THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING TURTLES

01PLOT

The Turtles are practicing martial arts in Central Park, when "Shredder" arrives. Leonardo, Donatello and Raphael easily subdue him, only to find that it's actually Michelangelo in a homemade costume.

Just then, an alien spacecraft crashes into a nearby pond. The Turtles dive in and rescue the alien pilot from drowning, though he has apparently been fatally wounded in the crash. Before dying, the pilot tells the Turtles that the three fragments of the Eye of Sarnath accidentally fell towards the Earth from the spacecraft when it crashed. They have to find it before it comes into the "wrong hands," because the fragments have incredible alien powers. To find them, he gives Donatello a crystalline tracking device, the Crystal Converger. The pilot then dies and disappears.

The Turtles are unaware that Shredder has been eavesdropping on them from behind a nearby bush. He contacts Krang in Dimension X, demanding Foot Soldiers, but Krang refuses.

The Turtles drive around the streets of New York City, searching for the fragments, when the tracking device leads them to the docks. As they find the first fragment, Shredder snatches it away, aims it at the Turtles, and shrinks them down to mere inches. They manage to escape with the Converger, and make their way into the sewers.

While Splinter contacts April O'Neil to help them, Shredder uses the fragment to shrink skyscrapers, including the Empire State Building, to impress Krang. Baxter Stockman shows Shredder a new invention: a "Heat Seeking Turtle Scope".

The Turtles discover that being tiny is no picnic, since they are faced with life-threatening danger from snakes and fish. A flood of water washes them out into the river, where Baxter Stockman catches them in a net. After putting the Turtles in a jar, Shredder shows Krang how he is going to murder the Turtles with a pipe. Krang seems impressed.

Splinter experiences a feeling about where the Turtles are, which leads him straight to Shredder's hideout. When they crash through the front door, April activates the Turtle Van catapult, throwing Splinter out to attack Shredder. While Shredder and Splinter fight, April takes the fragment and aims it towards the Turtles, who go back to their normal size, but Shredder and Baxter Stockman escape with the fragments.

Back in the sewers, Splinter gives the Turtles small pizzas as a joke.

02CAST & APPEARANCES

03OBJECTS, VEHICLES & PLACES

04SCREEN GRABS

9 frames. Screencaps via Turtlepedia (CC BY-SA).

05MEMORABLE QUOTES

Shredder: Now to crush you miserable reptiles one by one!!

Shredder: _(observing the Turtles through binoculars)_ The fools! They're _leading_ me to the fragments! _(calling)_ Baxter?! (_cut to Baxter relishing in ice cream cone)_ Connect me with Krang in Dimension X immediately!

Baxter: But my cone is melting in the sun! (_whips up a piece of ice cream and savours)_

Shredder: "Silence toad!! Do as I say and NOW!!!

Donatello: Y...You guys go on, I can't run any farther!

Leonardo: Never! We'll make our stand _here_!

Shredder: Who needs Foot Soldiers, when a single foot will take care of you insects! _(poises foot to crush them)_

Shredder: _(holding the shrunken Turtles in a glass jar)_ Well Krang, What have to to say now?

Krang: _(through Com-Link)_ Mmm! Perhaps I have underestimated your _evil_ abilities after all!

Krang: _(to Turtles)_ What have you to say now, _mini_ mutants?

Donatello: (banging on glass) "You'll never get away with this, Krang!!!"

Leonardo/Raphael/Michaelangelo: "Huuuhh?"

06TRIVIA

• The character design of the guardian is strongly inspired by the famous alien E.T. protagonist of the classic 1982 film _E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial_.
• This is the first episode in the series where a living character clearly dies on screen. Immediately after the alien passes away, he even leaves behind a coffin-shaped burn mark (or shadow) on the grass.
• Until the episode "Curse of the Evil Eye", all of the episodes from this point onwards focus on the Turtles and Shredder trying to get all of the pieces of the Eye of Sarnath.
• Mere moments before Shredder grabs the gem, look at Donatello's hand. It raises up, almost as if Donatello _wanted_ to hand it over to Shredder.
• The Turtles get trumped rather badly at the start of this episode by the Shredder, but a few of the mistakes made can be chalked up to inexperience on their part (which is hinted at the beginning, and Splinter even indicates this towards the end). For example, Michelangelo confronts Shredder while putting one foot over an obvious snare, Raphael gets trapped by an easily avoidable plank of wood and Leonardo just stands there and watches Shredder advance towards him, which results in him being easily disarmed and netted.
• If Shredder wanted to be rid of the Turtles so badly, why did he even bother putting air holes in the jar once he captured them? I guess he really did want to wait for Krang.
• Once Shredder gets the upper hand against Splinter, he leaps towards him and turns on the machine in the process with his foot. However, from the way it's drawn, it looks like it was done purely by accident. Shredder's dialog when the machine is stopped by Donatello's staff makes it sound like he did it on purpose, which makes this situation a tad odd. All according to plan?
• Also, it didn't appear as if Shredder would have released Splinter at all on the cheese wrapping machine. Isn't he concerned that he'd end up crushed himself?
• Shredder using a gem to shrink down a city will be revisited again in the video game _The Hyperstone Heist_.
• Bebop and Rocksteady do not appear from this episode up until "The Case of the Killer Pizzas".
• Michelangelo finds himself miniaturized again in the episode "Funny, They Shrunk Michelangelo."
• In the comic version of this story, the NYPD is collecting the shrunken buildings to study. Baxter manages to gain some for Shredder by impersonating an NYPD officer, wearing a police uniform.
• The scene when the the Turtles run towards the lake was used in the United Kingdom intro.

07HOME MEDIA

08FAN REVIEW

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