Do you think we'll ever have a Mikey who doesn't speak with a surfer/laid back accent
 

- 80's Michaelangelo being the first voice basically made the surfer laid back accent iconic.

- The original movie trilogy had Mikey speak similary.

- 2k3 Mikey's had that same surfer/skater sound to his voice.

- 2007 movie Michelanagelo sounded like a stoner

- Nick Mikey sounds like that as well.


And the various videogame voices from him, including the new one based on the IDW comics from Platinum games, also uses that same type of voice.

In fact I'd say other than maybe Leonardo, Michaelangelo has the most similar sounding voice among every incarnation.

Yeah, it seems that his accent and his use of slang are a core part of his personality in pretty muh every incarnation. Just like Donatello is always a tech savy.

It's kinda funny, though. Michelangelo sounds more like he'd fit better in California than NYC. Maybe he mostly watched TV shows and listened to music from the Bay Area and such?

Yeah. Leonardo's voice is probably the second most similar across incarnations, mainly because he usually gets that standard heroic voice. 80's, 2k3, Nick, original movie trilogy, and 2007 movie Leo all have similar tones to their voice.

Raph and Don's voices are the most different based on incarnation, although 2k3 Raph sounded very similar to the 90's movie trilogy Raph.

There are small few moments where he sounds sorta like the third movie Raph. Otherwise? No way.

My assumption was that it made him seem laid-back and aloof without making him a "nark" as they once said in the dark ages known as the 1980's.

He doesn't have much of a window outside surfer/skater of that sort, but it's certainly out of style now. I can absolutely buy Michelangelo as a Baywatch fan, so of course he'd pick up a little bit of his attitude from there. Also, that sounds like a character trait I'd actually want from him. It sounds fun.

The biggest issue with it is that it traps him as an airhead and misses his other big points - namely his compassion. Something I've been trying to figure out in my own take.

Mirage Michelangelo is basically the only one without the surfer/dude personality. If they ever do a full animated movie based on the Mirage comics, that's the only Michelangelo who better get a completely different voice. I know Andrew would be livid if they give him a surfer voice.

Before Nickelodeon bought the franchise, I would've said that it's possible. But with how much Nick loves the original cartoon, I'm gonna say absolutely not.

And yet prior to that 2k3 Mikey, 2007 movie Mikey, and the 90's movies still went with a similar type of voice when they didn't have to.

In my head, Mirage Mike sounds something like Matt Damon.

He was only given the surfer motif (which has morphed into some kind of stoner/weirdo thing in later stuff) as a measure of forcibly pigeonholing each Turtle into different archetypes so as to be more digestible to little kids. To sell toys. "I want the Turtle that's the most human-like in his personality" just doesn't scream "BUY ME!" off the rack with mommy and daddy.

What about the Mirage Turtles from "Turtles Forever"?

I just took his voice for granted when I was a kid. I didn't know much about America, and although I did notice Raph's voice was different in the movie, it didn't strike me as odd that brothers would have polar opposite accents until much later in life.

I was still a kid when I got my hands on the Mirage comics, so I can't remember how I imagined their voices to be; I don't think about voices when I read, so they probably sounded a bit like me.

The Nick version doesn't sound like a stereotypical surfer-dude to me; just a teenage goofball. Maybe in a couple of generations, the gnarly Californian accent will be forgotten. He'll probably still be a silly catchphrase machine though.

Partydude
 

No need for surfer accent in all version, but definately partydude is what's hard to get away from.

Mikey doesn't sound like a surfer or skater or Californian.
He sounds like what adults, screen writers and TV/move executives who have never surfed or skated or lived in California think they sound like....