Rise of the TMNT (2018 Series)

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (also known as Rise of the TMNT and ROTTMNT) is an American animated television series developed and executive produced by Andy Suriano and Ant Ward. It is the fourth animated series in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The series premiered on Nickelodeon on July 20, 2018, with premieres later moving to Nicktoons, which aired new episodes until August 7, 2020. A feature film sequel was released on Netflix on August 5, 2022 following the series finale. This re-imagined series has the Turtles go on new adventures as they seek to unlock the mystical secrets of New York City and their own powers to save the world from evil.

Plot

The episode begins with a dog-like creaturerunning along the sidewalks of New York, being pursued by two men with their dogs in baby carriers. When they have the creature cornered in an alleyway, it has a trick up its sleeve and magically teleports away.

Later that night, the Turtles zip-line from Molina Tower over a high-class rooftop party where a shady deal seems to be going down... only to zip past it, going for the rooftop pool on the building next door to perform a cannonball into the pool. Before heading off to Rucker Park, Raphael notices the dog creature in a construction yard. The team instantly befriends it (more April and less Raph), when suddenly the jogger men also show up. The Turtles try to pass off as humans, dawning nerd voices and mannerisms similar to science fiction convention patrons. When that fails, a battle (and a much-needed Jersey joke from Leonardo) ensues, but after the two joggers and their little dogs reveal their true forms.

The streak of failure continues for the Turtles, for they are easily beaten and their weapons (excluding Donnie's Tech-Bō) are destroyed. April tries to take the bad guys on herself, but clearly they capture the "dog-thingy" in a magical power-restraining orb. The villains conjure a mystical portal on a wall, and when the headstrong teen goes after the bad guys, she disappeared through the portal with them. The Turtles are completely puzzled as to how to free their friend or more importantly, where she went. Michelangelo says that he may have an idea, pointing out the symbol used to create the portal is something they all have seen before, referring to a small mystic device on Splinter's Do Not Touch Cabinet.

Raph asks Splinter if they can have the living room for the night as part of his plan for getting the device without him noticing. Splinter, however, laughs it off and refuses to leave after Donnie suggests he hook up the projector in his bedroom. Raph then comes up with a more complicated plan involving ten chickens and a gallon of rubber cement, but Leo manages to get the device by sneaking past Splinter, who passed out after his milk and cake.

Back at the construction site, Raph tries to figure out how to open the portal with the device. However, he freezes and starts to crack under pressure as his younger brothers make multiple side comments. Mikey then offers to open the portal and after holding the device over the wall, it starts glowing. Mikey uses the device to create a "M" like symbol on the wall, opening the portal. After his brothers congratulate Mikey on his effort, the four brothers "cannonball" into the portal and fall under to a mysterious location underground.

April then finds the Turtles and explains that they are in a hidden city under New York. She then leads them into a laboratory, where they find the "dog-thingy" and a delivery person who had fallen through a portal into the Hidden City shortly before the former creature's capture. They then see a large mutant-like being enter the room, takes the vial of ooze around the dog-thingy's neck and fills it in a large unit filled with mosquitoes. The mutant then uses the Oozesquito on the delivery man, who then mutates into an imitation crab mutant and runs off. The Turtles and April all watch in disgust and horror, as well as overhearing the mysterious mutant recall a successful mutation that worked years ago.

April then remarks that they have to rescue the dog-thingy, but (besides Donnie), the Turtles don't have any weapons. As Raph attempts to do a pep talk, April finds a lever, taking her and the Turtles to a secret room filled with weapons. Raph then finds some glowing mystical weapons, in which he, Leo and Mikey take. Donnie refuses the mystic staff and takes a purple crystal instead. The four Turtles and April return to the lab, bringing the attention of the mysterious villain. As the Turtles argue on how they should approach a verbal confrontation of the villain, April suddenly jumps into action and attempts to free the dog-thingy. The villain's two gargoyle-like henchmengrab April and start flying around the lab (the three can be seen in the background during the following fight sequence). The four Turtles then begin to do combat with their mysterious new foe and his strange robot-like creation. Donnie then uses his Tech-Bō, which flies out of control and destroys the Golem, much to the villain's amazement.

