Another cool cartoon.....
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Picture it. Japan. 1965. Oroku Saki, a devilish and jealous young
chap, double-crosses Hamato Yoshi, his fellow member of the Foot
Clan, by stabbing his shirt to the wall, which keeps him from
bowing to their master. When Hamato pulls the knife from his shirt,
everyone suspects a murder plot, and he's banished from the clan
forever. Hamato soon takes over and leads them to a way of crime,
forever changing the scope of ninja acceptance forever, and the
eventual size of Hamato's tail to boot.
In disgrace, Hamato moved to the sewers of New York City. Hamato
moves into the sewers, because he's too poor to move anywhere else
and too new to have heard about the myriad Spanish trailer parks
outside the city that even someone on a ninja's salary could
afford, and his only friends are the rats. Until, that is, some
poor kid trips and his bowl full of little turtles falls on his
head.
Weird pink ooze spills into the sewer, and Hamato is most
unpleased. He doesn't know it's mutagen yet, but honestly, it's
ooze and it's in a sewer, so no matter what it is, it's not
something he wants to clean off the turtles.
But indeed, it is mutagen, the rare experimental gloppy stuff that
turns whatever touches it into the animal it's been in contact with
most recently.
The little turtles morph into big turtles, and Hamato inexplicably
morphs into Splinter, despite very clearly having touched turtles
ten seconds prior. Guess the mutagen has a selective memory. Over
time, he taught the turtles the ancient art of ninjitsu, which
according to the show involves a lot of weapon-twirling and party
hollars. And that's how they became the Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles!
