TV SERIES · 2003– · USA
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
88 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (88)
- #001
The stories of various episodes were borrowed and adapted from the original Mirage Studios comics, bringing the new cartoon closer to one of the original comic book storylines.
- #002
According to the voice actors in interviews, they were told to watch the 1990 film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for inspiration on how to create the voices of the Turtles, Splinter and Shredder.
- #003
The warehouse where the Turtles' van is hidden is located at the corner of Eastman and Laird. Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird are the creators of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- #004
Rather than each episode being a separate, standalone story, each episode connects to the others to form a larger, growing story that develops over the course of the season.
- #005
The series was recorded on location in New York City, where it is set.
- #006
Two police officers who appear every few episodes (one thin with long brown hair and a mustache, the other gray-haired) were designed after Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
- #007
The decision to make Shredder an Utrom came up during the series' early discussions. The creative team thought it was a great way to further merge Shredder's background with the Turtles' backstory and to give the Turtles an enemy who could be seriously defeated within the constraints of a Saturday-morning TV series. In addition to his popularity, Shredder's true identity, the Utrom Ch'rell, would later appear in the 2009 Mirage Comics and in IDW Comics' main series, both of which depict him as a character separate from Shredder.
- #008
Michelangelo's occasional superhero identity, the Turtle Titan, uses a grappling hook. This is a nod to the original cartoon, in which Michelangelo used the grappling hook as his main weapon for most of the show.
- #009
The four Turtles are named after Italian Renaissance artists: Leonardo, named after Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519); Donatello, named after Donatello Bardi (1386-1466); Raphael, named after Raffaelo Santi (1483-1520); and Michaelangelo, named after Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564). As Turtles, Raphael's and Michaelangelo's names were anglicized.
- #010
The graphic look of this series includes a great deal of black shading to give the series a sharper and darker appearance.
- #011
One of the running jokes in this series is that every time Baxter Stockman fails Shredder, Shredder has a part of Baxter's body cut off. Peter Laird was never a big fan of the "butcher Baxter" approach but thought it served its purpose.
- #012
This is the first cartoon in which Casey Jones appears as a regular character. Although he was always a regular character in the Mirage Studios comics, he only made occasional guest appearances in the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) cartoon.
- #013
This series depicts Leatherhead as a friend and ally of the Turtles, similar to his portrayal in the original Mirage comics, but with a tendency toward rage. It even used his original comic book origin, in which Leatherhead is an exotic pet flushed into the sewers who somehow reached the Utrom base and was exposed to the mutagen. This series also started a trend used in IDW Comics and in the 2012 series in which Leatherhead develops a grudge against the person who tortured him; for this series, that person was Agent Bishop.
- #014
The design of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles largely reflects the drawing style of the Mirage Studios comics: agile, muscular and superior.
- #015
In addition to their different bandana colors, each of the Turtles has a different skin tone to better match their Playmates action figure counterparts. Since the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) previously had animation errors depicting the Turtles with the wrong-colored masks, this would become a basic element helping to better distinguish each of the Turtles in IDW Publishing's productions and main comics.
- #016
Agent Bishop, who became the Turtles' main enemy after the Shredder, was originally a character created for this series. His popularity led to his inclusion in later media and comics, including those produced by IDW Publishing. In particular, the IDW version's characterization is based on this series, though he is portrayed as more unstable than in this version.
- #017
Each of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' weapons reflects what Splinter considers their greatest weakness: Leonardo is the moral and heroic one of the Turtles. He uses the katana, the only sharp weapon among the four and by default the most lethal. This is to teach him that, despite his ideals, he may ultimately be forced to take lives to protect people, and that he must never fight unnecessarily. Donatello is the smartest and most technology-curious of the Turtles. He uses the bo, a simple wooden staff. This is to teach him creativity and to make do with what he has. Raphael is the most stubborn and violent of the Turtles. He uses the sai, a traditional defensive weapon used to keep the peace. This is to teach him patience and discipline. Michelangelo is the most scatterbrained and playful of the Turtles. He uses the nunchaku, a weapon famous for its complexity and the ease with which it can injure its user. This is to teach him focus and not to take combat lightly.
- #018
In 2001, Mirage Studios pitched an idea to Warner Bros. for the animation of a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series to air on Kids' WB or Cartoon Network. Warner Bros. went ahead with the series beyond the concept art stage. However, Fox carried the project for several years, and it became this series.
