“Back to the Egg” | |||||||
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) episode | |||||||
![]() Title screen | |||||||
Season Code: | 04 | ||||||
Episode: | 13 | ||||||
Original airdate | September 26, 1990 | ||||||
Written by | Dennis Marks | ||||||
Supervising Producer | Fred Wolf | ||||||
Producers: | Michael Algar | ||||||
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"Back to the Egg" is an episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Appearing in Back to the Egg[]
Major characters[]
- Leonardo (Cam Clarke)
- Donatello (Barry Gordon)
- Raphael (Rob Paulsen)
- Michelangelo (Townsend Coleman)
- April O'Neil (Renae Jacobs)
- Shredder (James Avery)
- Krang (Pat Fraley)
- Captain Krulik and his intergalactic space mutants
- Louie (Barry Gordon)
- Grillox
Minor characters[]
- Maitre'd (Pat Fraley)
- Uncle Bob
- Murphy, Channel 6 Security Guard - Townsend Coleman
Species[]
Objects and vehicles[]
Locations[]
Plot[]
After Michelangelo finds a special flyer for a pizza sale, the Turtles head out to buy dinner.
On the Technodrome, Krang is displaying his latest invention: an age-reversing serum, which has the capability to de-age a living being into a helpless baby. He demonstrates this on a chicken; when the chicken eats the serum, it turns back into an egg. However, he doesn't want Shredder to administer the serum to the Turtles. He is instead giving the task to Captain Krulik, an intergalactic circus ringmaster, who wants the infantilized Turtles for his show.
The Turtles arrive at Posh Pizza just before Krulik, Shredder and Krulik's tracker Grillox do. Krulik squirts the serum on the pizzas, but only manages to do two of them before Shredder "accidentally" causes him to spill the rest into a lobster tank.
Leonardo and Michelangelo suddenly shrink down into small children, and begin throwing food at each other. As ordered by the waiter, Raphael and Donatello take their de-aged brothers back outside, where Krulik and Shredder attack them. The two pint-sized Turtles wander away from the fight and straight into traffic, only narrowly being saved by Donatello and Raphael, who act as their "parents" for the time being.
At the lair, the children are placated with pizza and coloring books while Donatello tries to figure out what to do. But when left on their own, they hop on a Cheapskates and begin zipping around the streets, ending up where "Auntie April" works. The rambunctious kids accidentally destroy her computer and trash her office.
Meanwhile, Donatello and Raphael find the leftover, thrown-out pizza slices that their brothers had been eating, in hopes of creating an antidote. But when they return to the lair they discover the other two are gone.
April tells Donatello that she has the two child-sized Turtles, and agrees to look after them until Donatello can make an antidote. She places them in the audience of a children's TV show, only for Shredder and Krulik to show up and attempt to kidnap them. Fortunately even small mutant turtles are still dangerous, and successfully deal with of the "bad guys."
Donatello successfully develops the age-reversal antidote and puts it on twin pizzas.
April checks on Leonardo and Michelangelo, only to discover Shredder, Krulik and Grillox holding the two hostage. They capture April as well.
Donatello and Raphael rush into the set and toss the antidote-laced pizzas up to Leonardo and Michelangelo. After some cajoling and even the usual parental promise of dessert if they behave (in this case, ice cream), they finally eat them, and turn back to their teenage selves. With all four Turtles now back at their correct sizes, the defeated villains flee the scene.
An enraged Krang blames Krulik, who in turn blames Grillox until the beast turns on him and tosses him into the circus cage filled with hostile mutants.
Back in the lair, Leonardo and Michelangelo are appropriately forced to clean up the mess they made as kids. But when they find a couple of drawings of themselves, they begin arguing over whose is better.
See also[]
Notes and errors[]
- In one of the most bizarre animation errors in the series up to this point, there is a moment near the beginning of the episode when Capt. Krulik introduces Grillox and the creature fires a finger beam at the Technodrome's entrance with Krang standing next to it. At the exact moment the laser hits, Krang starts to move out of the way and the shot changes to an image of the inside of the Technodrome, complete with a spot of damage as if the laser hit there, and Krang is zapped out of the shot in the same instant. The next shot has him standing right next to Shredder and Krulik as if he were calmly there the whole time.
- In the scene where Krang explains what the serum does, Shredder's movements and facial expressions suggest he's laughing, but there is no sound to prove so.
- When the turtles are leaving the restaurant, Raphael is seen holding little Michelangelo while Donatello is holding little Leo. But in the scene where they go through the door, Raph is holding little Leo while Donnie is holding little Mikey.
- When the Turtles return to the lair, Raphael is missing his right wrist band.
- Raphael is only seen holding one large pizza just before he and Donatello entered the Channel 6 studio before switching back to holding two smaller ones as they enter it.
- In the close up of Leonardo and Michelangelo in the trash can, the trash can is not fully drawn at the top.
- When Michelangelo and Leonardo are playing with April's computer, for a split second after the computer breaks, Leonardo replaces Michelangelo on the chair.
- At the start of the third act, the legs of a boy dressed as a cowboy behind Leonardo and Michelangelo flicker in multiple frames.
- When Leonardo and Michelangelo revert to their teenage-selves and start fighting their enemies, they automatically pull out their weapons, but they didn't have them earlier when they were turtle tots, so where did they come from?
- April's fanny pack flashes back and forth from grey to white when she leads Leonardo and Michelangelo out the door.
- When Leonardo and Michelangelo look at their pizzas, they're facing the wrong way, as the toppings are facing the camera.
- There appear to be no mushrooms on the pizza Leonardo gets as we see only red dots on it, which is probably pepperoni or spots of sauce.
- The pizza crusts change to white when Leonardo and Michelangelo say, "No way," to Raphael when he wants them to eat the pizza.
- When Leonardo and Michelangelo are eating their pizzas, the toppings appear to change as they go from what can be assumed to be pepperoni to something that looks like onion slices.
- Donatello appears to pour the antidote on only one of the pizzas.
- Krulik's white collar intermittently changes to red and then white again several times during the episode.
Trivia[]
- Raphael breaks the 4th wall by saying "anyone who thinks that a Ninja Turtle's life is all fun and games should see this episode", when he and Donatello were rummaging through the trash.
- There is another 4th wall break when Raphael mentions Splinter taking a sabbatical, indicating that the latter was receiving paid time off for the episode.
Home media releases[]
DVD[]
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 4 (13 March 2007)
- The Complete Classic Series Collection (12 November 2012)