Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation

Plot

Set several years after the events of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, the Turtles are now 18 and are in their battle against the Foot Clan, they meet an ally, Venus de Milo. With her unique skills and tactical abilities, she helps the Turtles defeat Shredder and disband the Foot Clan. Later on, when the Rank led by Dragon Lord escapes from their enchanted mirror with a plan to take over the Earth, Venus stands by the Turtles, aiding them with her expertise to stop the Rank's malevolent plot and preserve the balance of their world. Through their journey together, Venus becomes an integral part of the Turtles' family, embodying the heroic spirit of unity and determination.

Cast and characters

Turtles

Leonardo (portrayed by Gabe Khouth and Shishir Inocalla, voiced by Michael Dobson) – The blue-masked turtle who wields a ninjatō and is the leader of the Ninja Turtles. In this show, Leo's mask covers much of the top of his head. During the course of the series, Leo has sought new ways to learn how to combat enemies such as the Rank and Simon Bonesteel.

Raphael (portrayed by Mitchell A. Lee Yuen and Dean Choe, voiced by Matt Hill) – The red-masked turtle who wields two sai. Impulsive, Raph appears to see Bonesteel as his personal enemy, having an entire episode with him.

Michaelangelo (portrayed by Jarred Blancard and Larry Lam, voiced by Kirby Morrow) – The orange-masked turtle who wields two tonfas and is self-proclaimed "Prince of All Media" who runs a pirate radio show from the Turtles' jeep.

Donatello (portrayed by Richard Yee and David Soo, voiced by Jason Gray-Stanford) – The purple-masked turtle who wields a bō staff and is the genius of the group. A fan of the somewhat insane Dr. Quease, Donnie has tried working with him on a way to send the enemies from the Rank back into the Enchanted Mirror.

Venus de Milo (portrayed by Nicole Parker and Leslie Sponberg, voiced by Lalainia Lindbjerg) – A fifth Turtle that wears a light blue mask. Venus was mutated at the same time as the other turtles, but ended up in Chinatown, where Chung found her. She was raised as a shinobi, a mystical version of a ninja.

Allies

Master Splinter (portrayed by Fiona Scott, voiced by Stephen Mendel) – A mutant rat and the adoptive father of the Turtles who trained them in ninjitsu. Splinter is usually not involved with the Turtles' antics, often imparting advice or yelling at them about the noise of their vehicles. He will often play chess at night with his blind human friend Andre.

Chung (portrayed by Tseng Chang, voiced by Dale Wilson) – An old friend of Splinter and Venus' adopted father. He trained Venus as a shinobi, but was killed by the Dragon Lord after the latter used Chung as a conduit to allow his forces to escape their prison dimension and reach the Realm of Dreams. He was also a foe of the vampire Vam Mi, having stolen her heart after defeating her. This later led her to seek revenge on Venus.

Andre (portrayed by Len Gibson) – A blind man whom Splinter often plays chess with in the park.

Enemies

Foot Clan – The Foot of this series appear a lot more clumsy and less intelligent (due to comic relief values), much to Shredder's irritation. The Foot Clan is implied to have battled the Turtles constantly for many years, as the Turtles are now 18 years old. When Splinter falls ill, the full fury of the Foot Clan is unleashed upon the Turtles' lair, which has recently been discovered by them. The sheer numbers of the expanding Foot Clan easily overwhelm the Turtles in combat and Shredder then prepares to finish them off, vowing to destroy their leader as well. However, Venus de Milo uses her Shinobi magic, drives Shredder insane by calling the true Oroku Saki to the surface to take control, thereby destroying Shredder. Following Shredder's death, the Foot Clan disbands.

Shredder (portrayed by Patrick Pon, voiced by Doug Parker) – The Shredder appears in the five-part pilot episode "East Meets West", where he is apparently killed. In the episode "Enemy Of My Enemy", Shredder appears in his civilian guise of Oroku Saki and is targeted by Dragon Lord's soldiers, who seek a ninja amulet called the Golden Shuriken.

Rank – The Rank is a group of evil dragons who were previously trapped in an enchanted glass.

Dragon Lord (portrayed by Gerald Wong, voiced by Christopher Gaze) – The leader of the Rank and the king of the dragons. Dragon Lord was the first evil dragon and his charisma lead to other dragons joining him, and thus the banishing of his entire race.

Wick (portrayed by Adam Behr and Bill Terezakis, voiced by Lee Tockar) – A small dragon who is Dragon Lord's sidekick.

Rank Lieutenant (portrayed by Andrew Kavadas) – The head of Dragon Lord's army. He is distinguished from the other by his violet hood.

Dr. Cornelius Quease (portrayed by Simon Webb) – A renowned scientist with discolored skin and expert on mutation and other fields. He attempts to create various weapons to defeat the turtles. After joining forces with the Dragon Lord, Quease adds a yellow labcoat to his outfit along with his red gloves and blue work outfit.

