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MARK REVIEWS 2003’S TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

I remember as a kid I wore Ninja Turtles pajamas, I once spent an entire day in them… just thought I’d share that. Anyway, after what I said about the first TMNT cartoon, I’m sure you want to know what I think of the more recent one. To some it up, it’s good. Some people, like Stuttering Craig and other 80’s kids, think it’s not good, but it’s a much underrated show. Let’s not forget the old show wasn’t faithful to its material source and that this one revived interest in the TMNT. This was done by 4KIDS, you know, the company that “bastardizes” countless anime. This was one of the first originals they did and, do to the actors being non-union, don’t expect special guests like Mark Hamill, Ron Perlman or someone like that.

I’ll explain some similarities and differences first. Like the old show, it takes place in New York. Major differences include the lack of the turtle obsession with pizza, the surfer slang, and some slapstick. I guess I’ll start with the turtles. Leonardo in this series is still leader; however he is more dedicated to his ninja training and is the most developed character throughout the show. Though not as fun, he becomes more fleshed out as the series progresses, in Season 4, he becomes more serious, to the point where he is almost as brooding as Raphael until finally snapping out of it. Michelangelo lacks his surfer accent, instead he makes many pop culture references to Spider-Man, Star Trek and horror movies to name a few. He still has his love for comics, odd tendency to cross-dress and acts like the immature little brother. He isn’t as obsessed with pizza as before, in fact he’s obsessed with anything unhealthy… cheese dogs, ice cream, chicken chow mien, and just about anything a 13 year old would rather eat than something green. Not to mention, he still has his nunchucks throughout the show. Donatello is more respectful to humans and rather than wanting to be accepted for his knowledge, he learns simply to satisfy curiosity. He also has less stuffing blowing up in his face and builds tech that is less conspicuous than the old show, however it seems to futuristic to be made of parts they found in a junkyard. Like the old Donny, this one uses vehicles and tech they “borrow” from bad guys. Raphael is the most different in comparison to his 80’s self. He’s always been pissed off, aggressive and eager to fight, not to mention his jokes are actually funnier. He also doesn’t break the fourth wall. Plus, where as the 80’s Raph makes fun of Mikey, it’s the other way around, unfortunately, Raph always gets payback, usually beating Michelangelo up. He also spoke in a Brooklyn accent, like his movie counterpart. In fact, the actors stated that they had to watch the first Ninja Turtles movie to get the voices right.

Let’s go on to the supporting cast. Who better than Master Splinter to start with? Unlike the previous show where he is Hamato Yoshi, he is Yoshi’s pet… FINALLY getting it right! He treats the turtles as his family more than his students. He also has more involvement in their battles that the 80’s Splinter. Yoshi himself, though not a major character here, has a bigger and more important back-story that his predecessor. April O’Neil does appear, but instead of a news reporter, she is a former assistant to Dr. Stockman, matching her comic counterpart. After learning he uses the mousers to rob banks, she tries to expose him, but sicks his mousers on her, where she is saved by the turtles in the sewers. After befriending them, she becomes an ally. Okay, so she’s not as attractive to viewers as the old April, but this new April is a better ally all together: She can understand Donny’s techno-babble, she learns martial arts from Splinter so she can take better care of herself, she is usually the one the turtles ask for help rather than the other way around and doesn’t have a somewhat selfish ego. She also works in her father’s antique store; there was an episode where she dresses as a news reporter to help the turtles and later shows she has no interest in becoming one. Casey Jones is improved as well, instead of just appearing as a Jason wannabe with a fetish for destruction, he’s fleshed out to show how he became a vigilante: his parents’ store was burnt down by gangs. As he befriends the turtles, mostly Raphael, he falls in love with April and eventually chose her over being a vigilante. By the end of the series, they get married. He also has a gambling, lying criminal of a cousin named Sid and an overprotective mom who almost destroyed his relationship with April. Miyamoto Usagi, who was finally given his real name, appears in the show as a dimensional ally to the turtles, and was close friends with Leonardo. There were episodes that took place in his world, where Leonardo was sent there during a story arc and saw Usagi’s furry people and feudal-style world. Funny, but this is one of those characters where the new show neither improves nor ruins a character, I like both Usagi’s just as much. Finally, we have Leatherhead. For those who saw the 80’s but not the 2K3 show, you’ll wonder “Why the hell is Leatherhead an ally and not an enemy?” Well, the comic Leatherhead wasn’t a full-time enemy to be exact. Like his classic counterpart, Leatherhead mutated with the same ooze, but he was flushed down as a baby and was exposed to the mutagen, then adopted by aliens living on Earth called the Utroms, who I’ll mention later. Because of them, he was raised a genius, but when they had to escape back to their own world; they accidentally left him on Earth. Eventually meeting the turtles in the sewers, he was tricked by Baxter Stockman, who lied that he was friends with the Utroms, that they were the ones responsible for the Utroms leaving him behind. Eventually, Stockman’s lies were revealed and Leatherhead sacrificed himself to save the turtles from his home, which was their former lair, from crashing down on him. He was eventually revealed to be alive, having been found and experimented on by an original character named Agent Bishop, he escaped with the turtles and began to live with them. However, due to the traumatic experience by Bishop he develops a split personality, usually identified by when his eyes change from normal to slit. This personality causes him to go from a genius to a raging beast that attacks anyone, friend or for. I think this character is one of the biggest improvements, despite it being done to death, character with split personalities are always interesting; he also makes a better ally than enemy due to him being mutated from the same ooze as the turtles.

Let’s go to the villains…

(CRACKS UP FOR 20 MINUTES)

COME ON! Look at the Shredder, as great as it was in the 80’s, he was a joke! Surely you can’t take someone as ridiculous, hopeless and all around pathetic as the Shredder and make a character who is menacing, dangerous and the least bit frighten-

(SEES THE SHREDDER FROM 2003)

OH GOD!

