It’s a Shellabration, bitches! I finally watched the Series Premiere of Nickelodeon’s new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Everything went better than expected.
To be honest, I didn’t expect much. I grew up with the 80’s cartoon, I was a huge fan of the 2003 revival, and I love the 1990 movie to death. Same as most old school fans, I want these new adaptations off my lawn. But there’s only so many times you can retell the same story, so I welcome a fresh take and gave this new animated series a chance. Was not disappoint. It’s too early to know for sure, but I see potential. And a few of the things I found appealing about the premiere reminded me of the 2003 series.
Turtles! There’s No One Better!
Currently there are two other Turtles properties around right now. One a film in the filthy paws of producer Michael Bay, set to cast the Turtles as Turtle-esque aliens and pit them against General Schroeder. If you haven’t seen the internet backlash about this yet, chances are your computer is actually a rock. Call Geek Squad.
The second is the new comic book series, where human version of the Turtles are murdered, reincarnated as turtle versions of the Turtles and then mutated into the teenage-mutant versions of the Turtles. I’m not even gonna.
So if you want to see your favorite heroes on a half-shell in new adventures that won’t make your inner child cry himself to sleep, this is your best bet.
Watch Out For Shedder
The mutagen is free flowing, I’m already detecting a formula for the monster-of-the-week that’s similar to Smallville’s early seasons and its meteor rock mutations. Promises to be very Toyetic, which is a good thing. Toyetic keeps the suits happy, meaning it will be around for a while. But there are also hints of deeper overarching villain story lines involving the mysterious Shredder and a new race of aliens that look very familiar.
It should be mentioned that the action scenes are pretty tight, reminiscent of the TMNT CGI movie. Also, I appreciate the meta-twist with their first villain Snake, who does NOT mutate into a Snake. The fact that they hang a lampshade on a defied trope pleases me to no end. Bossa Nova.
They’re Like No Others
The visual style looks more like someone put Back To The Sewers, Teen Titans, and Source Filmmaker in a blender. The result looks very cute and unique, bright and cartoony. These Turtles look fun and each Turtle has a unique feature that makes them distinguishable, even without the color coded headbands.
Like the visual style, this narrative is like nothing we’ve seen already, but bits and pieces are analogous to other tales of the TMNT. There are nods to the original comic and the 80’s cartoon, but it doesn’t follow any of its predecessors straight forward. Its aware of the other roads taken, but forges its own trail, which will make it worth watching so see where it leads.
They’re Teenage Brothers
The Turtles’ personalities don’t stray far from the famous template set out by the 80’s theme song. Leonardo leads. Donatello does machines. Raphael is cool, but rude. Michelangelo is a party dude. Pretty standard, but the difference is that they are a lot younger and more naive in this iteration. We’re watching them grow into their iconic roles, rather than seeing characters already set in their ways, which is a lot more interesting. The focus for this series is definitely on them being Teenage Mutants. They still have growing up so do, so maybe there will be some surprises along the way.
Will this Next Mutation of the TMNT franchise have enough Turtle Power to survive their Manhattan Missions? It’s not hard to make children go “Ahh!”, but will they discover the Secret of the Ooh’s? I guess we’ll learn the fate of the Turtles in Time.
I made a funny.