Nickelodeon’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Revamped and Dope As Ever

It’s been a while since I wrote about something other than working out…and I thought it was about time I did…so, without further ado, lets talk childhood memories…specifically The Turtles.

NICKELODEON’S NEW TURTLES – RESPECT IS CRUCIAL

Anyone who knows me knows I LOVE cartoons. Always have and always will. And, anyone that knows me knows I LOVE Nickelodeon’s New Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now in it’s 4th volume on iTunes, the show just keeps getting better and better…and this past week’s episode (The Wrath Of Tiger Claw) finally motivated me to write a post about why I LOVE the show so much.

First and foremost, the show completely respects and stays true to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise while at the same time sprinkling generational Easter eggs for old fans of the turtle comics, cartoons, and movies…not to mention including items for the late 80’s – 90’s pop culture fanatics too.

Mutagen Finder Gameboy

The respect shown for the established franchise is a crucial and allows for the creators to take liberties with the newly revamped show. From tweaking villains’ looks and story lines to adjusting some main characters’ ages, abilities, and strengths, the new Nickelodeon TMNT show presents the same characters we fell in love with in a fresh new light.

UNIQUENESS IS KEY

Over the years I had come to terms with the fact that The Turtles where pretty much distinguished either by their weapons (as in the original comic where all the turtles wore the same colored mask) or by the color of their masks, but the new Nickelodeon series actually executes CHARACTER DESIGN!

Who would have thought this would make The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cooler? Hopefully everyone.

In the new Nickelodeon series each turtle not only has their traditional weapons and unique face masks, but they all actually LOOK different too.

Everything from height to skin color to eye color to the shape of their head to their muscle mass and body build to their teeth are different and results, in my opinion, in Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo looking cooler than ever.

THE BOND IS WHAT MAKES THE TURTLES

Anyone who loves The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles most likely loves them because of the bond they share between all of them.

Four brothers, each with their very own unique personality, strengths, and weaknesses that fight, argue, and bicker as much as we all do with our own friends and siblings, always come together to overcome any and all adversity. This perfect personification of what true friendship and family means is what has made The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles stand the test of time and is what drives the new Nickelodeon series…Not to mention the thought of Mutant Ninja Turtles sounds, and looks, f-ing awesome.

SPEAKING OF LOOKS

The new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series is 3-D animation and this, to be quite honest, threw me a bit of a curve ball at first.

I loved the new turtles and Splinter design from the get go but I had a bit of an issue with the scale of some of the bad guys…

…And I still have a bit of an issue with the Turtle Van’s scale…it is two lanes wide…how the hell would they drive that through the city…they’d be in on-coming traffic the entire time… “Are you an idiot, you can believe in Mutant Ninja Turtles but you have an issue with the size of the van?”… “Uhm, yes…yes I can and do thank you very much.”

BUT OTHER THAN THAT, the show looks pretty DOPE.

From the city itself to the turtles’ design to the action scenes, everything is stylized throughout with an EXTRA SPRINKLE of DOPENESS scattered throughout each episode.

“Why did the screen get smaller and stop at the turtles looking down at the city with with glowing eyes…? That was weird, right Papi?” asked my 5 year old asked last year.

“Because it looked awesome! And, no, it wasn’t weird – it was awesome!” I responded.

And from that point on my 5 year old was on board with the freshness that is the new turtles series.

But stylized scenes, good writing, dope action scenes, and character design is not what makes the new Nickelodeon turtle series awesome – it is all those things combined…and the “and then some.”

AND THEN SOME – KILL BILL MEETS THE TURTLES

What I personally love about the new Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series is the constant references to 80’s, 90’s, and current pop culture.

Be it pop culture 80’s – 90’s art, animation style, games, comics, fighting style, movie genres, etc., the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon references all of them while creating something new and exciting every week…and this mash up of the old informing the new happened again last week.

Though not the best episode in the series, not even close to the best in my opinion, last week’s episode had something I had yet to see.

Last week’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (The Wrath Of Tiger Claw) final fight scene looked like something taken straight out of an indie low-budget horror film – and it was dope. Yeah, the action was awesome but the set made the scene.

The scene was set when the turtles lead the villain to a butcher’s back of house for the final fight. From the freezer, complete with rows of hanging slabs of meat, to the cutting board, whose table saw gets turned on at the start of the fight, the scene is AWESOME!

Yeah, my 5 year old had no idea what the scene was referencing, I mean it was not gruesome in the least, but any adult with a little horror or gangster film background would know exactly what the scene was referencing…and, though no one got chopped in half, the scene was nonetheless still very intense.

Though the writing, voice acting, and animation, is solid in its own right, this borrowing from different pop culture genres, while respecting and poking fun at the same time, is part of the charm and uniqueness of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series – a charm and uniqueness that has made the show such a hit with kids and parents alike.

Something I don’t know I will be able to say about the new Movie…but I’ll reserve my opinion until I see it…and I will most certainly be seeing it!