The Shredder looks like if Sauron, Darth Vader and a Terminator were thrown into a blender! Not only does he look cooler, he’s an all around better villain. Unlike the other show, where he framed Yoshi, Shredder murders him. Not to mention, he’s more villainous, hateful, doesn’t throw childish tantrums and can actually handle all four turtles at once, in fact he actually bests them. His alter ego of Oroku Saki is more like Lex Luthor, in which he is a respected philanthropist whose money and resources helped ship New York into what it is, using this as a front for his illegal activities. Unlike the comic where he killed Yoshi to avenge his brother, he killed Yoshi for being in league with his enemies, the Utroms. In the 3-part Secret Origins episode, we learn a shocking secret… the Shredder is… AN UTROM! Those who saw this episode were all “It’s Krang!” were WRONG! The Utroms were a peaceful brain-like race of aliens from the comics who crashed on Earth, they created the substance that mutated the turtles. In this show, they were transporting an utrom traitor named Ch’rell, who was responsible for high crimes from murder to domination on other worlds. However, Ch’rell escaped and caused the Utroms to crash on Earth. He stole one of their exo-suits and used it to adopt a new alias, the Shredder. Forming a clan known as the Foot Ninja, the Shredder was determined to slay the Utroms, so the latter created the Guardians, a force dedicated to protecting them. Hamato Yoshi was the only non-utrom, at least I recall, who was a Guardian, explaining why the Shredder attacked him. When Leonardo meets him in person for the first time, Shredder tries to convince him he is the good guy and needs his help and that the organization he is fighting is trying to take over Earth, which I felt is better that just flat out saying what he really did. Splinter reveals to Leonardo the truth and the turtles face him, only to lose and get help from their sensei, who defeats the Shredder in a similar manner to the movie. Shredder returns and this was another story arc taken from the comics, which a part of the movie was based on, the whole escape to the country and come back for round two after a turtle was injured, only unlike the movie where Raphael was the injured one, Leonardo was the one in both comic and cartoon form. It ends with Leo slicing the head off the Shredder, to find out in later episodes the truth. Peter Laird stated this change was made to depict the Shredder’s head coming off on broadcast. A lot of people didn’t like this change… I still say it works better than capturing cheese Danishes… yeah, I won’t let it go.

There are literally a ton of villains, so we’ll just look at the most occurring ones throughout the series. Hun is the leader of the Purple Dragons, a gang that destroyed Casey’s parents’ store, and devoted servant to The Shredder. Unlike Rocksteady and Bebop, Hun shows later he is fare more intelligent and is more capable on handling all 4 turtles on his own before losing. He also seems to have some form of Xenophobia, referring to all non-humans as “freaks”. After learning the Shredder is an utrom, he renounces his loyalty to him and thus the Purple Dragons were no longer a part of the Foot Clan. Next up is Karai, leader of the Foot in Japan who comes to New York to restore order after the Shredder’s disappearance. She is very honor-bound to Shredder, revealing when she was an orphan, The Shredder adopted her and raised her like a daughter, therefore she is loyal to him out of the love a child would have for a father. She also seems to trustworthy enough for the Shredder to reveal he is an utrom, but seems very gullible to him, she believes the Utroms were thee evil ones and that the Shredder is the victim. After the turtles FINALLY defeated the Shredder FOR GOOD, she renounces her respect for them and becomes the new leader of the Foot, vowing revenge. Next up, we have Baxter Stockman, the Shredder’s head scientist. Unlike his classic counterpart, Stockman is more successful and wealthier, and was evil from the start… plus, they finally made him black. It shows he uses the Shredder funding to make the mousers steal money for him. When his assistant, April, found out, he tries to have her killed but she is saved by the turtles. After the turtles destroyed his lab, Stockman was punished for his failure by having an eye removed. As he continued working for the Shredder, making the Foot Tech and the Foot Mech, Stockman continued to fail and kept losing parts of his body. Stockman would find ways to betray the Shredder, but to no avail and was finally reduced to a brain, an eye and a part of his spine. Like the classic Stockman, he just wanted to be normal again, he did clone himself a new body, but it failed and the body melted in a gory and grotesque was that the episode was banned from broadcast. After Shredder final defeat, he worked under a Government agent named Agent Bishop, who I’ll get to later. In Fast Forward, we learn he spliced himself with alien DNA, becoming blue and growing tentacles in the process, in order to live 100 years. By the end of the episode he appears in, Stockman is given a trance to reform and a new body thanks to alien cloning and genetic engineering and in return, he can use his organic mousers to agricultural uses. Weird how the lighter, goofier Stockman gets a tragic ending but the darker, more tragic Stockman gets a happier one, huh? He does show signs of humanity, like how flashbacks reveal he deeply cares for his mother. Now we move to the Rat King; the Rat King appeared in many episodes in the classic cartoon, but he appears in this one in two episodes. He was originally created as a clone of Bishop, spliced with Splinter’s DNA, to become a super-soldier. When the clone was seemingly destroyed, he washed up near a factory where he became deformed and somehow developed a control over rats. Unlike the world ruling classic, this guy is looking for solitude, only attacking the turtles when they intruded his home. I got to admit, he’s a little bit depressing since he rambles on about him being a monster. Next up is the original villain named Agent Bishop. This guy is a Government agent with a xenophobic hate for everything, finding aliens and mutants and dissecting them. His plans involve trying to dissect the turtles, use technology to trick the Government into trusting and find ways to exterminate all non-human threats. 50 years from now, his experiment with super-soldiers using aliens but when it went awry, the lab was set on fire and some debris fell on him. One of the aliens broke free and it seemed it was about to take revenge on Bishop, instead, it used the last moments of his life to save him. Despite what he did, Bishop couldn’t forget about what happened and realized the atrocities he’s done and by 2105, he is the President of an alien-inhabited Earth and allowed aliens to live on Earth for ages. Your probably wondering how he could live that long, apparently he splices himself with alien DNA, allowing this to happen. Finally, the Triceratons are the last major enemies I wish to talk about. They were in only one classic episode, but they were here for over 10 episodes. The turtles were accidentally transported to an alien world during their search for the missing Master Splinter. They met the Fugitoid, an android with the mind of a human scientist with the knowledge of a teleporting machine that a military group known as the Federation to use against their enemies. The Triceraton Republic, the enemies to the Federation; they are an alien race of humanoid Triceratops. Once ruled by a council, now a corrupt Prime Leader has taken over and kidnaps the turtles and the Fugitoid, but they escape to Earth. Eventually, the Triceratons find Earth and pretty much take over in an attempt to find the Fugitoid, fortunately the leaders of the Federation and the Republic are overthrown and peace comes between the two, resulting in Earth being free in the process. The Triceratons are actually a cool alien species, better than the Classic version as they have more appearances, we see more of their culture and they aren’t so stereotypical aliens.

So now I want to talk about the story… I guess we should go by Season.

Season 1
The turtles’ lair is destroyed by the mousers so they enter the outside world for the “first” time and find a new lair. They meet April O’Neil, who tells them of her boss’s plot and stop him. They meet Casey Jones, they battle other villains, meet a girl named Angel, battle foes like Nano and Garbageman and meet the Shredder who is defeated by Splinter but survives. Mikey becomes a superhero for a time and meets his hero, Silver Sentry. The turtles help mutated victims of the Shredder used to find his enemies by taking them to an underground city built by a race of subterranean people who built their new lair as a lookout to the upper world. They return to learn the Foot Clan is back so they crash at April’s for a bit. Donatello has an adventure based on an old TMNT comic where he meets a guy named Kirby, based of Jack Kirby, God rest his soul. Leonardo gets beaten up and reveals the Shredder is alive, so the Foot burns down April’s store and they leave to the country at Casey’s Grandma’s cottage. They decide to come back and face the Shredder with the “Guardians” the Shredder’s enemies. The “defeat” the Shredder but Splinter disappears. So they spend days searching for him until they find the TCRI building, and realize the TCRI on it is the same TCRI on the ooze that mutated them. They enter to find the building full of aliens called Utroms. Eventually, the turtles are accidentally teleported away just as they find Master Splinter.

