The turtles and rat became sapient and rather humanlike through their collective mutation. According to the motion picture, Splinter trains the rapidly growing turtles in the ninjitsu he learned by emulating his late master.

The four turtles were named after famed master Renaissance artists whose work their master admired: Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Although Michelangelo was indeed misspelled as Michaelangelo, it was an error that stuck.

The comic book was successful enough to inspire a spinoff Saturday morning cartoon, which catapulted the characters into a national craze. The cartoon, while obviously inspired by the comic book, diverged in almost every way. While the comic was meant for an older audience, the cartoon focused on more standard children's fare and typically avoided overt human violence and any semblance of real conflict. Popularity exploded with the release of a live-action movie (which more closely followed the comic), and eventually spawned two sequels. There was also a long-running spinoff comic published by Archie Comics that started out following the cartoon, but as time progressed, diverged into rather overtly propagandistic environmentalist and animal-rights themes.

Table of contents

1 TMNT: The Series (1987-1997)
2 2003 Cartoon Version
3 Video Games
4 Other information
5 External Links

TMNT: The Series (1987-1997)

In animation, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are four wise-cracking, teenaged, pizza-scarfing cartoon turtles who fought the forces of evil from their neighborhood sewer hangout. Each wore a mask over his eyes having a distinctive color, carried and used a distinctive weapon, and had a favorite flavor of pizza.

Leonardo: Turtle with blue mask who wields katana, the leader of the bunch, he takes after Splinter
Donatello: Turtle with purple mask who wields bo stick, he acts as the scientist and is constantly tinkering with various inventions
Raphael: Turtle with red mask who wields sai, he is the cynical and sardonic one
Michaelangelo: Turtle with orange mask who wields nunchaku, he is the party animal of the group
Splinter: rat-man who taught the Turtles, a strict and wizened mentor
April O'Neil: Channel 6 TV reporter who discovers their home in the sewers. Ally of TMNT.
Casey Jones: Vigilante of the Big Apple, also an ally of TMNT.
Shredder: the arch-villain, born Oroko Saki. According to the original TMNT comic book by Mirage Studios, he turned evil trying to avenge the death of his brother Orugu Naki by the hand of Hamato Yoshi whom he later murdered.
Krang: An disembodied alien brain within the Technodome, which was Shredder and Krang's giant mobile fortress that could go anywhere. Krang was inspired by the original comics' "Utroms," who were also sentient alien brains, but did good deeds on earth. Generally immobile, he often uses a humanoid robot to walk.
Bebop and Rocksteady: Two clumsy oafs mutated by the Shredder to act as his personal henchmen. A warthog and a rhinoceros, respectively.
Nutrinos: 1950s-college-kid types of people in flying cars (complete with tailfins) from another dimension. Friendly to the Turtles.
Foot Clan: The ninja gang that Shredder leads. In the cartoon series they generally are mindless robot drones.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have also appeared as guest stars in Usagi Yojimbo (book 3), summoned to the Edo period Japan by magic.

2003 Cartoon Version

As of 2003, the Fox Network revived the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise with the help of 4Kids Entertainment as a Saturday-morning cartoon in Fox's Fox Box programming block.

The new show deviates from the 1987-97 cartoon significantly. While still a Saturday morning cartoon, the show has more resemblance to the original, "darker and edgier" comics. Gone are a foolish Shredder and his inept mutant/alien associates. Rocksteady and Bebop (the two bumbling mutated idiots) are no longer in the new show, and Shredder is a lot more menacing and threatening than his previous incarnations. In addition, the show is more rewarding if one views it sequentially because there are a main plot and several sub-plots running in the episodes, each showing some hints and developments. For example, the identity of black-clad people and the biomechanical suit fished off the coast of New York Harbor are never explained clearly at first, but subsequent viewings definitely should provide some clues.

Video Games

Not only did the Ninja Turtles have a successful toy line, cartoon series, and movies, but they also starred in many video games. Japanese video game manufacturer Konami was largely responsible for them. Popular in the arcades during the 1990s was the first TMNT arcade game that was based off of Double Dragon, a side-scrolling "beat-em-up." It was successful enough to be followed by an arcade sequel known as Turtles in Time, which later appeared on the Super Nintendo. Several games existed for the NES, Game Boy, Genesis, Super NES, and others. Konami was recently commissioned to transform the current 2003 series into a video game franchise. Their result was panned by many critics for uninspired design and failing to live up to the originals.

Other information

Their love of unusual pizza, overt marketing catch-phrases and distinctly colored masks were unique to the cartoon and cartoon-spinoffs like the Archie comic and almost all merchandising.
Movie 3: Turtles in Time was based on a substory in the Mirage comic.
In the comic and movie, the "mutagen" acted more like a growth formula, while in the cartoon it worked as a "crossbreeding" tool, used to mix animal characteristics with people and vice-versa. The subject would have its gene spliced with the organism it last comes into contact with.
In the cartoon, Splinter was a man (Hamato Yoshi) who was mutated into a rat-man. In the original comics and the new 2003 series, Splinter is a rat who gets mutated, and his master was Hamato Yoshi.
A fifth Ninja Turtle was a female named Venus de Milo. She was in the short-lived live-action "The Next Mutation" series that aired on Fox prior to the 2003 cartoon series. Since its cancellation, Laird and Eastman have disavowed all knowledge of her.