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Biography
Origin
See Origin.
Donatello (nicknamed Don, Donny, or the tech-geek) was sometimes the third oldest, or second youngest of the team; between Raphael (the hot-headed middle child) and Michelangelo (the baby; youngest). It seems when Donatello was young he used to build his own (and his brothers) toys. No-one knows the exact age he found out he was a genius but when he did, he was the one who hooked up the electricity and fixed all of the junk from the sewer into their own furniture and supplies. When the other turtles would practice their ninja skills during free time, little Donny would be tinkering with some kind of mechanical device. Even from day one, Donatello has been one the world's most lovable tech-geeks.
Mirage Comics
Volume 1
In the comics Donatello is originally presented along with Leonardo as one of the two calmer turtles and while the originals have no official command structure, in the early stories he is depicted as the second in command. In the first issue he is the one that killed the Shredder by knocking him and his grenade off the roof.
The second issue elaborated more on each turtles personalities and opened with Donatello soldering a circuit. Later in the issue Donatello states that he is "familiar with some computer systems" and helps April O'Neil deactivate the Mousers.
In the Donatello one shot, Donatello encounters an artist called Kirby (an homage to the comic artist Jack Kirby) whose mysterious crystal brings his drawings to life before disappearing. The two newfound friends journey to a dimension inhabited by Kirby's creations and help the heroes defeat the invading monsters.
During the turtles' exile to Northampton Donatello becomes obsessed with fixing up and repairing the many broken things within the farmhouse they were living in. Most notably he spent days and nights fixing the boiler to give his family hot running water and builds a windmill and a water wheel to provide electricity. He also finds an old type writer and writes his own personal credo.
In "Shades of Grey" Casey Jones encounters the turtle by a ravine as he was pondering "the fractal structure of natural patterns". Casey accuses the turtle of using big words and acting better than everyone else. Donatello suggests they should continue the conversation when Casey is sober. Grabbing a stick, an angry Jones continually pokes the turtle until he loses his temper and sends Casey careening into the water.
City at War
In "City at War" the turtles return to New York to put an end to the Foot Clan's civil war. During a battle with Shredder's Elite Guards in the ruins of the Second Time Around Shop Donatello falls through the floor and breaks his leg. Seeing their ally Karai subdued and about to be killed, Donatello grabs one of the Foot's machine guns and repeatedly shoots the Foot Elite. Donatello is visibly shaken by the violence and throws the gun away.
At the end of the story the turtles, April and Casey move back New York save for Donatello who chooses to stay in Northampton with Master Splinter to heal from his injury as well as to reflect on everything that has happened.
Volume 2
While meditating with Splinter, Donatello receives a vision of the future where he is in the village of Chihaya in Japan. When Donatello asks what he would be doing there, his master simply replies "To bury me".
After encountering the vigilante Nobody in civilian guise, Donatello returns with him to New York to help his brothers battle Baxter Stockman.
Current Comics
In the current comics Donatello finds an armored truck in the sewers which apparently had been part of a bank robbery in the sixties. Along with Raphael and Casey Jones, he undertakes the task of fixing up the vehicle.
After the death of Splinter, Donatello secretly goes to his body and asks forgiveness before clipping something off him. Shortly after, Donatello decides to accompany the Utroms on a mission to Tepui to search for two missing research teams. The group are attacked by strange wooden creatures who shrink them to miniature size. The creatures turn out to be a group of Utroms which had been stranded in the Jungle during their first stay on Earth and had been living in secret thanks to their Quantum Inversion Redimensioning Device, which could alter their size. The process could not be reversed on Donatello, possibly due to his mutation, leaving him the size of an action figure.
While the Utroms work on returning the him to normal, Donatello puts his new size to use infiltrating a terrorist organizations warehouse. He's also made a robotic body for himself made to resemble a turtle to help him move around.
1987 series
Don as he appeared in the 1987 series
Donatello was the most scientific minded turtle, and was responsible for the creation of most of the Turtles high tech equipment, including the Turtle van the Turtle comms, and the Turtle Blimp. He also managed to build a working inter dimensional portal though it is unknown how he found the necessary equipment to do so. He also thwarted a super intelligent Slash without any assistance. His best friend in the series was Irma He wore purple and, as with his other incarnations he carried a Bo staff. He was voiced by Barry Gordon.
Archie Comics
Comin Out of Our Shells
Don played keyboards and background vocals in the stage show.
Movies
First Movie
Donatello seemed less intelligent in the first movie. He struck up a strong friendship with Casey Jones and the two playfully insulted each other frequently while fixing an old pickup truck. Also, in the first movie, there seemed to be more of a best friend relationship with (Casey Jones, of course), but also Michelangelo. If you watch the scene where Michelangelo and Donatello are watching the classic Tortoise and the Hare, you can tell they seem intellectually equal and the two "jokers" of the team. Oddly, though, Donatello has a comedic inability to match his brothers' surfer slang throughout the first three movies, instead using nonsensical terms such as "bossa nova", "a cappella", "Chevy Nova", and "eclectic".
