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| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles | |
|---|---|
 Franchise logo | |
| Created by | |
| Original work | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1984) |
| Owner | Mirage Studios (1984–2009) Nickelodeon (2009–present) |
| Years | 1984–present |
| Print publications | |
| Comics | List of comics |
| Comic strip(s) | See list of comics |
| Films and television | |
| Film(s) | List of films |
| Television series | List of television series |
| Animated series | See list of television series |
| Television film(s) | See list of films |
| Direct-to-video | See list of films |
| Games | |
| Role-playing | Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness |
| Video game(s) | List of video games |
| Miscellaneous | |
| Toy(s) | Action figures Lego Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles |
| Characters | List of characters |
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, commonly abbreviated as TMNT, is a media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo, four anthropomorphic turtle brothers trained in ninjutsu who fight evil in New York City. Supporting characters include the turtles' sensei, a rat called Splinter, their human friends April O'Neil and Casey Jones, and enemies such as Baxter Stockman, Krang, and their archenemy, the Shredder.
The franchise began as a comic book, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which Eastman and Laird conceived as a parody of elements popular in superhero comics at the time. The first issue was published in 1984 by Eastman and Laird's company Mirage Studios and was a surprise success. In 1987, Eastman and Laird licensed the characters to Playmates Toys, which developed a line of Turtles action figures. About US$1.1 billion of Turtles toys were sold between 1988 and 1992, making them the third-bestselling toy figures ever at the time.
The action figures were promoted with an animated series, which premiered in 1987 and ran for almost a decade. It was succeeded by several other television series. Several films were released; the first, released in 1990, became the highest-grossing independent film up to that point. Numerous video games have also been released, including several developed by Konami.
Eastman sold his share of the Turtles franchise to Laird in 2000. In 2009, Laird sold it to Viacom, now Paramount Global. The franchise has continued with new comic book series, television series, films, and video games.
History[edit]
1983–1986: Conception and first comics[edit]
The comic book authors Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird met in Massachusetts and began working on illustrations together. In 1983, Laird invited Eastman to move in with him in Dover, New Hampshire.[1] That November, Eastman drew a masked turtle standing on its hind legs armed with nunchucks to make Laird laugh.[2] Laird added the words "teenage mutant".[1] The concept parodied several elements popular in superhero comics of the time: the teenagers of New Teen Titans, the mutants of Uncanny X-Men and the ninja skills and training of Daredevil, combined with the comic tradition of funny animals such as Howard the Duck.[3]
Eastman and Laird developed the concept into a comic book. They considered giving the turtles Japanese names, but instead named them after the Italian Renaissance artists Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo, which Laird said "felt just quirky enough to fit the concept".[2] They developed a backstory referencing further elements of Daredevil: like Daredevil, the Turtles are altered by radioactive material, and their sensei, Splinter, is a play on Daredevil's sensei, Stick.[3]
In March 1984, Eastman and Laird founded a comic book company, Mirage Studios, in their own home.[2] Using money from a tax refund and a loan from Eastman's uncle, they printed copies of the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and advertised it in Comics Buyer's Guide Magazine.[2] This attracted the interest of comic distributors, and all 3,000 copies were sold in a few weeks.[2] Sales of further issues continued to climb.[2]
1987–1989: Toys, animation and video games[edit]
In 1987, Eastman and Laird licensed Turtles to Playmates Toys.[3] Between 1988 and 1997, Playmates produced Turtles toys including around 400 figures and dozens of vehicles and playsets. About US$1.1 billion of Turtles toys were sold in four years, making them the third-bestselling toy figures ever at the time, behind GI Joe and Star Wars.[2]
Influenced by the success of He-Man, G.I. Joe and Transformers, which had promoted toy lines with animated series, Playmates worked with the animation studio Murakami-Wolf-Swenson to produce the first Turtles animated series,[4] which premiered in 1987 and ran for almost a decade.[3] It introduced Turtles elements such as their color-coded masks, catchphrases, love of pizza and distinct personalities.[3] To make it acceptable to parents and television networks, the series had a lighter tone than the comics, with no expletives, less violence and less threatening villains.[2] In the United Kingdom and some other European regions, the franchise was renamed Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles for the violent connotations of the word "ninja".[5][6]
