The Teenage Muꦅtant Ninja Turtles franchise has become a worldwide phenomenon. Who would've ever thought a story about the adventures of four teenaged humanoid turtles named after Renaissance artists who are trained in ninjutsu by a mutated rat and use their skills to protect New York from ninjas and aliens would turn into such a lasting success? ꦆTMNT originated in a series of Mirage comic books, but soon spread to two other comics series, multiple animated TV series, five films, video games, toys, pizza ads, and just about every other kind of merchandise you can imagine. At the peak of TMNT's success in the late 80s and early 90s, "Turtlemania" swept the United States, and then the world. Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael, Donatello, Master Splinter, and April O'Neil are now household names.
What makes TMNT so enduringly popular? Is it the appealing strangeness of the story? Their infectious love of pizza? Their memorable catchphrases and humorous quips? Or is it childhood nostalgia from watching the cartoons and humming that famous theme song? Whatever the reasons behind its long-lasting fame, there's no denying that the Turtles 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:have always had their dark side, too. The TMNT franchise itself can get pretty dark and intense sometimes, ﷽and the original comics, the different animated TV series, and the movies, all have their secrets lurking in the shadows.
Updated April 29, 2021 by Russ Boswell: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may have started out as a joke-turned-comic-series but something about the adolescent crime-fighters has managed to withstand the test of time. The heroes in a half shell have proven they're more than nostalgia fuel, thanks to recent television series, movie reboots, and upcoming video games. TMNT is here to stay and more and more fans are jumping on the Radical Party Wagon each day.
It's for this reason that we wanted to take a better look at the Turtles' journey so far. Their origins are a bit more violent than some people think and there are a lot of weird and wacky things that TMNT has inspired over the years.
30 They Have Daꦿrk Origins ෴
When most people think of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, they think of the wildly popular 1987 cartoon series where they're portrayed as fun-loving goofballs who love pizza and corny one-liners, and only got serious to fight Shredder. But what you might not know is that the Turtles were comic book characters first, and their original comic versions were much darker. These dark TMNT comics had more blood, violence, cursing, anꦉd occasionally, drinking.
In these comics, the Turtles all have red masks (though the color-coded ones were used later), they swear (just like real teenagers!), and are more violent and gritty than the🃏ir campy cartoon counterparts. They also actually take lives. Yes, the beloved Turtles were ninjas after all, and they had no problem eliminating Foot Soldier ninjas or enemies like Shredder. While their personalities were mostly the same, there's no doubt the comic book Turtles weren't the light-hearted party dudes we think of.
29 Do The Teenage Ninja Turtles Kill? 📖🔜
Most versio🔴ns of TMNT have Splinter as the wise old sensei who trained his four Turtle sons in ninjutsu as a way for them to hide in the shadows and defend themselves. However, in the original comics published by Mirag𒁏e Studios, in black-and-white format on cheap newsprint in 1984, Splinter had a much darker motivation for training them: to kill Oroku Saki, known as "The Shredder." Splinter's motivations were purely revenge since Shredder had killed Splinter's owner many years ago when he was still a pet rat.
And this is exactly what they do. The Turtles, as Splinter's trained assassins, call out Shredder and proceed to eliminate his (human and not android) Foot Clan ninjas. After defeating Shredder, they offer him the chance to regain his honor by committing Seppuku, but instead, he tries to destroy them all with a thermite grenade. Donatello uses his bo to knock Shredder off the building to his demise. It was crazy to see the Ninja Turtles' violent side.
28 One Of The Creators Didn't Li🥀ke The Original Animated Series
While the original comics were a huge hit and inspired the cartoon, it was really the animated TV series that kicked off the franchise. Between the TV show, the comics, and the endless toys, "Turtlemania" soon swept the nation. While the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:cartoon series is fon🦂dly remembered by many, one of the creators was upset wit🗹h how much tꦐhe TV series lightened up the Turtles.
Peter Laird, one of the duo who created the franchise along with Kevin Eastman, has said he wished the first animated series had retained the darker aspects of the TMNT Universe, and not chosen to make the series so kid-friendly. The original Ninja Turtles comic was violent. Though ostensibly he oversaw the first animated Turtles projects, Laird had minimal involvement in the first one's development or the Next Mutation series. He did, however, take a more active role as a consultant in the darker 2003 animated series, which follows the original Mirage comics more closely🅰.
27 No One Knows About Our 😼Heroes Or What They 🔥Do
Whether fans came to TMNT from the original violent comic books or the light-hearted animated series, we all know the deal: the Turtle brothers use their knowledge of martial arts to stop the evil plans of Shredder and the Foot Clan, as well as any other baddies that might show up to threaten New York City, assisted by the wisdom of Splinter and the help of April O'Neil. Sounds pretty coo🤡l, right?
Except when you start to realize that the outside world is completely ignorant of their deeds. During the comic books and animated series, it's made obvious that the Ninja Turtles remain hidden from the public, despite the action-packed events of so many plot arcs. In the cartoon, the world aꦗlso remains ignorant of the threat of Shredder and Krang, and it's a frequent plot point that the Turtles themselves are blamed for their crimes and any destruction they cause.