Season 2

The Turtles are transported to an alien planet called D'Hoonnib where they befriend Professor Honeycutt, aka the Fugitoid, a scientist trapped in a robot’s body with knowledge of a teleportation device the Federation wishes to use for war. The Triceraton Republic wants it as well and so the turtles are caught helping him and in return, they build the machine to get them back to Earth. They also learn from a Triceraton known as Traximus that his people were once a peaceful one until Zanramon, a corrupt senator, seized control and imprisoned all who opposed him. How fortunate that the Utroms beamed them back to Earth, along with a few Triceratons. One accidentally remained behind, escaped to the sewers, while the rest were sent home. The utroms reveal themselves as friends, having saved Master Splinter. They reveal the ooze that mutated the turtles was a byproduct of their experiments with the teleportal to return home. They show them a virtual reality where the utroms were transporting a traitor who caused much destruction and death throughout the galaxy, but escaped and caused the ship to crash on Earth. After escaping the reality when it somehow became real, the turtles face the Shredder again. After the utroms, along with Professor Honeycutt, escape via the teleportal, the turtles and Splinter defeat the Shredder and learn he is the utrom traitor. So the turtles escape and the Shredder is seemingly killed as the building implodes. After reflecting that he was responsible for their existence, battling and dimensional warrior known as the Ultimate Ninja who is the son of a friend of Splinter, fighting their old enemy Nano, meeting Leatherhead and saving their mutated friends from being trapped underground as monsters, the turtles learn that with Shredder gone, the city is now under siege by a three-way war between the Foot Ninja, the Purple Dragons and the Mob. Leo believes it’s their responsibility to stop it, but Raph thinks they should stay out of it. With help from Shredder’s adopted daughter Karai, the turtles allow her to claim power over New York’s crimes and in return, are spared from the Foot’s desire to avenge the Shredder. Unaware the Shredder is returning… again, they meet their old for from Season One, Garbage Man, and save a Hockey trophy. Then they meet Zog, the Triceraton who was left behind, in the sewers. Since Triceratons breathe an air with nitrogen and sulfur, Earth’s air is causing him to die so the turtles reluctantly use their gear to save him. As a result of the air, Zog hallucinates and believes the turtles are high ranking Triceraton officers and Splinter is the General. After the Foot sends a robotic double of Splinter to attack them, the group follows its beacon to the docks at a Foot ship, where they once again face the Shredder. Zog, believing he is still with his brothers-at-arms, sacrifices himself to take on the Shredder by trying to drown himself and the enemy at the same time. However, the Shredder escapes. After that, they find a magic artifact connected to April’s missing uncle Augie, meet a superhero team known as the Justice Force and discover that when Splinter disappears every 3 years, he is off on an inter-dimensional fighting tournament known as the Battle Nexus, where warriors from different universes unite to fight. Master Yoshi was once a part of it, so Splinter joined it as well. It was hosted by the Ultimate Damiyo, the Ultimate Ninja’s father. There the turtles met again Traximus and learn the Ultimate Ninja is working with Drako, a corrupt former competitor, to steal the Damiyo’s power. But there plan is ruined and the winner of the Battle Nexus is… Michelangelo! Yeah, and he brags about for episodes to come. Meantime… something is coming to Earth.

Season 3

The Triceratons arrive and pretty much take over Earth to find the Fugitoid. Eventually the turtles reveal he already left Earth, but then he returns and tries to give himself up, having deleted all knowledge of the teleportal. The Federation arrives, working with Bishop to capture both the Fugitoid and the turtles, but the Fugitoid releases a virus that destroys the Federation technology. Seizing the opportunity to attack, Zanramon order his commander Mozar to attack, but Mozar finally sees his leader as the heartless dictator he really is and aids Traximus in the rebellion. While Zanramon was accidentally killed by his own men in the comics, here he and General Blanque, the cruel leader of the Federation, are imprisoned. Traximus destroys the Triceraton throne and re-instates the Senate. Honeycutt was seemingly destroyed while uploading the virus. So Leatherhead begins living with the turtles while they deal with a group called H.AT.E. who is against aliens since the Triceratons and believes the turtles are aliens, while April meets Casey’s overprotective mother who at first seems against her but truly approves of her and somehow finds out about the turtles without telling them at the last minute, while Leatherhead reveals a split personality created by the trauma caused by Bishop. They meet a new superhero named Nobody, who appeared in Mirage Comics as a Batman-esque person. Stockman gets an apprentice, Dr. Chaplin, who has a crush on Karai. The turtles teach April martial arts while Mikey saves the day on his own during Christmas and adopts a stray kitten he named Klunk, based on a issue of Michelangelo, Mikey’s solo comic. The turtles discover Honeycutt is alive, sort of, scattered most of his mind’s data into satellites, though to survive he had to delete some of his memories. Then turtles learn that the mystery crystals used to cure their mutated friends and the odd people frozen in the underground city are really the war mongering dictators of Ilintias, known to us as Atlantis. The underground city was a refuge to try and restart their attempt to conquer Earth and the crystals were empowered by the alignment of planets. Thankfully, with help from a traitor, the turtles defeat them save Earth from the geological effects of Atlantis rising and the traitor escapes to another underground city, one free of the corruption. Then they meet Lord Simultaneous and his apprentice, the ditzy Renet as they battle Savanti Romero, a former apprentice who tried to misuse the time staff but was turned into a demon and exiled to the Dark Ages, now he has been banished to the Cretaceous period. So after that, and some episode involving Stockman’s final defect from Shredder and secretly works for Bishop, the turtles face Ultimate Ninja and Drako, their dimensional banishment caused them to merge into one being, Ultimate Drako. Stealing Lord Simultaneous’ time scepter, it sends each turtle to another reality; Michelangelo is sent to a world where he and his brothers are superheroes, Raphael goes to another planet where he has a planetary bike race with other races (based on Peter Laird’s Planet Racers comic), Donatello goes to an alternate timeline where the Shredder has taken over Earth and Leonardo ends up in Miyamoto Usagi’s world. With Usagi’s help, Leo reunites with his family and face Ultimate Drako. Suddenly, the time scepter rebels against the villains, separating them and turning them to dust. Lord Simultaneous arrives to reclaim his staff and, taking pity on the Damiyo, brings his son back to life as a child believing his former life was a dream. Then they face Bishop, after he kidnaps Splinter, and learns of his horrific monster-making plans to “protect” Earth. He creates a super-soldier called Slayer using his and Splinter’s DNA that gets flushed away into the sewers. The turtles destroy his lab and the rest of his creations, Bishop, despite getting impaled by a hook, escaped, swearing revenge on the turtles. The turtles then face the Shredder, this time he creates a ship out of remaining Triceraton ship parts to travel into space and destroy the utroms. He helped repair the city with his resources as Oroku Saki to hide his illegal plans and announces he will “leave for home”. As the turtles, and some unwanted help and trouble from Bishop, attack, Shredder attempts to make his escape. Karai tries to reason with Leonardo, still believing the utroms wrongfully imprisoned her father, but Leonardo tries to make her see the truth. Splinter reveals his connection to Yoshi to the Shredder as he attempts to stop him and in the result Hun discovers his leader is an utrom. The turtles face the Shredder onboard, but when he proves too much for them, Leonardo is forced to blow up the ship along with everyone on it to stop him. Thankfully, the utroms arrive and save them. Karai, forced to witness the crimes her father committed, and Chaplin are sent back to Earth, Honeycutt returns to the utrom homeworld, Stockman finally leaves the Shredder for good and the Shredder is exiled to an icy asteroid forever. By the way, for some reason, the Shredder’s utrom voice no-longer sounds all squishy and high-pitched, it now sounds like his human voice. I guess it hurt the actor’s throat doing it a lot.

