Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Trivia


 * The Foot Clan were originally created as a parody of the Frank Miller Daredevil ninja group The Hand.
 * Ironically, much more people are likely to answer "The Foot Clan" when asked to name a crime syndicate comprised of ninjas.
 * Michelangelo is the first turtle created (and essentially the entire mythos/franchise based around the first illustration of him), which is why they all originally wore orange headbands in the comics
 * They all wore red in the comics.
 * The comics were intially black and white.
 * Both voice actors that played Ratchet from "Ratchet and Clank" were turtles in the 2007 movie.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has the following tropes:

 * Executive Meddling
 * Hey, It's That Guy!: Bonecrusher from Next Mutation was played by wildly popular Canadian voice actor Scott McNeil.
 * Although he's masked, Shredder from Secret of the Ooze is Dr. Pierre Chang.
 * Hey, It's That Voice!: Aside from the Shredder's role in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, there are so many examples of this trope, I'm surprised it hasn't come up. The second cartoon, featuring regular 4Kids VAs, has a ton of these:
 * Leonardo is probably Dean Venture's favorite turtle. Liquid Snake prefers the Leo from the old toon.
 * But in Turtles Forever, classic Leo can do whatever he wants, because he's voiced by Dan Green.
 * Mortu has a closer relationship to Michelangelo and Raphael than you know...
 * Shredder's newest subordinate, Khan, probably knows the Kamehameha... or even be a three eyed alien determined in convincing Sonic the Hedgehog- er, Miyamoto Usagi to join him...
 * Also, if you watch Naruto the Abridged Series... well, Donatello's voice actor is the one ripped on in a certain episode for having the same voice (as Zaku, a ninja, no less), but you probably figured that out the moment you heard him speak.
 * Donatello's voice gives him super strength!
 * Let's not forget Corey Feldman, who voiced Donatello in the first and third live-action movies.
 * "Reaganomics!"
 * Raphael in the first series would like to remind you that Mona Lisa makes him go Hellooooo Nurse!!
 * Mikey has been know to say Spooon!!
 * Splinter from the first two movies is not the mamma!!
 * To REALLY mess with your head he's also Elmo.
 * In the 2007 movie, Splinter is Pure Evil and The Dragon of The West.
 * It makes sense for April in the same film to become a sword-wielding Action Girl, given that she's The Slayer. Casey is the appropriately hotheaded Human Torch. Oh, and the warlord they're trying to stop is Captain Picard.
 * Kevin Michael Richardson voiced one of the Stone Generals in the 2007 film. He will also voice The Shredder in the upcoming show.
 * Homage: April's appearance in the 1987 cartoon was based at least partially on Fujiko Mine from Lupin III.
 * Playing Against Type: Would you believe that the voices for Bebop and Rocksteady were also respectively Donatello and Leonardo?
 * The Rat King in the 80's cartoon was also Michaelangelo's voice actor.
 * The Red Stapler: Lots of kids bought pet turtles. Few were ninjas, fewer were mutants, and none lived to be teenagers.
 * Talking to Himself
 * What Could Have Been: There have been several proposed-but-scrapped TMNT projects over the years. Among the most notable are two TV shows that were pitched in 2001: the first would have been a cartoon by Warner Brothers Animation, which among other things, would have featured a teenage Casey and April, while the other was a CGI show made by Rainbow.

These films provide examples of:

