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Four ordinary sewer turtles are splashed with mutagen, a mutating
agent. Discovered by Hamato Yoshi [Peter Renaday], the four turtles
as well as Hamato change their body forms - the turtles, into humanoid
turtle beings, and Hamato, into a half human, half rat. As a martial
arts teacher, Hamato teaches the turtles discipline and fighting
techniques, as all five of them take refuge in the sewers due to
their appearances. Each turtle wears a color distinguishing them
apart. Leonardo [Cam Clarke]: a levelheaded and mostly serious leader,
wields dual katana and wears a blue bandana and belt. Donatello
[Barry Gordon]: the calm and collected brainiac, tinkers with machinery
in his spare time and creares the Turtle Van and hydrocraft, wileding
the bo staff and wearing purple. Raphael [Rob Paulsen]: the tough-as-nails
aggressor, has a quick temper, wields dual sai and wears red. Lastly,
Michelangelo [Townsend Coleman] brings some style to the crew, with
a surfer's attitude and a childish demeanor...he uses the nunchaku
and wears orange.
Travelling
only at night (or under heavy disguise), the pizza loving turtles
have few surface friends. The most notable is yellow jumpsuit wearing
reporter April O'Neil [Renae Jacobs] or local Channel 6 news - who
not only helps the turtles on cases, but provides their positive
publicity on the air. Her fellow employee Vernon [Pat Fraley] always
tries to get the 1-up on her, and Irma [Jennifer Darling] was always
the friend. Also accompanying the turtles on occasion is the brawler
Casey Jones, a neutral, gruff yet well-meaning man with trademark
hockey mask and baseball bat. From another dimension came their
short-lived friend, Usagi Yojimbo - a samurai rabbit warrior.
The
turtles are hunted by crimelord Shredder [James Avery], better known
to Splinter as his former apprentice, Oroku Saki. As an emperor
of a seemingly endless army of robotic warriors known as the Foot,
Shredder's "Foot Clan" does his dirty work around the
city. His experiments in inter-dimensional travel brought forth
his partner strategist, a talking brain named Krang [Pat Fraley]
housed in the stomach of a statuesque robotic body. Shredder meddles
in mutagen experiments, kidnapping two street punks and merging
them with zoo animals, to create his peanut-brained thugs: half
human/half warthog Bebop [Barry Gordon], and half human/half rhino
Rocksteady [Cam Clarke].
Shredder
and his tiny empire reside in the Technodrome, a massive, skyscraper
tall sphere with a huge metallic eyeball at its peak. Using drill-like
cars, he bores through the Earth to travel from location to location.
Within the Technodrome is a massive wall-sized red portal in which
Shredder conspires with an army of rock soldiers from Dimension
X, led by General Tragg [Peter Renaday].
As
the series progressed, characters called the Neutrinos were introduced:
Zak [Pat Fraley] and his pack of carefree teenage friends: Kala
[Tress MacNeille] and Dask [Thom Pinto}, who escaped from Shredder's
red portal in their flying sportscar. Of course, they were a big
hit with Michelangelo.
Shredder
and the Foot Clan weren't the turtles' only concern: there was the
brown bandage-laden Rat King [Townsend Coleman] and his swarm of
obedient rats, the beastly mutant Leatherhead - a half human/half
gator with a Louisiana accent, insane inventor Baxter Stockman -
who mutates into a half-fly and is well guarded by his relentless
"Mouser" robots, and later in the series...the alien Dregg [Tony
Jay] with his Earth takeover plans. The series finally came to an
end in 1996, after an incredible 10 seasons.
Lions
Gate Studios began releasing the "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles"
television series DVDs in 2004.
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