!{{Trivia}} tropes for ''WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003''
!!Trivia with Their Own Pages
[[index]]
* [[WhatCouldHaveBeen/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003 What Could Have Been]]
[[/index]]
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* ActingForTwo:
** In "Reality Check", the Super Turtles are voiced by their mainstream counterparts' voice actors.
** The Turtles' voice actors also voice the Dark Turtles during Season 6.
** In addition to the Turtles' clones and [[AlternateSelf alternate universe counterparts]], Creator/SamRiegel also voiced one of the heads of Triple Threat, Creator/WayneGrayson voiced Metalhead and a random Utrom named Krang, two Triceratons named Gruell and Zed, Creator/GregAbbey voiced the Kappa Tengu and Ernie and Creator/MichaelSinterniklaas voiced a mob lieutenant named Weasel, and Parker (Dr. Abigail Finn's assistant).
** Creator/MarcThompson voiced Casey Jones and a lot of other side characters.
** Three of the Shredders in this series are voiced by the same person, Scottie Ray. The Utrom Shredder, the Tengu Shredder, and the Cyber Shredder. There's an in-universe reason for this however; the Tengu Shredder is the original Oroku Saki from ancient Japan, whom the Utrom Shredder, Ch'rell (the main BigBad of the series) based his human persona on, and the Cyber Shredder is a virtual manifestation of Ch'rell combined with Viral.
** In the French dub, Splinter and Casey are both voiced by Thierry Janssen.
* ApprovalOfGod: Despite not being involved with the production of the show outside of being one of the co-creators of the franchise, Kevin Eastman [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5JQ3HxNieo called this show]] awesome and one of his favorites in a 2020 comic con.
* ChannelHop: From Creator/{{Fox}}/[=4Kids=] TV to Creator/TheCW[[Creator/{{Toonzai}} [=4Kids=]]] for its final season. An episode that Fox rejected, "Insane in the Membrane," aired on Creator/{{Nicktoons}} nine years after it was produced.
* CreatorBacklash: Baxter's mutilation was never something Peter Laird was comfortable with, saying he never really liked that approach, although he agreed that Baxter's [[BrainInAJar eventual fate]] was fitting.
* CreatorsFavorite: Peter Laird [[CreatorsPest didn't like]] Hun at first, but he eventually became one of his favorites as the series went on, to the point that, after hinting at it, [[CanonImmigrant Hun became part of the Mirage comics]].
* CreatorsFavoriteEpisode: The voice of Donatello, Creator/SamRiegel, stated in an interview that "The King" was his favorite episode of the series, due to being able to star in what was a tribute to one of the most famous comic book creators of all time, Creator/JackKirby.
* CreatorPreferredAdaptation: This show seems to be this for Peter Laird, which is unsurprising given that he actually had a role in making it, and is also more faithful to the original ''TMNT'' comics.
* DiedDuringProduction:
** In the Mexican Spanish dub, Leonardo's voice actor (Enrique Mederos) died in almost the beginning of the series and he was replaced by Creator/LuisDanielRamirez. The funniest thing in the recasting is Mederos previously voiced [[Manga/CardcaptorSakura Fujitaka Kinomoto]] and Luis Daniel Ramirez voiced his son, Touya.
** The episode "[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003S6E1FutureShellshock Future Shellshock]]" [[InMemoriam is dedicated to]] the memory of George Elliot [=McClain=], who was a production assistant for the series.
* EarlyBirdRelease:
** "The Christmas Aliens" was released on the DVD "Michelangelo's Christmas Rescue" two months before it aired.
** Various episodes from Season 4[[note]]"Cousin Sid", "The Dragon's Brew", "I, Monster", "Bad Day", and "All Hallow's Thieves"[[/note]] were released on the [=DVDs=] "Shredder's Final Countdown" and "Mutants & Monsters" anywhere from a few weeks to a couple months before they aired.
* ExecutiveMeddling: As mentioned on the introduction, the 5th season was skipped in favor of the Fast Forward season (presumably due to how dark season four was and 4Kids and Playmates fearing how this will affect toy sales). This caused the 4th season to end in a cliffhanger for some time. Playmates was the party that explicitly requested a lighter tone for the series.
* IronyAsSheIsCast: Creator/SamRiegel voices Donatello, but anyone who has seen his antics on ''WebVideo/CriticalRole'' will confirm his [[ThePrankster personality]] is far more like that of Michelangelo. He is also the youngest actor amongst the Turtles' voice cast, while generally Michelangelo is considered the youngest. To be fair, he was initially cast as Mike while Creator/WayneGrayson was cast as Don, before the roles were switched around.
* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
** For a longest time, the series was available only in inconvenient, out-of-print DVD season sets (season 3 in particular was a headache to obtain simply because it never received its own individual season set, just seven single DVD sets with episodes shuffled out of order. What's worse is that the [=DVD=]s also have episodes from season 4 mixed in), available in incomplete forms (''WesternAnimation/TurtlesForever''), or not available at all (''Back to the Sewer''). Paramount and Nickelodeon started releasing [=DVD=]s -- but they only collected random episodes and arcs before being discontinued. Thankfully, as of May 15th, 2023, the whole series is now available to purchase (and in glorious HD) over on Website/{{Youtube}}, iTunes and Amazon Video; plus you can stream it over on Creator/ParamountPlus.[[labelnote:*]]And Amazon Prime Video should you have a Paramount+ membership[[/labelnote]]
** For the twentieth anniversary, the entire series plus ''Turtles Forever'' finally received a complete series [[https://www.moviezyng.com/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-2003--the-ultimate-collection-dvd9-dvd-michael-sinterniklaas/810134941243 DVD]][[https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B0C8PQQ8G8/ box set]].