- #019
Hun was a character created specifically for this series as Shredder's main henchman and the leader of the Purple Dragons. Hun was originally supposed to be of Spanish origin, but it was decided to make him of Slavic origin. His popularity later led to his being adapted into later comics and other TMNT productions.
- #020
In this series, Shredder's costume consists of a fully metallic exoskeleton armor with spikes.
- #021
The "Planet Racers" seen in Episode 72 ("Across the Universe") comes from the comic of the same name written by Peter Laird and drawn by Jim Lawson, who has drawn the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and still does.
- #022
In Season 3, the voice actor credit for Raphael changed from Frank Frankson to John Campbell.
- #023
Nobody, the mysterious crime-fighting vigilante in a dark costume, is a character from the original Mirage comics, and this series marks his first appearance outside the comics.
- #024
From Season 4 onward, the intro was updated to reflect the changes in the series and included a lyric describing each of the four turtles.
- #025
From Season 4 onward, a piece of Leonardo's shell near his upper left shoulder was chipped off. This was a realistic detail, as he carried a chip on his shoulder following the events of the previous season's finale. From the Fast Forward season onward, this injury disappeared and was never seen again.
- #026
The series depicts the Turtles in the classic comic book style, with brown belts, elbow pads and knee pads (unlike the earlier series, which introduced belt buckles and colored elbow and knee pads). This is also the first series to have a shoulder strap for storing katana blades on Leonardo's belt.
- #027
Savanti Romero and Renet appear for the first time outside the Mirage comics in this series. Savanti Romero is in fact the most frequently recurring villain in the Mirage comics.
- #028
Raphael's motorcycle was inspired by Kaneda's bike in the film Akira (1988). In fact, the scene in the intro where Raphael stops his motorcycle was inspired by a scene in Akira.
- #029
Silver Sentury is an iconic superhero who flies, has unique vision abilities and is super strong. He was created for this series by the creative team as a superhero character Michelangelo could relate to through his desire to become a superhero.
- #030
After the Season 3 finale, Hun gains a new look with a coat and fully takes back his role of leading the Purple Dragons. This was meant to reflect that the discovery of Shredder's Utrom identity caused Hun to leave the Foot entirely.
- #031
The Turtles' main means of transportation was an reinforced armored vehicle called the Battle Shell. It was built by Donatello from an armored car seized during the Purple Dragons' first adventure, "Things Change" (2003). The Battle Shell also holds a motorcycle stored inside for Raphael.
- #032
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird made significant contributions to the series and worked with Lloyd Goldfine and the production team to make it an adaptation as close as possible to the original Mirage Studios comics.
- #033
The original comics were more explicit, with the turtles fighting bloody battles, swearing and occasionally drinking alcohol. For this series, shell-based puns (e.g. "Let's kick some shell") were used in place of swear words.
- #034
In this series, Baxter Stockman is African American, just as in the original Mirage Studios comics. This would go on to form the basis for all his later media appearances at this point.
- #035
Casey Jones says his battle cry, "Goongala!", for the first time outside the comics. In fact, the series expands on the origin of the battle cry.
- #036
Efforts to launch a new Ninja Turtles series began in 2001, the same year Mirage Studios brought the comics back with Volume 4.
- #037
In this series, Splinter has gray fur and a brownish-orange kimono, unlike the comics, where he has brown fur and a white kimono.
- #038
The Foot Soldiers in this series are an army of human ninjas, just as in the original comics.
- #039
In this series, similar to the original Mirage Comics, April has a career history as Baxter Stockman's former laboratory assistant at Science, and she also runs the "Second Time Around" antique shop. After Stockman tries to kill her, April continues the antique business as her livelihood.
- #040
Although this series stays closer to the Mirage Studios comics, April O'Neil is a redhead, as she has been since the original cartoon, rather than dark-haired as in the original Mirage comics.
- #041
The series' logo resembles the original series' logo, except that the colors in the "Teenage Mutant Ninja" portion are red letters on a black background and the "Turtles" portion uses a stylized, sharper typeface.
- #042
When the Turtles are shown as small turtles, they wear no elbow or knee pads and wear the same head-covering mask as in the Mirage comics. However, the small turtle hatchlings have pupils similar to their original cartoon counterparts.
- #043
This is the first animated series to feature the Utroms, the alien race responsible for creating and losing the Ooze that mutated the Turtles and Splinter.
- #044
Dr. Chaplin is a character created for the series, and his character design closely resembles the human Baxter Stockman from the original series.
