Characters / 3 Ninjas

Character sheet for the 3 Ninjas film series.

The Three Ninjas

In General

• Badass Family: It comes with being ninja brothers.
• Big, Thin, Short Trio: Rocky, Colt and Tum-Tum.
• Freudian Trio
  • The Spock: Rocky
  • The McCoy: Colt
  • The Kirk: Tum-Tum
• Knight, Knave, and Squire: In order: Rocky, Colt and Tum-Tum.
• Man of the City: They aspire to be this as shown in Knuckle Up. Grandpa calls them out on doing it for themselves not to help others and encourages them to be like flowers (flowers, aren't pretty because they try to be, they just are).
• Meaningful Rename: Their grandpa has given them ninja names.
• McNinja: Despite supposedly descending from a Ninja Clan, all three of them are played by Caucasian actors.
• Nice Mean And In Between: Again, in this order: Rocky, Colt and Tum-Tum
• Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: or save at least California.

Samuel "Rocky" Douglas Jr.

• Blind Without 'Em: His glasses in Kick Back.

• Chick Magnet: The girl of the movie is almost always interested in him. This is the case for 3 Ninjas (Emily), Kick Back (Miyo), and Mega Mountain (Jennifer); the only exception is Knuckle Up, as Jo (the girl of that movie) is interested in Colt instead.
• Color-Coded Characters: His ninja gi is green in the first three films. It's light grey/silver in the fourth.
• Combat Pragmatist: He once took a mook out with a telephone.
• Deleted Scene: the alternate ending was cut because of being kid on kid fighting, Rocky standing up to the bully reluctantly at first.
• Expy: Of Leonardo, being the responsible eldest sibling and leader of his team of ninja brothers.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Rocky tends to be a bit more level-headed compared to his brothers, unless he's distracted by a pretty girl.
• The Leader: A natural example, as both Colt and Tum-Tum already look up to him as the eldest brother.
• Lovable Jock: Aside from martial arts, he is interested in basketball and baseball.
• Wrestler in All of Us: Pulls off a hurricanrana/ frankensteiner to a mook in the fourth film.

Jeffrey "Colt" Douglas

• Actor Allusion: Probably not intentional but in the fourth film, but there's a Power Rangers Expy called The Star Force Five and Michael O' Laskey II played the kid version of Rocky in Mighty Morphin Alien Rangers.
• Color-Coded Characters: Blue, baby blue to normal blue
• Combat Parkour: Given his Ninja ability is speed this is not shocking. He displays this in the fight with the biker gang in Knuckle Up and in High Noon at Mega Mountain during the first fight at the western show, he does a super human jump to the top of the Saloon set and dives off executing a 450-seated senton wrestling move.
• Expy: Is the Raphael of the trio, being the more impulsive and aggressive lancer who butts heads with his older brother.
• I Was Beaten by a Girl: How they meet Miyo, they did not know she was a girl. Colt enters a martial arts tournament and she beats him.
• Extremity Extremist: Although all of them do kicks, Colt uses them the most and his are the most flexible.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: Colt tends to fly off the handle more often than his older brother Rocky. He's either more foolish or more responsible than his younger brother Tum-Tum depending on the scene.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Colt has traits of Mouthy Kid, Deadpan Snarker, and Hair-Trigger Temper, but he's always on the right side.
• Middle Child Syndrome: Colt is shown to have issues with his father.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Around Jo, he gives her a ninja Barbie doll
• Wrestler in All of Us: In the fourth film's first fight he finishes off a mook with a diving 450-seated senton, earlier he takes one out with a pele kick - enzugiri

Michael "Tum-Tum" Douglas

• Acrofatic: Just as agile as the others.
• Big Eater: He got his nickname from his appetite and somewhat chubby build.
  Colt: His name is Tum-Tum because, well, he'll eat anything.
  Tum-Tum: I won't eat dog poop!
• Character Tic: Due to being a Big Eater, he always have some food in his mouth. Usually a licorice.
• Color-Coded Characters: Orange, yellow, red.
• Expy: Of Michaelangelo, being the youngest, the least serious about training, and often motivated by food. Hell, his real name is even Michael.
• Foolish Sibling, Responsible Sibling: More foolish than Rocky, and either more foolish or more responsible than Colt depending on the scene.
• Funny Background Event: His mother removing the extra lunch bag inside of his lunch bag causing Tum-Tum to freak out.
• Groin Attack: Most of his fighting style.
• "Home Alone" Antics: All of the brothers use these to an extent, but Tum-Tum especially uses tricks to win fights to make up for his small size.
• Obsessed with Food: Oh dear lord yes. In the first 2 movies, he has emotional and sentimental moments, yet he always manages to bring food into the discussion. His very first scene is when Grandpa tests the boys by poking them with a twig, and Tum-Tum is unresponsive, until he decides to poke a bag of candy sitting next to him.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: "I'm not hungry". For a food-obsessed Big Eater, it's pretty bad. This happens in Mega Mountain; Tum-Tum is so depressed at his hero Dave Dragon's show being canceled that he actually refuses a big sandwich his mother made for him.
• Sweet Tooth: His M.O.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Pizza, ice cream, loliops, licorice, chocolate bar, a midnight snack of chicken wings, ding dongs (Twinkies).
• Took a Level in Badass: In the fourth film High Noon at Mega Mountain, he was a much better fighter and more athletic.

