Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 series): Difference between revisions

Unlike the comic book that inspired it, the tone of the cartoon was for the most part more akin to a sitcom than an action series. The turtles were more liable to crack wise than act like the ninjas they supposedly were. The main villain group shared a sitcom dynamic, with [[Villain Decay]] setting in almost immediately. Many episodes were [[Strictly Formula]], using whatever stock plots the producers had handy.

 

 

Despite--or perhaps because of--the numerous changes made to the source material, the series became wildly popular, providing the thrust behind a massive toy line, inspiring the [[Teenage Mutant Samurai Wombats]] cartoon subgenre, and even getting a [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQAQohS0On4&feature=related two-part OVA] in Japan. The series continues to influence the franchise today, with every later incarnation of the turtles maintaining at least part of the tone of the series, as well as multiple nods to it.

 

 

 

=== This incarnation of the Ninja Turtles includes examples of: ===

* [[Animation Bump]]: More times than possibly any cartoon in the 80's and 90's. The animation style could go from being horrible to decent to near-anime quality, sometimes ''in a single episode.'' The first two seasons each kept with a single animation studio (Toei for Season 1, and A-1 Productions for Season 2), but the seasons grew much longer starting with Season 3, resulting in animation being farmed out to several different studios <ref>[[Wang Film Productions]], [[Pacific Rim Animation]], [[Luk Film]], [[Kyung Kang]], Island Animation, Varga Studios and [[Hanho Heung Up]], with an occasional episode by Toei, none of them credited</ref>. This continued until the "Red Sky" era, where the seasons got cut down to eight episodes each and a single studio (this time [[Dai Won]] Animation<ref>and [[Morning Sun]] for season nine</ref>) became sufficient to handle all the show's animation again.

** On top of that, a number of Season 3 episodes and the entire first half of Season 4 was farmed out to Murakami-Wolf-Swenson's studio in Ireland. Some of the episodes ("Turtles in the Jungle" for instance) turned out pretty decent, but most of these outsourced episodes were among the worst-animated in the show's run. Likewise, the "Vacation in Europe" episodes were farmed out to French studio IDDH on a smaller budget than usual, and suffer particularly for it.

* [[Adorkable]]: A lot of characters, but Donatello, Mikey, and Irma have the most moments.

** Baxter Stockman. OH. MY. ''GOD''.

* [[Aliens Speaking English]]: "Not only is he from feudal Japan, but also from another dimension. [[Lampshade Hanging|So, of course, he speaks English.]]"

** Pretty much all Dimension X aliens spoke ''flawless'' English. Some even had ''accents'' to boot!

* [[Always Need What You Gave Up]]: the episode with the giant squid.

** Also the episode "Case Of The Killer Pizzas".

* [[Anime Hair]]: The Neutrinos take this to ridiculous extremes.

* [[Animesque]]: The first season had a very obvious anime influence -- unusually though, it was for reasons of practicality rather than artistic preferences. The show's original character designer, Ira Turek came up with a load of character designs which were butt ugly and nearly impossible to animate well, resulting in him being fired. He was replaced at the last minute by [[Aeon Flux|Peter Chung]], who redesigned the primary characters to have a more Anime-inspired look in order to ensure that the [[Toei Animation]] team would be able to work with them. The following seasons, for better or worse, largely ditched the Animesque character designs.

** Inverted by Rocksteady and Bebop. In the first episode of Season 4, Shredder uses a device to temporarily de-mutate them so that they can infiltrate Channel 6, and the two are disgusted at the sight of their original forms.

* [[Bare Your Midriff]]: Casey Jones, a rare male example. It doesn't make him any less intimidating though.

* [[Belly Dancer]]: April and Irma are dressed like this in the episode "Shredderville"

* [[Beneath the Earth]]: The Technodrome in Season 1 and 3.

** Another time, she stops a generator from overloading by pulling the power plug. She stops a GENERATOR by UNPLUGGING it.

* [[Da Editor]]: Burne Thompson, April's boss.

* [[Darker and Edgier]]: The Red Sky Episodes.

* [[Dating Catwoman]]: Leonardo and Lotus Blossom, and Raphael and Mona Lisa.

