Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is an American CGI cartoon series developed by the Nickelodeon Animation Studio in the franchise of the same name. A one hour sneak peek was released on September 28, 2012, while the official premiere aired on Nickelodeon on September 29, 2012. The series premiered in the United Kingdom and Ireland on October 1, 2012^[1] and in Australia along with New Zealand on October 8, 2012.^[2]

The show proved to be popular with both audiences and critics, garnering 3.9 million viewers on it's premiere night and hit a ratings high for Nickelodeon with boys 2-11, making it the network's top-rated premiere for an animated series since 2009. During its premiere weekend the series reached nearly 12 million total viewers.^[3] The premiere's success prompted Nickelodeon to order a second season^[4] and in February 2013, the network renewed the show for a third season.^[5]

The series makes slight changes to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles continuity, notably Michelangelo's new catchphrase is "Booyakasha" instead of "Cowabunga"^[6] and his brother, Raphael, also has an un-mutated pet turtle named Spike. The series follows the four Ninja Turtles living in the sewers of Manhattan, where they're being trained in martial arts by the ratlike Master Splinter. Merchandise based on the series includes a new line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles consumer products, and six LEGO sets.

Production Edit

Viacom purchase Edit

After Viacom purchased the rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise in October 2009, a press release was issued unveiling that Nickelodeon would be developing a new CGI-animated television series slated to air in 2012. Though the franchise was brought out from Mirage Studios, the company is still able to publish up to 18, 48 paged black and white TMNT comics a year. Additionally, toy products would continue to be made through Playmates and the rumors of a new live-action TMNT movie were put to rest as the company also revealed that they'd be making a film for 2012 with Paramount Pictures, though the date has seen been pushed back.^[7][8]

Development Edit

At the time, details on the series were scarce. From March 2011, new details about the show were released to the public. Ciro Nieli, executive producer, cited that the series would be slightly different than past incarnations. The turtles will now have "more individual attributes" that will tell them apart, wereas previously they could only be distinguished by the color of their masks. Also, Michelangelo's traditional nunchaku would be replaced by kusari-gama. Along with this wealth of new information, a first glimpse of the show was released alongside an initial promotional image.^[9]

More information was unveiled at an invite-only fan event in March of 2010. These details, however, were from a work-in-progress version of the series, and have the opportunity to change in the final product. Some details that have been made known, however, including a teenage April, Hamato Yoshi becoming Splinter, and The Kraang, an homage to many different entities in TMNT lore (Kraang/Utroms/Foot Soldiers). The series is said to have the dark elements and intense action of the 2003 TV series, but still have the jokes of the 1987 series while still being something of its own. It premiered on October 1, 2011.

Images of the turtles, Master Splinter, April, Shredder and the Kraang have all been revealed. Some confirmed changes to the series are Donnie having a crush on April, Master Splinter being younger and having a more active role in the series, and Splinter training April to be a ninja so she can go out and battle enemies with the turtles. Mikey and Don can also extend their weapons into blades. Leo will also still be the skilled leader, albeit younger than Don and Raph, (who will still be a hot-head).

Sometime in March 2011, a micro site for the new series was leaked on Nickelodeon's website. The micro site revealed pictures of April, Shredder, the Kraang, and splinter with bios for all of them. The site was shut down for some time, but as of June 2011, it is back up and features a personality quiz, bios for the turtles, a newsletter, a new game called Dark Horizons, and the new trailer for the series. Merchandise for the series is already starting to get made, including action figures from playmates which will be released in august 2011, a set of stickers, Halloween costumes, and books based off the series.

An official trailer was released on June 23rd 2011 and aired on Nickelodeon the following Saturday. The trailer revealed the turtle's new voices, the animation, and that the theme song of the new show will be a remixed/remade version of the original theme song from the 1987 cartoon.

Casting Edit

Jason Biggs voices Leonardo and Rob Paulsen, who voiced Raphael in the 1987 series, portrays Donatello. In June 2011, it was confirmed that Sean Astin is playing Raphael and Greg Cipes is Michelangelo. In August 2011, it was revealed that Mae Whitman will be the voice for April O'Neil. In April 2012, it was announced that Phil LaMarr will be playing the role of Baxter Stockman and Nolan North will be playing a race of aliens known as The Kraang. Actress Kelly Hu confirmed her role as Karai in May 2012.

Trailer Edit

2012trailer(01:20)
5,882 views

Episodes Edit

Main article: List of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012) episodes

Nickelodeon has ordered three seasons, all of which will have 26 episodes. Season 1 premiered on September 29, 2011. The premier of Seasons 2 and 3 has not yet been announced.

