Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (also known as Rise of the TMNT for short) is an American 2D-animated television series, and the fourth animated series in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The series premiered as a sneak peek on Nickelodeon on July 20, 2018. Developed and executive produced by Andy Suriano and Ant Ward, the series aired on Nickelodeon in the United States from July 20, 2018, to August 7, 2020.
The series was announced by Nickelodeon on March 2, 2017, and was initially scheduled to run for at least 26 episodes.[1] 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.[2]
On July 27, 2018, Nickelodeon renewed the series for a second season consisting of 26 episodes before the official debut of the first season.[3] Partway into the production of this season, however, it was shortened in length to 13 episodes.[4] The final episode aired on August 7, 2020. A feature film is set for release on Netflix on August 5, 2022.
Deep in the sewers of New York City, four mutant turtle brothers lurk. Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo and Michelangelo (calling themselves the Mad Dogs) are in their early teen years and the brothers go on new and exciting adventures. They tap into their mystic ninja powers to learn to work together as a cohesive unit and become a team of heroes as they navigate the modern world and other hidden realms. The brothers get a whole new look, new weapons, and new powers as they discover the hidden city beneath New York and find time for a slice of their favorite pizza.
In the first season, the turtle brothers, along with their friend, April O'Neil, meet an evil alchemist named Baron Draxum, and the dangerous Foot Clan. They also learn of their Master Splinter's secret: That he was once martial arts expert, and movie star, Lou Jitsu. They must collect pieces of an ancient dark armor called the Kuroi Yōroi to prevent the Foot and Draxum from resurrecting the Shredder, a demon once banished by Splinter's ancestors.
In the second season, the brothers face new and old enemies, most notably the evil Shredder, and must stop him from destroying the world. In the process, they must also help Baron Draxum discover his own better nature.
On March 2, 2017, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was announced as a new re-imagining of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. The series was originally intended to have 26 episodes and launch in Fall 2018.[1] Cyma Zarghami, president of the Nickelodeon Group, stated in a press release:
"The Turtles is a property that has reinvention in its DNA, which keeps it fresh and relevant to every new generation while satisfying the demand from its adult fans. 'Turtles' has been an incredibly important franchise for us since we reignited it five years ago, and we’re excited for the new series to take the characters in a different direction with more humor, a younger and lighter feel, and all-new dimensions to explore".[1]
The series logotype was revealed to the public in mid-October 2017.[5] That November, Nickelodeon announced the official voice actor cast for the main characters on the turtles' side. In addition to this news, voice actor Rob Paulsen, who previously voiced Raphael in the 1987–96 TV series and Donatello in the 2012–17 TV series, served as the voice director for this TV series.[6] John Cena was later cast as the villain Baron Draxum.[7] Besides voice directing, Rob Paulsen provided voice work alongside fellow voice actor Maurice LaMarche.[8]The animation services for Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are provided by the Australian animation studio Flying Bark Productions.
The major main-characters art designs were announced and revealed by Nickelodeon in February 2018.[9] This occurred during a Facebook event, which was broadcast live that day.[10] On March 23, 2018, the first trailer for the series was released by Nickelodeon.[11] Each episode consists of two 11-minute carts and each of them tell self-contained, standalone stories with hints of a larger plot.[12][13] The show aired as a sneak peek after the 2018 Kids' Choice Sports in July[14] and later premiered on Nickelodeon on September 17, 2018.[15]On July 27, 2018, Nickelodeon renewed the series for a 26-episode second season.[15] However, the season order was later reduced to 13 episodes.[4]
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"Flushed, But Never Forgotten": The Turtles have a secret that comes back to haunt them in the form of Splinter's pet goldfish Piebald who was accidentally flushed down the toilet by Leo and mutated after eating an Oozesquito.
"Lair Games": April presents her award-winning documentary about the Turtles’ annual event: The Lair Olympics. This year's event, however, takes a surprise turn when Donnie unexpectedly gains ground against the past games' constant champion, Leo, sparking a fierce competition between the two brothers.and Matt Humphreys
"Man vs. Sewer": The Turtles' lazy river ride through the sewers turns savage when Raph is accidentally separated and left alone. This leads to him trying to survive the sewers and having an encounter with the Sando Brothers.
