Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Impressions · 8:21pm Jul 22nd, 2018
Is randomly showing episodes going to be a cartoon trend now?
Alright, I’m gonna throw my predictions out here first. Shredder and the iconic villains are showing up later on, Usagi Yojimbo’s gonna be in an episode or two, and at some point they’re going to have a crossover with the 80s TMNT cartoon (possibly as the final episode/arc again).
In any case, Nickelodeon has out of the blue decided to upload 5 full episodes of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on their website. Me being curious, I decided to check it out. For the sake of it, I’ll just talk about the first episode.
The episode begins with some crooks chasing a mutated dog-like creature, but it escapes. It then cuts to night when the Ninja Turtles and April decide to goof off and jump into a rich guy’s pool on an empty rooftop. As they discuss what to next, they find the dog scared for its life in a construction site. They then encounter the crooks, who transform into mutant warriors. During this fight, Leo, Raph, and Mikey’s trademark weapons get destroyed. The bad guys get away with the cat and April (and a poor delivery boy) into a strange portal after the fight. Mikey recognizes the symbol on the wall as the one on Master Splinter’s talisman.
The turtles head home to snatch the talisman under Splinter’s nose. Luckily for them, Splinter in this series is a huge bum who spends more time sitting on the couch and watching TV than anything else and falls asleep, allowing Leo to steal it. Mikey uses it to recreate the portal, now finding themselves in a secret mystic city right below New York.
They find April, who leads the turtles to where she saw the dog get taken: A mysterious lab run by Baron Draxum, who wanted the dog in order to take the vial on their collar. It turns out the vial is this show’s take on mutagen, and he turns the delivery boy into a fish person. Realizing they need to stop him, the turtles are escorted into a weapons room, where they (sans Donnie) decide to take some brand new mystic weapons.
Finally, they encounter Baron Draxum, who hints that he may have played a role in mutating the turtles into what they are. During their fight, Leo, Raph, and Mikey discover that their new weapons have magic abilities as well, but it doesn’t do much since they’ve had no training in using them. The lab gets destroyed in the fight, and the dog (later named Mayhem by April) teleport the heroes out. The portal gets closed for the time being, but it’s implied Draxum will use his flies to continue his plot to mutate people.
Let me give a warning, if you’re expecting standard the TMNT fare then this show isn’t for you. The characters are portrayed differently (Raph’s the leader and Leonardo’s the most laidback of the four for instance), it focuses more on humor and less on story, there’s focus on magic right out the gate, and none of the usual villains are here (although the Foot Clan does exist apparently).
Personally, I think the show has potential to be a decent unique take on the franchise. The writing is surprisingly better than expected. Although it has my least favorite take on Splinter, this show’s Donatello might just be the best he’s ever been written. And the other episodes began to put less gags during the fights. Speaking of, the animation is really fluid during the action scenes and really makes up for the bizarre art-style.
It wouldn’t surprise me if partway through the season, they begin to focus more on story since it’s clear there’s an intended arc with Baron Draxum as well as Leonardo slowly becoming the leader we know him to be.
Hmmm, sounds interesting but still not sure if I'll give this a look
Not at all interested, looks like Teen Titans Go bled in TMNT's mouth like Supernatural's vampires and turned it into gay badly animated kiddie shit