Characters Edit

Confirmed characters Edit

• Mutants [1]
  • Leonardo (Jason Biggs)
  • Raphael (Sean Astin) [2]
  • Donatello (Rob Paulsen)
  • Michelangelo (Greg Cipes) [3]
  • Hamato Yoshi/Splinter (Hoon Lee) [4]
  • Leatherhead (Peter Lurie) [5]
  • Chris Bradford/Dogpound (Clancy Brown)
  • Xever/Fishface (Christian Lanz)
  • Snake/Snakeweed (Danny Jacobs)
  • Vic/Spider Bytez (Lewis Black)
  • Timothy/Mutagen Man (Roger Craig Smith)
  • Jewis/Platypus DJ (Dee Bradley Baker)
  • Dr. Tyler Rockwell (Frank Welker)
  • Pete/Pigeon Pete (A.J. Buckley)
  • Justin
  • Chong/Spy-Roach
  • Crosstiger (Jim Cummings)
  • Komodo Drago (John DiMaggio)
• April O'Neil (Mae Whitman) [6]
• Foot Clan
  • Oroku Saki/The Shredder (Kevin Michael Richardson) [7]
  • Karai (Kelly Hu) [8]
  • Foot Soldiers
• Purple Dragons
  • Fong (Andrew Kishino)
  • Sid (Andrew Kishino)
  • Tsoi (James Sie)
• The Kraang (Nolan North)
  • Mrs. Campbell (Cassandra Peterson)
  • Kraang Prime (Roseanne Barr)
• Traag
• Baxter Stockman (Phil LaMarr)
  • Mousers [9]
  • Monster of Doom
• Casey Jones (To debut in season 2) [10]
• Metalhead [11]
• Dr. Victor Falco/Rat King (Jeffrey Combs)[12]
• Flaming Carrot [13]
• Fugitoid [14]
• Kirby O'Neil (Keith Silverstein)
• Carlos Chang O'Brien Gambe (Jim Meskimen)
• Steranko (Fred Tatasciore)

Mentioned/Alluded characters Edit

• Miwa
• Tang Shen
• Irma
• Daniel Tarma

Actors with roles yet to be confirmed Edit

• Josh Towski
• Corey Feldman [15]

Production crew Edit

• Andrea Romano (Voice Director)
• Ciro Nieli (Executive Producer)
• J.R. Ventimilia (Executive Producer)
• Joshua Sternin (Executive Producer)
• Kenny Byerly (Staff Writer)
• Russ Carney (Staff Writer)
• Ron Corcillo (Staff Writer)
• Peter DiCicco (Script Coordinator)
• Michael Chang (Animation Director)
• Alan Wan (Animation Director)
• Ant Ward (Supervising Producer)
• Alex Deligiannis (Art Department)
• Juan Jose Meza-Leon (Animation Director)

Trivia Edit

• This is the first series in which each turtle has a definitive spotting detail, beyond the colored masks, weapons, and skin color.
  • Donatello has one tooth missing, and is the tallest and leanest of his brothers.
  • Michelangelo has freckles, a child-like face, and is the shortest.
  • Raphael has a lightning bolt chip broken off on the top right of his plastron. He is also the 2nd shortest.
  • Leonardo has, for the most part, been unchanged, but if you look closely, you can see that his skin is a darker shade of green from the others, and he's also the second tallest.
  • They all have different mask lengths, Raphael's being the longest, Donnatello's being the second longest, Leonardo's being the second shortest and Michelangelo's being the shortest.
  • The turtles all have distinct eye colors. Raphael has green, Donatello has red/brown, and Michelangelo and Leonardo have blue eyes, though Mikey's are a lighter blue.
  • On another note, they all have pupils exept when they become serious in some segments, to when they have white, empty eyes.
• All the Turtles have their own Skateboard, which was shown on a trailer.
• The Turtles are 15 years old in this series, though it is obvious Leonardo is the oldest and Michelangelo is the youngest, with Raphael and Donatello in the middle.
• They have 3 toes on each foot instead of 2.
• They have different color wraps in their feet and wrists with Leo having light peach,Donnie having golden brown, Mikey having light brown, and Raph having dark brown.
• Leonardo's favorite television series has similar art and story to the Filmation Star Trek animated series.
• The romantic element of the story is more emphasized in this series, where Donnie has a major crush on April, and Leo develops feelings for Karai.
• This is the second incarantion of Shredder to be voiced by an African-American actor. James Avery was the villain for most of the 1987 series' run. This Shredder is played by Kevin Michael Richardson.
• The show tend to shift into 3 different styles, mainly the mouth movement.

Gallery Edit

Main article: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 TV series) / Gallery

Interviews Edit

Clips Edit

References Edit

External Links Edit

• Nickelodeon's official TMNT site
• Official TMNT Crew Blog