Season 4

The turtles return to Casey’s old cottage for rest, though Leonardo seems somewhat ticked and has a damaged shell. Casey deals with his cousin Sid, who owns a loan to the Purple Dragons. Then they meet an alien who is fighting to take her world back from its tyrant and discover mermen who were slaves to the ilintians… oh yeah, and Leo reveals his attitude change comes from the fact that he had to try and commit suicide to bring down the Shredder, feeling he wasn’t good enough and needs to be better. Meantime, Hun, now no longer a part of the Foot, takes over the Purple Dragons and tries to take it from a street gang to a criminal empire… oh yeah, and they meet a monster who was apparently a subject to Bishop’s experiments. Then they meet the Rat King, unknown to them as Bishop’s slayer, having survived but lost his armor, stealth abilities and parts of himself, somehow developing an ability to control rats. Mikey gets a rematch at the Battle Nexus with his opponent Kluh, who is now cheating by removing the safety spells. Leo shows that despite his attitude change, he still cares for his brother when he chooses to train Mikey when no one else would, not even Splinter. The Damiyo’s son, with little to no memory of his past life, seems to remember Leonardo, but thinks they were friends. Mikey defeats the cheater and reclaims his title and a new trophy to annoy his brothers even more. Mikey at one point makes a Star Wars reference to Leo’s new brood, worry leads to fear, fear leads to anger, anger leads to a dark, moody Leo. Then what happens? An angel named Raptarr and a demon named Mephos have a fight that results in the demonic one stealing the angel’s diadem. It turns out they are descended from slaves of Iliantis. Mephos thought they should rule the land and for causing a civil war, his wings were removed, forcing him to make metal ones, much like Archangel from X-Men. With help from the turtles and their new jetpacks, the Avians defeat Mephos once and for all. Then the turtles lose their loved ones to Bishop’s forces and the return of the Shredder as they are exposed to the world… but it turns out to have been an attempt by Karai’s mystic elemental ninjas to attack them mentally. Weak a bit… but this was still a pretty dark and surprising episode than I thought. It also reveals that they have less respect for her than they did the Shedder and must obey her due to her holding the heart of tengu, a diamond necklace. Meantime, Bishop fakes an alien invasion so that the President can continue funding his Earth Protection Force funding. The turtles attempt to save the president, but get blamed for the event. Oh, and Raph makes a funnier joke than the 80’s Raph, “Hey, look, an alien invasion. You don’t see that everyday! Oh, wait, yeah we do…” And Mikey goes “Why can’t we ever get cute, furry alien invaders?” Bishop also apparently took some genetic manipulation to live this long, since his head and arm look like they’d pop a vessel like an atom bomb. The turtles are framed for being aliens… rendered with red bandanas like how they look in the comics… but the slime used for the blood of Bishop’s fake aliens drift into the sewers… Casey tries to get payback on Hun and the Purple Dragons for torching his father’s store as a child. The Dragons steal some high-tech equipment while Splinter beats Raphael and Casey at poker, Mikey seals his comics while Leo becomes more aggressive as time passes. Casey has the opportunity for revenge, but passes the chance when he is forced to save Hun from death. Leo begins to scold his brothers for not being good enough. Casey then pays a visit to his father’s grave. The turtles meet the Nobody again when he asks for their help to protect an old man targeted by a gang… and once again see Mikey cross dress like usual… weird. They convince a gang to abandon their leader and choose a better life. It turns out Hun sold the gang weapons… oh and Hun meets with Karai, who made the public, believe Oroku Saki was killed in some tragic event. Despite what he was, Karai remained loyal to the Shredder because he gave her a place to live and vows to avenge him despite the horrible atrocities he caused. Then they face the King of Thieves, no not Aladdin’s dad, on Halloween, as he tries to steal and ancient idol to summons demons to do his dirty work. The turtles reminisce about the good times they went trick or treating, but Leo’s too focus to do so. Because of Leo’s newfound attitude, Splinter asks Usagi and his rhino friend Gennosuke to come; Usagi reveals he lost his master in battle but had to learn to live with failure and fear. This is one of the few episodes where the epilogue is more humorous than serious. Liking our world and its food, Gen takes of to venture on his own, even at one point dresses and looks like a middle-aged Rocksteady. Meantime, an assassin hired by an enemy Leo met in Usagi’s world is after him, Usagi and Gen. Oh, and on their way home, Gen took Mikey’s comics… heheheh. Anyway, Leo’s obsession with getting better finally goes too far when he attacks Splinter during a training session, now he realizes he has to do something about it. Splinter sends him on a journey to be trained by Yoshi’s master, the Ancient One. Along the way, Leo meets a short, rude, farting old man who causes him trouble, making demon ghosts attack him and forcing Leo to surrender, saying “A warrior who never fails, never learns”… then Leo fights a rock monster who claims to be his worst enemy, but when Leo fights and attacks the face, it reveals to be a helmet and what he’s fighting is himself! The short man, now revealed to be the Ancient One, helps Leo see that his obsession with perfection and getting stronger has hardened him, making him literally his own worst enemy; he’s comes to accept he’s not perfect and finally goes back to being his old self. Meantime, two months later, Karai becomes the new Shredder and attempts to take her revenge, seemingly killing them with improved Foot Ninja. But they survived, found by the restored Leo who later faces Karai, giving her one last chance to stop serving her father, destroying her shrine to him in the process. With their lair destroyed, the turtles use an abandoned dam as their new lair. They quickly discover the fake blood from Bishop’s “alien invasion” has caused hundreds of animals and people to mutate upon contact, so now Bishop has to undo his mistake by destroying the mutations. Meantime, after a battle with a mutant, Donnie comes down with a cold and gets cut on the leg. April re-meets with her sister Robyn and reuses the artifact that made her Uncle Augie disappear to anotherworld and meets with her Uncle, who is serving a reptilian race called the Brotherhood, who claim they want to make peace with Earth, but really want to eat humanity, making a reference to Twilight Zone’s “To Serve Man”. The three escape to Earth while trapping them in the insect world April and the turtles were in the last time they found the artifact and it seems the Brotherhood is now even lower on the food chain. Stockman tries to clone a new body, but using the super-soldier serum causes it to decompose too fast. In his unstable mind, he tries to take revenge on April, the source of all his problems. I should point out that this episode is so graphic it has never been broadcasted in the U.S. Stockman survives thanks to Bishop, despite now welcoming death. Then the turtles join Renet again to face Savanti Romero, having tricked them into coming to the late Cretaceous to exact his revenge. Savanti is seemingly killed by a lightning bolt and it takes them 3 months to find the Time Sceptre home. Oddly enough, there were toys piggybacking off this called Paleo Patrol. I’d also like to point out the nice homage Mikey did for Zog by naming a Triceratops he befriends that. He thinks this Zog might be the other Zog’s ancestor, but Donatello corrects him by stating the old Zog was an alien. Then Leo tells the story of how Master Yoshi came to New York, adopted with his friend Yukio Mashimi by the Ancient One and trained as ninja. They fell in love with a girl named Tang Shen, but she loved Yoshi only. After befriending an utrom, they join the Guardians, but as Yoshi excelled, Mashimi was left behind and killed Tang Shen and then joined the Foot. This was seriously dark, as they showed her dead body… the actually have a corpse not only shown but held by someone… Yoshi claims his revenge on Mashimi, but his act haunts him afterwards. He takes in Tang Shen’s pet rat, naming him Splinter to remind him that vengeance is like a splinter, it gets under your skin. Anyway, now Donatello realizes that when he was bit by a mutation, it infected him and turns him into a monster. Forcing them to ask Bishop for help, Bishop has them run an errand as a mystery man tells him that Karai’s Heart of Tengu, which allows her to control the Mystic Ninja, is a source of power. Hating both Karai and the utrom Shredder, they allow the turtles to go get it. With Donny cured, the turtles leave the Heart for Bishop, only for him to accidentally destroy it and learn he was tricked. Since they couldn’t touch it, they needed someone else to do it for them, and able to turn into their true forms, the warriors seek to revive the true shredder… Then the turtles and four other fighters meet four Shredder lookalikes who take them on a quest…