Production

The Next Mutation was first announced in late 1996 through ninjaturtles.com. The series introduced many new elements to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, including a female mutant turtle called Venus (named after the famous statue) and new central antagonists, an army of humanoid dragons known as "The Rank" led by the vicious Dragonlord.

The series was touted in some of the promotional material as a continuation of the 1987 TV series, although it reuses set designs and story elements from the live action film trilogy. Notably, April O'Neil and Casey Jones are absent, and in a departure from other TMNT continuities, Leonardo states in the second episode that the Turtles are not blood-related, while other media explicitly present the Turtles as biological siblings.

Other notable differences were found in the Turtles' weapons; Leonardo carries one double-bladed ninjatō instead of two katana (though he was shown to own two in a few episodes), Donatello has a metal Bō staff instead of a wooden one, Raphael's twin sai could combine to make a staff; and Michaelangelo's signature weapon was a pair of tonfa (his weapon of choice in other media, nunchucks, are outlawed in several places). Further, the name of the series was amended in several European countries to Hero Turtles: The Next Mutation under various censorship rulings, as with most output of the franchise at the time.

The series was shot in Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada.

Power Rangers crossover

Outside of The Next Mutation, the Turtles also guest-starred alongside the Power Rangers in Power Rangers in Space. The end of the episode "Save Our Ship" leads directly into "Shell Shocked", where the Turtles are summoned and brainwashed by Astronema to fight the Rangers. Her control over them is later broken, and they team up with the Space Rangers to battle Astronema's forces. Before returning to New York, the Turtles have one request from the Rangers: space surfing on the Galaxy Gliders. Because the show is filmed in Vancouver, they could not use the usual voice actors for the Turtles and they were all voiced by Los Angeles voice actors who matched their voices. Leonardo was voiced by Michael Reisz, Raphael was voiced by Kim Strauss, Donatello was voiced by Ezra Weisz, Michaelangelo was voiced by Tony Oliver, and Venus de Milo was voiced by Tifanie Christun.

Venus de Milo

The show's most notable contribution to the Turtles mythos was a fifth mutant turtle, a female named Venus de Milo (initially named Mei Pieh Chi), who was skilled in the mystical arts of the shinobi and wears a light blue mask that was braided in the back, giving the appearance of a ponytail. She was also shown to have a lack of knowledge of U.S culture and sayings. Venus was portrayed by Nicole Parker and voiced by Lalainia Lindbjerg.

In a 2007 interview, director Kevin Munroe elaborated on the instructions Peter Laird gave to him for TMNT, saying that among those rules was "absolutely no mention of Venus de Milo, the female Turtle. You can't even joke about that with Peter. It's just one of those things that he hates with a passion". Kevin Eastman said he liked the character and that it would be fun for her to appear in the comics, and in 2022, Venus returned to the franchise in the IDW comics with a new origin and design.

Home video

VHS

One VHS release consisting of highlights from the "East Meets West" five-episode arc, under the same name, was released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment in 1998. In the United Kingdom and Australia, two additional releases were released by Fox in 1999.

DVD

Shout! Factory released the first volume of Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation on DVD on September 4, 2012. On December 4, 2012 Shout! Factory released the second volume on DVD.

The complete series of the "Hero Turtles" version was released on DVD in the UK by Maximum Entertainment. The first eight episodes were released on a two-disc set before being separately split into their own releases. Another single volume containing Episodes 9-11 was also release before the rest of the series (Episodes 12–26) was released in a three-disc box set.

In addition to these releases, a "Mega Disc" containing the first eight episodes on one disc was also released, alongside a boxset containing the three single volumes that made up the first eleven episodes.

In 2011, twelve single-release DVDs each containing two episodes were released as part of two box sets by Walk Distribution. A complete series set was released by Clear Vision on October 6, 2014, which was also available as two separate volume releases.

Some foreign territories have released the full-length form of episodes in their native languages, including Germany, France, Poland and Italy.

Broadcast

In the United States, the show first aired from 1997 to 1998 on Friday afternoons on Fox Kids.

In the United Kingdom on BBC from October 1998 to Late March 1999 with a repeat from 1999-2000. The series also screened on Fox Kids UK from 1998 to 2003 and then on Kix! from 2012 to 2013.

Currently, the show airs in reruns every morning on Canadian channel OUTtv.

Distribution rights

In 2011, the copyright for the series was transferred from BVS Entertainment to Saban Brands. In September, Saban Brands announced that MarVista Entertainment had picked up international distribution rights. In 2018, the rights were transferred to Hasbro, as part of the acquisition of the Power Rangers brand, which included related intellectual property and content libraries previously owned by Saban Properties. Underlying rights to the original characters have been owned by Nickelodeon since 2009.

The Canadian rights to the series are currently held by Shavick Entertainment, a co-producer of the show.