* [[Defrosting Ice Queen]]: Buffy Shellhammer, who ends up being a cross between [[Lonely Rich Kid]] and [[Jerkass Woobie]].

** Also Lotus Blossom.

* [[Distressed Damsel]]: April O'Neil, to the point where Shredder once lampshades this by admitting that, [[Genre Savvy|when he can't come up with a decent plan, he just defaults to kidnapping her]].

* [[The Dog Bites Back]]: The episode "Bebop and Rocksteady Conquer The Universe" features this.

** Also Zack for Caitlin.

*** [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|SHE'S NOT MY]] [[She Is Not My Girlfriend|GIRLFRIEND!]]

* [[Evil Counterpart]]: Mondo Gecko to Michaelangelo, {{spoiler|at least until his [[Heel Face Turn]].}}

** Also Shredder to Splinter.

** Also Donatello's duplicate, and the duplicates of the other turtles that he creates.

* [[Expository Theme Tune]]

* [[Fiery Redhead]]: April O' Neil.

* [[Fish People]]: Mona Lisa from "Raphael Meets His Match". She's a former human mutated into a half-fish, half-reptile [[Mix and Match Critter]].

* [[Heroes Want Redheads]]: The turtles prove this every time they save April.

** [[Heroes Want Redheads|Villains Want Redheads]]: Both Shredder and Rat King have flirted with April (and Irma) on numerous occasions.

** It was even a plot point of the Red Sky era.

* [[Highly-Visible Ninja]]: The turtles, who can frequently be seeing putting around on a blimp. With a giant "Turtles" on it.

** Not to mention the Turtle Van, which was customised with armored plates resembling turtle shells and laser turrets on the roof.

** A squickier example is the canonically fifty-year-old Burne and his girlfriend Tiffany, who looks ''nineteen''.

* [[Meaningful Echo]]: In the first episode of the Red Sky series, Shedder and his minions are pinned down by police as they try to retrive a device they need. Shredder hurls a trashcan which he says are filled with explosives at the cops, causing them to scatter. After they make their escape, Bebop and Rocksteady compliment him on his bluff. The trashcan explodes in the back ground, with Shredder stating, "I never bluff." Much later, Shredder has taken the Channel 6 building hostage, and has to threatened to blow it up if the Turtles don't meet him in a certain amount of time. When they get there, they see that the building is still standing, causing them to assume he was bluffing. What does Shredder have to say? "I '''never''' bluff." What follows is easily the most dramatic moment in the series.

* [[Medium Awareness]]: A regular feature of the series.

* [[Mighty Glacier]]: Rex-1.

* [[Name's the Same]]: In season eight, there's a villain named Megavolt, who shares the same name as another villainous character named [[Darkwing Duck|Megavolt.]]

** There's also some [[Fridge Brilliance]] in that episode since Megavolt wanted to destroy the D.W.(Dark Water) company out of revenge. D.W. is also the nickname of [[Darkwing Duck]].

* [[Nanomachines]]: Lord Dregg's "micro-bots".

* [[Napoleon Delusion]]: A Napoleon wannabe is in the insane asylum with Baxter Stockman in the episode "Return of the Shredder," voiced by [[Peter Cullen]].

* [[Nerds Are Sexy]]: Irma Langenstein.

* [[No Fourth Wall]]: The Turtles and Shredder quite often stop to address the audience.

* [[Non-Lethal Warfare]]

* [[Orient Express]]: "Turtles on the [[Orient Express]]"

* [[The Other Darrin]]: Several voice actors would occasionally have replacements during particular episodes:

** Donatello and Bebop, who were both usually voiced by Barry Gordon, were also replaced for part of Season 3 (seeing a pattern here?) by Greg Berg.

* [[Out of Order]]: Episodes 3 and 4 were shown the other way around on VHS, so kids who didn't see them when they first aired on TV (stations didn't re-air the earliest episodes often) would often wind up confused about who this [[Buffy-Speak|Baxter Stockman fellow]] was.

** Also, a lot of the episodes on DVD are out of order too.

* [[Pound of Flesh Twist]]: Shredder manages to get away with a rare isotope. Unfortunately for the bad guys, the isotope is unstable under high atmospheric pressures (especially those deep within the Earth), and the sample explodes after the Shredder returns to the Technodrome—parked many miles beneath the Earth's surface.

