Why are the Turtles Teenagers?

[aliena]

Sometimes I regret that Eastman and Laird decided to label them as Teenagers. I think it immediately branded them as a kids product and therefore keeping them as such, even though most of the time I do not consider them teenagers.

I don't know why they went with them being so young, some of you might know that answer. It's just that the original comics do not feel anything like teens to me. They drink, are very dark and gritty and they kill people. That just doesn't seem youthful to me.

Out of all the incarnations that I'm familiar with, most do not feel teenager like. At least not in my opinion. I'm sure others here will not agree, but these are my general feelings on the subject.

The Eastman/Laird comic they seem almost thirty
Watching FW I think they seem in their mid-twenties
1990 movie they feel almost twentyish
4kids they definitely feel mid-twenties, maybe older
I believe in TNM it is mentioned they are twenty or almost twenty
2007, they definitely feel mid-twenties
Nick, they are definitely teens for sure
IDW they are teens as well
2014 Bay turtles feel like late teens almost twenty at times.

I guess eighteen and nineteen are still teenagers, but just imagine if they could be portrayed as dark and gritty as they were meant to be. I'd love to see someone do that for once. I guess 4kids is the closest we are going to get to that and that's pretty good.

[CyberCubed]

The X-men were teenage mutants, the TMNT are teenage mutants.

Likewise the Turtles only really act like teens in the Nick cartoon. In the original cartoon, 4kids series, the Mirage comics, movies, etc...they all act like 20 something year olds.

[Powder]

It's because that's what was hip at the time. TMNT was created to be a parody of popular comic trends in the early/mid eighties; & those trends were groups of teens, mutants, ninja action, & anthropomorphic animals (among other things, of course). Boom. & that's the real deal, not just my guess. Kev & Pete have outright stated this in various interviews.

Age was never actually mentioned in The Next Mutation to my recollection, but you're right, they more often than not feel like 20 or 30 somethings rather than teens. I like how Nick has made them actually act their age, for the most part. It's refreshing.

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by Powder

It's because that's what was hip at the time. TMNT was created to be a parody of popular comic trends in the early/mid eighties; & those trends were groups of teens, mutants, ninja action, & anthropomorphic animals (among other things, of course). Boom. & that's the real deal, not just my guess. Kev & Pete have outright stated this in various interviews.

Age was never actually mentioned in The Next Mutation to my recollection, but you're right, they more often than not feel like 20 or 30 somethings rather than teens. I like how Nick has made them actually act their age, for the most part. It's refreshing.

Yeah, I think only IDW and Nick have the Turtles acting as true teenagers. And Nick was the first to do it. I got my problems with Nick, but that was a pretty clever new take.

[Leo656]

They're like 11-12 in the Nick show. I consistently hear "Nick made them act like teenagers", but that's not entirely accurate. They're way too juvenile in their behavior, especially Mikey, for them to be teenagers. They regressed TOO much for that version.

[Powder]

I'll give you Mikey, but not the others. Besides, they're not humans. They aren't going to mature when they've spent their lives in isolation, without the influence of authoritative adults (other than Splinter, who has clearly been lax in some respects). You can't hold them to real world standards when they were brought up by cable TV. Beyond their ninja sh*t, they've not been given a reason to mature, & maturing does not always happen naturally.

[IndigoErth]

Glanced over some old article on that the other day and agree, as also already been said here, it mostly comes down to the trends they were parodying at the time of their creation. 'Teen in title only.'

Honestly, for those versions that seem grown I tend to just brush off the stated age and think of them as being 20s, or however old they seem per series. Though collectively in concept I tend to regard them as the age of their franchise. Individually, only Nick (haven't seen enough of IDW to be all that familiarly with it) feels like a bunch of kids to me, which is fun as far as this one goes.

Particularly 2003 seems 20s to me, and far as I'm concerned Bay & Co. made them lie about their age. No way those 2014 boys aren't grown. Only Mikey carried the entire "teen" claim via personality/behavior; though the tweaked look to him for the sequel makes him pass more for upper teens, maybe, but the rest of the guys still seem 20s.

Which honestly is fine by me, because I'd love for a tv series (or series of films) to portray them as young adults anyhow.

[Powder]

People in their 20's act like teenagers anyway.

[TurtleGuy]

Because Adult-Aged Mutant Ninja Turtles just doesn't the same ring to it, ya know.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by Powder

People in their 20's act like teenagers anyway.

lol And beyond sometimes. (But only in short bursts, hard to have teenage energy at 30+ lol)

[Candy Kappa]

I thought they established that they where 18 in TNM, but I could be remembering wrong. And that show was just called Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation.

Considering they are usually 15 years old when a new incarnation starts, they are technically teenagers by human standard. Except IDW, there the comic starts with them being 15 months old post-mutation, bearing the souls of relatively young children.