The first Turtles video game was released for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1989, the first of several developed by the Japanese company Konami.[7] It sold approximately four million copies, making it one of the bestselling NES games.[2] In response to concerns that the series was drifting from its origins, Eastman and Laird published an editorial in the comic in 1989, writing: "We've allowed the wacky side to happen, and enjoy it very much. All the while, though, we've kept the originals very much ours."[8] Eastman later said there was "some stuff that we wish we hadn't said yes to", and Laird wrote of his dislike for the softer tone of the animated series.[2]
1990s: First films, franchise expansion and commercial peak[edit]
The early 1990s saw the commercial peak of the franchise.[9] The first Turtles film was released in 1990, featuring costumes designed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop.[9] It was based more closely on the comic than the animated series, with a darker tone.[9] It was the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1990 and broke the record for the highest-grossing independent film, earning more than US$200 million worldwide.[10][11] A second film, The Secret of the Ooze, was released in 1991. With a rushed production and a lighter tone, it received weaker reviews and was less successful at the box office.[11] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) was aimed at the Japanese market, the largest foreign market for US films at the time, but failed to see release there and saw weaker reviews and sales.[3][11]
In 1990, a stage musical featuring the Turtles as a rock band, Coming Out of Their Shells, played 40 shows across the United States.[2] The musical was sponsored by Pizza Hut and promoted with an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.[12] A soundtrack album and VHS were released.[2] After the animated series ended, a live-action television series, Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, was created in 1997 with Saban Entertainment. It introduced a fifth, female turtle, Venus de Milo. The series was canceled after one season.[2] Laird later said it was the only licensed Turtles project he "truly regrets".[2]
2000s–present: Sale to Nickelodeon[edit]
Eastman sold his share of the Turtles franchise to Laird in 2000.[3] In 2003, 4Kids Entertainment launched a new animated Turtles series, which ran for seven seasons, concluding in 2009.[2] Laird had a role in the production, creating a closer adaptation of the original comic.[2] A computer-animated Turtles film, TMNT, was released in 2007 and earned $95 million at the box office.[2]
On October 21, 2009, it was announced that Laird had sold the franchise to Viacom.[3] He said he had tired of working on Turtles, writing: "I am no longer that guy who carries his sketchbook around with him and draws in it every chance he gets."[13] In August 2011,[14] IDW Publishing launched a new Turtles comic series, with Eastman as co-writer and illustrator.[3] A third animated series[2] premiered in September 2012 on Nickelodeon, and ran for five seasons before ending in 2017.[15] A fourth live-action Turtles film, produced by Platinum Dunes, Nickelodeon Movies and Paramount Pictures, directed by Jonathan Liebesman and produced by Michael Bay, was released on August 8, 2014. It received negative reviews, but was a box-office success.[3] A sequel, Out of the Shadows, directed by Dave Green, was released in June 2016.[16]
A fourth animated series, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, premiered in 2018 and ran for two seasons.[17] A film sequel was released in 2022 on the streaming service Netflix.[18] Mutant Mayhem, an animated film co-written and produced by Seth Rogen, was released in August 2023. It received positive reviews, with praise for its performances, script and stylized animation; several critics named it the best Turtles film.[19]
Characters[edit]
In most versions, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are created when four baby turtles are exposed to radioactive ooze, transforming them into humanoids.[20] They fight evil in New York City,[10] where they reside in the sewers.[21]
Leonardo, the leader, is the most disciplined and skilled turtle;[22] an expert swordsman, he wields two katana and wears a blue bandana.[23] Raphael, the strongest and most hot-headed turtle,[22] wears a red bandana and uses a pair of sai.[23] Donatello uses his intellect to invent gadgets and vehicles;[22] he wears a purple bandana and uses a bō staff.[23] Michelangelo is the least disciplined and most fun-loving turtle, and is usually portrayed as the fastest and most agile.[22] He wears an orange bandana and uses nunchucks.[23]
Splinter is a mutant rat who is the wise adoptive father of the Turtles and teaches them ninjitsu. In some iterations, he was once the pet rat of ninja master Hamato Yoshi; in others, he is a mutated Yoshi.[24] The Turtles are assisted by April O'Neil, who is variously depicted as a news reporter, lab assistant or genius computer programmer.[24][25] In most versions, she is pursued romantically by Casey Jones,[26] a hockey mask-wearing vigilante who usually becomes an ally of the Turtles.[27]