 * The Danza: Borderline example, Michelan Sisti wore the Michelangelo costume.
 * Doing It for the Art: Why Jim Henson agreed to help on a independent film about some cartoon based on a comic book (remember, this was before big-budget adaptations of such things were common). He knew full well that to do it right he would basically have to invent new animatronic technology, and he did it so well that it became the basis of what the industry standards for animatronics are today.
 * ~Hey, It's That Guy!~:
 * "Big Daddy Cool" Kevin Nash was inside the Super Shredder costume. But he didn't voice him.
 * A young Sam Rockwell (Justin Hammer) plays the head thug of the Foot Clan in the first film.
 * ~Hey, It's That Voice!~:
 * From the first three movies:
 * Corey Feldman (Teddy Duchamp; Mouth) as Donatello.
 * Brian Tochi (Takashi) as Leonardo.
 * Kevin Clash (freaking Elmo) as Splinter.
 * Robbie Rist (Cousin Oliver himself/Chouji) as Michelangelo.
 * Michael McConnohie as Tatsu.
 * Ernie Reyes Jr (Surf Ninjas) as Keno.
 * Frank Welker voiced Tokka & Rahzar.
 * David Warner (Ed Dillinger; Jon Irenicus) as Professor Jordan Perry.
 * Not to mention the scene where Raphael is almost hit by a cab chasing Casey Jones. The passenger leans forward and says "What the heck was that?" ...In Raph's voice. That's because Josh Pais (the passenger) was both the suit and voice actor for Raphael.
 * For the fourth, there was...
 * Chris Evans (The Human Torch and Captain America) as Casey.
 * Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy Summers) as April.
 * John Dimaggio as Colonel Santino.
 * Kevin Smith as Diner Cook.
 * Patrick Stewart as Winters.
 * James Arnold Taylor as Leo.
 * Nolan North (Nathan Drake from Uncharted) as Raphael.
 * Mako (Iroh) as Splinter. (This was also his last role before he died).
 * Kevin Michael Richardson as General Aguila
 * Fred Tatasciore as General Gato
 * The Other Darrin: Paige Turco replaced Judith Hoag as April for the second and third movies. Corey Feldman provided the voice of Donny only for the first and third movies as, during production of the second, he was battling drug addiction and had to get life back on track.
 * Throw It In: In the second movie, with cooking up the anti-mutagen, three of the Turtles inspect the pot of anti-mutagen, which Donatello is stirring. Each passes by and says something, but when Michelangelo stops by, holding a slice of pizza, the smell is apparently bad enough that Michelangelo accidentally lets go of his pizza, which promptly falls right into the pot of anti-mutagen. This is very evident, as Donatello, Michelangelo, and Keno all gasp, look around frantically, and Michelangelo looks at straight at the camera, before walking off and humming happily.
 * What Could Have Been:
 * In the original draft of the second movie, the ending would've revealed that Professor Perry was actually an Utrom.
 * There's a little bit of this left in the film though, as Perry immediately recognizes what happened to the Turtles upon first meeting them and even describes the very accident that led to them coming in contact with the ooze down to the year. Plus there are his lines "Sometimes the best way to hide is right out in public," and "You're the last one, aren't you?"
 * The reason this ending was cut out because this would confuse him with Krang.
 * This Troper still doesn't see how that would've been a bad thing.
 * Professor Perry becomes a more interesting character with this in mind.
 * April mentions in her news report that the company mysteriously disappeared. Which suggests that they have returned to their home planet.
 * If you pay attention, during the two scenes at T.G.R.I., there appears to be a large rock-like object encased in glass with numerous computers plugged into it.
 * Bebop and Rocksteady were originally going to appear before being replaced with Tokka and Razhar.
 * In the first film, Tatsu brutally beats a young Foot ninja named Shinsho due to the Foot Clan's failure. Originally, Shinsho was intended to die, but that scene was cut since it was considered too violent for some. The dialogue was replaced with the kid comforting him saying "you'll be alright," to show Tatsu only injured him.
 * Strangely, in the junior novelization that was done of the movie, Shinsho was shown as being killed by Tatsu. Having rewatched the movie recently, this troper is rather surprised this turned out to be the case.
 * Oddly enough, this troper always assumed the kid did die off-camera, and the "you'll be all right" was supposed to be hollow comfort. It was a surprise to find out later about the intended cover-up.
 * In the French version of the movie, Shinsho does die. I am pretty sure he does too in the UK version, but I would have to check.
 * There are also numerous deleted scenes (mostly on the farm) that give the four turtles much more Character Development, expanding on April and Casey's romance, and would put later scenes into a different context (April and Casey's reaction to Mikey's "turtle wax" joke was originally one of relief after he goes through a severe Heroic BSOD).
 * The original ending had April quitting her reporter's job in order to pitch the story of their adventures to a comic book company while the Turtles listen in outside the window. When the editor rejects her idea as being too unrealistic Mikey falls off the building.
 * Had the third movie not bombed, the fourth movie would have been about the Turtles and Splinter furthering their mutation. One of the most notable being Mikey taking a more human-like appearance, allowing him to go to the surface.