- #045
In this series, the superheroes the Turtles work with are called the Justice Force, and they come from the early issues of the Mirage comics.
- #046
The Battle Nexus originated in this series and allowed more characters, such as Drako, Dajin and Miyamoto Usagi, to be introduced to the Turtles.
- #047
Michelangelo's pet cat Klunk is used for the first time outside the Mirage Studios comics. This is also Klunk's only appearance in media across all stories outside Mirage Comics, although a similar character, Ice Cream Kitty, took over Klunk's role in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012).
- #048
Some episodes of Season 4 first aired irregularly on 4Kids TV, causing several continuity problems because characters referred to events that had not yet aired.
- #049
The Rat King made his first appearance in Season 4. This version was much closer to the Mirage version, but he was given a backstory tied to Agent Bishop and Splinter, and he was not killed at the end of his debut.
- #050
When Karai took over Shredder's role, she was to have armor with a longer, more feminine-looking Shredder claw that crackled and flared with a blue electric appearance, along with staff blades extending from her feet. Peter Laird objected to this "super gizmofied" armor and preferred a sleek, deadly bladed armor set like the original.
- #051
After Season 4, there were no Mirage Studios comic storylines left to adapt into episodes.
- #052
This series includes the first animation of Fugitoid, fulfilling the dream of co-creator Peter Laird, who counts Fugitoid among his favorite characters. Fugitoid had previously been released as a toy by Playmates during the run of the original show.
- #053
Karai makes her first animated appearance in this series and appears outside Mirage Comics for the second time (after appearing as a boss character in the SNES and Sega Genesis versions of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Tournament Fighters (1993)). In her original comic incarnation, Karai was completely unrelated to Shredder, not his adopted daughter, and in fact stood higher in the Foot Clan's global hierarchy. Karai would later appear in most media adaptations and in IDW Comics, and in most of these portrayals she still has a personal connection to Shredder.
- #054
Some elements featured in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) were adapted into this series. In Secret Origins, the Turtles travel back in time to Feudal Japan and fight a Feudal Shredder. The idea for the characters Ultimate Ninja and Supreme Daimyo was also generally inspired by Kenshin and Norinaga.
- #055
The Nanobots used to create the Nanotechnology Monster are generally inspired by the surgery in which the Nanobots were used to save April's life in the Volume 4 comics.
- #056
Chuck Patton left directing at the end of Season 2. Roy Burdine took over from Season 3 onward and remained director until the end of the series.
- #057
During Season 3, Fox's cartoon block, in which the show aired, changed from Fox Box to 4Kids TV.
- #058
In 2004, Cartoon Network began airing reruns in its Miguzi afternoon block. In fact, several episodes from Season 3 actually premiered on Miguzi before airing on the 4Kids TV Saturday morning block.
- #059
In Season 4, Donatello creates a new Battle Shell that resembles a moving van after the original was destroyed by the Foot Clan. The sign on the van reads "Tortuga Bros Moving... since 1984"; Tortuga is Spanish for turtle, and 1984 is a reference to the year Mirage Studios published the first issue of TMNT.
- #060
In Season 4, it is revealed that Agent Bishop is actually hundreds of years old and has survived by cloning new bodies for himself. His mission in life is to protect Earth from alien invasions, and to do so he intends to create an army of super soldiers.
- #061
Around the time Season 4 began production, Playmates toys wanted to go in a different direction to appeal to a younger audience and sell more toys. As a result, Season 5 was pulled back in a way that alienated viewers who had been following the story arc the series presented, and audiences could not properly follow up on the Season 4 finale until roughly two years later.
- #062
The Foot Mystic Ninjas are revealed to actually be servants of the original Tengu Shredder.
- #063
In Season 5, it is revealed that after the Foot Clan openly defeated the Tengu Shredder, the clan's symbol was given to the Five Dragons (Kon Shisho, Chikara Shisho, Juto Shisho, Hisomi Shisho and Oroku Saki) as the mark of the dragon. However, the fifth warrior, Oroku Saki, was taken over by the Shredder. Oroku Saki actually took the symbol and twisted it into the symbol of the Foot Clan.
- #064
During the Ninja Tribunal story, the Turtles and four other allies are given new weapons that allow them to attack their enemies both mystically and physically. However, Leonardo is not assigned a weapon and is instead given the sword used by Faraji. Leo honors Faraji and returns the sword to its rightful owner in the Season 5 finale.
