Donatello

Donatello is third largest son. Like the other turtles except for Raphael, he loves the future for its new technology and gadgets.

Childhood
Donatello was a pet turtle bought by a young boy along with three others Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo. The boy was waiting at the crosswalk when a teenager noticed a blind old man crossing the street while a truck sped toward him. The teenager bumped into the boy with the turtles, causing him to drop the bowl in which he held them. The turtles fell into the sewer. Meanwhile, the teenager had successfully saved the old man's life, and while the truck veered away from the scene, the doors flew open and a canister fell right into the sewer with the turtles, covering them with an odd substance. A rat by the name of Splinter was passing by and picked up the turtles, touching the odd chemical as well. When Splinter woke up one morning some point later, he found he and the turtles had grown taller, and slightly more intelligent.

Splinter thought it wise to train them in ninjutsu, just as his Master Yoshi had unknowingly done for him. Donatello and his brothers were taken by Splinter to Japan when they were children to bury Hamato Yoshi's ashes with Tang Shen's remains, and alerted the Ancient One of his and Yoshi's condition. The turtles constantly noticed an odd demon visible to them, but invisible to the Ancient One and Splinter. Finally, when the Ancient One went to consult with the Ninja Tribunal, Splinter noticed an odd smell in the air, believing it to belong to the demon the turtles continued to see, and they secretly followed the Ancient One. The two ninja masters finally were attacked by the demon, but Donatello managed todestroy the amulet by throwing a stone, causing it to shatter and reveal the demon. The Ancient One and Splinter quickly killed the demon. The Ninja Tribunal applauded the turtles' efforts, though eradicated all memories of the trip. The Ancient One gave the turtles bandanas, Donatello's being purple. The Tribunal used their connection with nature to wrinkle space and open a portal to the turtles' current lair.

Personality
Like in the Mirage comics, Donatello has a complex personality in the 2003 animation and thus is a popular character. Several episodes concentrate on him, as well as his emotional and intellectual struggles.

As in his other incarnations, Donatello is knowledgeable, a skilled technician and tinkerer, and very introspective, frequently becoming pensive over things he doesn't understand. He typically has a very close, however platonic, relationship with April. He also displays closeness with Michelangelo akin to that, seen in the original movie. Even more pacifistic than his other incarnations, Donatello shows a greater interest in technology than his ninjutsu training. During his first Battle Nexus Tournament, despite being a very gifted ninja, he lost in the first round of the competition. Even so, Donatello will defend his brothers at any cost, and he frequently assists the team in many ways through the technology he develops, mostly vehicles and communication devices.

In this series' incarnation, Donatello is generally well-liked by all of his brothers, never engaging in major confrontations with them. In fact, Donatello was the one to reunite his brothers against the Utrom Shredder in the episode Same As It Never Was. His skin color is an olive green color; this particular color is only used for him in the 2003 animation. In the fourth season, he was infected by a monster, and in the episode Adventures in Turtle-Sitting, he mutates into a monster himself (which happened to Raphael in the Mirage Comics).

Ninja Tribunal
Donatello became one of the Ninja Tribunal Acolytes along with his brothers. He was the first ninja shown to focus his spiritual energy through his Amulet of the Acolyte. This is perhaps due to the fact that the Acolytes training began with studying in a library, where Don enthusiastically absorbed knowledge of the secret arts. His spiritual avatar is that of a dragon.

Fast Forward
A time window malfunction (that turned it into a time machine) caused Donnie, his brothers, and Master Splinter to be "fast-forwarded" to 2105, hence the show's name Fast Forward. Donatello was one of two Turtles, alongside Michelangelo, that adapted best to the new lifestyle of the future. He was extremely interested in the new technology and quickly bonded with Cody Jones. Using his ideas, Cody had made many new, high-tech turtle weapons and vehicles. In the episode The Journal, which features the Turtles going back to their own time, he uses his knowledge of the future to build new gadgets such as a fusion generator.

Back To The Sewer
After a long time, Cody and Don were able to finish repairing the time portal and were finally able to back to their own time. Unfortunately, Viral took over Serling and sent them jumping around time until Donny managed to repair Serling enough to create another time portal to their own time. But Viral took control of Serling again and was about to blast the Turtles, but Splinter took the blast.

Donatello was devastated by the loss of his teacher and father, and for some time was obsessive with gathering up all of Splinter's bits in order to restore him; constantly blaming himself for the incident. After some time when Don was faced with the choice of saving his brothers or gathering more of Splinter's bits, he realized that he should be there for his brothers more often. In the episode Web Wranglers, Raphael has stated that Don has an IQ of 637 - a likely highly inflated stat. It should be noted that Don was the one who killed (with help from Splinter) the Cyber Shredder by blasting him with the same energy beam Viral shot at splinter at the beginning of the season. After that, he sees Casey and April getting married.