Pizza is a type of food that originated in Italy and became popular in many parts of the world, especially the United States. Pizza was made the Turtles' favorite food as Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird often ate it while working on the original comics.
Mirage Comics
Pizza occasionally appeared in the Mirage universe.
- "Totally Hacked!" - Using a million dollars he had in his pocket, Gnatrat buys a restaurant (employing Splinter as a waiter) and lures Supperman in with an All You Can Eat promotion. They prepare the final dish, which is unfortunately pizza, and it attracts the Ninja Turtles to the restaurant. Splinter begins to tell his sons to back off from the pie, but Gnatrat gets too absorbed in his “boss” role and starts ordering Splinter around. Incensed, Splinter feeds the pizza to the Turtles just to tick Gnatrat off.
- "The Treaty" - Leo is racing across the rooftops of New York, hoping to get back to April’s apartment with a fresh pizza. Unfortunately, he undergoes another one of the after effects from his recent time/space adventures and finds himself zapped to the world of Usagi Yojimbo yet again. While there Leo drops his pizza. Tomoe Ame picks up his trampled pizza box, disgusted by the quality of the contents within. Taking the pizza, Leo attempts to explain that normally it’s very appetizing, but before he can finish, the time/space effects wear off and he vanishes. Back in April’s apartment, the Turtles are a bit ticked that Leo’s taking so long with the pizza. Suddenly, he comes smashing through the window and lands face-first on the floor. Not only has he missed the entire movie and ruined the pizza, but now he’s broken April’s window.
- "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Attack!!! Part 1" - The Turtles are arguing over where to stop for dinner. Michelangelo suggests pizza, but Leonardo vetoes the idea, as pizza makes him gag.
- "The Name is Lucindra" - Raphael owes Lucindra a pizza after losing to her.
- "The Violent Underground" - Raphael eats pizza.
- "Raphael: Snapper" - Raph sits on the couch in front of the tube, nursing indigestion after eating six pepperoni pizzas. Looking to his left, he spots a glass bowl containing a tiny snapping turtle. Amused, Raph plucks the turtle up by its tail, only to have it bite his finger. The pain and the indigestion prove too much for him, and Raph passes out. Suddenly, Raph finds himself in a nightmarish version of April’s apartment, approached by a humongous mutant snapping turtle. Tearing Raph’s throat out with his jaws, the snapping turtle says that pizza is no substitute for blood.
- "The Haunted Pizza" - A cheese factory drilled deep into the ground to create gigantic warehouses for their product. Eventually small portions of Ooo-Zah were able to make their way through hairline cracks into the factory, and begin growing on the cheese. Eventually the cheese was processed and shipped to pizza factories... and of course, April brings the pizza containing Ooo-Zah home. After they dispose of Ooo-Zah, Raph suggests they get a REAL pizza… just from a different restaurant.
- "Memories of the Future" - Casey passes out in front of the tube, having eaten too much pizza.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles/Flaming Carrot Crossover "Land of Green Fire, Part 1" - Professor Daub, Colonel Blade and the Turtles decide to break for pizza.
- "Splinter Cell" - Michelangelo, using his nunchakus to deflect several slices of pizza being hurled in his direction.
Image Comics
In the Image comics Raphael talks about wanting pizza in issue #10.
In issue #17 April brings home pizza.
1987 TV Series / Archie Comics
The 1987 cartoons are, along with the comics based on them, a TMNT universe in which the Turtles all share an intense affinity for pizza, particularly Michaelangelo. They are hardly ever seen eating anything else; however they are very flexible with what toppings they like on their pizza, experimenting with all sorts of items in every possible combination including clams, tuna, sauerkraut, chocolate, ice cream, bananas, jelly beans and peanut butter.
The Turtles always get their pizzas by going on the streets to a pizza parlour, dressed so no one could see that they are mutant turtles. Sometimes all four go, sometimes only one goes.
