TEMPO VIDEO // TMNT - "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" intro (( 1990 ))

[SuperJM9]

Interestingly, in Ireland the first season was Ninja turtles, but the rest of the seasons were Ninja turtles.

[BelatedCommiseration]

Its amazing to think that they made an apparently superficial and strange amendment to the turtles for uk airing. I grew up with this opening too, but it was stupid because a lot of the toys still had the 'ninja' moniker on them. I always thought 'ninja' rolled better off the tongue rather than hero. Personally I hold a schizophrenic attitude to the title as I think of them both as valid and it seems to alter depending with no rhyme or reason.

[DjB8709]

flows better, sounds better, is better, they changed a few words but definately for the best i grew up on this :D

[airguitardemon]

I'm from UK and grew up this opening. Guess it's just natural that Hero Turtles sounds much cooler, but when abbreviating it, TMNT sounds much better.

[scorchx3000]

splinter taught them to be n fighting teens. I used to love this, but how shitty was the censoring, it's half arsed at the best of times.

[icemanlj2k7]

i actually prefer hero to ninja, i grew up with it and its just better for me

[DarkLightningLupus]

I loved this Original one it was brill, was pissed when they started called them ninja turtles back apparently the UK was one of the only place to name this series the hero turtles

[AidanLunn]

@theirishtraitor It was deemed to have connotations that were too violent for a children's programme.

[CalamityAce]

I love how the animation just stops at 0:09. As a kid, I didn't understand this at all, now I just think it is silly.

[CalamityAce]

I love how the animation just stops at 0:09. As a kid, I didn't understand this at all, now I just think it is silly.

[laidbakboy88]

i dont get how anyone can dislike the teenage mutant hero turtles theme song its catchy and one of the best intro's of the eighties

[SalvableRuin]

@laidbakboy88 TMHT don't exist. Lol.

[EmtyThe1st]

OH NO! The British version changed one word in the opening. This clearly makes the American version superior.

Its like saying Fall is better than Autumn

[SalvableRuin]

@EmtyThe1st Not exactly, because "hero" and "ninja" are not synonyms. I don't think anyone cares that they changed a few words in the UK. The issue is the fact that they changed it because the British censors believed sensitive British children couldn't cope with "Ninjas" and needed "Hero Turtles" instead.

[schootingstarr]

@EmtyThe1st "

OH NO! The British version changed one word in the opening. This clearly makes the American version superior.

Its like saying Fall is better than Autumn"

I know, I know, your comment is a year old now, but I just HAVE to clear things up about that statement

in england and germany (and maybe some other parts of europe, I dunno), tmnt was aired as tmht. and not only that: they cut the "brutal" fight scenes, like michealangelos nunchuk

stupid cockmonglers

[HellfireGoddess]

I loved this so much when I was a kid. <3

[kkeelan]

I actually LIKE this version better. It's sung more clearly and the harmonies are more defined and easy to hear. So what if they changed a couple words? It flows just as well and actually sounds ten times better.

[GuitarHeroMophead]

Well, at least it wasn't re-written THAT badly. The syllable count still matches, and it sounds alright.

[YonKoma]

In Spain the opening was took from this but the show was called "Las tortugas ninja" (literally "The ninja turtles"). Also, in the first chapters was showed the non-censored opening.

About the nunchucks, I think is weirder leave Leonardo's swords. Do they think a nunchuck's injury can be worse than a sword's hit?

PS: Just for curious, what's Donatello machine in 0:40 ? I though about a machine turning pizza into something liquid like coffee... Until it flies like a rocket!

[tOkKa]

-->> Hmmm.. -maybe it's supposed to make you guess what exactly iy is. To let your mind wonder .. :)

Donatello's is a genius. Maybe he doesn't want to explain it to us.

Maybe it's a Pizza Coffee Rocket.

[Der2tCoolste]

in german its muuutch better! the english voice is gay

[tOkKa]

-->> .. it's not that bad.

[HorusNikopol]

das kann unmöglich dein ernst sein

[thedanmistro]

I used to love watchin this show : )

[Suhari85]

I'm from Finland. This intro is that i have seen when i was a kid. Some stupid law says that "Ninja" word was too violence word to European kids at early 90's. Sorry my bad english :D

Example; NES game Ninja Gaiden was called "Shadow Warriors" in Europe.

