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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1984, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) debuted in the world of American comics, published by independent publisher Mirage Comics. The comic focused around the four anthropomorphic turtles, who, as one might infer from the name, are also teenagers, mutants and ninjas. There were four turtles: Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michaelangelo.

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.

As the origin story goes, the four pet turtles were exposed to a liquid mutagen during a traffic accident at which their young owner, Chet, was a bystander. Most comics fans will recognize the accident, involving a blind man and a truck carrying radioactive waste, as an allusion to Marvel Comics' Daredevil, which was one of the primary influences in the creation of the TMNT. This mutagen caused the affected animals to become more human-like in intelligence and dexterity. Also exposed to the mutagen was Splinter, a pet rat once owned by ninjitsu expert Hamato Yoshi. Splinter taught himself the art of ninjitsu by mimicking Yoshi during his practice sessions. Trying to escape a bitter love triangle, Yoshi emigrated from Japan to the United States, but was murdered by his rival, Oroku Saki (aka Shredder). This left Splinter homeless, wandering the streets and sewers of New York City. Still fresh from their accident and wallowing in mutagen, Splinter happened upon the turtles and adopted them. He decided to train the young turtles in ninjutsu, so they would grow strong enough to exact revenge on the Shredder for the murder of Splinter's beloved Master Yoshi.

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 Saturday morning cartoon, which catapulted the characters into a nation-wide merchandising 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 feature film (which more closely followed the comic) and its 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.

TMNT: The Series (1987-1997) (1987 Cartoon Version)

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. This cartoon series, known as the 1987 TMNT cartoon series, was made by Murakami, Wolf, Swenson, Inc. Mirage Studios does not own the rights to the old 1987 TMNT cartoon series. Each ninja turtle wore a mask over his eyes having a distinctive color, carried and used a distinctive weapon, and had a favorite flavor of pizza. The color of each turtle's mask is the favorite color of each of the turtles.

• Leonardo: Turtle with blue mask who wields katana, the leader of the bunch, he takes after Splinter. Voiced by Cam Clarke.
• Donatello: Turtle with purple mask who wields bo staff, he acts as the scientist and is constantly tinkering with various inventions. Voiced by Barry Gordon.
• Raphael: Turtle with red mask who wields sai, he is the cynical and sardonic one. Voiced by Rob Paulsen, except in the final season. Michael Gough was the voice of Raphael in the final season of the 1987 TMNT series.
• Michaelangelo: Turtle with orange mask who wields nunchaku, he is the party animal of the group. Voiced by Townsend Coleman.
• Splinter:, born Hamato Yoshi, a rat-man who taught the Turtles, a strict and wizened mentor. Voiced by Peter Renaday.
• 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 Oroku Saki. According to the original TMNT comic book by Mirage Studios, he turned evil trying to avenge the death of his brother Oroku Nagi. Voiced by James Avery except in the last three seasons. In the 1995-1997 seasons, William Martin was the voice of Shredder.
• Krang: A disembodied alien brain within the Technodrome, 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. Their names are Dask and Kala. Friendly to the Turtles.
• Foot Clan: The ninja clan that Shredder leads. In the cartoon series they are generally mindless robot drones.

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

'The Next Mutation'

In the late '90s, a live-action TV series was made. A fifth turtle was introduced, and the series took place generally after the storyline of the 1987 cartoon series, as Shredder had been defeated and the Ninja Turtles had new villans. Also, these ninja turtles made a guest appearance on Power Rangers: In Space, a similar live-action superhero show of the time. It wasn't very popular and was canceled after one season.

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 bears more resemblance to the original, "darker and edgier" comics, published by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird's Mirage Studios. Gone are a foolish Shredder and his inept mutant/alien associates. Rocksteady and Bebop 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 is a main plot and several sub-plots running through each episode in the series, revealing hints for plot points which will become more developed as the series unfolds. For example, the identity of black-clad people and the biomechanical suit fished out of New York Harbor are never explained clearly at first, but subsequent viewings definitely should provide some clues. In the new show, Splinter was depicted as a rat who has been mutated to sapian form, instead of being a man who has been mutated to rat form. This is also how it was in the movie and comic books. Also, in the new show, Baxter Stockman is African-American, and that is also how he was portrayed in the Eastman and Laird comic book series.

Eventually, the various plot points and story arcs culminate in a way many fans of the franchise have never seen, as Peter Laird introduced radical new origins for The Shredder, making him a renegade alien Utrom, at war with his peaceful race, the decision to make him an alien spawned controversy among the fandom, but the majority adored the concept.

In February 2004 a TMNT trading card game based on this cartoon was released by Upper Deck Entertainment.

Mirage Studios owns the rights to the 2003 show, but not the 1987 show.

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, 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 were made for the NES, Game Boy, Genesis, Super NES, and others. The first NES TMNT game is called Gekikame Ninja Den in Japan. The second NES TMNT game is an adaptation of the original arcade game, with two additional levels. It was featured in Nintendo Power Volume #21 and rated no. 1 in the Nintendo Power Top 30 in Nintendo Power Volume #25, having Super Mario Bros. 3 in second place. The third NES TMNT game was called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Manhattan Project. It was featured on the cover of Nintendo Power Volume #32. Konami was recently commissioned to transform the current 2003 series into a video game franchise, gracing the PC, Sony PlayStation 2, Gameboy Advance, Nintendo GameCube, and Microsoft Xbox. The result of the first modern TMNT game was panned by many critics for uninspired design and failing to live up to the originals. Another video game based on the 2003 series is in the works for the same platforms. The older TMNT games are based on the old 1987 TMNT cartoon show, while the modern TMNT games are based on the new 2003 TMNT cartoon show.

Censorship and Hero turtles

Upon TMNT's first arrival in the United Kingdom, the name was changed to "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" (or TMHT for short), since local censorship policies deemed ninja to have too violent associations. Consequently, everything related to the Turtles had to be renamed before being released in the UK (or Ireland). The policies also had other effects, such as removing Michelangelo's nunchakus on the same basis. At the start of the later comeback these policies had been abolished, and no changes were made.

Other information

• The comic books debuted during a period of intense speculation investing in comic books. At the time, there was also strong interest in black and white comics from independent companies. The first printings of the original TMNT comics had small print runs. Within months, the books were trading at prices above 50 times their cover price. The Overstreet guide lists near mint copies for 120 USD. This phenomena also spawned a number of knock-offs and parodies including the Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters, the Cold-Blooded Chamelion Commandoes, the Naive Inter-Dimensional Commando Koalas and the Pre-Teen Dirty-Gene Kung Fu Kangaroos.
• 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. These traits were carried forward into the movies.
• 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 old 1987 cartoon series, Splinter was a man (Hamato Yoshi) who was mutated into a rat-man. In the original comics, the movies 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, and the program is considered non-canonical, Laird and Eastman have disavowed all knowledge of her (in November 2000).
• The comics, the movies, the 2003 cartoon series and the video games based on the 2003 series are considered canonical TMNT material, meaning part of the backstory of the TMNT. Next Mutation, the older TMNT video games, and part of the 1987 cartoon series are considered non-canonical.
• Baxter Stockman, April O'Neil's colleague, is African-American according to the original TMNT comics and the 2003 cartoon series. He was Caucasian and was later a mutated fly in the 1987 cartoon series.
• A Pen and Paper RPG based after TMNT was published by Palladium Games in 1985. Turtles and Rats were not the only option for mutated animals, a rather large list of animals was made available.

Quotes

"As long as I am in charge of this ship of Turtles, Venus de Milo will never be mentioned again." - Peter Laird