So why was April a reporter in the first movie when it was so Mirage influenced?
 

The first movie was almost entirely based around the comics with the exception of the color bandanas and the turtles love for pizza, and April being a reporter.

Given that went with the Mirage origin for Splinter (leaving out Shredder's brother), and the story was loosely based on the the early comics, why did they keep April being a reporter?

Its the one aspect of the movie that truly stands out as being influenced by the cartoon while everything else is as close to Mirage as we'll ever get on the big screen.

Part of the trade-off. E&L wanted their book on the silver screen. Investors wanted Fred Wolf's TMNT: The Movie.

Other than riding the OT wave, if they stick to the Mirage influence, wouldn't that force a Mouser plot/sub-plot into the movie as well. Plus if you throw in Baxter, u may end up with too many characters with not much screen time

Wasn't the reporter angle necessary, so that the TMNT could infiltrate into the crime ring as April kept on investigating? ...And so that her peril would form some connection with Shredder?

Otherwise, if April was working for Baxter as an assistant, as madyankees pointed out, we would have the whole subplot involving Baxter and it would take a longer time in the movie to get to Shredder. Plus the movie would have to explain (remember there are kids watching this movie too) why Splinter was still holding a vengeful grudge against Oroku Saki after so many years. In the Mirage comics, didn't Splinter "assign" the Turtles to find the Shredder and kill him? But in the movie, Splinter coincidentally met up with Shredder as the Turtles were trying to protect April and save the city against its escalating crime.

Because they like to take bits and pieces, just like any other adaptation.

her character made a great connection from tmnt to humans. without her, they would have had a movie based off the first book; five mutants vs the foot. dont get me wrong, i would have loved that too, but i think the way they did it was the best way for movie purposes. it made it five mutants vs the foot to helped the city of ny by ending the crime wave.

I had always assumed it was simply because they wanted to include April minus the back story with Stockman, so They went with her reporter background. Either way, it was a good blending of elements that WORKED.

This. And then you have kids wondering why Baxter's black and doesn't become a fly. I remember being very confused about Splinter being Yoshi's pet rat as a kid, up until I read the Mirage comics as a teenager.

In addition to it not, as you even pointed out in your opening post, being completely Mirage-inspired, it was probably a concession made to help streamline the script.

Programmer/antique-dealer April requires a lot more setup than does reporter April, who can insert herself into the plot and action right away.

And hey, they did keep the part-time antique-dealer part.

They did. Not only that, but Mirage April does have some sort of journalism minor from college, doesn't she?

I remember as a kid they didn't have robot Foot Soldiers cause they didn't have a large enough budget so they had to use human Foot Soldiers. I also thought they also didn't use Krang and the Technodrome due to the budget limitations. I had no idea that's how it was in the comics.

Yup. April being a reporter in the first flick definitely had to do with the craze the cartoon was bringing at the time. Pretty sure audience wanted to see some things that referenced the old toon.

I'll have to look through my copy of TMNT & Other Strangeness.

if any of you got the german dvd release that came out a year ago or so, there is some of the answer to that...
in steve barons audio commentary he explains how little(actually NO knowledge) of ninja turtles had been in the film world.the cartoon was still fairly new when they started the whole undergoings of making this movie..the cartoon was basically only known to kids as it was on telly very early on staurdays and hadnt yet kicked in like it did a little later...

Probably to make it less about April and more about the turtles, so she was just there.

I always assumed it was because of the cartoon influence.
Pop culture she's a news reporter anyway even thought that was only in the Fred Wolf cartoons.

I love the first movie thought and even though it doesn't directly follow any of the comics, I still think it's one of the most true-to-source adaptations out there.

I finally had a chance to break out my copies of TMNT & Other Strangeness and found some interesting info!

Here's April's profile page in the original edition (copyright and first published 1985):
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ps78436c4e.jpg
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No journalism credentials were listed under her Scholastic Skills category.

But compare the Revised Edition printings which came out a few years later:
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a56...ps68ac1abc.jpg
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April's scientific credentials have been scaled back and some modest writing/journalism skills were introduced, perhaps in recognition of the Fred Wolf cartoon series!

I feel like that's an RPG character build or something X_X
Damn.

But that's interesting with the revision.

Thanks Oldmanwinters for providing that. As FlogginMcMurryZombiePizza said, the level of detail for her character is surprising.

Now I have a question for you Oldmanwinters, for these profiles of her and other TMNT characters in that book you have (TMNT and Other Strangeness), are these considered "official" profiles or more of a generally "assumed" consensus within the fandom and community of each character's statistics? Just curious...

I also noticed April dropped from 90% proficiency in Cooking down to 65% in the Revised edition. I guess the Food Inspectors must have came down hard on her for allowing mutants in her kitchen.

I assume those stats were written almost entirely by Erik Wujcik, but I expect he got input from Eastman & Laird regarding the character profiles since the comics were still in their infancy in 1985. Whether E & L put a lot of thought into it or just pulled some vague ideas out of the air, I don't know. Anyhow, the Mirage staff continued to develop their characters without regard to the Palladium continuity, as evidenced by the contradictory takes on Lord Simultaneous, Complete Carnage, and Radical seen in Transdimensional Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1989).
http://tmntentity.blogspot.com/2011/...erview-of.html