Season 5

Since I took up too much on the previous one, I’ll explain this one fast.
It turns out the four other Shredders are the Ninja Tribunal who along with a warrior named Oroku Saki defeated a Tengu named the Shredder, but Saki’s lust for power allowed the demon to merge with his soul. He turns into a dragon and tries to conquer Earth, but is defeated, his helmet and gauntlet were separated and his body buried. The utrom Shredder took the name to gain fear and respect, but the Ancient One and Tribunal looked down on him and underestimated him, feeling there is only one true Shredder. The turtles and the other warriors were chosen to be acolytes to stop him. Splinter protested, as they didn’t help Yoshi stop the Utrom Shredder, thinking he isn’t worth the effort, partially blaming them for his death. The turtles fail to stop his resurrection and the tribunal and other warriors were seemingly killed. Returning to Earth, they get help from the Justice Force, with new recruits Raptarr, Nobody and the reformed and matured Nano. There was an episode that revealed that Hun and Garbageman were conjoined twins separated at birth and Garbageman was abandoned, but this episode was too dark for 4kids so it was never finished in production. The turtles discover a link between Karai and the Demon Shredder, but she refused their help, underestimating the demon’s power. The turtles discover his heralds were the Mystic Ninjas and how they were tricked into helping the Shredder’s resurrection. The Shredder defeats Karai and the groups retreat. By the way, does anyone else see some hidden message when Shredder said he’d make Karai his slave? He strips her armor away until she’s only wearing skin tight black, he looks down on her, using magic to pin her to a wall and says he’d make her his slave… Wow… Oh yeah, and the turtles gain the magical ability from amulets to turn into dragons… but the hidden rape message… now that’s just… wow. Then a flashback to reveal the turtles met the Ancient One before when he learned of Yoshi’s death and they met a demon serving the Tengu Shredder but got magic amnesia. Anyway, after a plan to prevent the Shredder’s darkness from spreading failed, the turtles have their enemies and allies, along with the other acolytes who somehow survived unite to stop the Shredder, but Splinter has a dark vision of their death… After slaying his heralds, the Mystic Ninjas, the turtles fall by the Shredder. Thankfully, when this was occurring, Yoshi’s spirit arrives and saves the turtles, helping them turn to dragons. Karai uses her link to the Shredder to drain his dark energy, allowing the turtles to defeat him and Yoshi’s spirit to cut him in half, killing the demon for good. The Tribunal arrives, revealing to have been forced to let events occur, as had they helped Yoshi defeat the Utrom Shredder, then Splinter would never have found the turtles and they would never have been mutants. With the Ancient One joining them, the Tribunal depart, while Karai begins returning Dr. Chaplin’s affections for her and the turtles celebrate the world being safe again. This season was so dark that it wasn’t released on TV until after 6th season.

Season 6

The turtles are transported to the future by April and Casey’s great grandson, Cody Jones in the Fast Forward season. Unlike the rest, there isn’t much to say that has no relevance to the entire series. Cody Jones is the heir to O’Neil tech, basically the Wayne Enterprises of the future. Being interested in the turtles, he created a time window to observe them, but it accidentally brought them to the future, now he is helping them find a way home. As a thanks, the turtles teach Cody martial arts. He takes an old robot and turns into battle armor called Turtle X. Then there is Serling, Cody’s robot janitor. He dislikes the turtles due to their manners and actions, since he talks and acts very proper and refined, with deadpan sarcasm. After Cody’s Turtle X armor was destroyed, Serling was given the ability to turn into Turtle X himself to keep an eye on Cody. At O’Neil Tech, there’s a young alien girl named Starlee Hambrath, an intern with a genius IQ. She has feelings for Cody, somewhat making her the April to his Casey. In this future, with a reformed Bishop as president, humans and aliens live in harmony, but Earth’s changing atmosphere and gravity caused everyone to need special tech to get used to it. And now, it’s for the Fast Forward enemy roll call: Darius Dun, Cody’s uncle and O’Neil tech’s manager until it was discovered he was using it for illegal purposes; Sh’Okanabo, a black alien shape-shifter who plans to infect Earth with his spawn and Viral, a living computer virus that acts as his servant; the Dark Turtles, clones of the turtles created by Sh’Okanabo and used by Dun to defeat the turtles, but show a nicer side to them; the Street Phantoms, a gang that use alien tech, such as phasing through walls, to commit crimes and lead by a dude named Jammerhead; Triple Threat, a three headed wrestler with each head having a different personality and Torbin Zixx, a wanted criminal who tricks the turtles into helping him, but when he tricks them the last time, they turn the tables on him. There isn’t much to say other than by the future of 2105, Bishop and Stockman reform and the turtles pass as Chunin, becoming Naruto’s superiors. Mikey almost failed and had to take a make up challenge, but it turns out his problem isn’t his goofy and lazy attitude, it’s his fear he’ll never keep up with his brothers. As you’d think, he passed and all 4 turtles graduate. There were to be other episodes, including one to introduce a Triceraton Shredder, but it never came. What pissed me off was a completely new theme song, the animation was slightly different and lighter, and the dark atmosphere was taken out with more light-hearted comedy to match the 80’s