"The Mutant Menace": Baxter Stockboy begins revealing the Turtles' existence and turning public opinion against them to make some big money and as revenge. The Turtles' failed attempts to clear their image turn all of New York against them."Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man": Wanting to live with glory again, Splinter ropes Donnie and Mikey into modifying the Turtle Tank and entering it into a mutant demolition derby run by Big Mama. They face competition from Meat Sweats, Repo Mantis, Hypno-Potamus, and Warren Stone. It gets intense when Big Mama, the Fox Bellhop, the Otter Bellhop, and the Owl Bellhop get involved.
"The Ancient Art of Ninja Hide and Seek": To prepare the Turtles for any future threats, Splinter teaches them some stealth training. After that is done, he sends them on a test to infiltrate the Grand Nexus Hotel to steal Gus's dog tags. When they appear to take too long, Splinter sneaks into the Grand Nexus Hotel, steals the Octopus Elevator Operator's outfit, and plans to find the Turtles before Gus, Big Mama, or the bellhops do."One Man's Junk": Donnie and Mikey try to recover a piece of the Dark Armor from Repo Mantis' scrap yard that he claimed. Though they will have to contend with Repo Mantis first. Meanwhile, Raph and Leo get impatient and check out a bus where they accidentally release Repo Mantis' pet cat Mrs. Nubbins.
"Snow Day": The Turtles, April, and Mayhem are spending a snow day together. Meanwhile, Ghostbear has mutated into a mutant polar bear after coming in contact with an Oozesquito that Mikey defrosted. In this form, he uses his intangibility in a plot to ruin April and the Turtles' fun day in the snow by targeting their snowman."Cloak, and Swaggart": April helps Sunita in New York to search for her stolen cloaking brooch after attending a DIGG concert. They find that it was stolen by Meat Sweats so that he can regain his human form and his hosting job on "Kondescending Kitchen" from a bound and gagged Guy Flambe. Meanwhile, Splinter's plan to take the Turtles on a wilderness survival training backfires when Raph accidentally places the tank on lockdown for 24 hours.
"Jupiter Jim Ahoy!": Having gotten bored of Splinter's Lou Jitsu stories, the Turtles head to a convention and meet Marcus Moncrief who portrays their favorite sci-fi movie character, Jupiter Jim. When they go to his apartment, they find that he has started to see the different trapped fans as the aliens that Jupiter Jim fought in the movies and comics where Marcus has become more immersed in his character to the point he thinks he is actually Jupiter Jim.Kevin Molina-Ortiz and Sam Montes
Sam Syzmanski and Sheldon Vella
Kevin Molina-Ortiz and Sam Montes
Morgan Hillenbrand and Will RuzikaMax Collins, Matt Humphreys
and Andrew Kim
"Todd Scouts": Splinter has gotten fed up with his sons and their phones, so he leaves them in the forest with Todd supervising them. The Turtles need to learn how to listen and get in touch with nature to save Todd after he's captured by a group of dentists that mistook Todd for a Sasquatch.
"Goyles, Goyles, Goyles": With Baron Draxum out of commission, Huginn and Muninn look for new work. After getting trapped by Meat Sweats, Huginn and Muninn recall their first day working for Draxum where their first mission is to obtain Lou Jitsu from the Battle Nexus."Breaking Purple": Donnie's parenting causes S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. to run away. When he makes his way to the park, he runs into the Purple Dragons who remove the restraining bolt from him and use him in their plans to win the drone races at the Thunder Dome hosted by Billionaire Guy Eccentric and obtain the Shadow Transmitter that would enable them to hack any system on the planet. Now Donatello must work to find S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. and makeup with him before the Purple Dragons succeed in their plot.
"Repairin' the Baron": The Council of Heads will forgive Garm and Freki if they bring Baron Draxum to the Hidden City to answer for his crimes that they assisted in. Raph finds out that April's new neighbor is Draxum, who is still recuperating and has Mikey as his guest. Mikey states that he is helping to get Draxum to tolerate humans as he still was the one who created them. When Mikey drags Raph into helping him by taking him to Albeartoland, they must also contend with Garm and Freki."Air Turtle": Leo gets his dream job as the mascot of the local professional basketball team called the New York Daves owned by Tim Dunkman. Leo finds that the members of the New York Daves are terrible players and talks him into doing whatever it takes to change his mojo. He uses an ancient "good luck" arch called the Arch of Aquinonn that causes the players to become possessed by evil spirits that start to change them into demonic forms.
