Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"TMNT" redirects here. For the upcoming film, see TMNT (2007 film).

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles; (clockwise from left) Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT or Ninja Turtles) are a fictional team of four anthropomorphic turtles who were trained by their sensei, Master Splinter, to become skilled ninja warriors. From their home in the sewers of Manhattan, they battle petty criminals, evil megalomaniacs, and alien invaders, all while remaining isolated from society at large.

The TMNT originated in an American comic book published by Mirage Studios in 1984. The concept arose from a comical sketch by Kevin Eastman during a casual evening of brainstorming with his friend Peter Laird. Using money from a tax refund together with a loan from Eastman's uncle, the young artists self-published a single-issue comic intended to parody two of the most popular comics of the early 1980s: Marvel Comics' New Mutants, which featured teenage mutants, and Daredevil, which featured ninja clans dueling for control of the New York City underworld.

Much of the Turtles' mainstream success is owed to Mark Freedman, a licensing agent who sought out Eastman and Laird to propose wider merchandising opportunities for the offbeat property. In January 1987, they visited the offices of Playmates Toys, a small California toy company who wished to expand into the action figure market. Accompanied by the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, the TMNT were soon catapulted into pop culture history. At the height of the frenzy, the Turtles' likenesses could be found on a wide range of children's merchandise, from PEZ dispensers to skateboards, breakfast cereal, and school supplies.

Today, there is a resurgence in the Turtles' popularity with the success of the recent animated series, a new line of Playmates action figures, Konami video games, and a new computer-animated feature film in production for a 2007 release.

Main characters

*Leonardo - The de facto leader of the Turtles, Leonardo is courageous, decisive, and a disciplined student of martial arts. As a strict adherent to Bushido, he has a very strong sense of honor and justice. He wears a blue mask and wields a pair of katana. He is named after Leonardo da Vinci.
*Raphael - The team "anti-hero", Raphael has an aggressive nature and seldom hesitates to throw the first punch. His personality can be alternately fierce, sarcastic, and full of angst. He wears a red mask and wields a pair of sai. He is named after Raphael Sanzio.
*Michelangelo - The easy-going and free-spirited Michelangelo provides much of the comic relief. While he loves to read comics and eat pizza, this Turtle also has an adventurous side. He wears an orange mask and wields the nunchaku. He is named after Michelangelo Buonarroti.
*Donatello - The brilliant scientist, inventor, and technology geek, Donatello has a reputation as something of a smart aleck. He is perhaps the most non-violent Turtle, preferring to use his intellect to solve conflicts. He wears a purple mask and wields the bo. He is named after Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi.
*Splinter - The Turtles' sensei and adoptive father, Splinter is a mutant rat who learned the ways of ninjitsu from his own master, Hamato Yoshi. Splinter's name is a reference to Stick, the man who mentored Daredevil.
*April O'Neil - Originally a lab assistant to Baxter Stockman, April is the plucky human companion of the Turtles. She embarks on many of the Turtles' adventures and aids them by doing the work that the Turtles cannot do in public.
*Casey Jones - A masked vigilante and friend of Raphael's who fell in with the group during their initial run from New York. Afterward, he became just another member of the family.
*Shredder - A villainous ninja master named Oroku Saki who, along with his evil Foot Clan, is the arch-enemy of Splinter and the Turtles. Shredder wears a suit of armor covered with sharp blades.

Comic books

Mirage Studios

The cover of TMNT #1 is a parody of Frank Miller's Ronin

The first issue of Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles premiered in May, 1984, at a comic book convention held at a local Sheraton Hotel in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. It was published by Mirage Studios in an oversized magazine-style format using black & white artwork on cheap newsprint, limited to a print run of only 3,000 copies. The small print runs made these early comics instant collector items, and within months they were trading for over fifty times their cover price. The name "Mirage Studios" was chosen because of Eastman and Laird's lack of a professional art studio at the start of their career, before their invention made them both multi-millionaires.

Mirage also published a bi-monthly companion book entitled Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, featuring art by Ryan Brown and Jim Lawson, which was designed to fill in the gaps of continuity in the TMNT universe. The title ran from 1987-1989, released in alternating months with the regular Eastman & Laird book.