26 Kr𒅌ang Wasn't Always Bad
The character of Krang, the violent alien warlord from Dimension X, debuted in the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon show that launched the pop culture phenomenon known as "Turtlemania." For fans of the cartoon s♔eries, few characters we♎re as iconic as the evil alien brain walking around inside a giant robot body, helping Shredder fight the Turtles (and having humorous spats with him along the way).
However, Krang as a character is exclusive to the show. His appearance was based on an alien race from the original comics known as the Utroms, a benevolent race that crash♊ed on Earth 20 years ago. Krang and the Utroms couldn't have less in common: the Utroms peacefully integrated into human society with the use of android bodies, all the while trying to get back to their home planet. During this research, they 𒁃lost a canister of an experimental substance, which is the same canister that mutated the Ninja Turtles.
25 T🅰he Turtles Inspired Many Parodies 𒆙
Whenever something grows large enough in the mainstream, it starts to attract attention of another variety. They say imitatio🥂n is the sincerest form of flattery and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have seen their fair share of imitations. Many of these inspirations would go on to become somewhat successful "clones," but there were a handful of creations that were panned as hilarious knock-offs.
These titles were nothing like the original TMNT dark-infused comics we knew. Two shining examples of these strange but entertaining parodies were the Adolescent Radioactive Black Belt Hamsters and the even wilder Pre-Teen Dirty-Gene Kung-Fu Kanga⛄roos. The turtles even saw enough success to be parodied by Cracked and Mad magazines, both considered satire titans of the 90s and early 2000s.
24 🐓 Splinter's Darkest Mutation 🌸
The character of Splinter has remained con🎃sistent throughout all TMNT adaptations. He is a wise, intelligent, and elderly martial arts master who almost never raises his voice. He cares for the Turtles as his adopted sons and sometimes shows a dry sense of humor. Splinter is always a humanoid rat who wears robes, and it's sometimes shown he enjoys desserts and watching soap operas. However, one thing that has changed is his origin story.
In the original comic and the first movie, he is Hamato Yoshi's pet rat. In one film, he is simply a mutated rat with no connection to Yoshi. But other mediums have a darker version of his backstory where he is Hamato Yoshi himself, who was mutated into a human-sized rat by the same substance that created the Ninja Turtles. A frequent plot point is him trying to find a way to change back, usually to have it snatched awa🦩y at the last minute.
23 🐟 Hamato Yoshi Took Lives 🔥
Even more alarming than the fact that the Ninja Turtles were trained purely for revenge is the idea that Shredder's motives aren't entirely evil or at least no worse than Splinter's. In fact, what turned him evil was tha𝔉t his older brother Oroku Nagi was slain by fellow ninja, Hamato Yoshi, in a feud over the love of a woman named Tang Shen. Afterward, Yoshi fled to the United States. This resulted in the young Oroku Saki joining the Foot Clan and rising through the ranks. He was chosen to lead the American branch of the Foot Clan, eventually becoming the deadly warrior known as the Shredder.
Under Saki's leader💃ship, the Foot Clan became a crime syndicate that participated in substance smuggling, arms running, and assassination. Shredder took his revenge by eliminating both Yoshi and Shen, which led to Yoshi's pet Splinter training the Turtles and getting revenge thirte♛en years later.
22 The Nightmares Recycled Episode Was S⛎crapped Entirely 🍷
The animated series of TMNT that aired on Fox 4Kids from 2003 to 2009 was quite a bit darker than the classic 1987 series, harkening back to the original comics. In fact, one episode titled "Nightmares Recycled" 168澳洲幸运5开♛奖网:was scrapped entirely for being too unsettling. It would h🥀ave shown the origins of the Garbageman, a large, legless, unsavory villain. It was going to reveal that he was the conjoined twin of Hun, leader of the Purple Dragons and arch-nemesis of Casey Jones. The two were separated by a back-alley surgeon. The legless baby who would become Garbageman was wrapped in blankets and discarded in the trash, while Hun was kept and raised.
Apparent♛ly, the script was approved and some animation was finished before Fox pulled the plug, deeming the episode𒁏 too violent and alarming for a children's program. Co-creator Peter Laird also criticized the episode as being too dark on his blog, noting that Garbageman was going to perish by falling into a vat of acid.
21 ♔ Shredder's Inspiration
Turtle archvillain Shredder is one of the most recognizable villains of all time. His distinctive bright purple outfit and Samurai-esque armor with blade-covered metal plaques on his arms, legs, and shoulders, are all iconic. Raphael🐼 once quipped in the cartoon that it's bizarre fighting someone name🥂d after "a kitchen utensil." As it turns out, Raph wasn't too far from the truth, since the design for Shredder was inspired by a cheese grater.
One night while Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman was washiꦬng his dishes, he ended up putting his forearm through a trapezoidal cheese grater and gri𒁏pping the handle. "Could you imagine a character with weapons on his arms like this?" He told Peter Laird, envisioning what would become Shredder's armor. His original name was going to be "The Grater," or "Grate Man," but thankfully Laird suggested "The Shredder" instead.