Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans in the UK were no doubt confused when a big-screen adaptation of the popular animated series hit theaters back in 1990. You see, while the movie version went by the same name as the show in the U.S., British viewers called the cartoon Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles. This strange change stemmed from the British government’s strong opposition to violence in children’s programming. Around that same time, the British Home Office had also banned the sale of ninja weapons.
Since the Ninja Turtles movie wasn’t airing on TV, the producers could use the original title. However, nunchucks were still an issue and could only be seen very briefly in the UK cut of the film. Even then, they weren’t permitted to be shown in action.
These rules were so strict that they resulted in an entire scene being cut from the 1991 sequel Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.
The Strange British Censorship That Turned the Ninja Turtles Into ‘Hero Turtles’
“After turtle takes down sausages and uses them as flail,” begins a note from the British Board of Film Classification. “Reduce to minimum dazzling display of swinging sausages indistinguishable from chainsticks,” it continues. This referred to a sequence in which Michelangelo uses sausage links as faux nunchucks. The edits weren’t restored to the UK version until 2002.
The show eventually started going by the U.S. title years later. Versions shown in other European countries like Austria, Germany, Norway, and Belgium followed suit. The 2012 reboot reportedly wasn’t affected and was allowed to be called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for its entire run. By then, they even finally let Michelangelo use his signature nunchucks.
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