Post by Simon on Apr 6, 2015 20:38:22 GMT -6
We all know that Irma Langinstein from the 1987 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES cartoon bears more than just a resemblance to Jeanette, she is almost virtually identical, only in human form. I've concluded a theory as to how this has happened, and it so far has yet to be challenged or contested.
Let's look at this: A&TC went through three different animation studios in its eight season run - Ruby-Spears for Seasons One through Five, Murakami-Wolf-Swenson (now Fred Wolf Films) for the first eleven episodes of Season Six, and DiC for the rest of Season Six as well as Seasons Seven and Eight. MWS produced/animated those eleven episodes the same year that Irma was introduced on TMNT in its second season. It seems almost painfully obvious to me that somebody at MWS, be it an animator, an artist, a character design, somebody must have really liked Jeanette to the point that they wanted to create their own copy of Jeanette for their show. It's both the similarities and the difference in the characters' designs that really support this. As far as similarities go, both characters have brown hair pulled back in a bun with a yellow hair accessory (notice: Jeanette's hair ribbon is traditionally purple, but in those MWS episodes it's yellow... Irma's scrunchie is yellow), both have large pink-framed glasses, both have baggy blue turtlenecks, both have purple skirts, both have casual footwear, and both are extremely clumsy. As for the differences, whereas Jeanette has round frames, Irma has square frames; and whereas Jeanette harbors a not-so-secret crush on Simon, Irma is desperate for any male-type humanoid that'll have her. The similarities just scream, "We want our own Jeanette;" while the differences also speak volume that, "This character is not quite the same."
