Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Series Premiere Review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a very important part of my childhood, I grew up watching the show. And no, I'm not talking about the 80's show, I'm talking about the 2003 series. Every Saturday morning I would get up to tune into the now deceased FoxBox. The characters, the storylines, and especially the Shredder, I loved watching all of that. Recently I've been watching some of it, it still holds up to this day. It's mature, has good writing, excellent stories, and was pretty dark and violent for a morning CW program. In 2009 the film Turtles Forever ended that incarnation of the franchise. It was a fun movie, but saddening at the fact that the show was over. (They never did get to do the season when the three Shredders meet, that would have been so awesome.) Three years later, we have a third animated incarnation. Admittedly, I was skeptical from the beginning. I didn't like the character looks, I didn't like that the Shredder would be modeled more off his 80's counterpart as opposed to the more menacing 03 one, and I especially didn't like the fact that it would show a more teenage side to the characters than the previous shows did. But, I forced myself to keep an open mind when checking out the premiere. The latest TMNT series looks to be nice way to introduce a new generation of fans. I don't like some of the directions, but overall, it looks like we have a solid series.

I had braced myself for some Ultimate Spider-Man-like comic relief. Thankfully, it isn't too played or a focus like said Spidey show. First off, the first part of Episode One was great. The New York backdrop and techno music really fit. The animation is CGI, like Iron Man: Armored Adventures. Only difference here is that it's actually good. The fights and moves are really well-defined. However, the thing that really caught me off guard was the theme song. Fans of the 80's show will love it, it's basically a modern day remake. Extremely catchy. Regarding the Turtles, they are younger than their 2003 counterparts, 15 years old to be exact. I don't like the more immature roles they have when compared to the previous show, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it'd be. It wasn't until Episode 2 that they started to grow on me. As opposed to being in the later years, here we see them going aboveground for the first time and working together as team. It was annoying seeing how badly they did as a team in Episode One. Thankfully in the next one they are acting like the Ninja Turtles we all love. Working good as team, crazy maneuvers, and all the while quips. Granted, the humor is pretty funny sometimes. Nothing really too cringe-worthy surprisingly.

One controversial thing to me was making April a teenager. I can't stand when they change things to fit a target audience. Of course with the Turtles at such a young age, it makes sense in this case. Cute little crush Don has for April, but I don't think it's going to last, at least I hope not. It would be a slightly annoying sub-plot if it continued over the course of the season. (Although I do question her not asking about how the Turtles came to be and all that.) Fans of the 80's show will be glad to see that Krang is back...somewhat. These group of pink aliens (2003 fans know them as the Utroms) are called the 'Krang.' It's kinda strange seeing Master Splinter more human-like in appearance. Nothing bad, but he looks a little like a human with a rat mask. All eyes are on the Shredder, who makes an appearance at the end of Episode 2. Look, nothing can beat the 03 version of ol' Shred head. There he has a great design, is pure evil, and has a fantastic voice. Truly, one of the best cartoon villains out there. (Even when he's about to be exiled forever he boasts.) This Shredder is definitely more based on his 80's counterpart. Human, with a very similar costume design. I can't judge fully until I see more of him. So far not bad. (Though his voice has nothing on Scottie Ray's Shredder.)

Overall, this was a surprisingly good start to the new show. As a longtime fan of the incredible 2003 toon, I approve. It was the second episode when the series started to grow on me. The turtles have distinctive personalities, I do hope Don gets to showcase more of his science skills, he rarely did here in the premiere. Animation is really good and smooth, the fights are fluid. Master Splinter's flashback with the Shredder and also the story of the origin of our green friends was good. The Shredder has a lot to do before I can classify him as a grade A villain. In the end, this is a solid way of bringing in new fans for the TMNT franchise. I'll be watching. The premiere gets an 8/10, it's a pretty good new take on the Turtles for the most part. (Plus there's a Star Trek parody.)

On the State of the Cartoon

Cartoons, we all grew up with them, many of us still watch them. (I do!) I'm 16, and over these past few years I've noticed something....cartoons are getting worse and worse. See, I'm something of a 90's kid. I grew up with all those Nick shows. Now, for people my age, here's a trip down nostalgic lane. Remember Rugrats?

Who can forget Tommy?

Can't forget Godzilla, I mean Reptar.

How about Hey Arnold?

Now you may have to be a bit older to recognize Doug.

Ah, those were the days. There are many others, such as CatDog, but the ones above I hold to a higher degree. Today, at age 16, I can still watch these and be entertained. Nostalgia is part of the reason of course, but the main thing about these old cartoons is that they had heart. There was heart put into the stories, often a moral was found. They were also made so that parents could be entertained while watching it with their kids. They also were respectable shows. Take Arnold from Hey Arnold for example, he's a kid all parents want their's to be like. A good friend, respectable of elders, a good student, and stands up for what's right. That's what kids were exposed to on a daily basis, back in my day. (Always wanted to say that.) Today however, things have quite changed. The 'thing' that is 'in,' is for main characters to rebel against their parents when they're not around, to do rebellious things. You ever hear of this cartoon called The Amazing World of Gumball? It airs on Cartoon Network currently.

