30 years of Ninja Turtles - Good and bad

[KrangPrime]

so, since we have a ghostbusters reboot topic going, how about an over veiw of the turtles franchise?

For me, it all started with the cartoon. I didn't like it at first, but it grew on me. first episode I think I ever saw was Big Break In. it didn't take long before Iwas hooked.
Walked into my first comic store in 1993 and discovered the comic. City At War. I DEFINETLY didn't like it at first, because I had no idea what the hell was going on
and it was kind of dark and gritty, a style I don't normally care for. but, eventually after giving it another chance a bit later, I grew to love it and meet most of the artists working on it.

So, lets run things down a bit.

The comic - The first 15-24 issues or so are the main source material for me. The guest artists where fun, but the style of was so over the place with no set vision that it might as well have been it's own sub series of adventures seperate from the main group. they tried to come back around issue 48, and mostly succeeded. but I felt some of City at war was a tad confusing in the direction it went and seemed to be a story more about the direction of mirage at the time than the turtles I thought...with Mirage getting pulled in every direction, and the team getting stressed and pulled apart.

Archie Comics - I mostly skipped this series. Although I do remember the final three or so rather fondly. I've been catching up on the IDW re releases. the art is not bad at all...but I notice a definite agenda in environmental issues getting pushed in every few issues.

Original cartoon series. Started off great in 1987. Got a little slower in 1988 in terms of pace and story. 1989 ratcheted things back up a notch....and minus some bad animation, is probably it's strongest season. 1990 saw an uptake in animation, but less focus on shredder and Krang. the entire guest villain cache was nothing but mad scientists. memorable mad scientists, yes, but it wore thin rather quick as they found their writing niche with the guest villains. 1991 was pretty good, with a cool ice setting for the technodrome. 1992 was excellent...with nary a bad episode in sight. 1993 was even better, even though SOME of it felt like a swan song to classic turtles, and some of the voice performances starting to sound like even they thought some of the show was getting to be a bit old hat. 1994 was a drastic change. it took a bit getting used to, but once I did, I kind of liked it. Titanus was an awesome villain that sadly didn't get enough screen time. at this point, it was clear CBS was trying to cancel the show and get out of animation, but it not only survived, but prospered as being the only action zone show to make the cut and the last animation to be on the network. 1995.....not terrible, still enjoyable...but not the same. Dregg and carter where forced on the writers by the network. I think the hope was fans would tune away in droves at the new direction and they could finally cancel all their animation. Dregg as a villain wasn't bad, saved LARGELY by Tony Jay voicing him....but he came off as a power ranger rip off with not enough force or smarts to make it as a main villain. If the show had stuck with shredder and krang in the top of the hour, and dregg as the guest villain, it would have been perfect...but sadly by then the show had been cut to 8 episodes. at least the arc of story was a nice one. As for Carter, that was one of the most useless characters in the franchise. he never knew what he wanted to do. be a hero, stay a mutant, stick with the team. he second guessed every decision made and got real annoying real quick. the mutations of the turtles was the only thing keeping me watching at that point. 1996 - The head writer left. a new writer brought in. 1996 is one of my favorite seasons as they tried to bring back a little of the comedy and light heartedness of the first seasons. and the darker animation and comedy mixed rather well I thought. alsosaw the return of shredder and krang (sans bebop and rocksteady) for a three parter, but they where largely useless. all in all, it was a fitting final season....but I think the show started with shredder and krang, it should have ended with them.


Next Mutation. by this point I thought the cartoon was still good. it didn't need to be cancelled. so I was ambivelant about this from the start. even more so that the horrid saban, bringing of those terrible power rangers that helped suck the turtles popularity dry, was making it. It had good costumes for a TV budget. but they couldn't really do ninja moves on a kids show. If they had gotten rid of the laugh track and horrid sound effects, I think it would have been better. I didn't even mind Venus. I just wish they didn't make her a 'fifth turtle' in the bowl. there was no need for that. also, the Breasts.....god that was horrible.. I havn't watched next mutation since 2000.. wonder if it aged well..

continued in second post..

 

[KrangPrime]

2003 series. THIS was the series I was waiting for. All the voices fit great (minus splinter which took a while to get used to). The action and animation had stepped up a MAJOR NOTCH. no animation errors this time around. the entire voice cast stayed for the entire series. plots where a little more grounded and serious. and, for five years we had GREAT turtle stories in a show I looked forward to every saturday morning. Fast Forward was a move by the toy company, and the quality slowed down tremendously. it got far too goofy and no real set vision on where to go. the new villain was kind of boring compared to what we got, and it never really recovered. It got a little better with back to the sewers, but with the introduction of that stupid virtual reality realm......it never really got back to what it was. But still, Turtles 2K3 is my favorite of the series to this day.