Season 7

This was the final season, the animation changed again to make it look like a 2D version of the TMNT movie that came out 2 years before and a new theme song. There was an online contest to see which new theme would be the show’s theme, trust me, the others suck. On their trip back home, the turtles are attacked by Viral, having taken over Serling and used the decompiler weapon they used to defeat her on Splinter, turning him to data and sending him to the internet. Feeling guilty he underestimated Viral, Donatello became obsessed with finding Splinter. Meantime, Viral escape to the Internet, but with nothing to drain, she was forced to drift forever until finding a data vault that seemed more powerful than the entire internet. She tried to drain it but something goes wrong… it’s a Foot data vault! It destroys her and absorbs her data, and the data within the vault becomes… the new Shredder! The turtles then meet their old friends, Casey and April, introducing them to Serling, who is eager to return home and learn Casey’s Karate instructor is really a servant of the Foot. Then Donatello uses a Cyber Portal to venture into cyberspace to find Master Splinter’s data bits to save him, but meet the Cyber Shredder; it turns out sometime before his defeat, the Utrom Shredder created a digital Ingram that would act as his replacement in case his defeat, so when Viral attacked it, she activated the defenses that caused her to be absorbed. Since he was created before his defeat, the Cyber Shredder has no idea what happened to his original self. I wonder why it took 3 seasons to reveal this. I guess Karai felt a digital copy couldn’t compare to the original. Anyway, the turtles venture into cyberspace to save Splinter, while Casey and April become engaged and The Shredder plots a way to escape to the real world. Eventually, when seeing his brothers in danger by the Shedder, Donny realizes that his obsession with saving Splinter has caused him to ignore his brothers and promises to not let them down again. Serling builds his own time portal to return home, but gets turned into a tiny toy-like being and ends up in the turtles’ childhood, but returns to the present back to normal. The turtles continue to endure Shredder’s plans, from hypnotizing them into serving him, to facing cyber monster reminiscent of Bishop’s outbreak. Eventually, the Cyber Portal is destroyed and the turtles have to repair, eventually, they learn the Shredder trapped them in a fake reality to trick them into giving the blueprints for a Cyber Portal. Freeing himself, the Shredder attempts to take over New York, but the turtles stop him. After an episode with Raphael becoming a Green Lantern wannabe, the turtles bring Master Splinter back in time to get to Casey and April’s wedding at the cabin. Inviting all their friends, the Foot arrive with a restored Shredder to take their revenge. Finding a way to delete the Cyber Shredder for good, the turtles finally defeat their enemy and all goes well as the series ends with Casey kissing the bride.

I’d like to point out there are also shorts called Mayhem from Mutant Island about an unused story and some Flash animated short that are about humor than action. The last two seasons, like the 80’s cartoon, was meant more for a toy deal than to adapt stories from the comics to cartoon format.

My major complaint is that sometimes it gets either too dark, like dead bodies, to too light… like Fast Forward. That season reminded me of Spider-Man Unlimited. Because of Fox giving up on kids programming, the final season aired on the CW. I must admit I like the better action, stories and fleshed out characters, but it sometimes lacks the nostalgic humor of the first series. Still, this is a pretty damn good show… I’d say watch it on youtube if possible.

Sorry it took so long, but the show felt more like several shows put together than just one show.

This Ninja Turtles cartoon gets the rating…

9 out of 10

Description
MARK REVIEWS 2003’S TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES

I remember as a kid I wore Ninja Turtles pajamas, I once spent an entire day in them… just thought I’d share that. Anyway, after what I said about the first TMNT cartoon, I’m sure you want to know what I think of the more recent one. To some it up, it’s good. Some people, like Stuttering Craig and other 80’s kids, think it’s not good, but it’s a much underrated show. Let’s not forget the old show wasn’t faithful to its material source and that this one revived interest in the TMNT. This was done by 4KIDS, you know, the company that “bastardizes” countless anime. This was one of the first originals they did and, do to the actors being non-union, don’t expect special guests like Mark Hamill, Ron Perlman or someone like that.

I’ll explain some similarities and differences first. Like the old show, it takes place in New York. Major differences include the lack of the turtle obsession with pizza, the surfer slang, and some slapstick. I guess I’ll start with the turtles. Leonardo in this series is still leader; however he is more dedicated to his ninja training and is the most developed character throughout the show. Though not as fun, he becomes more fleshed out as the series progresses, in Season 4, he becomes more serious, to the point where he is almost as brooding as Raphael until finally snapping out of it. Michelangelo lacks his surfer accent, instead he makes many pop culture references to Spider-Man, Star Trek and horror movies to name a few. He still has his love for comics, odd tendency to cross-dress and acts like the immature little brother. He isn’t as obsessed with pizza as before, in fact he’s obsessed with anything unhealthy… cheese dogs, ice cream, chicken chow mien, and just about anything a 13 year old would rather eat than something green. Not to mention, he still has his nunchucks throughout the show. Donatello is more respectful to humans and rather than wanting to be accepted for his knowledge, he learns simply to satisfy curiosity. He also has less stuffing blowing up in his face and builds tech that is less conspicuous than the old show, however it seems to futuristic to be made of parts they found in a junkyard. Like the old Donny, this one uses vehicles and tech they “borrow” from bad guys. Raphael is the most different in comparison to his 80’s self. He’s always been pissed off, aggressive and eager to fight, not to mention his jokes are actually funnier. He also doesn’t break the fourth wall. Plus, where as the 80’s Raph makes fun of Mikey, it’s the other way around, unfortunately, Raph always gets payback, usually beating Michelangelo up. He also spoke in a Brooklyn accent, like his movie counterpart. In fact, the actors stated that they had to watch the first Ninja Turtles movie to get the voices right.