[JoshBC4L]

aside from the name changing.. this show was awesome!

[Geistxxxx]

name changing ?

[ilovedisney84]

It sounds so weird listening to it. my brain kinda rattles in its self with the hero part...

[matafuko]

It's weird for me too when I hear the word Ninja! I know that's what it's meant to be but I was about 20 before I heard it. I grew up with hero so that's what I remember. Very weird indeed.

[Haxmal]

well they did okay changing Ninja to Hero but the censor of ninja team to fighting team was so bad it didn't fit it at all as it was just taken from elsewhere in the theme song but it wasn't a bad intro just prefer the original one :)

[isaiahangelo]

ok..first of all...they cut all of Michelangelo's footage cause nunchaku was an illegal weapon in Britain..but that defeated the purpose of the opening credits because you're supposed to see all four turtles of which Mikey was the most popular. Blasphemous!

[ocarinaoftimewoman]

I knwo dude i bought the old vhs and when in the 1st episode they just say oh and thiers mikey and they dont megend his wepaon unlike donny raph and leo but mind you leo and donny was telling the story :/ which was strange

stupid censorship if nunchucks were bad then what about gaint swords and the sai they should of been banned too mind you donnys bo staff isnt that bad of a weapon really

[Superkaiju]

seems kinda blashemist to listen to this theme, but it sayign 'hero' instead of 'ninja'. how dare those brits clip the awesomeness of the turtles!

[matafuko]

British censorship laws were really strict in the 90s. Believe me - it pissed us off WAY more than it's pissing you off right now. It was insulting that some pussy on the censorship board felt we needed "protecting" and decided what we could and couldn't see.

[khanhi]

xDD As if the action in the show didn't lead onto something there. xD

[uubnex4]

why they change the name to hero turtles?

[tOkKa]

-->> The U.K. censors at the time did it , buddy. ;]

i guess they thought they were protecting kids.

[AidanLunn]

@tOkKa It was the EU censors, not the UK censors. Many countries used the "Hero Turtles" branding, though not all EU countries did.

[AlwaysRainyInSeattle]

copy right laws. fuckem all

[RawonamSuxx]

haha - nice. but seriously german version kicks asses...it doesn't even sound as if it was made for a cartoon...just manly :-D

[HellsAnkel]

We also had "Hero" in the Netherlands. This is how I remember it :') Those were the days... ;)

[DavidBirch1987]

Best cartoon show ever, just got the show on dvd!

[gold7250]

hmm interesting, cuz I am from Croatia and we had NINJA turtles back in 90s wtf is this hero shit lol :D Europeans pfail

[OptimusPrimeribs]

omg, this made me laugh and brought me back to when I was about 10, all in 60 seconds!

[badreligionbeliever]

Okay for all you retards who keep pondering the about the word "hero", the EU censored the word ninja. Just move your finger to your mouse, and scroll down and read some comments and you'll understand.

[tOkKa]

-->> hoo boi.

[SamildanachEmrys]

Hahaha, the Technodrome. Classic.

[subc666]

Hero is what i remember but why did i call them ninja turtles? I don't get it haha love it still tho!

[DBSaiyanTim777]

infamous??? it was very famous

[abisho2007]

EU censorship ftl

[kottlatastic]

we had this intro in sweden, but we all knew it was wrong xD

[Omegatron666]

We had? From what I remember in my youth, they said Ninja, not Hero. Hm...

[djmilkshake83]

the hell???

[j04370859]

I have this video too. The episode starts with those mutant frogs.

[crisprapper]

This isn't the original intro we had in the UK though... We had the exact same as the US, this came later on. The original intro still said 'Hero' due to Ninja being a bad word but Mikey still had his nunchucks.

[tOkKa]

-->> That's a great note ,man .. Thanks !!

[PikachuProject98]

ha-ha that sound retarded!

