The turtles reliance on Don
 

Am I the only one who became annoyed with how much the turtles relied on Donatello in the 80's series? It was like the turtles couldn't do anything with out him and the whole team would fall apart without him. Which I gotta admit is slowly starting to annoy me. The "trilogy" was just about ruined for me because all the turtles went "when in doubt call on Donatello--DONATELLO!!!!!!" which annoyed the crap out of me. The same with Donatello's duplicate where he is shown to be a stronger fighter than all the turtles put together.And I would have enjoyed Night of the Dark turtle better if it had not been that the team was so inaffectual with out him.

I mean come on Leonardo could not have come up with a better plan than "use the turtle van" in that episode? On the other hand it was often shown that Don really didn't need the turtles and often took care of bad guys or threats all on his own. Like the one where he meets the shape shifting gecko and he takes care of the whole situation almost by himself. I think that is why I like the japanese episodes a little bit better, because leonardo shows his stuff more.

That was Don's whole job: to be the brains. He was the one who was supposed to get them out of the big jams. Leo's job was to lead, not to save the day every time. He was there to keep order and give orders, not to kick the most ass. He just also happened to kick a lot of ass.

Scooby Doo is the perfect comparison. Mike is like Scooby and Shaggy, Fred is like Leo, and Velma was like Don. Forget Raph and Daphnie, because they don't make any sense in this comparison. Velma was the one who always solved the mystery, but it was Fred who always kept a level head and led them into the fray. It was his bravery and tenacity that always led them to the bad guy. If it weren't for him, they'd all be running around haunted mansions sitting on their thumbs.

Science fiction
 

The 1987 series is probably Donatello's strongest show ever, as we all know Donatello as the guy who sends the Technodrome to Dimension X.

The 1987 series had the strongest science fiction elements in it, allowing Donatello to play an important role. Other TMNT versions always used a lot of magicans and ghosts as enemies, Japanese demons, Buddhism and other stuff, things Donatello isn't just supposed to believe in at all. Just read Archie, the Japanese demon and Charlie Lama being re-born would confuse him a lot, but when they go to Dimension X, Donatello plays an important role.

I guess it's no different than relying on Mikey for the bulk of the comedy. ;)

"Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines."

That's how Don rolls, man.

He was the smart one wasn't he? That part of his personality from the cartoon seemed to be missing from the first Ninja Turtles movie. Somehow he magically knew about computers in the 2nd one though. :lol:

All the brains of the group in cartoon shows does that. Cyborg in Team Titans, Batman in The Justice League, Sokka in Avatar the Last Airbender, Gadget in Chip And Dale.

I don't see how that should be put against them.

I wouldn't say the Turtles worship Don's grasp on science though. There were episodes the other three make fun of his weirder inventions, for example. And snark their dislike on being forced to go to the city dump for scavenging parts.

That's something about the original that's bugged me for a long time. Don doesn't seem very... Don. He's wise-cracking and being buddy-buddy with Casey but he doesn't really ever flex his mental muscles. Feldman's voice didn't help matters, either, in my opinion.

every now and then, maybe just a tad. Though I will say he was probably the most well rounded of the OT turtles.

At least there was an episode in season 3 (take me to your leader) where Leo leaves the group and the group is pretty handicapped.

Don still does a better job at replacing Leo then Raph and Mike did but he's way too slow in making decisions.

Don is to Leo as Kongming is to Xuande.

I can go on with the analogies all day.

Never bothered me. I mean it was Donnie's role. He was the go to guy, the brains.

I do agree that the movie verion of Donnie was not a great representation of him.I always like him being the go to guy for they tech stuff.I always liked super intelegate characters.To the poster who rattled off some other smart characters from other toons.You forgot Sally from Sonic The Hedgehog and Penny from Inspector Gadet.

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of over-used mysticism in my Turtles. Heck, I don't even like all the superheroes running around. I often liked when the Turtles deal with outer space situations, because Donatello kinda takes charge. It's not like he means to, but he is a competent leader when he has to be.

Umm, not so sure I agree about Mikey. He was getting himself and Raph lost in the city untill the impossible-to-miss-ray came out of that skyscraper. Then his tactic to beat the robot guarding the building completely failed...
Not exactly epic leadership.

Raph really didn't want to be a leader, he attempted to pass his mantle more then once before he actually did, I think that sais enough about his leadership capabilities. :P

You're probably right about Don.

Now back to Leonardo, there's also the episode where he gets zapped by the personality altering ray and goes off to have fun. Again the other three form a crippled team. They are unable to stop this silly musician villain. Don tries a tech solution but it fails...

For me it's just a different interpretation of the character. 1st movie Don is just more on the thoughtful side rather than the straight forward "brainy" side and I enjoyed that. 2nd movie Don was just too bland as is always the danger with "brainy" characters. They become all about their skills and no personality. In any case, Corey Feldman will always be my movie Donatello, lol.

As far as the OT, I didn't really find their reliance on Donatello annoying. I liked that while the other turtles were fighting the bad guys, Don had his own special job to perform. It gave the overall group more depth, rather than just having all of them fighting every time.

I don't think "annoying" is the right word. Now it could certainly get "ridiculous" at times, which is why it was fun when they joked about it on the show! Lol. But that was the purpose of the show, to satirize action cartoons.

for those of you that voted "better than having leo all the time," is it because of Leo's almost Godlike status in the 4KIDS show? The very reason I added that option was because I remember people complaining about how much front and center Leo was in that series. Do people find leo saving the day more annoying than Donatello? I know I am mixing universes but now I'm curious.

I don't, and they still relied on Don for a lot of things. When he got mutated in season 4 the 2K3 team was seriously crippled.