As the TMNT phenomenon proliferated to other media, Eastman and Laird would find themselves administrating an international merchandising juggernaut. Unfortunately, this prevented the two creators from participating in the day-to-day work of writing and illustrating a monthly comic book. For this reason, many guest artists were invited to showcase their unique talents in the TMNT universe. The breadth of diversity found in the various short stories gave the series a disjointed, anthology-like feel. Fans stuck with the series, and what was originally intended as a one-shot parody became a continuing series that lasted for 76 issues spanning two separate volumes.

In June, 1996, Image Comics revived the title as a more action-oriented TMNT series. Although notable for inflicting major physical changes on the main characters, the events of Volume 3 have been dropped from continuity. Mirage Studios resumed publication of a fourth volume in December, 2001, under the simple title TMNT. It continued to be published on a bi-monthly basis to this day however it is presently on an eight month hiatus so Peter Laird has more time to devote to the new movie.

Archie Comics

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures was a comic book series published from August 1988 to October 1995 by Archie Comics. The initial storylines were close adaptations of the 1987 animated series, but with issue number 5 Eastman and Laird handed the book over to Ryan Brown and Steve Murphy, both Mirage Studio employees, who created a vast new TMNT universe. In their hands the comic immediately diverged from the cartoon series into unique new story arcs, often incorporating social, environmentalist, and animal rights themes. The series was ground-breaking for a children's comic book series and developed a strong fan base.

Dreamwave Productions

A monthly comic inspired by the 2003 animated series was published by Dreamwave Productions from June to December 2003. It was written by Peter David and illustrated by LeSean Thomas. In the first four issues, which were the only ones directly adapted from the TV series, the story was told from the perspectives of April, Baxter, Casey, and a pair of NYC cops, instead of the Turtles.

Manga

The Turtles have appeared in many manga series: Myutanto Tatorusu (Mutant Turtles) was a 15-issue series adapting episodes of the original American animated series. Supa Tatorusu (Super Turtles) was a 3-issue mini-series that adapted Japan's cartoon mini-series. Also of note was Myutanto Tatorusu III, an adaptation of the third feature film.

Daily comic strip

A daily comic strip written and illustrated by Dan Berger, was published in syndication until its cancellation in December, 1996. At its highest point in popularity, it was published in over 250 newspapers.

Television series

1987 animated series

The 1987 animated series.

On 10 December, 1987, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' first cartoon series began, starting as a 5-part miniseries and became a regular Thursday morning syndicated series on 8 September, 1988 with 13 more episodes. Starting on 4 September, 1989, the series was expanded to weekdays and had 65 more episodes for the new season. On 10 September, 1990, the series (with a different opening sequence and end credits) began its run on CBS. The weekend edition presented a full hour of Turtle Power, initially airing a couple of (then) Saturday exclusive episodes back to back. The series ran until 2 November, 1996. The popularity of the series gave rise to numerous anthropomorphic superhero imitators, including the Battletoads, Street Sharks, and Biker Mice from Mars.

In animation, the Ninja Turtles are four wise-cracking, pizza-obsessed superheroes who fight the forces of evil from their sewer hideout. The series was produced by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson Film Productions Inc. Mirage Studios does not own the rights to the old 1987 TMNT cartoon series, so changes made in this version of the TMNT have not translated to other versions. However, several allusions to the old cartoons have been incorporated into the 2003 animated series.

The cast included new and different characters like Bebop and Rocksteady and the Neutrinos. Original characters like Shredder and the Foot Soldiers stayed true to the comics in appearance and alignment only. Krang, one of the series' most memorable villains, was inspired by the design of the Utrom, a benevolent alien race from the Mirage comics. The animated Krang, however, was instead an evil warlord from Dimension X. The ethnicity of Baxter Stockman was changed from the comic book from African-American to Caucasian.

The 1987 animated series is available on its out of print VHS tapes. Currently, only the first forty-two episodes are available on DVD.

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation

In 1997-1998, the Turtles starred in a live-action television series called Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. A fifth turtle was introduced, a female named "Venus de Milo" who was skilled in the mystical arts of the shinobi. The series seemed to be a loose continuation of the movie franchise, as Shredder had been defeated and the Ninja Turtles encountered new villains. Other connections to the feature films include the fact that Splinter's ear was cut, the Foot Soldiers were humans, and the Turtles lived in the abandoned subway station seen in the second and third movies. The Next Mutation Turtles even made a guest appearance on Power Rangers: In Space, a live-action sentai show that was similar and popular at the time [1].

