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Reviews
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
Good, but could have been so much greater...
I was eight when TMNT first appeared on the air (1987), and I was blown away by the 5-part pilot miniseries. I watched the show pretty faithfully for the next 4 or 5 years until I became occupied with other things.
15 years later, I've gotten around to collecting a lot of the episodes, and I have somewhat mixed feelings about the direction the series took.
The first season, I am convinced, is the high watermark of action cartooning; you can read my review of it on IMBD.
After the first season, the folks at Wolf Studios started making subtle changes to the show, a lot of which brought down the quality of the show in my opinion.
The Turtles became much less violent, probably due to parents' protests. Much of the imitable violence was eliminated. After the first season, it's extremely rare you'll see one of the Turtles actually attack someone with his weapon. After season 3 or so, Michaelangelo was stripped of his nunchuks and given a lousy grappling hook for his primary weapon. In a lot of these episodes, the turtles don't fight foes with their ninja skills; they end up fighting foes with high-tech devices Donatello whipped up (in fact, Donatello eventually became the dominant Turtle in the series, not a good thing). Classic martial arts fight sequences are a rarity from season 3 on.
The writers started piling on the corny jokes and gags, pizza references, and Michaelangelo's surfer-dude talk, probably in an attempt to make the show even more attractive to kids. It got to be ridiculous.
The writers introduced all sorts of auxiliary, one- or two-shot villains and allies who had no personality at all. Granted, they couldn't have Shredder and Krang be the main villains in every episode, but the writers could have done a better job of developing new characters (the Rat King is a good example of how to introduce a new character--too bad he only appears in five or so episodes). Part of the problem was that by this time, they had a whole army of freelance writers doing the scripts, and it's probably safe to say that none of them communicated with each other or watched each other's episodes. By way of comparison, the entire first season miniseries was written by David Wise and Patti Howeth.
Starting with season 7, David Wise returned to creative control and wrote most of the episodes, a lot of which were more action-oriented. It also seems that a lot of the episodes started taking place at night, since the sky was always a dark blue/black; this probably was due to Wise's desire to give the series a darker feel.
Starting with season 8, the artists completely redid the whole look of the series. The Turtles became darker and looked like cartoon versions of their movie selves. April stopped dressing in that hot yellow jumpsuit and started wearing a jacket and corduroys, making her much less attractive. :( The sky turned from dark blue to blood red, like they were expecting the F our Horsemen of the Apocalypse to come flying through the sky. I know Wise wanted to give the series a new feel, but this was ugly. Perhaps worst of all, James Avery, the original voice of Shredder, retired from the show. His replacement was terrible. On the bright side, though, they eliminated the pizza references and Michaelangelo started speaking English again. Some fans liked the new (old?) edgy feel of the show; others hated it. I stand somewhere in the middle.
At the end of season 8, Shredder and Krang were (almost) completely eliminated. The new villain in seasons 9 and 10 was a alien named Dregg and completely devoid of any personality. The show should have ended with the defeat of Shredder and Krang, not with some random alien who appeared for only the last 2 seasons.
Whew.
Anyway, despite some of the twists and turns the series took, I'm still an avid fan of the TMNT toon.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987)
Good, but could have been so much greater...
I was eight when TMNT first appeared on the air (1987), and I was blown away by the 5-part pilot miniseries. I watched the show pretty faithfully for the next 4 or 5 years until I became occupied with other things.
15 years later, I've gotten around to collecting a lot of the episodes, and I have somewhat mixed feelings about the direction the series took.
The first season, I am convinced, is the high watermark of action cartooning; you can read my review of it on IMBD.
After the first season, the folks at Wolf Studios started making subtle changes to the show, a lot of which brought down the quality of the show in my opinion.
The Turtles became much less violent, probably due to parents' protests. Much of the imitable violence was eliminated. After the first season, it's extremely rare you'll see one of the Turtles actually attack someone with his weapon. After season 3 or so, Michaelangelo was stripped of his nunchuks and given a lousy grappling hook for his primary weapon. In a lot of these episodes, the turtles don't fight foes with their ninja skills; they end up fighting foes with high-tech devices Donatello whipped up (in fact, Donatello eventually became the dominant Turtle in the series, not a good thing). Classic martial arts fight sequences are a rarity from season 3 on.
The writers started piling on the corny jokes and gags, pizza references, and Michaelangelo's surfer-dude talk, probably in an attempt to make the show even more attractive to kids. It got to be ridiculous.
The writers introduced all sorts of auxiliary, one- or two-shot villains and allies who had no personality at all. Granted, they couldn't have Shredder and Krang be the main villains in every episode, but the writers could have done a better job of developing new characters (the Rat King is a good example of how to introduce a new character--too bad he only appears in five or so episodes). Part of the problem was that by this time, they had a whole army of freelance writers doing the scripts, and it's probably safe to say that none of them communicated with each other or watched each other's episodes. By way of comparison, the entire first season miniseries was written by David Wise and Patti Howeth.
Starting with season 7, David Wise returned to creative control and wrote most of the episodes, a lot of which were more action-oriented. It also seems that a lot of the episodes started taking place at night, since the sky was always a dark blue/black; this probably was due to Wise's desire to give the series a darker feel.
Starting with season 8, the artists completely redid the whole look of the series. The Turtles became darker and looked like cartoon versions of their movie selves. April stopped dressing in that hot yellow jumpsuit and started wearing a jacket and corduroys, making her much less attractive. :( The sky turned from dark blue to blood red, like they were expecting the F our Horsemen of the Apocalypse to come flying through the sky. I know Wise wanted to give the series a new feel, but this was ugly. Perhaps worst of all, James Avery, the original voice of Shredder, retired from the show. His replacement was terrible. On the bright side, though, they eliminated the pizza references and Michaelangelo started speaking English again. Some fans liked the new (old?) edgy feel of the show; others hated it. I stand somewhere in the middle.
At the end of season 8, Shredder and Krang were (almost) completely eliminated. The new villain in seasons 9 and 10 was a alien named Dregg and completely devoid of any personality. The show should have ended with the defeat of Shredder and Krang, not with some random alien who appeared for only the last 2 seasons.
Whew.
Anyway, despite some of the twists and turns the series took, I'm still an avid fan of the TMNT toon.