TEEN RAGE MOOLAH NITWIT TURTLES

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES (1990)
dir: Steve Barron

TEEN-RAGE MOOLAH NITWIT TURTLES
MAD #291, December 1989
w: Dick DeBartolo
a: Sam Viviano

Weird. Here's an example of the parody coming out before the movie. Oh well, they were faithful to it, though.

There's a big crime wave in New York City being reported on by April O'Neal (Judith Hoag). The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles live in a sewer underneath, mentored by a rat named Splinter. Here he often refers to how TMNT were a large merchandising juggernaut.

Victims include Sam Viviano and Dick DeBartolo coming down from a subway platform. The Empire State Building is called the North Carolina State Building because that's where it was shot.

Splinter advises TMNT to practice martial arts before going out into the public. TMNT Michaelangelo, Donatello, and Leonardo order a pizza, their favorite food, while Raphael, the fourth one, is out on his own and sees vigilante Casey Jones (Elias Koteas) defeating the criminals. Raphael fights off Casey since he feels fighting criminals is his job. The Foot Clan has attacked April at the subway and the TMNT rescue her, taking her home and they hide when her boss Charles (Jay Patterson) comes to see her with his delinquent son Danny. (These scenes are parodied in a different order),

The Henson shop did the puppetry. The passersby in the second panel are MAD editors John Ficarra and Sara Fowler while the pizza is being delivered by Charlie Kadau.

At their manhole, Splinter explains the origin of TMNT to April. They were once normal turtles discovered in The Ooze (more about that in the sequel) which made them grow, and he decided to train them in the martial arts ala Yoda or Mr. Miyagi. Much of the Foot clan, led by Shredder, is children and has a hideout similar to Pleasure Island (thus the Pinocchio characters). They have captured Splinter. Danny has joined the clan but is starting to have doubts about it.

Casey rescues Splinter and Splinter fights Shredder, throwing him off the roof of a building. April, who had been fired, gets her job back and Charles is reunited with Danny.

The Beast from the Beauty and the Beast TV show, Ed Norton, and Phantom of the Opera are in the last panel

From Real vs. Real in #307, by Russ Cooper and Sam Viviano, September 1991.

German edition.

TOONAGE MUTANT NINJENK TURTLES
Cracked #255, August 1990
w: Tony Frank (Lou Silverstone)
a: John Severin

The turtles' real names are used on the first page but spoofed here.

MAD left out the part where Splinter is captured, Raphael is in a coma, and they seek solace at April's rural home.