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.