[GOXTER21]

lepsza ta stara seria niz te nowsze serie

[johnmyers1984]

DVD came out yesterday for UK

[Officer107]

man i loved this show, i really did

[deinvadder88]

We all did, dude ;)

[Mastabiff]

BLASPHEMY! THEY ARE NINJAS! They should have renamed it "ninja heros" if anything. It's kind of obvious that they're turtles.

[ratedrshippystar]

yes the uk version finially!

[kibblesworth]

Lols exactly, i prefer this one, it's the one from my youth :P

[feeblezak]

i wanna know why the Americans, called it Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and we called it teenage mutant hero turtles

[jedsithor]

Because "ninja" was deemed to be too violent for kids...yeah...I know...the whole show has fighting with swords etc but Ninja is such a terrible word that it overshadows any weapons fighting though I believe that even some of the weapons may have been altered.

[KilamajaroKen]

Only Mikey's nunchucks were. Notice all clips with the chucks were removed from the intro. Which is why Mikey use a grappling hook in later seasons.

[Misdemonar]

WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS SHIT

[tOkKa]

-->> ..apparently some sh6t you've never seen before.

[xlegionx]

Why edit out the nunchucks but not the katana?

[Parlett316]

At :39 it looks like has nunchucks

[Mastabiff]

the nunchakus are there. look more closely.

[wrestletube1]

I liked the reruns on Bravo, they had the uncensored edition with the Hero theme and was on in about 1998.

I wish I had recorded some of those episodes for a great Hi-Fi quality theme.

[andy86i]

was such a lame desicion.. not only were mikeys nunchucks still present on the toys AND in the video games, but the movies were also unchanged... so what was a the whole point? could of saved someone a crap load of effort dubbing out the word ninja and recuting the episodes.

[uknortherner2000]

I remember about a month before the first film came out and the BBC had to explain to its viewers via Newsround why the film was called Ninja Turtles rather than Hero Turtles.

It was silly censorship really. Go into any arcade at the time and you had games like Dragonninja (and even TMHT complete with original music and nunchucks). If you had a Spectrum or C64, chances are you already had games like Last Ninja. Censoring the word "ninja" was ridiculous and pointless.

[tOkKa]

:0 )

DAMM COOL !!

-->> !!

[vulpintissentiality]

I know that most people prefer the Ninja version over the Hero version, but I have still missed this so much! It'll always be Hero to me, since that's what I adored when I was little! :D

[tOkKa]

-->> ..that's perfectly fine by me.

Hero turtles also had a ling list of unique collectibles and such special to the U K .

Allot of em are bad a55 like the big massive Poster Comics i managed to snag !!

Real cool !!

[vulpintissentiality]

I really wish I'd kept some of the UK merchandise I had when I was little. Especially my old TMHT hairbrush... :) (Probably one of the least impressive things out there, but I still used to love it! ;^^ )

[tOkKa]

-->> ..it's not your fault, J !! :)

Don't be ashamed. Just part of Turtle - history at this point.

[jamesjenko]

I'm ashamed they thought us brits wouldnt be able to handle the word "ninja". What they should have done is instead of re-recording the theme tune for this (which i assume they did) they shouldve just got a deep voiced english man to say "hero" over the top. Silly fools!

[TerminalCriticism]

Holy shit, haven't seen the Tempo Video logo for damn near a decade.

This cartoon got me through childhood.

[Lagwagon555]

I was just about to comment the same thing. That Tempo Video logo really brought back memories haha.

[brigadieroflandstar]

Much better than the new Ninja crap

[Ooftyman]

What are you talking about? You do know that it was only the Hero Turtles in a few countries, right? It was the Ninja Turtles long before Hero Turtles, and the only reason they made it Hero Turtles in some countries was because some prudes thought the use of the word "ninja" was offensive.

[Gameking53]

If you pay attention closely, you can also see that all shots of Michelangelo wielding his nunchuks have been removed for the same reasons.

[thief1183]

I think he's talking about the newer animated versions. I think it sucks, but my little brother thinks it's awesome.

Kids these days! ;)

[AppleEarring]

The series that came out in 2003? Or the Fast Forward series? The 2003 series is better! But that is just my opinion. Not so much Fast Forward.

[joeyrule111]

classic!!!! :)

[SerugioSan]

YEAH!!