April O'Neil is a recurring lead character in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.
Portrayed as a perky and tough human reporter and close ally of the Ninja Turtles, April aids them on missions primarily through gathering intelligence and occasionally through physical combat. In the series’ expanded continuity beyond the original three live-action films, she becomes proficient as a ninja, presumably by training from Splinter and the Turtles.
History[]
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990 movie)[]
In the first TMNT motion picture, April (played by Judith Hoag) was a television reporter (though she worked for Channel 3 news in this case) working for Charles "Chuck" Pennington, and did a series of stories on mysterious thefts in New York City whose culprits vanished without a trace. One night when leaving work, she was accosted by teenage thieves in league with the Foot Clan, but the Turtles appeared and saved her by knocking out and tying up the teens under the cover of darkness. In the aftermath April discovered and grabbed Raphael's lost sai, but Raphael soon followed her and took back the weapon and saved her again when she was attacked by a group of Foot Ninjas in the subway and after first making a joke to them about being behind on her Sony payments, then trying to fight them off with her purse is knocked unconscious by one of them with one punch. Unsure what to do with her, he carried her unconscious form to their sewer lair. Though her fearful reaction upon seeing the Turtles and Splinter initially got the better of her, she eventually came to regard the Turtles as friends, and even allowed them to live in her apartment after the Foot Clan discovered and destroyed their sewer dwellings.
Mirroring the Mirage's comics storyline, the Foot once again attacked the Turtles in the antique shop 2nd Time Around, prompting April, the Turtles (including a wounded Raphael), and Casey Jones to retreat to her family's farmhouse in Northampton, Massachusetts. Chuck fired April for a while. Also, Casey develops a romantic interest in her but at first, she didn't feel the same for him. By the end of the film, she realizes she loves him and then kisses him. She kept a journal documenting their forced sabbatical in addition to drawing sketches of the Turtles. During their respite, April also developed a kind of love-hate relationship with Casey. She grew extremely close to the four brothers as well; Michelangelo, who initially confessed to having a crush on April, later addressed her as "Sis," indicating the role she had come to occupy in the Turtles' family.
Second (1991) and third (1993) movies[]
In the second and third movies, April was played by Paige Turco. In TMNT III, April was temporarily transported to feudal Japan.
TMNT (film)[]
Following the continuity from the previous films, it appears that she and Casey Jones are living and working together in a shipping firm, engaged in a relationship. It is she who finds Leonardo in Central America at the start of the film, having been in the area seeking an artifact for Max Winters. No mention is made of her past as a journalist, but it is instead implied that she has taken up archaeology as a career.
She has taken up martial arts training from Splinter, purchasing a ninja uniform, consisting of a yellow bodysuit with armor plating on the torso, black leather shoulders, fingerless elbow-length gloves and thigh-high boots, along with a sheathed katana strapped over the shoulder, from Japan and becoming skilled in the use of katana, apparently leaving behind her past as a 'damsel in distress'. This is demonstrated as April and Karai fight it out while Casey, Splinter and the Turtles battle the Foot in order to save Leonardo.
Cancelled Films[]
Following the continuity of the first three films, April was expected to have a role in a fourth live-action film which never came to be. Conceptual artwork for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: The Foot Walks Again would have included a character known as Evil April, although it is unknown whether Evil April would have been an alternate dimension counterpart to the April O'Neil character portrayed by Hoag and Turco in the first three live-action films, or a corrupted version of the same character. The 1995 film script by Christian Ford and Roger Soffer featured a new villainess referred to as "Miss D" who is revealed to be April's evil counterpart from an alternative dimension and serves the evil Spyder in a blood-feud against Kirby and their universe's counterparts of Splinter and the Ninja Turtles, whom she previously betrayed. The regular April O'Neil became a "Kame-Do" martial artist and dojo master prior to events of the proposed film, although she gains confidence in her competence throughout the course of the story. During the first confrontation between the counterparts, Miss D is apparently killed by a collapsed water tower.[1]