💜🤓 DONNIE LOVEZONE 🤓💜
you thought the character page was the last you'd seen of him, huh? well you thought WRONG!!!!!!
MY THOUGHTS ON DONNIE
(Continues from here.)
Donnie is my favorite of the Mume turtles, if you haven't seen mentions of him elsewhere around my site. I clocked him immediately as a kid I 100% would have clicked with instantly in high school, and it made me laugh to feel so seen. A weeb and a k-pop stan, with a chronically online flavor of snark? Oh we are eating lunch at the cafeteria together. We are doing homework simultaneously on opposite sides of a screen after school. We are following each other on, uh— Tumblr if you grew up alongside me but I guess Twitter or Instagram in this day and age.
(Donnie would be an Instagram weeb, I think – he's still a bit too sweet for Twitter.)
I have to say though that he and I have nothing in common re: taste in anime or k-pop. It makes sense that he's a shounen boy, but BTS? I'm begging him to give Seventeen a try—he gives me the vibes of someone who could stan them. (Extremely biased opinion.) But I've had many a friend whose tastes do not overlap with mine—in fact, I've found I prefer to have friends like that—so I don't doubt Donnie and I could jive as teens.
Self-insert tangent aside, I just like him. He's the kind of kid in class who you think would be quiet based on vibes/appearance but actually has so many strong opinions. It's so funny to me that he's the one who snarks at Leo the most, undermining his attempts to be responsible... youngest sibling privilege. He's the instigator of chaos too: He's the one to suggest staying out to see a movie, and the one who suggests they meet April again and make themselves known as heroes. This is a schemey boy. This is a boy who finds ways to get what he wants.
I adore that he seems like a well-loved younger brother. I think it'd be easy to make his brothers make fun of his geekiness (in this case, his weeby interests) like in some other iterations, but they don't. I guess the filmmakers were more conscientious of how younger audiences would take that – like, they might not vibe with the mockery no matter how good-natured – but I also like the idea that it might have been a character decision and not a "ooh let's not step on toes" one. It's cute that they sing his BTS songs for him. It's cute that Leo encourages him to reach into his niche giant-monster-media knowledge to help them save the day. It's so sweet, and also helps you understand why he is so comfortable just saying shit to his brothers lmfao.
I also think they cast his VA very well! I love a scratchy voice, and I think it's so cute how high his voice is compared to the others. It makes his snark even funnier to listen to. I don't know how things are going to be in Tales of the TMNT and the sequel, since Donnie's VA's voice will definitely be changing over time, but I bet Donnie will still sound lovable and cute.
FAVORITE MOVIE LINES
- You sound like you have bronchitis!
- Yo duuuudes...
- This is so insanely moe to me. Him acting Cool and Chill... okay little man!
- Was it worth it, Mister Leader?
- You're really driving this metaphor into the ground, man.
- He is so snarky!!! He always has something to say!
- Ah! He used my stick against me! (gets throttled) Now he's mollywopping me!
- ("A-Alpha formation?") We don't even know what Alpha Formation is!
- We wouldn't have k-pop without humans, sooo...
- (forlornly) (about his brothers singing BTS) You guys don't even know the words.
- The VA's delivery on this was especially sweet. He sounded genuinely sad lol
- We've never been in a fight before, and I don't know if you guys have noticed, but all I've got is a big stick. How did I end up with a big stick?
- Back off! I-I've got a big stick!
- The nervous threat lmfao
- (Humans) are good, like April. And bad, like that lady who milked us!
- She said we're sus! That's not good. That is not good!
- (in response to Raph complimenting his driving) Countless hours on Forza Horizon finally paid off!
- He is such a geeeeeek I adore him.
And bonus quote from Leo:
- (When deciding how to approach April) Donnie, you go out! You're the most inviting and friendly!
- I LIKE THIS LINE SO MUCH. Like, DONNIE's the most inviting and friendly, and not Mikey? I like that it doesn't ring true for the viewer, but might ring true for Leo because (if we're going by artbook canon) he thinks of Donnie as his baby brother who is "cute" and thus more inviting and friendly. Or is it that Leo's just panicking? Either way, it's cute.
SELECT DONNIE FACTS
- The anime he's shown/mentioned to like include Jujutsu Kaisen (Gojo sticker on his staff), Attack on Titan (he mentions it twice himself), and Jojo's Bizarre Adventure (his hoodie).
- He has Donatello carved into his staff in Katakana. I can't deal with this boy...
- His folders on his desktop are scattered around and not arranged.
- His first scene as a turtle tot is him taking a gulp from a random soda can, finding a pair of glasses, and the putting them on.
- His ringtone is Butter by BTS. (Seriously, they have better songs, Don...)
IMAGES + COMMENTARY
He's literally 8). Like that's his face.
I just liked this detail of him adjusting his glasses... cute.
Also, he keeps falling on his face. See below:
I like his awkward-situation face. The stretch in the last one is really fun... like you can feel the "eek ack yikes" emanating from him lol.
He is soooo unimpressed. J'adore.
In this scene he kicks down the door and doesn't really do a cool, threatening pose, unlike the others. It's very cute and organic to me.
Oh this was SOOO cute. He turned into such a confident driver over like... three scenes where he had to drive. Teenboy cockiness, you are so dear to me.
I like how he holds onto Leo's shoulder and mutters out of the corner of his mouth. I actually just like this shot for all of them—like, they're all so shocked April is down for pizza.
He bursts into tears. I'm holding him gently in my hands. I love that they drew the actual tears coming out of him from the top of his head like the cartoon he is.
A confident boy again! Just listening to music while grabbing groceries, like he's done this plenty of times. (He has.)
I think this was for the... Roblox? Tie-up? I don't know. One of those kid type of games. But look how sweet his little face is.
STAMPS & BUTTONS
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Look at him without his glasses on. He is so fucking round. I'm losing my mind at how cute he is.