"Pizza Puffs": Raph thwarts Meat Sweats' plans to sabotage his rivals with pizza puffs spiked with a mystic poison. When he finds that they ate the poisoned pizza puffs, Raph teaches his brothers a lesson in responsibility as the poisoned pizza puffs affect them in different ways. Raph must get them to solve things themselves as they track down Meat Sweats to find the antidote."Sidekick Ahoy!": With Marcus Moncrief requires a sidekick for his latest "Jupiter Jim" project, the TMNT do all they can to win their dream job. When Raph wins, he and Marcus work to pursue the villainous Scor-Pion. Meanwhile, the others persuade Red Fox to return to Marcus.
"The Hidden City Job": Leo and Señor Hueso help the reformed Capitán Piel on one last dangerous mission. This mission involves obtaining an item from an auction house owned by Big Mama."Always Be Brownies": April and Splinter encounter a gang of dangerous middle school brownie sellers at the time when April is selling cookies as part of a fundraiser to save the trees. What they soon discover is that these girl scouts are working for Grandma C.J. who is the alias of the Foot Recruit in her plans to get to world domination.
"Mystery Meat": Baron Draxum is up for a lunch person award from the Superintendent of Cafeterias Vivian Slopworth. Thanks to an Oozesquito getting loose, Draxum's mystery meat concoction comes to life and terrorizes April's school by targeting every food there and eating it to grow big. When Michelangelo shows up, Draxum must defeat this creation called Sloppy Joseph without making use of his mystic abilities or endangering the school."Donnie vs. Witch Town": The Turtles, Splinter, and April visit the Hidden City. Always a man of science, Donnie can't accept April going to the witches of Witch Town for mystic help on a science project. They meet Mayor Mira who is holding a Peace Offering Day festival that honors Abigail the Good. Donnie starts to lose his temper and April gets help from Gentry in exchange for helping to catch aged worms for a peace potion to appease The Great Morgan.
"Raph's Ride-Along": When he wants to go for a ride-along with the Hidden City Police, Raph is mistaken for a heinous criminal called Heinous Green and is taken to the maximum-security facility. Raph fools the Mud Dogs (consisting of Dastardly Danny, Malicious Mickey, and Loathsome Leonard) he is riding with that he is Heinous Green. Following the breakout, Raph states to the Mud Dogs that has a plan to have them apprehended until they have a run-in with Big Mama and the real Heinous Green."Hidden City's Most Wanted": Splinter learns from Mikey that he gave Baron Draxum a cloaking broach to disguise him as Splinter takes them on a tour around the neighborhood. When Draxum's disguised form is taken by a Hidden City police officer as a gift for his daughter Heather, Mikey persuades Splinter into helping to rescue Draxum while having to contend with the Hidden City Police when the disguise is broken.
"Bad Hair Day": Leo goes to the Hirsuté Resort and Spa to do a day of relaxation. Unfortunately, it is a private club for those who have hair and is thrown out by a double-sided centaur that works as a resort guard while being sent to the terrible club across the street. Their masseus states that the people in the club have hair and Leo gets a hair serum that gives him hair which gets him the Hirsuté Resort and Spa. Though he starts to sleepwalk when the hair has a mind of its own and starts stealing stuff and now must avoid being caught by the double-sided resort guard."Fists of Furry": Splinter informs his sons about his Lou Jitsu Dojos in New York City. In his alias of Randall, he takes April on one of his inspections and finds out that all of his dojos have been taken over by the Komodo Dojo run by Kristoff van Bradford except for one where its students are not doing a good job with the infamous Lou Jitsu moves. To fend off the Komodo Dojo, Splinter trains April in each of the Lou Jitsu moves including the Seven Vipers move.
