Facts
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) are comic books, cartoons and feature films featuring the four mutant turtles Donatello, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Raphael. The series was created in 1984 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
As the name suggests, the four main characters are mutant humanoid turtles who are both ninjas and teenagers. They live in the sewers of New York City, from where they often set out to fight all manner of evil, often synonymous with the evil ninja master Shredder and his people. The fact that they have Italian names is to counterbalance all that Japanese ninja stuff. In the various series, the names are explained by the fact that Splinter, the "father" of the turtles, chose them in a book about Renaissance artists.