Their Family

Mori Tanaka/Shintaro

• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: He's a bit of a goofball but he's a bad-ass master. He also has valuable lessons to teach his grandchildren, such as the dangers of overconfidence and the necessity of helping others for their sake rather than to booster one's own reputation.

• Dysfunctional Family: He has a strained relationship with his son-in-law, due to Snyder and his ninjas.

• Expy: Of Master Splinter of course, being the Old Master of young ninjas.

• Old Master: At 65 years old he can take on people 30 years younger.
• Technical Pacifist : Gives mercy on Synder after their fight.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Mori is willing to teach people how to be ninjas, but he will not teach people how to kill, which is why he refused to train Hugo's men since Hugo and his men are gangsters.
• We Used to Be Friends: He was partners with Snyder but they became enemies due to moral differences. Snyder first approaches Mori to teach his men but Mori refuses saying "I teach ninja, not murder."
• Your Tradition Is Not Mine: A key reason why Mori and Sam don't see eye to eye.

Samuel Douglas

• Action Dad: He's an FBI agent and later director.
• Anti-Smother Love Talk: His wife and father in law do this with him.
• The Determinator: In his goal in arresting Snyder.
• Fantasy-Forbidding Father: He doesn't like the idea of his sons learning to be ninjas from their grandpa. Mostly due to trying to arrest Snyder who has an army of ninjas, and that their grandpa once taught Snyder.
• Hypocrite: He doesn't like his sons learning martial arts despite Samuel is an FBI agents that requires learning martial arts to fight criminals and arrest them.
• Like Father, Unlike Son : He and Colt are shown not to see eye to eye. He hates fighting and martial arts while Colt is eager to fight.
• Papa Wolf: "All I'm saying is that someone could get hurt."

Their Friends

Emily

• Action Girl: Sort of, she is kidnapped and used as ransom but escapes and fends off Fester.
• Girl Next Door: She's Rocky's next door neighbor and love interest.
• Girl of the Week: Of the first movie.
• Tin-Can Telephone: How Rocky and her communicate after school, usually at night.

Dave Dragon

• Catchphrase: "The way of the closed fist."
• Expy: He-Man, blond hair and similar vest attire. The Star Force 5 are this of Power Rangers.
• Theme Music Power-Up:
  "Dave Dragon, go, Dave Dragon and The Star Force 5,
  Fights for the world wide Dave Dragon, keeping us all alive!"

Amanda

• Expy: Being the tech genius that she is, Amanda is the closest that the films have to filling Donatello's shell. Female version, of course.
• Faux Action Girl: She has no martial arts skills and unlike Jo and Emily she never gets physical. Though she expresses interest in learning to fight.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Her father works on stunts and props for movies and she's a computer whiz. She meets the Douglas family by her remote control air plane breaking Rocky's window and her yo-yo that works like a boomerang eventually is given to Rocky as his main weapon but Colt breaks a lamp with it.
• Playful Hacker: She is a hacker on the heroes side.
• Rapid-Fire Typing: Of course, it was the 90s.
• What Could Have Been: She spends time with Colt when they hang out in the park, she gives him a stuffed animal she won but he is seen sarcastically reacting to it, she doesn't seem offended and just shrugs.

Antagonists

Hugo Snyder

• A Pupil of Mine Until He Turned to Evil: Snyder used to be a pupil of Mori, but Mori stopped teaching Snyder and his men because Snyder and his men are willing to kill people.
• Arms Dealer: Hugo is a weapons smuggler who is shown to be interested in buying warheads at the beginning of 3 Ninjas until it's revealed to be an FBI sting operation.
• Bad Boss: All of the villains in the franchise are bad bosses to a degree, but Snyder is one of the worst bosses of the lot.
• Card-Carrying Villain: "God, I love being a bad guy!"
• Evil Is Petty: When he seems about to triumph over Mori, Snyder pauses to do the most over-the-top evil laughter possible, just to gloat and rub his impending victory in Mori's face (which is what gives Mori the opportunity to turn the tables). After he loses, Snyder screams that he never loses and then resorts to pulling out a gun.

Mary Ann "Medusa" Rogers

• Dominatrix: Her attire is a dominatrix black outfit and she uses a whip.
• Silver Fox: Loni Anderson at 53 years old.
• Villainesses Want Heroes: She offers to let Dave Dragon be her "boy toy", he declines of course.
• Whip of Dominance: She's a seductive and domineering villainess with a dominatrix motif that uses a whip as her primary means of combat.

Lead Bully

• Bitch Slap: Gives Rocky a couple of these when Rocky tries to deescalate.
• The Bully: The leading bully of the first movie. His hobby is to "collect" people's bikes.
• Bullying a Dragon: in the deleted scene/ending of the international cut, Rocky gives him 3 chances and then fights back.
• No Name Given

Darren

• The Bully: In the first movie he's just a friend of the lead bully, in Kick Back he is the main bully.
• Bullying a Dragon: During the first baseball game with Colt. Miyo attacks him at the end.