The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Show We Never Got — The Uncanny Fox

After the decline of the old 2D *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series and the abject failure of Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation, original franchise owners Mirage Studios set out to produce a new cartoon that would be more faithful to the original comics. The result would be the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* series my brother and I grew up watching, but many of you might not know that it was almost completely different.

In 2001, years before 4Kids landed the partnership with Playmates for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon we did get, Mirage partnered up with Rainbow Studios, a video game developer known for a bunch of racing games (including Star Wars Racer Revenge). The result was a 5-minute CGI test trailer for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon that was shopped to multiple networks. Nobody picked up the project, so it was scrapped, leaving only this trailer as a look into what could have been.

This Cool Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Pilot Was Never Picked Up

[embed]Via Ninja Pizza

As you can see, the trailer covers the basics: the Turtles live in the sewer, are trained in the ninja arts by Master Splinter, and fight crime with the help of their friends April and Casey. The bad guys would have consisted of the Foot Clan (led by a very 90s-Mortal Kombat-looking Shredder), the Triceratons, and what I’m guessing are the Mousers.

The graphics look… alright for the time, though they make me think of a PlayStation 1 cutscene (it was made by a video game developer, so no surprises there). Given the cost of CGI at the time and the mixed success of the format on TV at the time, I don’t think it would have lasted nearly as long as the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show we got. It does show some potential though, and the voice acting is solid for the most part.

One funny bit I’ve noticed is how the narrator keeps talking about “the Power.” Wrong franchise, guys!

All the same, it’s still nice to look back on what could have been for our lovable heroes in green, who are still rocking screens large and small in 2026.

Originally published at https://theuncannyfox.com on March 4, 2026.