The villain then introduces (or refers in third person) himself as Baron Draxum and tries to talk the Turtles into training under him. After Leo comically points out how Draxum is doing the "third person" gig, Raph, followed by the others, charge back into battle. After April successfully beats up the two gargoyles and is restrained by Draxum, Mikey then throws his kusari-fundō at the villain, in which the weapon suddenly lights up and sends Mikey flying across the room. With the others amazed, Raph asks how Mikey was able to activate his weapon, which the orange-masked turtle unwillingly does again as he explains. Raph then tries to activate a mystic power within his Tonfa, but it results in him shooting backward towards a wall. Leo, excited to find out what his weapon does, tries to use his sword to attack Draxum, up he ends up creating a portal where the red-eared slider is endlessly falling.

Donnie then starts to fight Draxum with his Tech-Bō, but Mikey accidentally knocks into him, and the two start bouncing around. Draxum then restrains the four Turtles and tries again in talking them into joining him. Donnie then notices that the lab is about to explode, as Mikey accidentally disrupts the tower's core when he first activates his mystic whip. The tower then explodes and splits around, releasing all the Oozesquitoes and the lab starts crumbling around the group (with a part of the roof falling on top of Draxum just as it starts to collapse). Free from his power-proof cage, the dog-thingy teleports out, over to the Turtles and April, and takes the five out of Draxum's lab. Mikey then uses the device to open a portal back to New York, but it is then smashed and destroyed as the group returns to the construction site. April then names the dog-thingy "Mayhem" for all the trouble the team endured that day. Raph then acknowledges about Draxum's supposed defeat and declares that the group should be called the "Mad Dogs" (in which Leo states that they should have another name instead). They suddenly notice that all the unleashed Oozesquitoes fly out of the open portal behind them and into the city. Leo then suggests that they should all leave.

At the lair, Splinter watches one of his favorite movies, Teriyaki Shakedown, with Raph reenacting one of the scenes by throwing Donnie and Mikey around. Splinter then springs into action, throws down the Turtles onto the coffee tables, and he expresses doubts that they will ever be great ninja. Mikey and Raph respond that they are tired of training and they can be heroes, and Splinter scoffs at the idea. Donnie begins looking through news articles online to find legitimate bad guys to stop. Leo rejects the first two criminals due to excessive violence, but instead is interested in stopping a couple of thieves stealing paper across the city. Leo is able to motivate his brothers in going out to confront the "paper thieves" after claiming that their crime is the first major stepping stone in the brothers' crime-fighting career.

The Turtles head up to the surface to find the two paper thieves, in which they spot at the last paper store in town. Leo, Donnie and Mikey follow the thieves, but are easily alluded by the villains, and Raph fails to jump them from above and lands on his brothers. The two paper thieves drive away after the Turtles fail to catch them.

Upon hearing his brothers give up, Leo is able to motivate them and sets up a plan to create a fake paper shop to bait the paper thieves. They create salami "paper", and "hire" April O'Neil for their new paper hut. While the Turtles hide, the two paper thieves arrive, tie up April and leave with the salami. Knowing that Leo's plan might fail, and that Raph would eat the salami, Donnie installs two tracking devices in the meat (two due to Raph eating one of them).

The Turtles follow the paper thieves to a ship at the docks and confront them. Raph, Donnie and Mikey remark on the thieves' strange appearance, from the feet painted on their faces to the flames on their heads. After Raph asks why they needed the paper, the thin paper thief created an Origami Ninja, and it starts attacking the Turtles. After Leo slices up the one ninja with his ōdachi, the thin paper thief begins to create more Origami Ninja.

As the Turtles begin to take out the Origami Ninja, the thin paper thief creates a much larger origami ninja out of all the paper, and uses it to capture Leo, Donnie and Mikey. With Raph the only turtle left standing, he charges at the two thieves, taps into his "Smash Jutsu" ability and throws the two fiends at the giant origami ninja, freeing the other Turtles. The large paper thief tries to create more Origami Ninja, but Mikey uses his kusari-fundō to release a mystic flare to trick the sprinklers, soaking all the paper.

Before they retreat, the thin paper thief creates another origami ninja with some of the stolen salami, but it falls apart before it attacks the Turtles. Raph then proceeds to eat the salami while his younger brothers scold and watch him in disgust. As Mikey asks if they won, Leo recalls everything that happened in their mission and says that they have. The brothers cheer happily and tackle Leo in a friendly dog-pile amidst the large heap of paper.

