Repost: Thoughts on “Rise of the Turtles”

Surprising no one, I watched the debut of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Then I spent half a day writing about it.  Read about it here.

If we were to measure the series on a scale from A to 10, where A is the original comic book and 10 is the original cartoon, this incarnation probably rates a nine.  It takes a lot of liberties with the original material, some of them intriguing—Splinter was a father before he ever met the turtles (*), the Utroms are now The Kraang and have identical-looking human disguises and an amusingly stilted speech patterns—and some which I’m not at all sure work—April is now the turtles’ age. It’s also far more focused on being a funny show than it is in being an exciting or emotionally complex show, although shows like Adventure Time have taught me that initial impressions can be misleading. In any case, what it does it does reasonably well; all in all, it feels like a worthwhile incarnation of the series—moreso than the IDW comics, anyway.

 

Plug: My thoughts on the first year of IDW TMNT Comics

Over at my other blog.  Go give it a read.

Thus, the series has taken characters and plotlines from what came before it, it has not replicated what made any of them appealing. It strives to replicate the original comic book’s tone, but feels too safe to successfully replicate its grit. It takes several of the characters and concepts created for the original cartoon, but strips their appeal in trying to make them viable as “serious” characters (*). It lacks the original movie’s affability and wit, or its sense of time and place. It feels less audacious than the Archie comics, and less ambitious than the second cartoon. There’s little in the way of notable moments or quotable lines—heck, even the notoriously inconsistent second Tales of the TMNT series was at least always interesting.

Live by the Sword of Tengu…: “Return to New York” Part 3

” This is my fortress.  My stronghold.  Did you believe you could defeat me here?”–The Shredder

Written by:  Michael Ryan
Original Air Date: October 11, 2003
Recap Narrator: Leonardo
Characters Introduced: N/A
Gargoyles episode I could make a forced comparison to: “Awakening”, Part 5.