Ascended Fanon: The Turtles and their outfits look very similar (intentionally so, as far as we know) to "photorealistic cartoon characters" fan arts that are made to dip into the Unintentional Uncanny Valley. Especially Raphael's clothing.
Celebrity Voice Actor: The Japanese dub featured tarento Becky as April O'Neil, comedian Cunning Takeyama as Splinter and actress/comedian Pinko Izumi as Bernadette Thompson.
Since the cancellation of future films in this continuity, Raphael's actor Alan Ritchson has criticised the films and the unpleasant experience that he and the other Turtle actors endured while making them. He alleges that they were made to work overtime while the Paramount higher ups made every effort to justify under-paying themnote Loophole Abuse meant that the four turtle actors were classified as voice talent rather than on-screen talent so the studio wasn't obligated to provide them with any perks not even guaranteed rides to and from the set, and Paramount later forbid them from talking to the press (while telling reporters that the actors themselves were refusing interviews) and didn't even invite them to the film's premiere.
In a 2024 comic con, Franchise co-creator Kevin Eastman, while talking about different TMNT projects made with or without his involvements, admitted to liking this movie and its sequel less than other movies made without his involvement (or with very little involvement from him) like Turtles Forever, TMNT and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, while cheekily admitting that he had input in these two movies and that it seemed to him like the makers decided to do the opposite of whatever he asked them to do.
Kevin Eastman: "Don't make them 8 foot 2 tall, bulletproof and give them noses." "Okay!"
K. Todd Freeman was cast as Baxter Stockman, according to IMDB, but all his scenes were cut from the film, presumably for the above re-shoots. He appeared in the sequel, but played by Tyler Perry.
Minae Noji filmed more scenes as Karai, including a fight scene with April. She would have dominated most of the fight, only for Vernon to knock her off balance with his camera, allowing April to finish her off. The entire fight sequence was cut for unknown reasons, essentially making Karai's role in the film a mere Continuity Cameo.
Development Gag: Vernon misinterprets April's description of the turtles, asking if they're aliens. April points out how stupid that idea sounds. This was exactly how the fans reacted during very early development when a leaked script had the turtles be aliens.
Directed by Cast Member: The Latin American Spanish dub was directed by Héctor Emmanuel Gómez, Leonardo's voice actor.
Disowned Adaptation: When Peter Laird was asked what his favorite films in the franchise as a whole were, he didn't include the Michael Bay-produced films, saying that the Turtles don't match his vision of the characters and that they're more like "mini-Hulks with bandannas".
Distanced from Current Events: The since-scrapped Australian poster features the Turtles falling out of an exploding tower. The Australian release date? September 11th.
Dueling Movies: With Guardians of the Galaxy. This movie managed to knock GOTG off the top spot at the box office for two weeks before the Guardians climbed back up. Comic-book based movie adaptations 2014, Round Two. Also, both movies revolve around some rather weird concepts: this one is about, well, teenage mutant ninja turtles; the other has a trigger-happy talking raccoon and a sort-of-talking tree.
Dyeing for Your Art: Megan Fox dyed her normally black hair red to play April O'Neil.
Looping Lines: Pete Ploszek played Leonardo on set, but his voice was dubbed over by Johnny Knoxville in post-production.
Playing Against Type:Alan Ritchson primarily appeared in mature-oriented projects and thought that this film would at least give him exposure to a wider audience.
Shoot the Money: The film is often accused of spending an inordinate amount of screentime with April O’Neil to justify the hefty pricetag of hiring Megan Fox for the role, though her involvement is likely much less costly than the price of the cgi/motion capture necessary for the Turtles themselves.
Technology Marches On: An amusing contrast in a comparable sequence with the 1990 film. A foot ninja had to track Raphael through the maze of sewers. In this film, a sonar mapping system does the trick for them.
Had Nickelodeon not acquired the TMNT property in 2009, this would've been a direct prequel to the 1990 film that would've rendered the sequels non-canon, expanding the story of the Turtles' origins and relying more on the original black-and-white Mirage comics. Warner Bros., Paramount, and Legendary Pictures were all set to produce this, but Paramount's disagreements over the script (written by John Fusco, best known for Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron) led to the film getting shelved and ultimately canceled after the Nickelodeon sale.
In earlier scripts, Casey Jones was going to be present and be the main protagonist. The movie would've had the turtles as aliens rather than mutants. The Shredder was changed to a white, American military officer named "Colonel Schraeder," with the Foot depicted as a black-ops military unit rather than a ninja clan. Schraeder would've eventually been revealed to be an alien in disguise and a Composite Character of himself and Krang. This was supposedly scrapped after negative fan reaction and possibly some death threats.
Instead of being his minion, the character Eric Sacks note his name being a reference to Oruku Saki was originally intended to be the Shredder himself. The decision to cast a white actor led to massive backlash from fans, resulting in reshoots that added a more traditional version of the Shredder to serve as Sack's master. Several scenes with Sacks, such as him explaining his plot to the captured Turtles, are obviously kept from the original cut, as the "real" Shredder is completely absent and any time Sacks mentions him in third person was clearly added in ADR. The Nintendo 3DS adaptation and other tie-in materials also keep to the original plot with Sacks as the Shredder, suggesting that the change was made late in production.
towards the film, even making a Creator Cameo in the film's sequel. Although, his opinion has changed since then (see Creator Backlash below).