Pizzas are also the Turtles weakness. The Shredder is aware of this, as many of his plans to destroy them involve pizza (like the episodes The Case of the Killer Pizzas, Pizza by the Shred etc.).
In some other TMNT universes, the Turtles eat other things, mostly sushi.
2003 TV Series
Pizza occasionally appeared in the 2003 TV series. Though not as much as they are also seen eating things such a Chinese food.
Apparently the Turtles liked pizza as kids (Attack of the Mousers and The Lesson).
- "Darkness on the Edge of Town" - The Turtles ate pizza off-screen
- "The Way of Invisibility" - Casey Jones eats pizza.
- "The Shredder Strikes, Part 1" - Michelangelo talks about pizza.
- "The Shredder Strikes Back, Part 1" - You can see open pizza boxes when the turtles are sleeping.
- "Prodigal Son" - We see Angel delivering a pizza to April's antique shop as the Foot spy on them. Angel winks at April O'Neil and pretends to deliver a pizza - but inside the cardboard box is a note from Leonardo asking O'Neil if she's heard from the others. April loudly proclaims that the pizza order is wrong and then writes a note to the "boss" to complain. Angel takes the note and leaves. Angel drops the box into a phone booth and Leonardo recovers it from a rooftop by dropping his katana onto it and reeling it in on an attached rope. Leonardo reads April's note, which explains that Karai said she got them all.
Michelangelo talked about wanting pizza in Enter the Dragons, Part 2.
- "SuperQuest" - The Admin Wizard's player can be seen sleeping with a pizza box next to him.
Dreamwave Series
In the Dreamwave comic series, Leonardo can be seen eating pizza in Bend It Like Turtles.
2012 TV Series
In their fifteen years growing up in the sewers, the Turtles only ever ate algae and worms prepared in various dishes. When they were finally allowed to go up to the surface, Raphael playfully scares a pizza delivery guy and causes him to drop a pizza box. Not knowing what it was at first, the Turtles investigate it and Michelangelo volunteers to taste it. It was so good (his brain exploded from the flavor) Mikey at first tried to convince his brothers it was terrible so he could have it all to himself, but they weren't convinced - after eating the pizza they determined it was a huge improvement over worms and algae. Pizza had since become the Turtles' favorite food, particularly Mikey's, but there are times in which the turtles eat other food for example in "Cockroach Terminator" (such as ramen).
In subsequent episodes Michelangelo is seen making various dishes out of pizza. Mikey has also been revived with a slice of pizza after a fight with Snakeweed left him unconscious. The chef Murakami invented a special recipe called pizza gyoza, involving pizza filling stuffed into potstickers, which the turtles, April and even Karai very much enjoy.
Video Games
Pizza slices are often used as a health power-up in the TMNT video games.
Films
The turtles also eat pizza in the film series. Except in the third film, they are not seen eating pizza but despite it not appearing, pizza does get mentioned. The second film begins with a sequence of people eating pizza all over New York.
At the end of Turtles Forever, the Mirage Turtles, after having encountered the 1987 Turtles and their 2003 counterparts, suggest to go eat some pizzas. Since the Mirage Turtles rarely ate pizza in the Original Mirage Comics, they are obviously influenced by their '87 counterparts.
In the new 2014 film the Turtle's couch is made of Pizza Hut's pizza boxes, the Turtles also appear in the Pizza Hut cheesy bites tv commercial. See more at: 2014 Movie Merchandise
Trivia
- Remember all of those wacky pizza toppings the Turtles would put on their pizza in the 1987 cartoon? James Rolfe (better known as the Angry Video Game Nerd) got a few friends together and actually shot a video of the group trying the pizzas as seen in the show. The reactions were pretty much what you'd expect from such classics as an anchovy and hot fudge pizza would yield, though some of them weren't bad, such as Pepperoni and Marshmallow, Oatmeal, and Tea and Toast. The general consensus, though, was that Donatello actually has good taste in pizzas, while Michelangelo's was utterly horrible. He also made a video as "Board James" about the TMNT board games.