Episodes

• 39

Theme Songs

Opening

• Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Theme

Closing

• Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Instrumental)

Voice Cast

Japanese

• as Leonardo
• as Raphael
• as Donatello
• as Michelangelo
• as Splinter
• as April O’Neil

English

• Ben Schwartz as Leonardo
• Omar Benson Miller as Raphael
• Josh Brener as Donatello
• Brandon Mychal Smith as Michelangelo
• Eric Bauza as Splinter
• Kat Graham as April O'Neil

Trivia

• Mystic Mayhem", the pilot episode, premiered as a sneak preview of the series on July 20th, 2018, right after Nickelodeon's Kid's Choice Sports.
• Some of the villains of the series (Big Mama, Meat Sweats, Hypno-Potamus, Warren Stone, Huginn, Muninn, Foot Lieutenant, Foot Brute, Origami Ninja, Albearto, Ghostbear, Repo Mantis) and their respective voice actors were first publicly shared at San Diego Comic Con 2018.
• This is the first TMNT series to have an official extended edition of its theme song. The extended version was released on September 11th, 2018, and after two days the theme song had over 100,000 views. The extended theme was later made available on iTunes and Google Play on May 8th, 2020.
• This is the first time April O'Neil is portrayed as black in a TMNT TV series or film. The original Mirage April O'Neil was named after a biracial woman TMNT creator Kevin Eastman once dated and her ethnic appearance in early issues was ambiguous and in a state of flux, but was later consistently portrayed as white.
• This is the first time Raphael is the oldest Turtle and official leader of the Ninja Turtles instead of Leonardo. As stated by the voice actors, the new order of the Turtles (from oldest to youngest) is now: Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo.
• This is the first time that each Turtle is a different species from one another: Raphael is an alligator snapping turtle. Leonardo is a red-eared slider turtle. Donatello is a spiny softshell turtle. Michelangelo is an ornate box turtle.
• This is the second TMNT series in which a Turtle utilizes tonfā as a weapon with Raphael using them in place of his twin sai, the first being Michaelangelo in Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. Leonardo and Michelangelo also don't use their traditional weapons in this series. Leo wields an ōdachi instead of twin katana blades, and Mikey wields a kusari-fundō instead of twin nunchaku. It is revealed in "Mystic Mayhem" that the Turtles were given their original weapons by Splinter, only for them to be destroyed by Baron Draxum's guardsmen in the same episode. They originally find replacements in Draxum's weapons vault, but they take their new mystic weapons instead. Donnie is offered a new weapon, but chooses to continue wielding his bō, which he had technologically enhanced into a Tech-Bō. The thought behind the change in weapons was shared in 2018 by Suriano and Ward, Ward stating, "Mikey with his kusari-fundō is really energetic and agile and all about the place," and Suriano stating, "It's bouncy, it's round, it's fun, just like Mikey. Raph is more tactile. He's a streetfighter, a brawler, right? So, the tonfā are perfect weapons for that”, and Ward stating, " . . . he's [Leonardo] got this bit of a swagger, bit of this Star-Lord, Han Solo . . . kind of attitude. How does that play into his weapon? We thought giving him a six foot ōdachi as opposed to a katana. It naturally lends him to—he can't even hold that thing without looking like he was posing with it. We thought that was really fun for a kid who's got a giant sword and that kind of attitude . . . Donald does not have a stick, Donald has a Tech-Bō which is kind of the Swiss Army knife. Donnie, in our iteration, is very, very confident in his skill and his abilities and he takes to fantastical levels with his Swiss Army knife . . .".
• Unlike previous incarnations, the Turtles are all in different ages: Raphael is 15 years old, and is the first incarnation to be older than Leonardo. Leonardo and Donatello are both 14 years old. However, Leo and Donnie aren't twins as stated by Rise of the TMNT staff writer Corcillo in a Tweet, "Keep in mind that they're the same age, but they're not actually twins. They're two different species of turtle, so they must have different turtle parents. If I recall correctly, I believe Leo is slightly older”. It was revealed in August 2020 by Rise of the TMNT staff writer Russ Carneyin a Tweet that while Donnie is younger than Leo, there is likely no way for the family to actually know so in-universe, stating, "I don't think there's any way to tell, since Lou Jitsu grabbed them all at the same time at Draxum's lab. Unless Draxum kept their birth certificates on file and Jitsu took those on the way out as well. 😉". Michelangelo is 13 years old. The four Turtles still mutated into half-humans at the same time. During the time period of the first episode, "Mystic Mayhem", they had been mutants for less than 13 years.
