#TBT: When Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles went global in 1987, each country redubbed the theme song and they’re amazing

“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”: the timeless story of four pizza-loving, subway-dwelling, anthropomorphized turtles who must pit their formidable martial arts talents against Shredder, an evil ninja warrior and leader of the criminal army known as the Foot Clan.

If you didn’t own a TMNT lunchbox in the late 1980s or early 1990s, you were failing at life. If you didn’t have a favorite turtle, you really didn’t know yourself. If you couldn’t sing the entire theme song by heart, you lived in a home where you weren’t allowed to watch anything other than PBS.

The turtles weren’t just a US phenomenon. The animated TV series premiered in 1987 and then appeared around the world, including the UK, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Spain, and Russia. In each country, local vocal actors redubbed the dialogue and the theme song.

And those redubs, as you might expect, are completely amazing.

Here’s the original US theme song and some of the best redubs from around the world.

Spoiler: the Russian one is the best.

1. English (US)

2. English (UK):“Ninjas” became “heroes” because “ninjas” seemed a bit too violent in Margaret Thatcher’s United Kingdom.

3. German

4. Russian

5. French

6. Spanish

7. Swedish