Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie/Trivia

* Rise of the TMNT is the eighth Nicktoon to get an animated feature film. The first seven are Rugrats, Hey Arnold!, The Wild Thornberrys, SpongeBob SquarePants, Rocko's Modern Life, Invader Zim, and The Loud House.
** This also technically makes Rise of the TMNT the ninth Nicktoon to get an animated feature film, if one also counts Doug's 1st Movie, although it was produced by Walt Disney Television Animation.
** This will also be the fourth Nickelodeon animated film to be released on Netflix.
* This is the fourth animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. The first three were TMNT, Turtles Forever, and Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and is the first animated film not to be associated with WarnerMedia.
** Turtles Forever, which was a TV movie, premiered on The CW, which is a joint venture of ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia (it also premiered on Nickelodeon at the same time).
* It was stated in July 2022 by Rise of the TMNT staff writer Ron Corcillo in a Tweet that, "We were always told that the show was 'paused' and that it could be brought back if the movie did well. It's pretty rare for a show to come back after this long, but if it happened, it would be because the movie and series do well on Netflix. So keep watching and spread the word!"
** It was also revealed in July 2022 by writer Paul Cecchini in an io9 interview that, "if the film does well enough, Suriano and Ward would love an opportunity to continue building the Rise world with one of their other film ideas. Word has it they might have some ideas for the Rat King..."
*** The film idea was elaborated on by Rise of the TMNT: The Movie co-directors Suriano and Ward in the November 2022 Rise of the TMNT: The Movie TAAFI panel, Suriano stating, "We had to go back on Monday to talk to the powers that be about our [movie] takes. We had two very distinctly different ones, both pretty great, but we decided to steer towards one. I mean, one was the Splinter Rat King movie . . . ." and Ward stating, "Yeah, we were going to do Splinter controlled by the Rat King and this really tragic the-brothers-up-against-their-father and it would have been maybe on the darker side, maybe didn't quite fit in the Rise canon of levity, but . . . ."
* The first trailer was recorded with a different voice actor than Rob Paulsen for Foot Lieutenant, likely as a placeholder/scratch. Paulsen does feature in the actual film.
** Foot Brute has no speaking lines.
* The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles say their titular team name for the first time.
* Raph's lightning bolt crack in his plastron is reminiscent of Raphael from the 2012 TV series.
* It was revealed in August 2022 by Rise of the TMNT: The Movie director Suriano in a Tweet that Krang One's Technodrome throne is placed atop the skull of a Triceraton.
* The final battle against Krang One takes places inside the Technodrome over New York City as the Turtles try to return it to its dimension, similar to the climax of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows.
* April is shown studying journalism at college and works for the school's newspaper as a reporter, a nod to April O'Neil from the 1987 TV series being a Channel 6 reporter.
** The college is called "Eastlaird University", a reference to TMNT creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
* The mutant antagonist from an early iteration of the movie was elaborated on by Suriano and Ward in the November 2022 Rise of the TMNT: The Movie TAAFI panel, Ward stating, “So the mutant that Casey was fighting in the original, original, original was going to be Armaggon who was acting as almost like the Silver Surfer to Galactus where he’s the herald for the Krang . . . Andy had this great thing of, like, there’s nothing cooler than a space shark, right? A space shark in a giant suit? But what if the space shark in the suit’s actually a weeny, little shark?” And Suriano stating, “This is like exoskeleton as his space suit. This was the guy Raph was gonna see Casey beat up and if it was this giant mech, then that would be understandable, but if it’s this tiny, little sardine that was inside, it would be…” Ward also stated, “And there would be awesome moments as well, really brutal stuff. We feel for this character, you don’t understand if Casey’s on the good or the bad of this argument ‘cause you see him reach in and rip out this little dude. And Raph being Raph isn’t having any of it.”
* An Earth Protection Force agent resembling Agent Bishop can be seen as Krang Two is taken by the government.
* When Casey states that people in the future are forced to eat rats to survive, Splinter claims to not to be offended, arguing that "[rats] are delicious". This may be a reference to the Mirage comics' City at War story arc, where Splinter was convinced by the Rat King to commit cannibalism by eating non-mutant rats to survive.
* This is currently the second-highest rated TMNT at Rotten Tomatoes, above the 1990 film and below Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
* Leo's character animation by Rise of the TMNT assistant director and story artist Ashe Jacobson from "Battle Nexus: New York" is reused in Raph and Leo's lair dispute scene.
* When asked what influenced the more dramatic tone of Rise of the TMNT: The Movie compared to its series in the November 2022 Rise of the TMNT: The Movie TAAFI panel, Suriano stated, "We finally got to tell a long story. It was so nice and refreshing to be able to tell an actual arc that could last as long as the movie was, like, 80 minutes or so. 'Cause with TV you gotta wrap it up and usually, as sequential as our storytelling was in the series, a lot of it for TV is sort of one and done for advertising and repeatability and stuff like that." Ward stated in the same panel that the tone shift was also due to Netflix's request for the movie to be a cinematic experience.
* On April and Splinter's idea whiteboard for ways to destroy the Mystic Key, "black hole toaster" is listed, a reference to a cut episode of the series "Wedding Smashers", the episode's plot surrounding Raph and Mikey's recovery of said toaster.
* The shot of Donnie during his line, "I am... a spaceship!" is a reference to a shot in Akira when Shima Tetsuo undergoes his mutation.
* There are three instances where Leo breaks the 4th Wall: When the Turtles chase Warren and Hypno and he interrupts Raph's plan (leaning on the split-screen), when they were headed towards Metro Tower after hearing that Donnie put a tracker on Raph (while questioning if he did or did not put trackers on him and Mikey as well, pushing the split-screen while being surprised) and in the climax of the film, after the Turtles regain their Hamato Ninpō, by saying, "If this isn't the poster shot, someone's getting fired". Oddly enough, two of these scenes were included in the film's trailer.
* When asked what character they would have liked to have gotten more screen time in the movie in the November 2022 Rise of the TMNT: The Movie TAAFI panel, Bauza, Suriano, and Ward answered Splinter with Suriano stating, "No, I mean, 100%. We really wanted to put Splinter in there and it was really tough to split the time up. I mean, Draxum as well."
* The shot of Mikey fully forming a time gateway in the prologue is a reference to a shot of Piccolo in the "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" Dragon Ball Z opening.
* During the Krang invasion, the civilians who hide inside a café are (from left to right) Rise of the TMNT: The Movie production coordinator Nancy Ramirez, Rise of the TMNT: The Movie production coordinator Cindy Y. Avila, Rise of the TMNT: The Movie executive assistant Erik Steinman, and Rise of the TMNT: The Movie script coordinator Michael DeGrandis.
* It was sometime in the 11th century during Japan's Heian period a millennium ago that the four mystic warriors created the Mystic Key and banished the Krang to the Prison Dimension.
** The two women depicted in the flashback sequence having their hair tied near their neck is indicative of belonging to the lower working class as Heian noblewomen tied their hair lower on their back.
** One of the mystic warriors wears purple, purple dye being exclusively worn by Heian aristocracy. It wasn't until the Edo period that purple dye was permitted for commoner use.
Category:Trivia facts