Ever since the creation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1984, there have been challengers to the crown ever since in every attempt to try and win with the very same formula they created, here are the ten most shameless attempts. The rules are any animation counts, anthropomorphic animal shows only and they must follow the same formula as TMNT; I'll also be listing the year of each entry, So lets begin.
Honorable Mention: Butt Ugly Martians - 2001
This one only missed the list because of the animal rule but is still a shameless ripoff nonetheless. It's a CGI cartoon about aliens who fight with power suits, despite the title, I can't really call the martians butt ugly, the attempt was to capitalize on the popular space trend that came briefly with the new millennium hype but came far too late for it to eat up any popularity.
10. Road Rovers - 1996
A group of dogs transformed into anthro canine superheroes to fight evil, it's kind of a Justice League for dogs as each canine is a world leader's pet. The team is one big 90s cliche and doesn't evolve beyond that.
9. Wild West COWboys of Moo Mesa - 1992
By divine powers of a convenient meteor, a bunch of cattle in late 19th century west become anthro cows and start playing the Wild West, apart from the fact that it plays on every cow related word possible, it was decent enough to watch and was early enough to still be fashionable for the period.
8. Loonatics Unleashed - 2005
I've mentioned this one before and I don't think highly of it, it's the only one on this list to have multiple animals rather than just one, but despite having a Looney Tunes label there are no Looney Tunes to be found, a misguided attempt by Warner Bros to try the pseudo anime craze and realizing that you need more than just the art style to succeed.
7. Super Robot Monkey Team Hyperforce Go - 2004
A very ambitious project about a team of cyborg monkeys and their human friend fighting the evil Skeleton King. It was a lot better than a number of other attempts and the villain truly looks frightening but the series is ruined by the fact that it has the Worlds Worst designed Robot ever, seriously they had the Japanese on board for this one and that's the best robot they can come up with.
6. Battletoads - 1992
This is the only direct challenger the Ninja Turtles ever got, better known for their ridiculously hard video games but largely outclassed in every field within the genre with the exception of maybe a better villain, okay not much better but at least they tried something different with that one.
5. Mighty Ducks - 1996
Disney formed an ice hockey team in 1993 and tried to make a cartoon out of it's mascot which is about an intergalactic team of ducks who just happen to play Ice Hockey. Funny thing is that the real life team didn't win the Stanley Cup until after Disney sold it. Disney are normally good with ducks but not this time around.
4. Biker Mice From Mars - 1993 & 2006
The only Ninja Turtle clone who managed a remake and the only series to be reasonably popular and the only series to keep it's original voice cast in it's remake. But still shameless nonetheless, these days the Biker Mice are slash fiction worthy.
3. Street Sharks - 1994
This series didn't even try to be subtle, it's whole intent was to make a franchise that could compete with the Ninja Turtles but with not much to go on other than sharp teeth it never really caught on.
2. Samurai Pizza Cats - 1990
To be fair, the popularity this series had wasn't their fault. In Japan it was a straight up animal anime about Samurai Cats, a few gags here and there but nothing that passes for a spoof. When it was dubbed however, there was lack of proper translations, and what they had to work with was far less than anticipated so they played it as a Ninja Turtles spoof with writing similar to the Animaniacs and ended up becoming more popular as a spoof than the original going as far as the original creators admitting it worked better as a spoof.
1. Kung-Fu Dino Posse - 2009
But we British have done it again, we actually successfully made something so shameless to the Ninja Turtles that it's hard to believe it even exists. There were more Dinosaur related shows like this one such as Extreme Dinosaurs & Dinosaucers but this series is the ultimate in shameless entertainment, if you wish for me to place this one in the cartoon vault if only to know what the hell this series is, then please comment.