Let’s go on to the supporting cast. Who better than Master Splinter to start with? Unlike the previous show where he is Hamato Yoshi, he is Yoshi’s pet… FINALLY getting it right! He treats the turtles as his family more than his students. He also has more involvement in their battles that the 80’s Splinter. Yoshi himself, though not a major character here, has a bigger and more important back-story that his predecessor. April O’Neil does appear, but instead of a news reporter, she is a former assistant to Dr. Stockman, matching her comic counterpart. After learning he uses the mousers to rob banks, she tries to expose him, but sicks his mousers on her, where she is saved by the turtles in the sewers. After befriending them, she becomes an ally. Okay, so she’s not as attractive to viewers as the old April, but this new April is a better ally all together: She can understand Donny’s techno-babble, she learns martial arts from Splinter so she can take better care of herself, she is usually the one the turtles ask for help rather than the other way around and doesn’t have a somewhat selfish ego. She also works in her father’s antique store; there was an episode where she dresses as a news reporter to help the turtles and later shows she has no interest in becoming one. Casey Jones is improved as well, instead of just appearing as a Jason wannabe with a fetish for destruction, he’s fleshed out to show how he became a vigilante: his parents’ store was burnt down by gangs. As he befriends the turtles, mostly Raphael, he falls in love with April and eventually chose her over being a vigilante. By the end of the series, they get married. He also has a gambling, lying criminal of a cousin named Sid and an overprotective mom who almost destroyed his relationship with April. Miyamoto Usagi, who was finally given his real name, appears in the show as a dimensional ally to the turtles, and was close friends with Leonardo. There were episodes that took place in his world, where Leonardo was sent there during a story arc and saw Usagi’s furry people and feudal-style world. Funny, but this is one of those characters where the new show neither improves nor ruins a character, I like both Usagi’s just as much. Finally, we have Leatherhead. For those who saw the 80’s but not the 2K3 show, you’ll wonder “Why the hell is Leatherhead an ally and not an enemy?” Well, the comic Leatherhead wasn’t a full-time enemy to be exact. Like his classic counterpart, Leatherhead mutated with the same ooze, but he was flushed down as a baby and was exposed to the mutagen, then adopted by aliens living on Earth called the Utroms, who I’ll mention later. Because of them, he was raised a genius, but when they had to escape back to their own world; they accidentally left him on Earth. Eventually meeting the turtles in the sewers, he was tricked by Baxter Stockman, who lied that he was friends with the Utroms, that they were the ones responsible for the Utroms leaving him behind. Eventually, Stockman’s lies were revealed and Leatherhead sacrificed himself to save the turtles from his home, which was their former lair, from crashing down on him. He was eventually revealed to be alive, having been found and experimented on by an original character named Agent Bishop, he escaped with the turtles and began to live with them. However, due to the traumatic experience by Bishop he develops a split personality, usually identified by when his eyes change from normal to slit. This personality causes him to go from a genius to a raging beast that attacks anyone, friend or for. I think this character is one of the biggest improvements, despite it being done to death, character with split personalities are always interesting; he also makes a better ally than enemy due to him being mutated from the same ooze as the turtles.

Let’s go to the villains…

(CRACKS UP FOR 20 MINUTES)

COME ON! Look at the Shredder, as great as it was in the 80’s, he was a joke! Surely you can’t take someone as ridiculous, hopeless and all around pathetic as the Shredder and make a character who is menacing, dangerous and the least bit frighten-

(SEES THE SHREDDER FROM 2003)

OH GOD!

The Shredder looks like if Sauron, Darth Vader and a Terminator were thrown into a blender! Not only does he look cooler, he’s an all around better villain. Unlike the other show, where he framed Yoshi, Shredder murders him. Not to mention, he’s more villainous, hateful, doesn’t throw childish tantrums and can actually handle all four turtles at once, in fact he actually bests them. His alter ego of Oroku Saki is more like Lex Luthor, in which he is a respected philanthropist whose money and resources helped ship New York into what it is, using this as a front for his illegal activities. Unlike the comic where he killed Yoshi to avenge his brother, he killed Yoshi for being in league with his enemies, the Utroms. In the 3-part Secret Origins episode, we learn a shocking secret… the Shredder is… AN UTROM! Those who saw this episode were all “It’s Krang!” were WRONG! The Utroms were a peaceful brain-like race of aliens from the comics who crashed on Earth, they created the substance that mutated the turtles. In this show, they were transporting an utrom traitor named Ch’rell, who was responsible for high crimes from murder to domination on other worlds. However, Ch’rell escaped and caused the Utroms to crash on Earth. He stole one of their exo-suits and used it to adopt a new alias, the Shredder. Forming a clan known as the Foot Ninja, the Shredder was determined to slay the Utroms, so the latter created the Guardians, a force dedicated to protecting them. Hamato Yoshi was the only non-utrom, at least I recall, who was a Guardian, explaining why the Shredder attacked him. When Leonardo meets him in person for the first time, Shredder tries to convince him he is the good guy and needs his help and that the organization he is fighting is trying to take over Earth, which I felt is better that just flat out saying what he really did. Splinter reveals to Leonardo the truth and the turtles face him, only to lose and get help from their sensei, who defeats the Shredder in a similar manner to the movie. Shredder returns and this was another story arc taken from the comics, which a part of the movie was based on, the whole escape to the country and come back for round two after a turtle was injured, only unlike the movie where Raphael was the injured one, Leonardo was the one in both comic and cartoon form. It ends with Leo slicing the head off the Shredder, to find out in later episodes the truth. Peter Laird stated this change was made to depict the Shredder’s head coming off on broadcast. A lot of people didn’t like this change… I still say it works better than capturing cheese Danishes… yeah, I won’t let it go.