And I would assume we're counting their years post-mutation, as it would be impossible to know when they hatched. In USA it's illegal to sell turtles with a shell length under 4 inches (enacted in 1975) so "baby turtles" can be a bit of a stretch since a Red-Eared Slider might reach 4" in circa 4 years or within 1 year as turtle maturity don't depend on age but on size, and male RES mature at 4".

Unless they where acquired for "educational" purposes, then you can get turtles under 4" due to legal loopholes.

[IndigoErth]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

And I would assume we're counting their years post-mutation, as it would be impossible to know when they hatched. In USA it's illegal to sell turtles with a shell length under 4 inches (enacted in 1975) so "baby turtles" can be a bit of a stretch since a Red-Eared Slider might reach 4" in circa 4 years or within 1 year as turtle maturity don't depend on age but on size, and male RES mature at 4".

Interesting info, did not know that. Maybe not so unreasonable then to suspect they could be older than stated.

That might actually be a reasonable way of explaining how any of them are supposed to be older or younger than the others, yet supposedly related. (Unless one prefers they aren't blood, but that's a different, been-done argument in/for another thread.)


Such as perhaps a local owner had some little ones close in size, but differed a bit in age, born from their own pair of Turtles and sold to a small local pet store when they were big enough. Maybe Leo was slow and steady growing and, on the opposite end of the spectrum, Mikey, being the active, hungry bugger he is, caught up quick.

And in a scenario like that, maybe the info on the age of each was known and given to the store owner, who in turn was able to tell Yoshi/soon-to-b Splinter in the cases that he was the buyer.

Unless they were not brought from a store - by Yoshi, that kid, the lab, or whoever - and instead illegally sold too small directly from the owner of the parents...

As for the maturity issue vs mutating into babies or young children... I guess maybe it could simply be the human/human-like aspect catching up to them.


(And yes, I have nothing better to do today than ponder this sort of thing. )

[Aaronardo]

Originally Posted by TurtleGuy

Because Adult-Aged Mutant Ninja Turtles just doesn't the same ring to it, ya know.

I dunno, 20-Something Alcoholic Run-Down Mutant Ninja Turtles seems like a damn good title to me.

[IndigoErth]

...Who are Tired of All this Human and Alien S***

[CylonsKlingonsDaleksOhMy]

Originally Posted by Aaronardo

I dunno, 20-Something Alcoholic Run-Down Mutant Ninja Turtles seems like a damn good title to me.

Or, in one word, Raphael.

[Jester]

Originally Posted by Candy Kappa

I thought they established that they where 18 in TNM, but I could be remembering wrong. And that show was just called Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation.

If I'm remembering correctly Splinter says they are all almost 18 years of ages in the 1st episode after he and Raph take out some Foot Soldiers. (But the rat had a stick....)

[Candy Kappa]

Right, I remember now.

To be fair, it was a large stick.

[ProactiveMan]

Originally Posted by Aaronardo

I dunno, 20-Something Alcoholic Run-Down Mutant Ninja Turtles seems like a damn good title to me.

I'd watch it.

[triplexxx]

I'm guessing "Teenage" was the only good two-syllable word they could find to go with the rest of which in the title; "Adult" must've sounded too stuffy. Possibly they could've just left it as "Mutant Ninja Turtles", made completely different sounding themes for each tv/movie incarnation; don't know if it would've appealed to the same type or size of audience.

[Gunstar_Red]

It was definitely because of the parody aspect of it; poking fun at every comic that had to have teenagers as main characters. (Versus previous eras that had primarily young adults, older, or unspecific age main characters.) It was only going to be one issue and that's it.

Keep in mind, as others have said, not all Ninja Turtles media has them as teenagers. I have a personal rule of thumb: based on the TMNT (they were in their 30s in a lot of issues, weren't they?) and Tales of TMNT (stories juggled around their ages from really young to really old) comics, anything that minimizes the title to "TMNT" means they are older than 20. I want to say the 2k7 TMNT movie implied they were just turning into adults. The only thing that doesn't go by this rule is the 2k3 cartoon where they are specifically 15.

Originally Posted by Powder

They aren't going to mature when they've spent their lives in isolation, without the influence of authoritative adults (other than Splinter, who has clearly been lax in some respects). You can't hold them to real world standards when they were brought up by cable TV. Beyond their ninja sh*t, they've not been given a reason to mature, & maturing does not always happen naturally.

I would disagree on some versions. Because of isolation and intense training, they act maturer than normal teenagers. If they are traditionally trained in Ninjutsu, they won't have much of a childhood and always prepared to murder if needs be. Being in a life encompassing lifestyle like an assassin, you have to sacrifice personal needs/wants or even a personality if you want to get far.

...Which I'm kinda glad Splinter isn't that strict and taught them these things more for defense than offense. ^^; But the training does really influence on how mature they act compared to normal undisciplined teenagers.