Monday, December 29, 2014

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Time-Line

A while back, I decided to write a time-line for the TMNT, but not the kind that features what happened in episode one up until present episode, no, this timeline tells the history of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, from 1984, all the way to today! So enjoy Turtle-fans!



v           In 1984 the first edition of the comic Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (often shortened to TMNT or Ninja Turtles) was released in Dover, New Hampshire. The plotline was very straightforward, and the comics in general were pretty dark. These turtles were not your average pet shop turtles, no; these were trained ninjas, and also mutants. They were named after the Renaissance artists Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo.

v                In January 1987, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird visited Playmates Toys Inc. in California, the toy producer there wanted have a wider range to make the TMNT toys. The co-producers agreed, and a man named Fred Wolf was given the task of creating the show.


v                Wolf and his team worked for several months, before producing a miniseries. The miniseries was repeated three times, before people started to watch it.

v                Once their products started selling, the creators of the miniseries started to make more and more seasons, before the now 10 season long show was cancelled in 1996, while the comic series continued in the darker, grittier tone.

v                    In 1988, Archie Comics started releasing comics based off of the cartoon series. It was cancelled in 1995

v                    Several games were released in 1989; they were eventually released for Wii.


v                             In 1990, while the 1987 series was still in motion, a live action movie was produced, and a sequel, called Secret of the Ooze was released the next year, then, in 1993, a third movie was made, making a trilogy of live action movies. These live action movies followed the comic plot line more closely, but still had the lightheartedness of the 1987 series.

v                            In 1991, a game called A Turtle in Time was released. In season 10, part two of a trilogy of episodes was released under the same name. Many other games have been released since then.

v                       A comic strip started appearing in newspapers in 1990, and ran until they were cancelled in the year 1996.

v            In 1997, the year after the show was cancelled, a live action series started up, revealing a fifth mutant turtle, this one, a GIRL! Her name was Venus de Milo, the first turtle to be named after a work of art, and not an actual artist. It was also put into the plotline that the five of them were not related by blood, making them not really brothers and sister, even though they acted like it.

v                    Venus was not a ninja however, she was a Chinese Shinobi, whose master had found her in Chinatown, New York, and basically adopted her.

v                        Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation was highly unpopular, and was cancelled in 1998, just one year later, after only one season. Although there was a Power Rangers in Space crossover episode, while it was still running, as the man in charge of Power Rangers also helped run the Next Mutation series.

v                          Just before the cancellation of Next Mutation, Kevin Eastman sold his half of the TMNT to Peter Laird, and Laird sent out an order for all future owners of the turtles, ‘There will no longer be any mention of Venus de Milo, or girl turtles in general from now on’. Meaning that Venus would never again be shown on TV again. (although you can watch it on Netflix and LoveFilm if you are truly interested in them)

                         Turtles weren’t shown on television again, until the year 2003, when a new, slightly darker than the first cartoon, series started up. It lasted for 7 seasons, and 156 episodes, before it was cancelled in 2009.

v             A monthly comic, based off of these newer turtles was published by Dreamwave productions, from June to December 2003.The turtles have also appeared in several manga series, including: Mutant Turtles, which was based off of the cartoon series, Super Turtles, the episodes based off of them were only released in Japan, Mutant Turtles Gaiden, a retelling of the turtles story, with no connection to any previous comics or cartoons, and Mutant Turtles 3, which was a comic version of the 3rd movie.

v In 2007, a fourth movie was made. The first thing turtle-wise to be CGI animated. Called simply ‘TMNT’ based several years after the trilogy, the four brothers are growing apart. Leo is in South America, for a training mission, even though he has been there for WAY longer than he was supposed to, Donnie is ‘in charge’ and works for an IT tech company. Raph sleeps all day, and at night he is a vigilante under the name ‘Nightwatcher’ and Mikey runs a party service called ‘Cowabunga Carl’.

v But the brothers have to get back together in order to stop a new threat. (A game was made based off of this movie)

v Two years later, in 2009, on the 25th anniversary since the TMNT were created, as, perhaps a final tribute to them, the new owners of the Ninja Turtles, Nickelodeon, produced a crossover movie as a final appearance for the second animated cartoon. This movie was called ‘Turtles Forever’ and featured the first animated cartoon turtles, even though they acted way out of character.

v The same year, a boxed set was released that included the four original movies.

v In 2010, volume four of the original comic series was finished and released. It is not known when the series will be continued, or concluded. Sometime before that, Kevin Eastman was hired back on as a comic artist.

v In 2012, Nickelodeon started up a new computer animated series, were the turtles were a little less serious, and April and Casey was (for once) the same age as the turtles. This series proves to be popular, and has already been renewed for a fourth season, even though the 3rd season has barely begun.

v In 2014, turtles were taken to a new level, making them taller, more bulky, and just flat out bigger, for a new movie. It was also the first movie to not be a part of the timeline featuring the earlier movies.

v The turtles also received noses, which were a new thing for the TMNT, and a sequel for the movie has been scheduled for released on June 3rd 2016.

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