Second Movie
In the second movie his intelligence and scientific ingenuity were brought to the forefront and he was instrumental in developing the anti mutagen that reverted Tokka and Rahzar to their animal forms. As further evidence of his mechanical inclination, he is also shown hacking into a computer at T.G.R.I. There is also evidence in this film that Donatello shows great emotional support for his little brother, Michelangelo, in a more obvious way; unlike Leonardo and Raphael. Mikey tried making his brothers laugh by imitating a quote from the movie, "The Karate Kid" with his own "wax on, wax off.." routine. Of course, Raphael was the one to bully Michelangelo, as Michelangelo said, "wax on..." Raphael then interrupted, teasing "mouth off!", thus urging Donatello to confront a rather disappointed Michelangelo and trying to comfort him with a friendly pat on the shoulder, and comfortingly stating, "everybody's a critic." He also related to Professor Jordan Perry on a personal and professional level, as they both rack their brains to create an anti-mutagen for Shredder's newly evolved mutant-monsters.
Third Movie
In the third, and final, live action film, Donatello's intelligence comes to the forefront in explaining the principals of the time machine that sends the turtles back to ancient Japan. As he tells the other turtles, for every person that is sent backward in time, another person must be sent forward in time. Therefore, the time machine, a sceptre, must be held by the same number of people in both the past and the future for the "cosmic trade" to be made. Donatello's insight's allows the turtles to return to modern day New York. .
Fourth Movie
Don as he appeared in TMNT
Continuing the trend of being able to relate to humans (and all three of his brothers) better than any of the other Turtles, Donatello was put in charge of keeping the group together in Leonardo's absence. Although he tried his best, the three were moving in separate directions with their lives. Both Michelangelo and himself got jobs dealing with the public, while Raphael spent his nights fighting crime. Donatello worked at an IT Tech Support.
With Leo's return the group once again came together, and Donatello helped his brothers in ridding the earth of Max Winters' evil generals. In this movie, Donatello is the third oldest, between Raphael and Michelangelo.He was voice by Mitchell Whitfield
Image Comics
In the Image Comics incarnation of the TMNT, he became a cyborg after his body was partially destroyed from being shot and dropped out of a helicopter (he maintained a positive attitude nonetheless, although he was constantly at risk of losing his mind to the cyborg half). The Image Comics were later treated as non-canon by the Mirage Publications.
Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation
Donatello in Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation is voiced by Jason Gray-Stanford. In the Next Mutation Donatello uses a shorter metal version of a bo-staff. Also in the show, he is a lot smarter and is more concerned on what is controlling the lair, science or magic which leads him to constantly arguing with Venus De Milo.
2003 series
Don in the 03 series
Like the Mirage comics, Donatello has a complex personality in the 2003 animation and thus is a popular character. Several episodes concentrate on him, as well as his emotional and intellectual struggles. As in his other incarnations, he is intelligent, good with his hands, and very introspective, frequently becoming pensive over things he doesn't understand. He typically has a very close, however platonic, relationship with April. He also displays closeness with Michelangelo akin to that seen in the original movie. Even more pacifistic than his other incarnations, Donatello shows a greater interest in technology than his ninjutsu training. During the Battle Nexus tournament, despite being a very gifted ninja he is the least skilled fighter of the brothers, he lost in the first round of the competition. Even so, Donatello will defend his brothers at any cost, and he frequently assists the team in many ways through the technology he develops, mostly vehicles and communication devices. In this animation, Donatello is generally well-liked by all of his brothers, never engaging in major confrontations with them. In fact, Donatello was the one to reunite his brothers against the Shredder in the episode "Same As It Never Was." His skin color is a light, brownish green color; this particular color is only used for him in the 2003 animation. In the fourth season, he was infected by a monster, and in the episode "Adventures in Turtlesitting", he mutates into a monster himself, which happened to Raphael in the comics. He was voice by Sam Riegel
Ninja Tribunal
Donatello became one of the Ninja Tribunal's Acolytes along with his brothers. He was the first ninja shown to focus his spiritual energy through his Amulet of the Acolyte. This is perhaps due to the fact that the Acolytes training began with studying in a library where he enthuiastically absorbed knowledge of the secret arts. His spiritual avatar is that of a dragon.
Fast Forward
A time machine accident caused Donny, his brothers, and Master Splinter to be "fast-forwarded" to 2105, hence the show's name "Fast Forward". Donatello was one of two Turtles, alongside Michelangelo, that adapted best to the new lifestyle of the future. He was extremely interested in the new technology and quickly bonded with Cody Jones. Using his ideas, Cody had made many new, high-tech turtle weapons and vehicles. In the episode "The Journal", which features the Turtles going back to their own time, he uses his knowledge of the future to build new gadgets such as a fusion generator.
Don as he appeared in Fast Forward
Don in battle gear in the Mayhem webisodes
Don as he appeared in BTTS
Back to the Sewers
After a long time, Cody and Don were able to finish repairing the time portal and were finally able to back to their own time. Unfortunately, Viral took over Serling and sent them jumping around time until Donny managed to repair Serling enough to create another time portal to their own time. But Viral took control of Serling again and was about to blast the Turtles, but Splinter took the blast. Donatello was devastated by the loss of his teacher and father, and for some time was obsessive with gathering up all of Splinter's bits in order to restore him; constantly blaming himself for the incident. After some time when Don was faced with the choice of saving his brothers or gathering more of Splinter's bits did he realize that he should be there for his brothers more often. In that episode, Raphael has said that Don has an IQ of 637.
Trivia
- Given his knack for invention it is ironic that Donatello is not named after the painter also known for his inventions and advancements in technological thinking. Live Action Donatello is not so smart but it developes in the second and third. Live Action Donatello also has a good friendship with Casey Jones but in all three movies Donatello is a fun loving turtle like Mikey.