Original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Cartoon Is Now Streaming on Pluto TV for Free

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are preparing to hit the big screen once again as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem will give fans a new take on the Heroes in a Half-Shell. Over the years, Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello, and Raphael have received more animated incarnations than we can count. The animated series that started it all on the small screen debuted in 1987 and garnered nearly two hundred episodes, with the television series now available to watch on Pluto TV.

The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series had ten seasons to its name, introducing the turtles that we've come to know over the years and adding the different colored headbands that initially didn't appear in the original comic book series. First premiering in a comic book series from Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in 1984, taking a far darker approach to the teenage turtles than most incarnations, the four siblings all sported red masks versus the red, blue, purple, and orange that we've come to know. With the upcoming arrival of Mutant Mayhem, the latest incarnation of the Turtles will see the mutants leaning far more heavily into their "Teenage" aspects than many of the other takes on the ninja brothers.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on Pluto TV

You can check out Pluto TV's live channel focusing on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series here, and while the episodes aren't available to stream "on demand", you can re-live the earliest animated adventures for the ninja siblings. There isn't an animated series running presently, though Mutant Mayhem has been confirmed to garner a future television series and a sequel movie. With these two projects confirmed, it's clear Paramount has some serious faith in this new take on the Turtles. 

In our review for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, we noted that the film was able to capture the dynamic relationship between the four turtles, noting it as a main strength of the animated movie, "Luckily, one of the brightest parts of the film is also one of its most prominent, as these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themselves have a chemistry that is absolutely infectious on the screen. Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Micah Abbey, and Shannon Brown Jr. as Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michaelangelo knock it out of the park with their line delivery and how they are able to bounce quips off one another in rapid succession. These feel like brothers in an unruly family in the best possible way. The decision to make these Heroes in a Half-Shell on the younger side of their teenage years adds an adorable quality to their adventures as they attempt to navigate through a society that hates and fears them. Each turtle has their own unique personality and aesthetic that are able to sell this new iteration."