However, The Next Mutation never caught on with fans, and it was canceled after one season of twenty-six episodes. Since its cancellation, the program has been considered apocryphal by the TMNT fanbase, and Laird and Eastman have disavowed all knowledge of the character Venus de Milo.

2003 animated series

The 2003 animated series.

On February 8, 2003, the Fox Network revived the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise with the help of 4Kids Entertainment as a Saturday morning cartoon in the "FoxBox" programming block, which has since been renamed "4Kids TV". The 2003 TMNT cartoon series is produced by Mirage Studios[2], and Mirage owns one-third of the rights to the series. Mirage's significant stake in creative control results in a cartoon that hews more closely to the original comics, creating a darker and edgier feel than the 1987 cartoon, but still remaining lighthearted enough to be considered appropriate for children. The new series is notable for its complex long-term plotlines, character development, mature themes, moral up-keeping, and well-crafted animation.

Fast Forward

The show's fourth season left the "Ninja Tribunal" story arc with a cliffhanger finale. This storyline was left unresolved when, on 29 July, 2006, the show began a radical new direction under the subtitle Fast Forward. It was confirmed by Dan Berger, frequent correspondent to the TMNT fanbase, that Peter Laird and other staff writers had been working on a fifth season for the 2003 animated series that would have resolved the "Ninja Tribunal" storyline, had the decision to produce Fast Forward not been made. The 13-episode "lost season" has been confirmed for a release on DVD in the near future.

It is unclear whether Fast Forward is the fifth season of the 2003 animated series or the first season of an entirely new series. The show retains the same voice actors and production team from the previous four seasons, but radically changes the setting as the Turtles find themselves time-traveling to New York City circa 2105. 4Kids TV (TM) billed it as a new series in both television promos and a July 25, 2006 press release [3]. Mirage Studios maintains, however, that Fast Forward is "still being considered season five of the current TMNT series" [4].

Anime

Metal Raphael

In addition to the American series, a Japanese exclusive two-episode anime OAV series was made in 1996, titled Mutant Turtles: Choujin Densetsu-hen. It featured the turtles as superheroes, who gained costumes and super powers with the use of "Muta-Stones," while Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady gained super-villain powers with the use of a "Dark Muta-Stone." The show's characters resembled those in the original American animated series, but with very different personalities. The cartoon was aimed at a much younger audience, incorporating many elements of sentai and superhero comics. The "saint" transformations in the first OAV episode are based on classic sentai themes, while the "metal" transformations in the second episode are derived from the Ssŭ Ling.

Feature films

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)

Raphael goes undercover in the first TMNT movie

The first film, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, closely follows the storyline from the Mirage comic books, in addition to some of the more lighthearted elements of the cartoons. This movie presents the origin story of Splinter and the Turtles, their initial encounters with April (Judith Hoag) and Casey (Elias Koteas), and their first confrontation with Shredder and his Foot Clan. Directed by Steve Barron and released by New Line Cinema, the film showcases the innovative puppetry techniques of Jim Henson's Creature Shop. It remains one of the highest grossing independent films of all time. [5]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)

The second film, entitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, expands on the Turtles' origin story while claiming the distinction as Vanilla Ice's film debut. It also introduced the Turtles' human friend Keno (Ernie Reyes, Jr.) and Shredder's mutant henchmen Tokka and Rahzar. The original story was to include Rocksteady and Bebop at the insistence of the studio, but Laird and Eastman fought tooth and nail to prevent their inclusion, settling on Tokka and Rahzar as a compromise. The original ending to "Ooze" would also reveal the benevolent TGRI scientist, Jordon Perry (David Warner), to have been an Utrom. But due to budget constraints, plus the fear he may be mistaken for the character Krang, the plot twist was abandoned.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993)

The third film in the series was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, which featured Elias Koteas reprising his role as the character Casey Jones. The plot revolves around the "Sacred Sands of Time," a mystical scepter which transports the Turtles back in time to feudal Japan, where they become embroiled in a conflict between the daimyo and British traders.