2012. Now, this might upset some people, but I think the new series isn't all that great.
It's watchable, and the voice cast is fun, don't get me wrong. But if 2003 lacked vision in it's final years, this new series didn't even have a chance, because they no longer had a peter laird to keep things in check. The main villain of this series is 'the Kraang'. a group of aliens who want to invade earth...just because. we arn't really given a real reason for their main objective. Shredder and his henchman are kind of an after thought, and not really seen much during the first season. you also have characters like Karai, who the writers really arn't sure what to do with. and that became clear once they made her accept her true parentage and she went to live with the turtles.

Watching this show gets so frustating because it has the potential to be great.....it just doesn't know how to be. Plot points get setup and forgotten. things like mutagen canisters that where made up to be this huge threat, and forgotten within the first six episodes of season 2. When Karai got turned into a snake mutant...we saw her for two episodes after that, and she didn't reaper until season 3. Plot points with NO setup. The Technodrome reveal should have been a HUGE season one plot point. instead, it got introduced in episode 25 out of nowhere, and forgotten soon after. only to be seen again about 25 episodes later for a one and done. April's mother. a character introduced once, with a mystery behind her, never to be brought up or mentioned again, before or since. Aprils Father. only used as a plot device. Krang Prime. seen once or twice (probably because Rossanne is too expensive to have around more than that)......drops huge bomb shell that the Krang have been on earth since the dino's ruled, and helped shape humanity with mutagen, never to be brought up again.

The Horror episodes. one or two a year around halloween time might have been fun, but any more than that they seem woefully out of place. that April's mother episode seemed to be done only as an excuse to do a horror episode. episodes like the dream bears, and battle of the mega shredder. same reason. The other thing I hate is the de-aging of the characters. mostly because some executives think kids will only watch shows with kids in them... but also done to give donnie some stupid love triangle with April, where he treats her like crap and makes him totally unlikable.

The other thing is the way nick airs it. 4 episodes at a time and two months break. by the time it comes back, I've forgotten where it left off. and yet, the show is still a hit. nice to see kids can keep up with all that. but as an adult, it's far tougher.



As for Movies.
1990 was the best. 1992 wasn't bad. I liked Adam Carl as the voice of donatello far better over corey feldman. he not only acted the part better, but the voice fit nicer. shame he only got to do it once. THe big downfall at the end was vanilla ice. Even though super shredder didn't make much sense, and getting killed by a few beams of wood no less, it was far better than the idea of some no name white rapper doing a dance number in the middle of an action fight. If they had to do that scene, they could have avoided the choreographed dance and turtles going on stage at the end...and it would have been much better with a 'fake' artist invented for the movie rather than a 'name' one.
I actually kind of like the 1993 entry. the only thing I would change are the horrid costumes for splinter and the turtles....Splinters terrible voice, and Raphael's voice. other than that, I thought the movie was a nice change of pace from the shredder battles.

I loved the 2007 movie. Mako as Splinter was Brillaint. a shame it never got a sequel or much promotion.

We all know my feelings on Bay Turtles. never should have been made. we should have gotten something more akin to batman begins instead.

As for Video games. original arcades are the best. followed by Manhatten Project for NES, Hyperstone Heist for Genesis, the three gameboy games. Konami lost the magic when they made the games for the gamecube. although the third game for the DS was rather fun...as was the 2007 movie entry. The XBox game is a little too annoying...I never got past the first level in Out of the Shadows. the new games based on the new cartoon are OK, but nothing really special..

as for IDW, that's the only thing these days that I look forward to each month. I feel they did the reboot thing right. compared to the nick series....which is too familiar, retreading plots I've seen done at least 4 times now, and some done better...

so, what are your thoughts? Great 30 years? lack lucster?

 

[Dessa]

So, umm... did you go to the Comin' Out of Our Shells concert tour?

 

[KrangPrime]

was hoping for a little in depth discussion..but also had bets on whether or not the first post would be 'confusion', 'disinterest', or the ever popular 'get a life' as well .
in this case, seems I also forgot to discuss the live action budget offerings...

thought i covered everything

 

[Axlotl]

I was TMNT fan in the '80s - my introduction to them was the black and white comics.
I used to draw ninja turtles all the time in school.
The cartoon surprised me when it came out, because I hadn't known they were so popular.
My little sister liked the cartoon - I didn't.
Never bothered with the movies.
Until the Bay-make. I only rented it because I'd already seen everything else in the RedBox.
It was meh. Completely forgettable.