Ignoring the off-putting animation for a second, the main character is this 12 year old boy named Gumball. Unlike Arnold, he's completely disobedient, constantly does things against what his parents want, and is the persona that a parent does not want their kid to be like. Never mind the fact the that the father in the show is portrayed as a complete idiotic fool. (You'll have to sit through an episode to see what I'm talking about.) It's not just the main characters, it's in the writing. The writing in today's cartoons have just gotten sillier and mindless. Now I know what you're going to tell me, they're just kids...they just need something to watch, right? Well...look again at Rugrats or Hey Arnold, or CatDog, those shows have strong writing. How can I tell? At my age, when I'm not the targeted demographic, if I'm engaged to the story, then that's how I know the writing is smart. Not today. Take Fanboy and Chum Chum for example. The writing, even for a kids show, is not good at all. It's a kids show, yes, but if the 90's and early 2000's could have strong writing, there's no reason why the majority of today's cartoons can't. Now for a cartoon we all grew up with....Spongebob!

C'mon, I know Spongebob, you know Spongebob, your mom knows Spongebob, and probably even your cat has seen a few episodes. I've seen the first three seasons probably a thousand times growing up, I recognize any one of those episodes instantly. I don't know if you've noticed, but after the movie came out, the show started going downhill. What I mean by that is the stories started becoming more mindless and Spongebob kept getting dumber and dumber. While browsing the TV not too long ago, me and my mom decided to watch it for old time's sake. We saw a newer episode and after that, the same thing was on our minds, "That was the biggest dud ever." The characters seemed to have lost all maturity they had in the past. Spongebob believe it or not in the earlier episodes was quite smart with a less squeaky voice and was capable of going whole episodes without crying and was a fun focus. Now he's borderline laughable, a little too obsessive with Squidward, and has become the definition of immature, he wasn't like that in the earlier episodes. Instead of getting older, he has seemingly gotten younger. Take Mr. Krabs for example, all they play upon now his love for money, he's not even close to being a respectable boss anymore. (Not that he ever truly was, but in the earlier episodes he actually acted like a respectable boss on occasion.) Now for my personal favorite example. *Drum roll*

Ahhhh, this show was what shaped me into a Spider-Man fan. I remember when they use to air the marathons on Saturday mornings. I watch it to this day, it's still the definitive Spidey show. It featured an adult Peter Parker, it was story-driven as opposed to action-driven, and talking as a Spidey fan for a second, they got most, if not all the character portrayals right. All in all, a great cartoon. Fast forward over ten years later and we're introduced to Ultimate Spider-Man. I'm not sure of you've noticed, but these days the shows favor a high school Peter over an adult one. In the latest show, as opposed to being story driven with amazing writing, it's more action/comedy driven. High school Peter is everything The Animated Series' one isn't. He's immature and isn't the respectable hero he should be. This version doesn't match the early 616 version, or even his Ultimate comic counterpart, he's been morphed into an immature kid  to 'appease' today's audience, since apparently that's what kids today find entertaining. Forget about the mature, respectable main character, that barely exists anymore in any cartoon today.

Compare the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the upcoming one on Nick. Now obviously it isn't fair to compare to something that isn't even out yet, but let's look at it for example. The new show is going to focus a lot on the 'teenage aspect' of the show. April has been turned into a teen, how convnient. The 2003 show relied on its surprisingly deep stories (even got a little PGish violent sometimes) and was just all around a great show. The upcoming one looks to be completely young-centric where older people will just cringe at it often. I will hold up on my bashing article until I see it of course. Have you heard about the upcoming Pac Man show? Turns out the title character is a teen, so it really should be called Pac-Teen. Instead of focusing on the Pac Man universe established in the Pac Man World game series, the show looks to be its own thing, portraying the title character as a pitiful and juvenile version of the chomper. An origin story isn't bad, but does it have to have the title character in such a manner? Now this is not to say that all cartoons today is bad. There are gems out there such as The Looney Tunes Show, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, (hey the show is nice) Young Justice, Green Lantern: The Animated Series, Transformers Prime, Monsuno, but the bad are outweighing the good. Just turn on the TV to Cartoon Network at a random time during the week to see what I'm talking about. It should be interesting to see where we'll be in ten years from now, will cartoons become smart again or continue to get mindless and mindless? I'll be watching, then in ten years I'll make a post about on either its improvement or how cartoons are doomed.