Funny, They Shrunk Michelangelo

“Funny, They Shrunk Michelangelo”
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 Cartoon) episode
Season Code:	04
Episode:	21
Original airdate	October 13, 1990
Written by	Michael Edens
Supervising Producer	Fred Wolf
Producers:	Walt Kubiak
Supervising Director	Bill Wolf
Episode chronology ← Previous Next → "Were-Rats from Channel 6" "The Big Zipp Attack"

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 Season September 10, 1990 - December 8, 1990 List of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episodes

Episodes: Syndication "Plan Six From Outer Space" "Turtles of the Jungle" "Michelangelo Toys Around" "Peking Turtle" "Shredder's Mom" "Four Turtles and a Baby" "Turtlemaniac" "Rondo in New York" "Planet of the Turtles" "Name That Toon" "Menace Maestro, Please" "Superhero for a Day" "Back to the Egg" Saturday Mornings "Son of Return of the Fly II" "Raphael Knocks 'em Dead" "Bebop and Rocksteady Conquer the Universe" "Raphael Meets His Match" "Slash - The Evil Turtle from Dimension X" "Leonardo Lightens Up" "Were-Rats from Channel 6" "Funny, They Shrunk Michelangelo" "The Big Zipp Attack" "Donatello Makes Time" "Farewell, Lotus Blossom" "Rebel Without a Fin" "Rhino-Man" "Michelangelo Meets Bugman" "Poor Little Rich Turtle" "What's Michelangelo Good For?" "The Dimension X Story" "Donatello's Degree" "The Big Cufflink Caper!" "Leonardo Versus Tempestra" "Splinter Vanishes" "Raphael Drives 'Em Wild" "Beyond the Donatello Nebula" "Big Bug Blunder" "The Foot Soldiers are Revolting" "Unidentified Flying Leonardo" 1987 Season – 1988 Season – 1989 Season – 1990 Season – 1991 Season – 1992 Season – 1992-1993 Vacation in Europe sideseason – 1993 Season – 1994 Season – 1995 Season – 1996 Season

Funny, They Shrunk Michelangelo is a season 4 episode of the 1987-1996 series.

Appearing in Funny, They Shrunk Michelangelo

Major characters

• Leonardo (Cam Clarke)
• Donatello (Barry Gordon)
• Michelangelo (Townsend Coleman)
• Raphael (Rob Paulsen)
• Splinter (Peter Renaday)
• April O'Neil (Renae Jacobs)
• Burne Thompson (Pat Fraley)
• Vernon Fenwick (Peter Renaday)

Minor characters

• Talbot Breech (Cam Clarke)
• Claude (Renae Jacobs)

Species

• Human
• Mutant rat
• Mutant turtle

Objects and vehicles

• Aircraft Carrier
• Channel 6 newsvan
• Fighter Jet

Locations

• Channel 6
• City harbor
• City sewers
• Talbot Breech's hideout
• Turtle Lair

Plot

Donatello has invented a "wind and wave" generator that Michelangelo wants to use for windsurfing. After turning up the machine too high, Michelangelo finds himself blown right out of the sewers and into the bay area. While windsurfing, he spots a ship suddenly growing tiny and disappearing.

This is the doing of Talbot Breech, a naval enthusiast who shrinks real ships and puts them in bottles. His cat Claude triggers the shrink ray accidentally, shrinking Michelangelo and putting HIM in a bottle, much to his horror.

While he's able to get out of the bottle - courtesy of a hungry Claude - Michelangelo struggles to find a way to contact the other Turtles or April O'Neil. He also is struggling to avoid being eaten by the cat.

Meanwhile Breech's latest acquisition is an aircraft carrier with April and Vernon Fenwick on board, which is shrunk down on live TV. April and Vernon escape the carrier and find themselves in the same tiny, potentially-eaten-by-a-cat pickle as Michelangelo, who finally manages to keep Claude from causing further trouble.

Michelangelo formulates a plan involving taking a tiny plane from the tiny aircraft carrier, but April and Vernon are both caught by Breech, who decides to add them to his collection. Fortunately the other Turtles recognize Michelangelo when he flies by, despite his resemblance to a bug.

Michelangelo leads the other Turtles back to Breech's home and bails out of his tiny plane. Unfortunately, Breech has a trio of deadly robots who fight the other turtles. But as he tries to swat Michelangelo, he accidentally damages his own equipment, causing the shrinking ray to reverse itself, turning Michelangelo, April, Vernon and all the boats back to their correct size.

Splinter gives Michelangelo his tiny sailboard back to remind him that bigger is not always better. The shadow of a giant cat appears outside the lair, only to be revealed as a tiny kitten who affectionately licks Michelangelo.

See also

• Funny, They Shrunk Michelangelo/Gallery
• Funny, They Shrunk Michelangelo/Transcript

Notes and errors

• When Michelangelo turns up the wind and wave generator, he's standing at the control panel behind it. Then in the next shot, he's several feet away in FRONT of it, running to where he was before.
• There's no possible way that Breech hadn't caught people on his collection of ships before, yet he acts as though it's a novelty to have tiny people.
• The destruction of Breech's machinery leads to all the ships and people being automatically restored to their normal size. Yet at the end, the sailboard is still tiny.

Trivia

• This is the second time in the series Michelangelo has been shrunk, the previous instance being The Incredible Shrinking Turtles.
• This is the second episode in which the titular plot is instigated due to a technological malfunction resulting from a cat pressing a random button on a control panel. The previous instance occurred in The Cat Woman from Channel Six.
• When Michelangelo uses a telephone to dial Channel Six News, he uses the numbers 00767.
• This episode derives its name from the film series Honey, I Shrunk the Kids starring Rick Moranis.

Home media releases

VHS

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Funny, They Shrunk Michaelangelo

DVD

• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Season 4
• Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Classic Series Collection