April O'Neil Will Be Black In Upcoming 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Animated Movie, Reviving Familiar Discourse War
Yesterday, the first trailer for Seth Rogen's upcoming animated film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem was released by Nickelodeon, showing off an early glimpse of the 3D style and new character designs.
Releasing in August, this iteration of the Ninja Turtles will be the first cinematic outing for the quartet since 2016's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. But, as seems to be par for the course whenever any adaptation is announced, social media is running through another round of discourse over the choice of race for a specific character.
In Mutant Mayhem, April O'Neil will be a Black teenage girl, as opposed to the adult white woman she'd been portrayed as in some cartoons and later by Megan Fox in the live-action films. Mutant Mayhem's April will also be voiced by Ayo Edibiri.
As with The Little Mermaid and Velma before it, a significant amount of social media users are unhappy that the character is perceivably race-swapped.
Many also expressed they were upset she was not tall and skinny but rather short and somewhat stouter than the character has been in previous iterations.
This prompted a deep dive into the lore of TMNT, and users made the argument that April O'Neil was originally mixed-race when the franchise debuted as a comic book and was only race-swapped to white when the IP went to cartoons and television.
As the rumored history of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles goes, co-creator Kevin Eastman based the character off a woman he was dating named April, who was mixed-race. Though the original comics were drawn in black and white, April's perm and facial features of the early comics have been used by some to make the point that she was originally a non-white character. The other co-creator, Peter Laird, is on record stating that he always saw April as white, but acknowledged Eastman viewed her as mixed-race.
April has taken many forms in 40 years of Ninja Turtles canon, from the character portrayed in the original comics and the tall, red-haired character of the original cartoon series to (brunette) Megan Fox and a young Black girl in the 2018 animated series Rise of the Teenage Ninja Turtles.
As many have noted amid the viral debate, this suggests there is no true "canon" appearance of April O'Neil, as showrunners and movie directors have historically chosen to portray her in a variety of ways based on the stories they want to tell with the IP.
While social media hashes out whether it matters if a fictional character who hangs out with anthropomorphic sewage creatures is white, hot, Black or young, historically, it's been proven that the common arguments about the races of characters in adaptations tend not to hold sway over whether general audiences like the final product.
What typically matters more is the actual quality of the TV show or movie — though recent adaptations that have made changes to the races of major characters have not fared well with critics of late, for reasons entirely unrelated to race.
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PatrickBateman96
I thought April O'Neil was female.
Spaztastic Man
At this point I'm fine with it. BL'April had enough personality in RotTMNT to stand out as her own character. If this one can do the same (not a copy of RotTMNT's character obviously) then more power to them.
Admittedly, from my personal experience with the franchise, a lot of the W'April renditions haven't managed to stand out. Whenever anyone thinks April, they usually default back to the 1987 version, as she is the most iconic. I think the only one in recent time that's been super popular was the 2012 version, and that's because she's really the only one with any character development.
KozaChain
Don't have anything to add but: That design in the right panel on that one tweet is legit cute.
TheAnt
I'll be honest, ignoring the whole April discourse, the trailer was neat. The ITS influence is extremely notable, and hopefully it can translate to an overall good film, cause lord knows the TMNT haven't had that since 1990.
SSmotzer
But unlike Little Mermaid, this looks good actually.
Excitebot theLEGO
For those disappointed in the change, there's always shredders revenge, home to one of the best incarnations of ginger April. Otherwise, here's hoping this one keeps up the spider verse trend of quality stylized animated films.
Jon the Wizard
There's this particular cloud passing overhead. And wouldn't you know, there's Grandpa Simpson yelling at it.
TheOneWhoWroteThis
The general gist is the following (based on CBR, TMNT Entity, and official sources):
1) April was originally envisioned by Peter Laird (one of two creators) as Asian, but was eventually decided upon to be Caucasian.
2) April's name came from Kevin Eastman's late then-GF / eventual wife / eventual ex-wife, April Fisher, who was mixed race. Eastman (the other creator) likes inserting his lovers in his work.
3) April was part of the series since TMNT #2 (TMNT vs. the Mousers). She was never a reporter in the original Mirage Comics (besides the non-canon #32) as that came from the 1987 TV show. She was a programmer instead before owning an antique store.
4) Her initial appearance in #2 depicted her as Caucasian on both the cover and the actual pages. You can see this by comparing her with Baxter Stockman, her African American boss. Furthermore, the colorized version from Eastman had her colored as a Caucasian woman.
5) April got a perm in TMNT #4 that lasted until around #61.
6) The non-canon #32 issue had two different colorized versions. The 1992 edition that was helmed by Bill Fitts had her colored as an African woman. The 2013 edition from IDW had her colored as a Caucasian woman.
7) April is a homunculus in the Mirage Comics (the initial series) as she was drawn to life by her father with a Warp Crystal and pen.
What's important is whether or not the writing of the film is good. Hopefully the film is solid, but the trailer is getting mixed reception.
TheOneWhoWroteThis
This also wouldn't be the first time that April was African American as Rise of the TMNT exists. I thought that show was pretty decent, but I prefer TMNT '12 and the classic '87 series more.
In either case, she was originally Caucasian, but she has various depictions throughout various TMNT series. Her being African American isn't new whatsoever, and I don't think her race matters on whether or not the movie is good (the script, sound, and animation quality are what determine that IMO).
:̶.̶|̶:̶;̶
It's going to be shit. Why? Because if it wasn't this wouldn't have been the first thing I heard about it.
Next.
lecorbak
I don't care that she's black, but what's wrong with her anatomy ?
GrayVBoat
Believe it or not, there are plenty of real people with similar appearances. In fact, I've known a couple. Obviously there's a certain amount of stylization going on here, but "short and round" is a real body type.
Venusgate
On this topic, if I saw a 6ft tall slim but full ginger in a bright yellow jump suit come my way with a microphone, I would probably just run away like a gazelle.
Patriotic Autocannon
I like her design in Rise of TMNT