Red head April

[Sage Ninja]

When and why the trend start that April O'Neil is a redhead? in almost every medium April is a firey red head and it's sort have been one of her most prominent trade mark features is her redhair and it's been sort of a standard. Almost every April jhas had red hair, like she isn't April O'neil unless she has it. And yet in the orginal mirage comics April's hair isn't red but appears to be black or dark brown. I think Mirage is the only medium of the turtles, except the second and third live action movies with Paige Turco (where her hair is brown) all April's has been depicted with Red hair.

Was her hair changed to red to make her her seem more like a hot anchor woman rather than a mousy brunett lab assistant and be more more attractive and flashy to fit her new reporters persona on the toon? Do you think the red hair is more fitting for a hot spunky female character than a if she had brown hair?

[Scandia]

In the OT, her hair is not truly red. More of a reddish brown. Don't remember if it becomes redder on the Red Sky episodes. She is very redheaded in the NT and in Archie, though.

[SassyGal]

Personally, I always associated red hair with being spunky and sassy. I wouldn't be surprised if the change was made to reflect her personality when the OT was created and they made her a reporter. IRL, I feel the color of a person's hair can impact how they show their personality...well, for me it does :)

[Sage Ninja]

In the OT, her hair is not truly red. More of a reddish brown. Don't remember if it becomes redder on the Red Sky episodes. She is very redheaded in the NT and in Archie, though.

http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb94/kalaneutrino/tmnt/s5d300109.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z227/theneutrinoes/turtles00123-1.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z227/theneutrinoes/turtles00257.jpg

http://i257.photobucket.com/albums/hh232/tone-master21/6.jpg

Heh, heh, adjust the coloring on your TV ;). There are diffrent shades of red other than blood red, and OT April's red was more of a natural red if you ask me kind or like a muted orangey red. Her hair color kinda reminds me of Sam's red hair color from Tottally Spies only darker.

Personally, I always associated red hair with being spunky and sassy. I wouldn't be surprised if the change was made to reflect her personality when the OT was created and they made her a reporter. IRL, I feel the color of a person's hair can impact how they show their personality...well, for me it does

hm, me too. They don't call them firey red heads for nothing. Maybe that standard influenced in changeing April's hair from dark brown to red. Considring how sassy April in OT and how often she mouthed offed to villans in every episode.8) that was probably what they where going for. But do you really think in cartoons at least red heads are fundamentally more spunky and spirited than brunetts or blonds? Could the same sassy firey attitudes be pulled off with brown hair?

[Warhorse]

Maybe it's the name O Neill, which most people I've met with that name, had red hair and freckles.

But you had Paige Turco who played her in the last two live action films that had brown hair.

[Jelly Bean]

um, what the hell!? Did the 80's toon have some kind of kinky fetish for putting April in diffrent states of submission? Three out of four pics here has April being swung over some guys shoulder against her will, and one she is obviously bound and gagged. :lol: Seems like the animators where acting out some of their frustrated fantasies. :o:lol: And what the heck is April doing in that last pic? Is she kissing Mikey here!? Whats worse is she looks like she's enjoying it. And this is a kids toon?

but, um, yeah...back on topic. I agree that April in the 80's toon is a more of natural red head than a girl with reddish brown hair. And I think she was given red hair because of her last name being Irish, since Irish people seem to have a reputation of having red hair.

But do you really think in cartoons at least red heads are fundamentally more spunky and spirited than brunetts or blonds? Could the same sassy firey attitudes be pulled off with brown hair?

Good question, I'm not sure if this is true or not. Most red heads are shown to be tough and sexy. Look at Rogue from X-Men and well as Jean Grey both red heads and one is sexy and spunky and one turns into a Phoenix. I don't know if brunnets and blonds are not as firey as red heads it's just that red heads with this personality stand out more because of their hair color. Also probably red heads are seen as exotic and rare so they stand out over blonds and brunnets.

[Coola Yagami]

Well... April was blonde/redhead in her first Mirage appearance (also her lab suit looked very close to the jumpsuit), course the comics were black and white and the suit didn't HAVE to be yellow (it was blue in her NECA release). Shortly afterwards she permed her hair all black and curly.

[ToTheNines]

Did someone say red head?

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[Mr._Mutant_Man]

Well... April was blonde/redhead in her first Mirage appearance (also her lab suit looked very close to the jumpsuit), course the comics were black and white and the suit didn't HAVE to be yellow (it was blue in her NECA release). Shortly afterwards she permed her hair all black and curly.

Well she was a redhead on one of the covers anyway.

I heard once though that in the original version of issue two April wasn't white.

[Sage Ninja]

um, what the hell!? Did the 80's toon have some kind of kinky fetish for putting April in diffrent states of submission? Three out of four pics here has April being swung over some guys shoulder against her will, and one she is obviously bound and gagged. :lol: Seems like the animators where acting out some of their frustrated fantasies. :o:lol: And what the heck is April doing in that last pic? Is she kissing Mikey here!? Whats worse is she looks like she's enjoying it. And this is a kids toon?

if you watch the classic toon enough you'll notice that April gets man-handled quite a bit, and swung over the shoulder of Bebop, Rocksteady, shredder, the turtles in like every episode. And the picture of April and Michaelangelo is from the episode "The Gang's All here" and she kisses him on the cheek because he saved her life.

