| “The Big Break-In” | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 Cartoon) episode | |||||||
 The minimizer shrinking an army base. | |||||||
| Season Code: | 3 | ||||||
| Episode: | 46 | ||||||
| Original airdate | December 21, 1989 | ||||||
| Written by | David Wise | ||||||
| Producers: | – | ||||||
| |||||||
The Big Break-In is a season 3 episode of the 1987-1996 series. It is the second episode of the "Big Trilogy".
Minimizer firing energy bursts at April O'Neil.
Synopsis
Splinter is teaching the Turtles about the tea ceremony when the ground suddenly shakes. The Turtles conclude that it's the Technodrome, since it's a quake from the center of the Earth that is coming closer.
On the Technodrome, Shredder exults about having full power now, and Krang decides to use the dimensional portal to bring Dimension X's technology onto Earth. He contacts General Traag, and demands "The Minimizer," a chevron-shaped device that flies up to the surface and starts shrinking military installations.
The Turtles follow the sound of the moving Technodrome, intending to get inside and shut it down. After nearly being run over, they successfully sneak into a labelled entrance, and split up: Donatello and Michelangelo are heading for the relay room, while Raphael and Leonardo are going to the engine room.
April is trying to cover the incoming Technodrome when Burne redirects her over to Fort Macintosh, since something odd is happening with all these military bases. She witnesses the fort being shrunken, and follows the Minimizer to its next destination.
Krang and Shredder learn that the Turtles are on board, creating some nasty obstacles for them: Foot Soldiers, missiles, Rocksteady and Bebop, and a potentially gruesome manufacturing plant. When Donatello and Michelangelo find the relay room, Krang trades in his robot's regular arms for a pair of spiked maces and goes after the Turtles.
April crashes her van when trying to avoid the Minimizer, and witnesses the Technodrome arising from the Earth. Unfortunately, the door is stuck shut, and all of the Turtles are being assaulted by their enemies. Michelangelo successfully flips Krang's body, allowing Donatello to rewire it and cause it to malfunction. Raphael and Leonardo manage to dispose of the Foot Soldiers, and the Turtles reunite on the outside of the Technodrome.
Meanwhile, April manages to tumble out of the news van.
The Turtles fly off of the Technodrome on a missile, and manage to land on the Minimizer. Donatello rewires it, and manages to turn its effect on the Technodrome, shrinking it down to the size of a cat. It zips away and falls into the massive hole that it had just made.
Unfortunately, Krang is easily able to undo the effects of the Minimizer's rays, and the still-powered Technodrome grows back to its normal size.
Donatello whips up a ray-gun that will undo the effects of the Minimizer, even as the other Turtles flip the van over so they can drive home.
Character voices
- Leonardo (Cam Clarke)
- Donatello (Barry Gordon)
- Michelangelo (Townsend Coleman)
- Raphael (Rob Paulsen)
- Splinter (Peter Renaday)
- April O'Neil (Renae Jacobs)
- Burne Thompson (Pat Fraley)
- Shredder (James Avery)
- Krang (Pat Fraley)
- Bebop (Barry Gordon)
- Rocksteady (Cam Clarke)
- General Traag (Peter Renaday)
- Army Colonel (Rob Paulsen)
- Fort McIntosh receptionist (Renae Jacobs)
Locations
- Turtles' Lair
- City sewer system
- Technodrome
- Channel 6
- Technodrome's manufacturing plant
- Technodrome's Relay Room
- Earth's crust
Vehicles
Gadgets
Home media releases
VHS
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Big Rip Off
DVD
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 6
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Season 3
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Classic Series Collection
Notes
Animation errors
- Due to a layering error Donatello can be seen hitting the hole in the Technodrome's relay room instead of falling into it when Krang uses his ball arm attachments to throw him and Michelangelo to the ground.
- At the beginning, when the Turtles are drinking tea, they don't have their weapons, but in one shot, Raphael is seen with his sais on his belt.
- When Raphael said he can't move while he and the other Turtles were trapped in the path of the moving Technodrome, his mouth didn't move. In fact, his entire face and body freezes.
- Raphael's sais are missing from his belt when Krang watches him and Leonardo on the view screen.
- When April's newsvan crashes onto it's roof, the "6" logo on it is reversed.
- When the Technodrome was first seen in the process of shrinking, the blue part of it's eyeball is coloured grey.
- Just before the Turtles climb onto the eyeball missile, Raphael speaks in Leonardo's voice.
Trivia
- First time since "Shredder & Splintered" that Krang uses his android body's special weapon arms.
- Shredder's skin tone is lighter than normal this episode.
- Raphael broke the 4th wall by saying "still think you'd like to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?"
Quotes
- Krang: You wish to go somewhere turtles? I'll be happy to "drive" you!!
- Leonardo: We're going to need explosive to put the engine room out of commission. This might be the place to place to find them.
- Raphael: Sure but let's not hang around (a huge mechanical claw appears behind him and lifts him by the shell) I distinctly said we're not hanging around!!
- Raphael: We're never gonna find anything in this oversized...hot dog stand!
- Leonardo: We'll just have to look behind every door until we discover the engine room. (He goes up to a door, opens it and is greeted by an eyeball missile, he then slams the door shut before the missile blasts straight through it he then goes up to another door) They can't have missiles behind every door! (suddenly a katana blade cuts through the door)
- Raphael: That's true Leonardo. Some of them have...(a platoon of Foot Soldiers bust through the door)
- Raphael & Leonardo: "FOOT SOLDIERS!!!!"
- Krang: Soon all the armies of Earth will be coming up a little short!
- Bebop: Yeah but..What about da Toidles?
- Shredder: If they get in our way we'll crush them! The Technodrome will squash them in their shells like bugs!!
- Shredder: (after being shrunk with the Minimizer) Stick with me you said, and I'll make you a biiiig man! Some big man!
- Krang: Relax will you! I designed the Minimizer and I can undo the effects of its ray! (Krang pulls a lever on the console restoring the Technodrome to normal)
- Shredder: Now..."to get those Turtles!!!!"
- Leonardo: We're beneath the sewers now in the Earth's crust!
- Michelangelo: Whoa I wish you wouldn't mention crusts, It makes me think of pizzas!
- (the Turtles are then interrupted by a loud crashing sound)
- Donatello: Did you hear that? We're getting closer!
- Raphael: Well if it really is the Technodrome what are we gonna do, tell 'em to stop?!
- Leonardo: We'll have to get inside somehow and shut it down, before it reaches the surface of the Earth!
- Raphael: (to camera) Still think you'd like to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle?
- Raphael: Now what the heck is this place?!!
- Leonardo: It's some kind of manufacturing plant.
- Raphael: Yeah? Well unless we can get 'em to manfucture an engine room I am outta here!