The Turtles' nemesis is the Shredder, who leads the criminal ninja clan known as the Foot. His real identity is usually the ninja Oroku Saki.[28] In most versions, the Shredder's second in command is Karai, a skilled martial artist; in some iterations she is the Shredder's daughter.[28] The Shredder allies with Baxter Stockman, a mad scientist who is often transformed into a mutant fly in his appearances,[28] and Krang, an alien warlord. Krang was introduced in the original animated series, and was inspired by the Utrom race from the comics.[28] Also created for the series were the Shredder's buffoonish henchmen, Bebop and Rocksteady, a mutant warthog and rhinoceros.[28] Other villains often faced by the Turtles include the alien Triceratons,[28] the Purple Dragons street gang,[28] and the Rat King, who can command hordes of rats to do his bidding.[28]
Comics[edit]
Mirage Studios (1984–2014)[edit]
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 their company Mirage Studios in an oversized magazine-style format using black and white artwork on cheap newsprint, limited to a print run of 3000 copies.[29] It was initially intended as a one-shot, but due to its popularity it became an ongoing series.[2]
After publication was temporarily assumed by Image Comics for the third volume (see below), Laird (by then the sole owner of the franchise) and Lawson relaunched the main series at Mirage with a fourth volume in 2001. Following the sale of the franchise to Nickelodeon in late 2009, Laird retained the right to continue the Mirage series,[30] but no issues have been released since the release of No. 32 in 2014,[31] and Mirage Studios was wound down in 2021.[32]
All total, the main Mirage series lasted for 129 issues, spanning four separate volumes of 62, 13, 23, and 32 issues, respectively.[2] Additional one-shot issues and miniseries were published over the years. Mirage also published a companion book entitled Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was designed to fill in the gaps of continuity in the TMNT universe.[33]
Image Comics (1996–1999)[edit]
In 1996, Image Comics co-founder Erik Larsen, seeing they there were no TMNT comics in active publication, oversaw a relaunch of the comics through Highbrow Productions, his studio at Image, with writing by Gary Carlson and art by Frank Fosco. This third volume of the main series, intended as a continuation of the Mirage comics, saw Splinter become a bat, Donatello a cyborg, Leonardo lose a hand and Raphael become scarred and assume the identity of the new Shredder. The series was canceled in 1999 after 23 issues without a conclusion.[2] In 2018, IDW began reprinting the series in full color as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Urban Legends, and commissioned Carlson and Fusco to create three additional issues to tie up the unfinished story.[34]
Archie Comics (1988–1995)[edit]
From 1988 to 1995, Archie Comics published Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Adventures, a series aimed at a younger audience.[2] Initially adapting episodes of the first animated series, it soon moved to original storylines.[35] The main series ran for 72 issues;[36] in addition, there were numerous annuals, specials and miniseries. An ongoing spinoff series, Mighty Mutanimals, features a team of supporting characters.[37]
Dreamwave Productions (2003)[edit]
A monthly comic inspired by the 2003 TV series was published by Dreamwave Productions from June to December 2003. Leonardo told her to do it. 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 New York City police officers.[citation needed][citation needed]
IDW Publishing (2011–present)[edit]
In 2011, IDW Publishing acquired the license to publish new collections of Mirage storylines and a new ongoing series.[38] The first issue of the new series was released in August of that year. Eastman and Tom Waltz wrote the book, with Eastman and Dan Duncan providing art. In 2017 issue No. 73 of the comic was published, making it the longest running comic series in the franchises history.[39] In addition to the main series and spin-offs set within its continuity, IDW also published comics based on the 2012 Turtles animated series[40][41] and the 2018 animated series, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.[42] The series ended in April 2024 at issue 150, with a relaunch planned[43] for July 2024.[44]
Manga[edit]
The Turtles have appeared in several manga series.
- Mutant Turtles (ミュータント・タートルズ, Myūtanto Tātoruzu) is a 15-issue series by Tsutomu Oyamada, Zuki mora, and Yoshimi Hamada that simply adapted episodes of the original American animated series.
- Super Turtles (スーパータートルズ Sūpā Tātoruzu) is a three-issue miniseries by Hidemasa Idemitsu, Tetsurō Kawade, and Toshio Kudō that featured the "TMNT Supermutants" Turtle toys that were on sale at the time. The first volume of the anime miniseries followed this storyline.
- Mutant Turtles Gaiden (ミュータント・タートルズ外伝, Myūtanto Tātoruzu Gaiden) by Hiroshi Kanno is a reinterpretation of the Turtles story with no connection to the previous manga.
- Mutant Turtles III (ミュータント・タートルズ３, Myūtanto Tātoruzu Tsuri) is Yasuhiko Hachino's adaptation of the third feature film.
- Mutant Turtles '95 (ミュータント・タートルズ９５, Myūtanto Tātoruzu Kyūjūgo) is a 1995 series by Ogata Nobu which ran in Comic BomBom.
- Mutant Turtles '96 (ミュータント・タートルズ９６, Myūtanto Tātoruzu Kyūjūroku) is a continuation of the 1995 series that continued to run through 1996.
Comic strip[edit]
A daily comic strip written and illustrated by Dan Berger began in 1990. It featured an adventure story Monday through Friday and activity puzzles on weekends (with fan art appearing later). The comic strip was published in syndication until its cancelation in December 1996. At its highest point in popularity, it was published in more than 250 newspapers.