- #065
As also revealed in the Season 3 finale, Ch'rell was a conqueror who ruled an evil planet and traveled to many planets in the universe under various identities. The Tengu Shredder was introduced in Season 5 to show why the normal Shredder (Ch'rell) assumed an identity in order to conquer Earth.
- #066
This is the first animated series in which the Triceratons appear in more than one episode. The series also explores Triceraton culture far more thoroughly than previous versions. Aside from their earlier single-episode appearances in the original show, a Triceraton character appeared in most of the various TMNT games released at the time and published by Konami.
- #067
This is the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series to feature Miyamoto Usagi along with supporting characters from Usagi Yojimbo (such as Gennosuke Murakami, Tomoe Ame, Lord Noriyuki, Chizu and Lord Hebi).
- #068
A comic book based on this series was published by Dreamwave Productions in 2003. The first four stories are based on episodes of the series but are told from the perspective of supporting characters. Later, new original stories were created, much as the original issues of TMNT Adventures followed the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) TV series before developing new stories. However, as with most of Dreamwave's licensed comics, it was abruptly cancelled by the struggling comic company.
- #069
This series shows that the Utroms have extremely long lifespans, allowing them to survive for centuries with almost no change.
- #070
Raptarr, a fairly recent character in the Mirage Studios comics, makes his first animated appearance. He is also one of the few characters in the series who never received an action figure.
- #071
The Ancient One is a short, obese, elderly ninjitsu master who taught ninjitsu to Hamato Yoshi and Yukio Mashimi. He was created specifically for this series. Ironically, the Ninja Tribunal refers to him as the "Young One."
- #072
Throughout Season 4, Agent Bishop took on an alternate look with armed battle armor and a black coat.
- #073
This is the first animated series to feature Tang Shen, Hamato Yoshi's love.
- #074
The Battle Nexus and Shredder's armored costume were carried over into the Mirage comics. The armored Shredder costume from the comics was adapted for a Battle Nexus warrior named Oroku Yoshi.
- #075
The Ninja Tribunal wears color-coordinated battle armor with a look generally associated with the Shredder. The Tribunal consists of Kon Shisho (orange), Chikara Shisho (green), Juto Shisho (blue) and Hisomi Shisho (orange).
- #076
Season 5 was supposed to be 13 episodes long. However, one episode featured a story in which Hun and the Garbage Man are Siamese twins separated at birth. The reason this story was scrapped was that the network considered it too dark for a children's series.
- #077
The Season 7 episode Web Wranglers (2008) includes a news broadcast. The broadcast is from Channel 6 News and features a red-haired female reporter wearing a yellow jacket. This may be a reference to April in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) animated series. In the 1987 series she was Channel 6's news reporter, and before the changes to the series that began with Season 8, she wore a similar yellow jumpsuit during the show's first seven seasons.
- #078
In this series, Karai takes on the role of The Shredder. This is adapted from the Image comics, where Karai took over the role of Lady Shredder.
- #079
After Karai/The Shredder destroys the Turtles' lair, they take refuge in an abandoned pumping station by a reservoir where they build a new hideout. Because of this, the intro sequence was changed again in the middle of Season 4 to reflect the new changes (a new lair, a new Battle Shell and a new Shredder).
- #080
In this series, the original Shredder is actually a demonic entity that possesses Oroku Saki, the fifth and best of the original warriors. This means that the series' main villain, the Utrom Shredder, actually took the name Shredder, and that Oroku Saki's legacy came from the Tengu Shredder.
- #081
At the end of Season 5, the Ancient One is offered a place on the Ninja Tribunal.
- #082
The Minnetonka Mutant was actually created by a fan who won a contest to turn their character into an action figure and appear in the series.
- #083
The Utrom Shredder is the worst version to date. He is ready to destroy the multiverse just to finish off the Turtles.
- #084
Baxter losing his body and becoming nothing but a brain is similar to what happened to Krang in the original cartoon.
- #085
The Battle Nexus and the Triceraton Invasion of Earth in Season 3, along with various characters created for this series, were later adapted into subsequent comics published by IDW Publishing. The Triceraton Invasion would also be adapted into the Season 3 finale of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) series.
- #086
It is the only Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series to air on Fox Broadcasting Company for Seasons 1-6 and on The CW Network (The CW) for its final season.
- #087
Hun bears a striking resemblance to WWE wrestler Brock Lesner: a large, muscular man with the same facial features and hairstyle, and very strong.
- #088
The art style is the same as The Mummy (2001), Van Helsing: The London Assignment (2004) and The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes (2010).
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb kaydı
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work