TMNT (2007)

The Turtles' fourth feature film, entitled simply TMNT, is currently in post-production, with a theatrical release date scheduled for 30 March, 2007. Unlike the previous films, it will utilize 100% computer-generated imagery, produced by Imagi Animation Studios and distributed by The Weinstein Company and Warner Bros. Pictures. According to a press release, "the PG-rated movie will derive its tone from the original comic-book series and will be slightly grittier than the previous live-action pictures. The animation will be created in Imagi's state-of-the-art facility in Hong Kong." [6] The teaser trailer was released July 20, 2006, and can be viewed here. (Requires Quicktime)

Toys and merchandise

Among the first licensed products to feature the Ninja Turtles was a pen and paper RPG entitled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness, published by Palladium Books in 1985. The game features a large list of animals, including pandas and sparrows, that are available as mutant player characters. Dark Horse Miniatures produced an attendant set of lead figurines.

Action Figures

During the run of the 1987 cartoon, Playmates Toys produced hundreds of TMNT action figures, along with vehicles, play sets, and accessories, becoming one of the top collectibles for children. Staff artists at Northampton Massachusetts based Mirage Studios provided conceptual designs for many of the figures, vehicles and playsets. The line featured many different variants of the TMNT, such as "Farmer Mike" and "Classic Rocker Leo." In addition, Playmates produced a series of TMNT/Star Trek crossover figures, due to Playmates holding the Star Trek action figure license at the time. Playmates continues to produce TMNT action figures based on the 2003 animated series. In addition, the Turtles are currently licensed to Upper Deck Entertainment, Mega Blocks, and Hanes, among other companies.

Video games

The first Famicom/NES TMNT game was the single-player Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, released by Konami/Ultra in 1989. It was unique in that at any point, the player could switch from one turtle to the next to take advantage of each Turtle's strengths. In addition, the player starts off in a strategic map where the player may explore sewer holes as well as engage patrolling enemy foot soldiers before entering any in-game portals.

Screenshot from Turtles in Time

Also released by Konami in 1989 was the first TMNT arcade game, also titled simply Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This side-scrolling "beat-em-up" was ported to the NES as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game. This lead to an NES-only sequel, entitled "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: The Manhattan Project", which used the look of the arcade game, as opposed the first NES game. The next Turtles game, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time, was released in 1991 as an arcade game, and was later ported to the Super Nintendo as in 1992. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist was also created for the Sega Genesis in the same year, and used many of the art assets from Turtles in Time.

As the video game series progressed, programmers began to incorporate unique signature moves for each Turtle, as well as game features such as "Versus mode" and "Time Attack mode." When the Ninja Turtles' popularity began to decline in the mid-nineties, the video games changed direction. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters was released as a one-on-one fighting game similar to the Street Fighter series.

Konami also acquired the license to adapt the 2003 animated series into a video game franchise, resulting in a new series of games with the same button mashing gameplay as the old TMNT "beat 'em ups." Ubisoft has recently announced they will create games based on the upcoming 2007 animated feature film [7].

Food tie-ins

During the height of their popularity ('88-'91) the Turtles had a number of food tie-ins. Among the most notable of these products was Ninja Turtles Cereal, produced by Ralston-Purina as a kind of "Chex with TMNT-themed marshmallows" which also came with a small pouch of ; Pizza Crunchabungas, pizza flavored corn snacks in the shape of pizzas (the commercial starred the Ninja Turtles as Will Vinton-created claymations); Hostess Ninja Turtles Pudding Pies, featuring a green sugar crust and vanilla pudding inside; and Royal OOZE Gelatin Desserts, distributed by Nabisco under "Royal Gelatin" in three different flavors: orange, strawberry, and lime.

Live appearances

Comin' Out of Their Shells - Concert tour

To further add to the Turtles' popularity, a concert tour was held in 1990, premiering at Radio City Music Hall. The 'Comin' Out of Their Shells Tour' featured live-action turtles (in costumes similar to the films) playing music on stage around a familiar plotline: April O'Neil is kidnapped by the Shredder, the turtle guys have to rescue her. A pay-per-view special highlighting the concert was shown, and an album featuring the songs was released. The track listing is as follows:{| valign="top" |
* Coming Out of Our Shells!
* Sing About It
* Tubin'
* Skipping Stones
* Pizza Power