* MissingEpisode:
** The 2023 complete series DVD release actually acknowledges the existence of "Nightmares Recycled" by having Disc 13 list episodes on the disc as "109, 111-117", skipping the unproduced episode.
** "Mayhem From Mutant Island" is notably the only episode missing from Paramount Plus perhaps because of its nature as a compilation of short segments.
** "The Return of Nano" and "Secret Origins Part Two" were delisted from digital outlets in April 2021 for unknown reasons. The former was later reinstated on Amazon Prime.
* TheOtherDarrin: Several characters eventually were recast, most notably Leatherhead (F.B. Owens to Gary Lewis).
* PostScriptSeason: The series had wrapped up its main plot in Seasons 4 and 5, before the ''Fast Forward'' {{Retool}} and ''Back to the Sewer'' were aired, both of which had less of an emphasis on arc-based stories and more on [[MerchandiseDriven selling toys]], although the latter finally married [[OfficialCouple April O' Neil and Casey Jones]].
* PromotedFanboy: Creator/SamRiegel has said that he was a fan of TMNT and Donatello was his favorite character and that getting to play the same character was "literally the best experience".
* RecursiveAdaptation: The series spawned a short-lived comic book adaptation. There was also a comic adaptation of the ''Fast Forward'' season in the UK.
* RefittedForSequel: Several abandoned concepts and episodes from the scrapped season season of ''Fast Forward'' were retooled into the final iteration of the seventh season.
** The scrapped second season of ''Series/NinjaTurtlesTheNextMutation'' had concept art for a government agent in a black coat and glasses. It's possible this character was eventually reworked into Bishop.
* RoleReprise: In the Italian dub, the turtles are all voiced by the same actors as [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles1987 the 1987 series]].
* ScienceMarchesOn: In “Sons of the Silent Age,” April, Casey, and the Turtles stumble across a nuclear power plant which they are happy to see close due to their environmental cost, and Don even gives this speech:
-->“Ah yes, nuclear power plants. Once heralded as the future of energy, but they’ve become the Purple Dragons of energy production: hard to clean up after and even harder to get rid of…”
That was 2005. Today nuclear power is once again heralded as the future of clean energy. Numerous advancements in the design of reactors have made them safer than working in a coal mine and more environmentally friendly.[[note]]The 2011 Fukushima Disaster was due to the tsunami and earthquake causing an electrical grid failure and plant operator (TEPCO) failing to meet basic safety requirements such as risk assessment, preparing for containing collateral damage, and developing evacuation plans.[[/note]] There are now portable reactors. However, the debate surrounding nuclear power still remains.
** Even accounting for ArtisticLicensePaleontology in “Return of Savanti, Part 2” (see episode’s [[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2003S4E21ReturnOfSavantiPart2 recap page]] for more details), it’s now known that velociraptors have feathers.
* ScrewedByTheLawyers: Nickelodeon's acquisition of the ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' franchise from Mirage Comics caused 4Kids to pull the plug on this series. Nickelodeon would create [[WesternAnimation/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012 their own]] ''TMNT'' in its place.
* SelfAdaptation: One of the co-creators of ''TMNT'', Peter Laird, was a story consultant for this series, and also helped edit a number of the scripts.
* SimilarlyNamedWorks: Season 7, subtitled ''Back to the Sewer'', and has no relation to the second ''TMNT'' Game Boy game ''Back from the Sewers''.
* StarMakingRole: For Creator/MichaelSinterniklaas (Leonardo) and Creator/SamRiegel (Donatello).
* ToylessToylineCharacter: ''Back to the Sewer'' is notable for not having a dedicated toyline for it despite the overhaul to the show's design implemented with the season. That said, the overhaul was largely intended to bring it more in line visually with the 2007 film, presumably so that Playmates could use the show to continue to sell toys based off the film, though ultimately the toyline only really continued in the mini-figure line, which led to the Turtles gaining stealth suits during the season. The mini-figure line, which originally only focused on movie characters, eventually brought in the 2003 cast like Hun and the Triceratons.
* WordOfGod:
** At the TMNT 25th anniversary panel Q&A, a fan in attendance asked how they came up with the villain Master Khan from ''Back to the Sewer'', possibly in an attempt to get an official word on the fan theory that he was named after 4Kids head Al Khan. One of the concept artist for the show that was on the panel answered that Creator/{{Capcom}}'s character designs were a major influence for the visual designs for many of the show's villains.
** Though all replies have been lost to the ravages of time, 4Kids' Website/YouTube channel around 2009 answered fan questions, one of which noted that while Serling's fate went unaddressed in the show proper, he ultimately found his stay in the present worth it due to getting to witness Casey and April's wedding.
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