TMNT...

Small Screen Specials, Series and Direct-To-Video
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TMNT...

Post by Stego » November 10th, 2008, 12:31 pm

Ok, i've been wanting to bring this up for a while now so here goes:

I don't know about anyone here, but i'm a pretty big Ninja Turtles fan...have been since the 80s when I saw their comic books and wasn't allowed to have any. (recently i managed to pick up a few gems at a comic-con)

Like most people i know, i thought the 90s cartoon was considered a classic. As i've gotten older however, i've become somewhat of a purist and i don't have the same love for that old show as i used to (it seems more like a sitcom than anything else now).

The TMNT movie from 2007, i feel was definitely a step in the right direction and I'm definitely looking forward to the next one. It was darker (like the comics), had some great humor, and was a story of brotherhood which is exactly what a turtles movie should be.

The point of this post however is regarding the animated series' this show has inspired since the 90s show. In 2003 a new series launched on the kidsWB lineup (i think that was the network) and was aided by Eastman & Laird, the original creators of the characters (although if i'm not mistaken Laird has had more involvement with the 2007 movie and 2003 series). The stories were fun, the voicecast was spot-on and the animation while not always pefect, fit the show to a "T". The style was remeniscent of a style that i like to think Batman the Animated series inspired: very sleak and very "cut" and a bit anime. They've been slowly releasing these episodes on DVD and the latest came out 2 weeks ago: Season 2 Volume 2.

So anyway, after that show kicked the bucket someone got it in their crazy head that they should change nearly every aspect of the show (except for the voicecast) and catapult the Turtles into the future. Cowabunga, what a crappy idea! The animation became shoddier and SOMEHOW they managed to slim down the characters even more!! Huh? Fewer and fewer lines made up a character and instead of making them look sleaker, they just looked haphazard with less direction of what they were trying to achieve. "Turtles Fast Forward" was not a show i spent time watching more than 3 episodes of before realizing that even though the great voicecast was still there and alot of the humor, the stories killed it for me. End of story, R.I.P. the Turtles, right?

Wrong.

The main reason i was prompted to write this incredibly long epic post, is because i happened to be watching some Saturday morning cartoons a few days ago and i saw that there was *gasp* a NEW NINJA TURTLES CARTOON! What's more, it was titled "TMNT: Back to the Sewer". Could this be? Could they have actually realized their horrible blunder of taking the 4 mutated warriors out of their element of the New York City sewer system where they would fight ninjas, robots and various other things with a guy in a hockey mask?

No.

They changed the drawing style AGAIN and this time they added pupils to the very cool looking original design of just the white, pupiless eyes. It looks very...odd. I felt like they were constantly bugging out at something even when they were just having a conversation. Thankfully the voicecast is the same, but the premise you ask? Oh yeah, well apparantly the Shredder is stuck in some virtual reality cyber universe that he cannot escape from and in order to come back he is sending images of animals he finds on the internet which turn into giant mutants who are destroying the city but can be detroyed with a dartgun that turns them back into harmless digital information............WTF????!!!

I admit that the premise of 4 talking turtles who mutate and learn the ways of ninjitsu from a mutated rat is stretching it a bit...but i'm sorry, my disbelief can only be suspended so far before i'm just sitting there rolling my eyes, grumbling. I also acknowledge that this show is for kids who like shows like Yu-giOH and such, BUT COME ON!! They had a good thing with the 2003 re-invention...and imho if it ain't broke, don't send it back to the future only to return with the same stupidity!! Granted this is after watching one episode...but somehow i'm not expecting it to change...for the better, anyway.

Needless to say, I'm looking forward to watching the show that i feel hit it on the head best in my personal DVD collection and going to see the new CG movie whenever that decides to get finished (now sounding like it's going to be a live-action film with CG turtles). I've never worked in television, but this whole ordeal has convinced me that i could do a better job than this mindless brain poo.

If you have a chance to watch TMNT from '03, ForKids has done a decent job releasing the episodes in 2-disc sets (sadly, no real extras) and NOT 3 episode throwaways and to their credit I'm pleased. Maybe one day they will bring this show back to the core of what it was, with just enough believability mixed in with a decent amount of disbelief elements.

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Post by Macaluso » November 10th, 2008, 10:15 pm

All I have to way was that the battle on the roof between Leo and Raph was badass

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Post by Stego » November 11th, 2008, 12:26 am

i couldn't agree more :D

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Post by Whippet Angel » November 11th, 2008, 2:33 pm

If they'd gone with the PG-13 rating, it would've been even better!

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Post by Stego » November 11th, 2008, 7:17 pm

Dude, totally...that's like the one major thing they continue to overlook is that the property completely lends itself to a more mature audience. Who knows if they'll ever figger that one out...

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