Donatello (2012 TV series)

Donatello or Donnie is the brains of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. He is in charge of the design and manufacture of all the tools and weapons in their arsenal. He fights with a bō, which converts to a naginata (a spear-like weapon).

He is voiced by Rob Paulsen (Raphael's voice actor in the 1987 animated series).

Personality
"Donnie" is extremely intelligent and technical, always working on a strategy whether building machines or battling villains; the complete opposite to the free-flowing Mikey. He talks a lot in order to describe or explain a situation or theory in full, even when in the face of danger. He is also more short-tempered, getting frustrated easily and shouting when angry, although Donatello is usually kind, caring, and compassionate. He is very protective and complimentary of April (Who is also in teenage years in this adaptation) whom he has a huge crush on. Donatello has a more prominent role in this series compared to the original 1987 series, being more active and purpose-driven, but at times does not understand and/or has a hard time grasping the lectures of Master Splinter. He the second-youngest turtle, despite being the tallest.

Abilities
Donnie may not be the strongest fighter, but his intellegence makes up for it. He has a good line of defense, and is the best at planning strategies. Donnie's intellegence helps him plan out strageties, and be able to build, fix, take apart, and hack machines. Though Donnie doesn't use much hand to hand combat, he is strong when it comes to defense and counter attacks and he mainly prefers kicks over punches. Like his brothers, Donnie is stealthy, can hide in the shadows, sneak around without being detected, and use hand to hand combat.

Biography
Fifteen years before the Rise of the Turtles, Part 1, the benevolent Hamato Yoshi purchased the four turtles. Yoshi came into contact with a rat and had to fight against a couple of Kraang. The aliens dropped their mutagen causing the mutation of Yoshi and the turtles. Yoshi raised the turtles as his own children and continues to train them in ninjutsu. His character design was also updated, giving him a gap in his teeth and a taller, leaner appearance than his brothers.

Appointed a Ninja
Donatello earns the right to be called a Ninja, in the interactive prequel comic "Tales from the Turtle Lair", During Donatello's test, Donatello lands in an empty shaft, noticing an air vent some distance up the wall. He at first thinks this isn’t much of a challenge, until the floor starts to fall out from under him forcing him to a back wall. This leads him to pause and reflect on a time where his brothers and himself were going through an obstacle course. One of the obstacles they had to cover was a stone wall which, Leo, Raph, and Mikey climb easily. Unfortunately Donatello doesn’t succeed quite as well, as his siblings do and proceeds to get frustrated as a result. Splinter approaches and asks if it was truly the obstacle course that he was angry with. Donatello admits that no matter how hard he trains, he feels he can’t keep up with his brothers. Splinter answers Donatello by asking "If a tree falls into a stream, does it stop flowing?" Donatello answers this anecdote by stating 'The water doesn’t stop, but instead makes a new path by flowing around the tree.' Splinter then informs Donatello the task of the obstacle was to get over the wall, and nothing was said about climbing it. Donnie, then uses his bo as a vault and is able to ascend the wall easily.” Realizing what must be done, Donnie retracts the naginata blade from his staff and throws it at the opposite wall so that it’s near the air shaft. He then takes a leap of faith grabs his bo and uses it to vault to the air shaft and passing his trial.

Family Members

 * Leonardo - Donnie's oldest brother. He and Leo rarely fight, unless absolutely necessary. They do tend to tease each other often, but never try to hurt each other physically. Although, there are points in the series where Leo tends to stress out Donnie while he fixes or opens bombs, locks, etc, as seen in The Gauntlet and It Came From The Depths. Donnie, in return, questions Leo occasionally about his plans to see if they're accurate or safe. Leo feels like Donnie worries too much, and Donnie feels the same way about him, but they share a strong brother/best-friend relationship and show compassion and have each others' backs.


 * Raphael - Donnie's second-oldest brother. He and Raph do fight occasionally, but tease and taunt each other more. Raph tends to tease and taunt Donnie about his "dorkiness" and smarts, while Donnie does the same to Raph about his "meatheadedness" and temper. Overall, they still have each others' backs and care about each other, as they are brothers, but they hardly show that kind of affection.


 * Michelangelo- Donnie's younger brother. He and Mikey fight the most out of all his brothers, but they seem very close as brothers. Donnie tends to be the actual big brother to Mikey, whereas his other brothers just plan out what they're going to do, and just use Mikey as a sidekick. Donnie hates it whenever Mikey doesn't use his common sense or whenever he goofs off too much, but Donnie still loves him, as he is his little brother and best friend. Mikey, on the other hand, looks up to Donnie, and teases him about his huge crush on April, but he always tries helping Donnie; trying to impress him with his nunchuck skills.


 * Splinter - Donnie's adoptive father and sensei. Donnie tries his best to listen to Splinter's advice, but most of Splinter's words tend to confuse him, which is ironic, because Donnie is never confused once it comes to words. It is shown the Donnie questions Splinter's advice the most, despite being the smartest.

Friends/Allies

 * April O'Neil - Donnie's best friend and crush. Donnie instantly developed a crush on her when he first saw her, despite her not noticing his immense attraction towards her. There are several episodes where Donnie actually shows his feelings for her, but he quickly takes it back, fearing that she'll not accept him (because he is a turtle and she is a girl.) and their friendship will go awry.