* [[Powered Armor]]: The turtles don these in the episode "Cyber Turtles".

** Though Shredder and Krang would return for a three episode special in the tenth and last season.

** Casey Jones was put on a bus as well.

* [[Real Men Wear Pink]]: Vernon. And surprisingly (or [[Laughably Evil|not so surprisingly]]), Shredder in one episode.

** Splinter's kimono looks like pink, or is it some light purple?

* [[Red Eyes, Take Warning]]: The Dark Turtle.

** Also Lord Dregg, who naturally has red glowing eyes.

* [[Reptiles Are Abhorrent]]: Averted ''hard'' with the main turtles, but played straight with other characters like Slash and Leatherhead.

* [[Retcon]]: The third season finale showed the Technodrome being destroyed as a result of an inadvertent attack by Krang's allies, and then crashing at high-speed into a huge battlestation. The fourth season premiere changed this to the Technodrome being badly damaged in the attack and then having a relatively soft landing on an asteroid.

* [[Retool]]: The "Red Sky" seasons.

* [[Rhino Rampage]]: Rocksteady.

* [[Robotic Reveal]]: "Did you just say 'clang'?"

* [[Rushmore Refacement]]: Krang eventually does this.

** Of course, April is ''always'' hot no matter what. It was just nice to see her in something other than a yellow jumpsuit for a change.

** Irma also has her moments of this.

* [[Shoo Out the New Guy]]: Howie (a songwriter and a potential boyfriend for Irma) appeared in two straight episodes and was never heard from again.

* [[Shout-Out]]: To ''[[Leave It to Beaver]]'', in an episode that had Beaver and Wally Cleaver reimagined as ''mobsters''. No, seriously.

** Also the monsters in the episode "The Case Of The Killer Pizzas" look a lot like another famous [[Alien|movie monster.]]

** The episode "Night Of The Dark Turtle" is an obvious parody of ''[[Batman]]''.

** One episode had Krang stealing a military robot that looks like ED-209.

** Irma Langenstein doesn't look like Jeanette of The Chipettes by accident... half a season of ''[[Alvin and The Chipmunks]]'' was animated by Murakami-Wolf-Swenson, then Irma was introduced on TMNT the following season.

* [[Single Woman Seeks Good Man]]: This basically sums up Irma in a nutshell.

* [[Snow Means Cold]]: In "Take Me to Your Leader," Shredder and Krang use a Solar Siphon to drain the sun's energy and make the Earth cold. The turtles discover something's amiss when it starts snowing in July.

* [[Standard Female Grab Area]]: Constantly used on April.

** Also on Irma every so often.

* [[Straw Loser]]: Vernon to April.

* [[Surfer Dude]]: Michaelangelo.

* [[Swiss Cheese Security]]: The Technodrome, which the turtles would usually infiltrate with ridiculous ease.

** In one episode the Technodrome has an [[Face Palm|easily opened hatch on it marked "ENTRANCE]]."

* [[Tagalong Kid]]: [[The Scrappy|Zack]], a young kid in a turtle costume and so-called "fifth turtle".

* [[Talking to Himself]]: Constantly, as most of the show's voices were done by a handful of regulars.

* [[Teen Genius]]: Donatello.

** Also Zack, the "fifth turtle".

* [[Trademark Favorite Food]]: Pizza. And how!

* [[Transformation Ray]]: Many.

* [[Unintentional Period Piece]]: Is it ever!

* [[Vague Age]]: Irma looks and acts like a young teenager but is apparently old enough to own an apartment and have a steady job.

* [[Villain Exit Stage Left]]: The Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady, invariably.

* [[Villain Team-Up]]

* [[Big "What?"|Wait, What? Whoa]]: In "Burne's Blues", Burne and Vernon spend the entire episode unsuccessfully looking for a news story about the Turtles. Just as soon as the reporters find the Turtles frozen on a factory loading dock, the two get randomly abducted by aliens that look like Elvis.

* [[Wham! Line]]: "I never bluff!" {{spoiler|The line Shredder says before he destroys the Channel 6 news building in the first episode of season eight.}}