I heard once though that in the original version of issue two April wasn't white.

thats interesting you say that since Mirage April does look like she might be black due to her physical appearance.

[NameGoesHere1066]

I'm glad April is a red head instead of some other hair color, it suits her. Especially in the 80's when being blond was considered the sterotype of a hot girl. Notice how back then every female that was a main character was blond? Red hair is so sexy and blond seems so plain and brown seems so ordinary.

[Sage Ninja]

would any one be mad if in a future incarnation of the turtles they changed April from a Red Head to a Blond? Like would you feel cheated or that it ruins the character or would you feel that it's just progression of the character. Personally I hate when a character with established physical characteristics changes their appearance to drasitically. I think this is why I hated when Donna from That 70's Show changed her hair from red to blond in the last season of the show. I think it changed her to much.

[Jelly Bean]

two questions. Since April's last name is "O'Neil " that means she is Irish, and she has red hair I guess because Irish people are sterotypes as being predominately red haired. I notice alot of times in television that whenever there is a Irish type character they are always depicted with red hair. Is this this "most people with red hair are of Irsh decent" just a media sterotype or do is it kind of based on fact?

Also in the 80's show, April has short neck length hair, does she ever grow it out and shown to have longer hair later in the series? I could have sworn I saw a picture of 80's toon April with long waist length hair.

[Coola Yagami]

Musta been from the Archie Comics... She started out exactly like the OT April, but eventually grew her hair out....

[Evenstar227]

I heard once though that in the original version of issue two April wasn't white.

thats interesting you say that since Mirage April does look like she might be black due to her physical appearance.

I can't remember where I read it (maybe the intro to the 1st issue reprint), but it was mentioned that April's appearance has varied a bit over the years, sometimes looking like the black woman she's named for, which was someone's ex-gf or ex-wife. Anybody have more details?



Edit: Never mind...found my answer:
Here's an article about April's creation from Steve Murphy's website:

http://the-5th-turtle.blogspot.com/2007/12/pieces-of-april.html

[Drtooth]

Hmm... She was originally envisioned as part Asian, part African American.... That's a very interresting twist, considering she became a Caucasian Irish girl with red hair.

[ToTheNines]

Since April's last name is "O'Neil " that means she is Irish

By the logic, this dude is Irish:
http://www.nba.com/media/Shaq_400_060208.jpg

[Jelly Bean]

hey why not there is no law that black people can't live in Iralend. My question was more if maybe Irish folk became offended that Irish people in the media are depicted with redhair.

As to the mirage April thing, thats weird that onw wanted April to be ethnic and the other wanted her to be white Irish chick. I'm suprised no one has thrown the "rascist" accusation at Laird for that one.

[Kendamu]

hey why not there is no law that black people can't live in Iralend. My question was more if maybe Irish folk became offended that Irish people in the media are depicted with redhair.

As to the mirage April thing, thats weird that onw wanted April to be ethnic and the other wanted her to be white Irish chick. I'm suprised no one has thrown the "rascist" accusation at Laird for that one.
As much crap as Pete gets for what he does with the TMNT (deserved or otherwise), I don't think anyone here is so desperate to sling mud at him that they're going to play the Race Card.

- http://www.jordanmills.net/Pictures/Race%20Card%20black.jpg
- http://roguejew.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/race_card.jpg
- http://img342.imageshack.us/img342/632/racecard5nm.jpg

[TheUltimateShredhead]

As far as i know there's a lot of irish people with black hair.

[sdp]

Growing up with OT april it shows how great that April was to every other incarnation of April.....well at least in hair color.

As a kid seeing a blond/dirty blond version on the movies and other live action appearances of the turtles made sense since april in the OT could be that color as well. When I saw her red hair in the NT I also had no complains since her hair in the OT and archie was also reddish so it made sense as well for he hair to be that color. Hell even the dark curly from the comic covers works since her hair looks kinda wavy/messy and is also kinda dark.

Well, maybe thats just me, I don't know much about hair anyway.

[Lil G]

i like the red hair on her... it fits her.

[Sage Ninja]

Musta been from the Archie Comics... She started out exactly like the OT April, but eventually grew her hair out....

I think that is sort of a shame because I think OT April would have looked stunning with longer hair, not long, long, but maybe below the shoulders length. :)

[Sage Ninja]

well after seeing some the issues of orginal mirage comics I guess it's as clear any more that April was a redhead or a brunnet in that series. Maybe OT April wasn't the first version of April to start the red hair trend after all.

[NameGoesHere1066]

she's a red head in the begining I guess and then she gets a perm and dyes it dark brown. As long as April doesn't go blond I'm all set.

[Shred Head]

In Murphy's blog there was a post about this in it he said Peter always thought of April as a red head and Kevin (I thought this was strange) he thought of her as African American. Looking back at her first apperance I dont see her looking black at all. I guess Peter was more in charge of that issue.

[Jelly Bean]

you stole my sig! you stole my sig Shredhead!

As long as April doesn't go blond I'm all set.

what would be wrong with her going blonde? :-?

[Coola Yagami]

Too late. She already went blonde. Anyone have a screencap of the NES verion of TMNT II The Arcade Game when you rescue April and she kisses one of the turtles?

[VaughnMichael]

you stole my sig! you stole my sig Shredhead!
Not really all they did was take the image of slash off the Official site.
But if we want to get real technical you both stole A.C. Farley's art.:P:lol: