With Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem releasing to theaters today, turtle fever is beginning to spike again, and it’s ramping up higher than ever before. Indeed, after quite a long spell of lackluster cinematic outings for the half-shell heroes, Seth Rogen and company finally stuck the landing with Mutant Mayhem, and critics and audiences alike are relishing the occasion.
Indeed, there’s hardly been a better time to be a TMNT fan, and it’s perhaps an even better time to be sticking one’s toe into that pool for the very first time. But with joining a fandom comes the daunting hurdle of getting all the characters’ names right, and while longtime fans don’t even need their turtles to be color-coded at this point, newcomers simply don’t have the same prowess.
With that, here’s a full breakdown of each turtle and how you can easily identify them.
Leonardo
Armed with dual katanas and his bright blue bandana, Leonardo (aka Leo) is the oldest of the four brothers, and his relative surplus of discipline and maturity means he often finds himself in a leadership position amongst the turtles; a role he tends to takes quite seriously.
Though some of that stoicism is toned down for the sake of Mutant Mayhem‘s teenage ethos, Leo nevertheless finds himself trying to wrangle his brothers into listening to their father, Master Splinter, and thus retains his distinction as the most responsible of the four.
If his blue bandana or the gigantic L on his belt somehow doesn’t do it for your memory, consider the fact that “Leonardo” and “leader” both begin with the same letter, and Leo’s demeanor should do the rest.
Donatello
Resident lab-rat Donatello (aka Donnie) is the most soft-spoken of the brothers, who prefers to solve problems with his ingenious technological inventions rather than direct combat, although the purple-clad reptile is more than capable of holding his own in a fight thanks to his bō staff (affectionately referred to in Mutant Mayhem as a “big stick”).
In Mutant Mayhem, Donnie is perhaps the most identifiable of the four thanks to the many accessories – such as a pair of headphones and a fanny pack – decorating his character, along with his distinctively high voice.
But if that, his purple bandana, or the gigantic D on his belt somehow doesn’t do it for your memory, remember that Donnie is the quietest and gentlest of the turtles; a personality that goes well with his purple mask and relatively soft-sounding nickname relative to his brothers.
Raphael
Headstrong, impulsive, and rough-and-tumble, Raphael (aka Raph) is the de facto hothead of brothers, always ready for a good fight and the most likely of the turtles to create trouble. His up-close-and-personal, aggressive nature pairs well with his dual sai weapon of choice and red bandana.
Though his aggressive nature often results in angsty characterization that generates palpable tension between the four, Mutant Mayhem opted to not go for that route, instead channeling Raph’s essential love of combat into a gung-ho, if pathological, fixation; one that honors Raph’s character without disrupting the harmony between the brothers, which is effectively the backbone of the film.
If his red bandana or the gigantic R on his belt somehow doesn’t do it for your memory, just think of the word “rage,” an emotion that Raph tends to be prone to, and his similarly-sounding name should be the first to pop into your head.
Michelangelo
With his trademark orange bandana, Michelangelo (aka Mikey) is the king of good vibes among him and his brothers, preferring to party, crack jokes, and generally inject positive, if immature, energy into any situation he comes across; the exception, of course, being those where he has to whip out his dual nunchaku and deliver a beatdown or two to a rogue mutant or Foot clan solider.
Mikey perhaps changed the least when the turtles made the jump to Mutant Mayhem; indeed, considering he’s the only one who acts like a teenager throughout most all TMNT media, Rogen’s film was already the perfect playground for Mikey, whose aforementioned status as the vibe master played a crucial role in the brothers’ fight against Superfly.
If his orange bandana or the gigantic M on his belt somehow doesn’t do it for your memory, he’ll be the only name left if you follow those memory tricks for the other turtles, so by process of elimination, you’ll know that Mikey is Mikey.