"The Clothes Don't Make the Turtle": Raphael tries on new suits for the Magic Town House's "Night of a Million Secrets" event as Leo, Donnie, and Mikey try on different outfits as well. When they find that they are already here due to the selfies that were previously taken, they find that Hypno-Potamus was responsible for what had previously happened and were hypnotized by his hypnotic music into trying different clothes from the '80s so that Hypno-Potamus can target the journals that were written by Harry Houdini and learn how to bend reality with them.Ian Busch, Russ Carney & Ron Corcillo, Tony Gama-Lobo and Dale Malinowski (parts 3 & 4 only)
Sheldon Vella (parts 1-2)
Morgan Hillebrand & Cassey Kuo (parts 2-4)
Christine Liu (part 2)
Jules Bridgers (part 3)
Alicia Chan (parts 3-4)
Jake Castorena, JJ Conway & Sebastian Montes (part 4)
Part 1: E-Turtle Sunshine of the Spotless Mind: With the Shredder back with the Foot Clan, Baron Draxum enables the Turtles to enter Splinter's subconscious memories to search for the means of vanquishing their demonic foe for good. However, upon recovering the secret, they find out that its retrieval from the Twilight Realm comes at the price of fully unleashing the Shredder - although they also gain an unexpected new ally in his daughter Hamato Karai who was trapped in the Twilight Realm.
Part 2: Shreddy or Not: With her return from the Twilight Realm, Karai proceeds to teach the Turtles about a mystical technique that would link them to the spirits of their Hamato ancestors, thus giving them the power to defeat their enemy. Before they can learn it, the Shredder, having regained his full consciousness, attacks their hideout. His attack forces the Turtles and April to evacuate while Splinter and Draxum remain behind to stall him.
Part 3: Anatawa Hitorijanai: The Turtles are forced to retreat to the forests of New Jersey. April comes upon the mortally wounded Karai who transfers her soul into April's body, and then rejoins the Turtles to teach them the Hamato Ninpo. In Karai's stead, Shredder prepares to drain Splinter's life essence to make him fully invincible, but he needs a rare substance called Empyrean for the ritual. Draxum leads the Shredder to his lab in the Hidden City, where he has stored some Empyrean, only to turn against him upon realizing that the Shredder is the threat against which he intended to create his Yōkai army in the first place.
Part 4: Rise: Now knowing where the Empyrean is, the Shredder promotes the Foot Recruit to be his new general, leaving the Foot Lieutenant and the Foot Brute trapped in the rubble. Upon visiting a recuperating Big Mama, the Turtles and April learn that the Shredder is going to the Crying Titan where the Empyrean is. As the Shredder prepares the ritual to drain Splinter's essence, Splinter tries to get the Foot Recruit to defect so that the Turtles can receive aid in defeating the Shredder. After their victory, Splinter announces Leo as the team's leader.The series premiered on Nickelodeon in the United States on September 17, 2018. By that time, the series had already premiered as a sneak preview on YTV in Canada on July 27 the same year and was premiered officially on September 21 that year. In the UK, the show airs on Nicktoons and Channel 5. Episodes have also sometimes aired on both channels at the same time for terrestrial rights.
On February 5, 2019, it was announced that a feature film based on the series was in production for Netflix, along with a feature film based on The Loud House.[65] Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie will be about the turtles saving the world from the Krang.[66] Haley Joel Osment will be part of the voice cast.[67] The film had been slated to release in 2021,[68] but ended up landing an August 5, 2022 release date.[69]
IDW published a comic book based on the series, beginning in July 2018.[70] The comics concluded with an introductory issue (#0), a five-issue main story and a Halloween Comicfest special. After a period of inactivity, it was continued with a three-issue story arc titled "Sound Off!" from July to September 2019.
On February 16, 2018, the first toys based on the series were presented during the New York City Toy Fair.[71] The first Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys were released on October 1, 2018.[72]
In August 2018, the American fast-food chain Sonic Drive-In released a set of kids' meal toys based on the series, which were available in their Wacky Pack meals.
During the months leading up to the series' launch, Viacom and Nintendo collaborated to market Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles via a special limited-time online multiplayer event for the 2017 video game Splatoon 2, in which Inklings can participate in a Splatfest tournament, battling over which of the four brothers is the best. Donnie won overall, beating Mikey in the first round, and Raph (who had in turn beat Leo) in the finals.[73][74]