• This is the first time in any incarnation of the Turtles that some or all of the Turtles consistently call themselves or each other by nicknames other than their most common and well-known ones. Raphael is still called Raph, but Splinter usually just calls him Red. Leonardo is still called Leo, but is also at times called Leon, and Splinter usually just calls him Blue. Donatello is still called Donnie, but Splinter usually just calls him Purple. Michelangelo is still called Mikey, but is also at times called Michael, and Splinter usually just calls him Orange.
• The entire Rise of the TMNT production crew was gifted the Purple Dragons club jackets depicted in the series.
• This is the first TMNT series to not initially show how April and the Turtles first met.
• Unlike previous incarnations, these Turtles have powers which they gained from their new mystic weapons (except for Donnie, whose weapon is technological): Raph has a power called Smash Jutsu. Mikey has a power called mystic whip. Leo has the power to create portals.
• There was a DVD released on March 12th, 2019 with seven early episodes. A second DVD was released on February 4th, 2020 with six more episodes.
• Unlike past incarnations, the Turtles have a biological relationship with Splinter by sharing his DNA.
• A reference to this series is made in the show Brooklyn Nine-Nine season 7 episode 10 "Admiral Peralta". The character Jake Peralta is a TMNT fan and he mentions the new reboot with a new take on Splinter and Krang's backstory. A counter argument for this being a reference is that Jake mentioned Krang, a character that had yet to make an appearance or mention when that episode aired. The Krang would only make an appearance five months later during the season 2 finale and in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie.
• This is the first TMNT incarnation with a female Casey Jones. Although there is another female Jones named Shadow Jones in Mirage comics.
• It was revealed in August 2020 by Rise of the TMNT staff writer Carney in a Tweet that the show was script-driven, stating, "[Rise of the TMNT was] Script-driven, technically, although we had some renegade board artists and directors”. When asked if the Rise of the TMNT writing team was close to the story artist team in July 2022, Rise of the TMNT staff writer Corcillo answered in a Tweet, "Yes, we interacted with the board team all the time. Some visual jokes were in the scripts, but many were added in the boards and also by our fantastic design team”.
• Rise of the TMNT was originally planned to be a purely episodic series, but an overarching narrative was implemented due to network demand, which changed over time.
• In-universe, the series begins in 2018 and its season 2 finale transpires in 2019. This is shown in the season 2 episode "Lair Games" when the Lair Olympics confessionals are dated with the year 2019. This was also implied by Suriano and Ward in the November 2022 Rise of the TMNT: The Movie TAAFI panel, Ward stating, "It's [Rise of the TMNT: The Movie] a few months after season 2. It's that moment where Leo's been told he's the leader, but he doesn't quite understand what that means and that responsibility so he hasn't fully transitioned over yet..." and confirmed in November 2022 by Rise of the TMNT staff writer Corcillo in a Tweet, stating, "’technically [Leo] was still 16 during the movie since it takes place in 2020 and seasons 1 and 2 took place in 2018 and 2019 respectively’ has it right. April is supposed to be a regular college freshman in the movie. She didn't graduate early. But they all aged over the course of the series”.
• Rob Paulsen, who voiced Raphael in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) and Donatello in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012), serves as the voice director for this series.
• Series producers Ant Ward and Andy Suriano cite the fantasy film Big Trouble in Little China (1986) as an influence on the show: "Modern New York is a melting pot. Wouldn't it be great if we found a way to explore that melting pot of mythological creatures and fables of all New York?".
• In nearly all TMNT media, Leonardo wields two ninjato (a medium-sized sword with a straight blade), which are often incorrectly called katana (longer sword with a curved blade). In this show, Leo wields only one sword which hasn't happened since the live-action TV series Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (1997).
• Donatello's gear in this series (an electrified bo staff, a drone) is based on his gear from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016).
• Master Splinter is based on his design in the Platinum Dune TMNT films, where he has a brown robe and a samurai chonmage hairstyle.
• This is the first TMNT show where Raphael, Michaelangelo and April get African-American voice actors (Omar Benson Miller, Brandon Mychal Smith and Kat Graham).
• John Cena is the third wrestler to appear in a TMNT feature, after Kevin Nash in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) and Stephen Farrelly in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016).
• This is the only TMNT animated series where samurai rabbit Miyamoto Usagi doesn't appear. He appeared in the 2012 and 2003 series. In the 1987 series, he was named Usagi Yojimbo.

all information on Rise of the TMNT came from https://turtlepedia.fandom.com/wiki/Rise_of_the_Teenage_Mutant_Ninja_Turtles_(TV_series)

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