My Favorites of TMNT: MICHELANGELO
*Edited/Updated to now include Rise and MM*
So, I thought it might be fun to count down my favorite versions of our animated turtle boys! (I may do comic version later). It’s let me revisit some of the versions I don’t watch all that often and that’s always fun.
You all know I have to start with my favorite turtle, Michelangelo.
This was my first intro to Michelangelo and he remains my favorite. I think he’s probably the nicest of all the Mikey’s and genuinely just wants people to be happy and have fun. I enjoy how he’s shown to be just as competent as his brothers in this series and they rely on him in turn. He has spiritual abilities—he can talk to animals and more than once he gets prophetic dreams. He takes his role of looking after his family’s morale seriously and truthfully, he’s damn good at it.
The original movie series Mikey is such a doll. He’s fun loving and always making wise cracks or jokes but there’s also a sensitive side to him and he absolutely has other emotions than just “the fun one.” He’s not one to let out his own insecurity, hiding it under jokes, denial or even anger. (The fact we never got the extended scenes of his outbursts in the barn is a cinematic crime). But he’s also a talented fighter, has great chemistry with his brothers—especially Donnie—and I adore how while he still very much comes across as the baby of the family, he is not incompetent.
Oh, I love you, darling and the writers did you so dirty! Honestly, I blame the writing for Mikey more than anything. Why Laird decided all comic relief must be from Mikey I will never understand. We saw hints of Mikey’s deeper side—his insecurity, his feeling like he doesn’t match up to his brothers, his interdependence on his family, his desire to truly help others, his love of animals. This Mikey puts up a mask and that mask hides so much more underneath it. It’s all here and they did next to nothing with it! It pretty much wrote itself! *sigh* Thank God for fans and fanfiction ….oh and when it comes to fighting, this Mikey is an absolute beast.
This Mikey makes me laugh so much. He’s so full of energy and enthusiasm that it’s freaking contagious. He’s got a smile out of Batman—Batman!—and the way he just takes everything in stride is one reason I love him so much. They do tend to downplay his intelligence which is something, unfortunately, that happens to a lot of Mikeys but he’s not stupid. Naive, impulsive maybe but not stupid. And again, I love we see how he and Donnie interact!
We finally got a version of Mikey that really delves into his empathy and his artistic tendencies. Yes, yes please! Dr, Feelings, Dr. Delicate Touch, these are such great expansions on that and really clever ways to explore it.
Oh and he actually is the youngest by a a few years and yes, that affects the dynamic and yes, I love it! His interactions with all his brothers is brilliant and I live for the affection these boys have for one another!
And can we talk about that mystic ability and how absolutely unhinged this Mikey could get? God, I love it! We were robbed of more of this awesomeness!
The fact we didn’t see more of this Mikey is really a damn shame. The little we did see, I really enjoyed. His voice and design are great and it’s neat to see a Mikey who is a bit older. I enjoy that we see how much this Mikey really remains dependent on his brothers. His greeting to Leo when he comes back melts my heart and how he remains so dependent on Donnie and just…trusts him to find the answers. I really wish we’d seen this Mikey in the planned sequel where he has to save his family. Seeing him thrust into a situation where he doesn’t have that support he relies on would have been so cool to witness.
I actually really like the Bayverse. It’s not perfect but I think there’s a lot of potential. Now, I definitely prefer Out of the Shadows characterization because they got rid of a lot of the “pervy” traits. This Mikey wants to belong and be accepted so damn badly. His “We’re not monsters” and his face just breaks my heart. He only wants to be able to be an actual teenager, to be heard and to be accepted and can you really blame him for that?
(The fact all his brothers utterly lose it on Krang for almost crushing him with “Nobody messes with Mikey!” will always be a movie highlight for me)
Oh boy. So, while I definitely still like the Nick series, the writing utterly fails Mikey here. And it’s a shame because when they do write him well, it’s on fire! But they write him so terrible most of the time—he’s a punching bag, he’s presented as stupid most of the time, and they treat him as a perpetual child (“never really matured past six years old”) and that is such a disservice to his character. It feels like they saw him more as a ‘sidekick’ to the others rather than a hero in his own right. I still like him but there’s so much missed opportunities with this Mikey and it makes me sad.
And we have someone new in last place. I do still like this Mikey though. But this makes only the second TMNT property (the other being 2012) where Mikey isn’t my favorite.
We don’t really get much to work with regarding MM Mikey. He has the least unique traits of his brothers. They gave him more vague or wide traits and the result is him feeling much less defined than his brothers.
And there’s his voice…I’m sorry, the voice just does not fit Mikey to me. It doesn’t sound like Mikey. I can’t feel it being Mikey. So I just can’t get behind it.