Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Created by 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 would 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.
Disposed of in a sewer, the four turtles were accidentally exposed to a liquid
mutagen, which originally was supposed to be the same substance that blinded
Matt Murdock, that caused them to "mutate". The mutagen caused the affected creature to become like the animal it had most recently contacted. Also exposed to the mutagen was ninjitsu expert Yoshi Hamato. Hamato emigrated to America and was dispatched by rival Saki Oroku (later to become
Shredder), leaving Hamato homeless. The turtles, last in contact with Hamato, became sapient and rather humanlike. Hamato became a rat. According to the motion picture, "Splinter" (Hamato) trains the rapidly growing turtles in ninjutsu.
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.
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.\nEach 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\n*Donatello: Turtle with purple mask who wields bo stick, he acts as the scientist and is constantly tinkering with various inventions\n*Raphael: Turtle with red mask who wields sai, he is the cynical and sardonic one\n*Michaelangelo: Turtle with orange mask who wields nunchaku, he is the party animal of the group\n*Splinter: rat-man who taught the Turtles, a strict and wizened mentor\n*April O'Neil: Channel 6 TV reporter who discovers their home in the sewers. Ally of TMNT.\n*Casey Jones: Vigilante of the Big Apple, also an ally of TMNT.\n*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 Orugu Naki.\n*Krang: A 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.\n*Bebop and Rocksteady: Two clumsy oafs mutated by the Shredder to act as his personal henchmen. A warthog and a rhinoceros, respectively.\n*Nutrinos: 1950s-college-kid types of people in flying cars (complete with tailfins) from another dimension. Friendly to the Turtles.\n*Foot Clan: The ninja gang 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 Japan by magic.
'The Next Mutation'
\nIn 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.\nAlso, these ninja turtles made a guest appearance on Power Rangers: In Space,\na similar live-action superhero show of the time.
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, known as the Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird comic book series. 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. The characters are depicted in the new 2003 TMNT show as they were in the original Eastman and Laird comic book series, and not in the old 1987 TMNT show. In addition, the show is more rewarding if one views it sequentially because there is 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. 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 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 were made for the NES, Game Boy, Genesis, Super NES, and others. The first NES TMNT game is called Gekikame Ninja Den in Japan. 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. Their result 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. 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.\n* 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.\n* Movie 3: Turtles in Time was based on a substory in the Mirage comic.\n* 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.\n* 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.\n* 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).\n* 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.\n* 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.
External Links
IMDb entries for the three films:
Category:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles\nCategory:Animated television series\n