 * Leatherhead - Donnie has neutral feelings about Leatherhead. While he see's him as a valuable ally, Donnie's very terrified of Leatherhead; mostly because there's a running gag where whenever Leatherhead looses control, he grabs Donnie by the face and shakes him like a rag doll. Leatherhead has regreted this action though and he see's Donnie as a good friend like he does all the turtles.


 * Pulverizer - At first, Donnie was annoyed by the Pulverizer in Episode With Same Name, but in Pulverizer Returns, Donnie develops a frienship with him. He thought the Pulverizer was a hopeless guy in over his head at first, but then he realized there was more to him. Timothy tries to mutate himself, hoping that he'll turn out to be like Donnie and his brothers. Fortunately, Donnie tries his best to stop him, warning Timothy that the mutagen is dangerous, and could even kill the Pulverizer if he came in contact with it. Unfortunately, Timothy doesn't listen to him, and optimistically gets attacked by some mutagen. Donnie then promises that he'll find a cure for the Pulverizer.

Enemies

 * Shredder - Donnie's archnemesis. Donnie has heard a lot about the Shredder from Splinter ever since he and his brothers were younger. Even though he never met him until The Gauntlet, he knew the Shredder was dangerous. When he does officially meet him, he is rightfully afraid of him and tries his best to fight him. This encounter does make him and his brothers realize how inexperienced they are in contrast to the Shredder. However, when he meets the Shredder encounters the Shredder in Enemy of My Enemy, he, Raph and Mikey aer able to stand their ground against him much better.


 * Kraang - Donnie's targeted archnemesis. From their Dimension X, the Kraang are partially aware of Donnie's inventions spying on them for information, but never focus on them. Meanwhile, Donnie invents gadgets to spy on the Kraang to gather the exact information that he and his brothers need in order to get rid of them. Donnine is very impressed with their technology.


 * Dogpound - One of Donnie's enemies.


 * Fishface - One of Donnie's enemies.


 * Karai - Donnie's enemy. Karai is the only enemy Donnie knows very little about, mainly because Leo never mentioned her to him. Based on his observations of her, he doesn't like her because of her need to cause trouble. He is wary of Karai's tactics, and doesn't trust her at all, even when she offered to help him and his brothers with destroying the Kraang. He does, however, get to tease Leo about liking her, even though it's clear she's their enemy.


 * Dr. Falco / Rat King - One of Donnie's archenemies. Falco is one of the few enemies Donnie was able to defeat on his own.

Gallery
See: Donatello (2012 TV series) / Gallery

Quotes
See: Donatello (2012 TV series) / Quotes

Trivia

 * Donatello's name is Italian, meaning "Gift Given from God". Given the fact that he was adopted by Hamato Yoshi/Splinter, Donatello's full name would be "Hamato Donatello".
 * In Katakana, Donatello's name is spelt: ドナテッロ (Donaterro).
 * Donatello is the tallest amongst his brothers, presumably at around 6 ft tall as seen on concept art of The Pulverizer scale refers to the Turtles' maximum height.
 * Donatello has Diastema, (a noticeable gap between his front teeth).
 * Donatello has OCD: According to J.R. Ventimilia (executive producer) Donatello is "(...)a little fussy, nervous and obsessive-compulsive."
 * In this incarnation, Donatello has a crush on April O'Neil, having fallen for her at first sight.
 * While Donatello still fights with his weapons of choice, a Rokushakubo, (a Bō staff), in this incarnation his staff can be converted into Naginata, (a "pole-blade"), via a retractable blade inside one end of the staff. It has been seen as early as the events of "I Think His Name is Baxter Stockman".
 * In the episode "Metalhead", Donnie gets permission from Splinter to upgrade his weapon, but after the events of the episode, it would seem that he decided against it, but the retractable blade feature makes more appearances afterwards.
 * His eye color tends to shift between red and brown.
 * He's the third oldest/second youngest of his brothers; Leonardo, Raphael & Michelangelo.
 * Donatello is an expert in fields of metallurgy.
 * Rob Paulsen, Donatello's VA, voiced Raphael in the 1987 TV series.
 * It is revealed at the New York 2012 Comic Con that Donatello has a pet cockroach named Chong, who will undergo two mutations and become a villain.
 * Donnie is the first turtle other than Mikey to use the catchphrase "Booyakasha"
 * In both of Leatherhead's appearances so far, he repeatedly grabs Donatello by the face and shakes him around.
 * Due to his behaviour in "I Think His Name Is Baxter Stockman" (and various other episodes), he is the second to Raphael in temper and anger.
 * Despite being opposites, Donnie has been shown being really close to Mikey.
 * When Donnie's T-Phone rings, it has the tune of the intro of the 1987 series.
 * In Karai's Vendetta, his caller ID for April's phone is "Donny Boy" and she has a picture of him with flowers and stars, a dark red butterfly or bow on his mask and a silhouette of a cat.
 * In this incarnation, he has a strap over his ninja belt, while in the other incarnations besides the 90s films, he does not; this is the second incarnation other then the 90s films that Donatello has a strap over his ninja belt.
 * Both humans who have entered the lair (April and Timothy) have been closer to Donnie out of the four turtles