There are literally a ton of villains, so we’ll just look at the most occurring ones throughout the series. Hun is the leader of the Purple Dragons, a gang that destroyed Casey’s parents’ store, and devoted servant to The Shredder. Unlike Rocksteady and Bebop, Hun shows later he is fare more intelligent and is more capable on handling all 4 turtles on his own before losing. He also seems to have some form of Xenophobia, referring to all non-humans as “freaks”. After learning the Shredder is an utrom, he renounces his loyalty to him and thus the Purple Dragons were no longer a part of the Foot Clan. Next up is Karai, leader of the Foot in Japan who comes to New York to restore order after the Shredder’s disappearance. She is very honor-bound to Shredder, revealing when she was an orphan, The Shredder adopted her and raised her like a daughter, therefore she is loyal to him out of the love a child would have for a father. She also seems to trustworthy enough for the Shredder to reveal he is an utrom, but seems very gullible to him, she believes the Utroms were thee evil ones and that the Shredder is the victim. After the turtles FINALLY defeated the Shredder FOR GOOD, she renounces her respect for them and becomes the new leader of the Foot, vowing revenge. Next up, we have Baxter Stockman, the Shredder’s head scientist. Unlike his classic counterpart, Stockman is more successful and wealthier, and was evil from the start… plus, they finally made him black. It shows he uses the Shredder funding to make the mousers steal money for him. When his assistant, April, found out, he tries to have her killed but she is saved by the turtles. After the turtles destroyed his lab, Stockman was punished for his failure by having an eye removed. As he continued working for the Shredder, making the Foot Tech and the Foot Mech, Stockman continued to fail and kept losing parts of his body. Stockman would find ways to betray the Shredder, but to no avail and was finally reduced to a brain, an eye and a part of his spine. Like the classic Stockman, he just wanted to be normal again, he did clone himself a new body, but it failed and the body melted in a gory and grotesque was that the episode was banned from broadcast. After Shredder final defeat, he worked under a Government agent named Agent Bishop, who I’ll get to later. In Fast Forward, we learn he spliced himself with alien DNA, becoming blue and growing tentacles in the process, in order to live 100 years. By the end of the episode he appears in, Stockman is given a trance to reform and a new body thanks to alien cloning and genetic engineering and in return, he can use his organic mousers to agricultural uses. Weird how the lighter, goofier Stockman gets a tragic ending but the darker, more tragic Stockman gets a happier one, huh? He does show signs of humanity, like how flashbacks reveal he deeply cares for his mother. Now we move to the Rat King; the Rat King appeared in many episodes in the classic cartoon, but he appears in this one in two episodes. He was originally created as a clone of Bishop, spliced with Splinter’s DNA, to become a super-soldier. When the clone was seemingly destroyed, he washed up near a factory where he became deformed and somehow developed a control over rats. Unlike the world ruling classic, this guy is looking for solitude, only attacking the turtles when they intruded his home. I got to admit, he’s a little bit depressing since he rambles on about him being a monster. Next up is the original villain named Agent Bishop. This guy is a Government agent with a xenophobic hate for everything, finding aliens and mutants and dissecting them. His plans involve trying to dissect the turtles, use technology to trick the Government into trusting and find ways to exterminate all non-human threats. 50 years from now, his experiment with super-soldiers using aliens but when it went awry, the lab was set on fire and some debris fell on him. One of the aliens broke free and it seemed it was about to take revenge on Bishop, instead, it used the last moments of his life to save him. Despite what he did, Bishop couldn’t forget about what happened and realized the atrocities he’s done and by 2105, he is the President of an alien-inhabited Earth and allowed aliens to live on Earth for ages. Your probably wondering how he could live that long, apparently he splices himself with alien DNA, allowing this to happen. Finally, the Triceratons are the last major enemies I wish to talk about. They were in only one classic episode, but they were here for over 10 episodes. The turtles were accidentally transported to an alien world during their search for the missing Master Splinter. They met the Fugitoid, an android with the mind of a human scientist with the knowledge of a teleporting machine that a military group known as the Federation to use against their enemies. The Triceraton Republic, the enemies to the Federation; they are an alien race of humanoid Triceratops. Once ruled by a council, now a corrupt Prime Leader has taken over and kidnaps the turtles and the Fugitoid, but they escape to Earth. Eventually, the Triceratons find Earth and pretty much take over in an attempt to find the Fugitoid, fortunately the leaders of the Federation and the Republic are overthrown and peace comes between the two, resulting in Earth being free in the process. The Triceratons are actually a cool alien species, better than the Classic version as they have more appearances, we see more of their culture and they aren’t so stereotypical aliens.

So now I want to talk about the story… I guess we should go by Season.

Season 1
The turtles’ lair is destroyed by the mousers so they enter the outside world for the “first” time and find a new lair. They meet April O’Neil, who tells them of her boss’s plot and stop him. They meet Casey Jones, they battle other villains, meet a girl named Angel, battle foes like Nano and Garbageman and meet the Shredder who is defeated by Splinter but survives. Mikey becomes a superhero for a time and meets his hero, Silver Sentry. The turtles help mutated victims of the Shredder used to find his enemies by taking them to an underground city built by a race of subterranean people who built their new lair as a lookout to the upper world. They return to learn the Foot Clan is back so they crash at April’s for a bit. Donatello has an adventure based on an old TMNT comic where he meets a guy named Kirby, based of Jack Kirby, God rest his soul. Leonardo gets beaten up and reveals the Shredder is alive, so the Foot burns down April’s store and they leave to the country at Casey’s Grandma’s cottage. They decide to come back and face the Shredder with the “Guardians” the Shredder’s enemies. The “defeat” the Shredder but Splinter disappears. So they spend days searching for him until they find the TCRI building, and realize the TCRI on it is the same TCRI on the ooze that mutated them. They enter to find the building full of aliens called Utroms. Eventually, the turtles are accidentally teleported away just as they find Master Splinter.

Season 2

The Turtles are transported to an alien planet called D'Hoonnib where they befriend Professor Honeycutt, aka the Fugitoid, a scientist trapped in a robot’s body with knowledge of a teleportation device the Federation wishes to use for war. The Triceraton Republic wants it as well and so the turtles are caught helping him and in return, they build the machine to get them back to Earth. They also learn from a Triceraton known as Traximus that his people were once a peaceful one until Zanramon, a corrupt senator, seized control and imprisoned all who opposed him. How fortunate that the Utroms beamed them back to Earth, along with a few Triceratons. One accidentally remained behind, escaped to the sewers, while the rest were sent home. The utroms reveal themselves as friends, having saved Master Splinter. They reveal the ooze that mutated the turtles was a byproduct of their experiments with the teleportal to return home. They show them a virtual reality where the utroms were transporting a traitor who caused much destruction and death throughout the galaxy, but escaped and caused the ship to crash on Earth. After escaping the reality when it somehow became real, the turtles face the Shredder again. After the utroms, along with Professor Honeycutt, escape via the teleportal, the turtles and Splinter defeat the Shredder and learn he is the utrom traitor. So the turtles escape and the Shredder is seemingly killed as the building implodes. After reflecting that he was responsible for their existence, battling and dimensional warrior known as the Ultimate Ninja who is the son of a friend of Splinter, fighting their old enemy Nano, meeting Leatherhead and saving their mutated friends from being trapped underground as monsters, the turtles learn that with Shredder gone, the city is now under siege by a three-way war between the Foot Ninja, the Purple Dragons and the Mob. Leo believes it’s their responsibility to stop it, but Raph thinks they should stay out of it. With help from Shredder’s adopted daughter Karai, the turtles allow her to claim power over New York’s crimes and in return, are spared from the Foot’s desire to avenge the Shredder. Unaware the Shredder is returning… again, they meet their old for from Season One, Garbage Man, and save a Hockey trophy. Then they meet Zog, the Triceraton who was left behind, in the sewers. Since Triceratons breathe an air with nitrogen and sulfur, Earth’s air is causing him to die so the turtles reluctantly use their gear to save him. As a result of the air, Zog hallucinates and believes the turtles are high ranking Triceraton officers and Splinter is the General. After the Foot sends a robotic double of Splinter to attack them, the group follows its beacon to the docks at a Foot ship, where they once again face the Shredder. Zog, believing he is still with his brothers-at-arms, sacrifices himself to take on the Shredder by trying to drown himself and the enemy at the same time. However, the Shredder escapes. After that, they find a magic artifact connected to April’s missing uncle Augie, meet a superhero team known as the Justice Force and discover that when Splinter disappears every 3 years, he is off on an inter-dimensional fighting tournament known as the Battle Nexus, where warriors from different universes unite to fight. Master Yoshi was once a part of it, so Splinter joined it as well. It was hosted by the Ultimate Damiyo, the Ultimate Ninja’s father. There the turtles met again Traximus and learn the Ultimate Ninja is working with Drako, a corrupt former competitor, to steal the Damiyo’s power. But there plan is ruined and the winner of the Battle Nexus is… Michelangelo! Yeah, and he brags about for episodes to come. Meantime… something is coming to Earth.

Season 3

The Triceratons arrive and pretty much take over Earth to find the Fugitoid. Eventually the turtles reveal he already left Earth, but then he returns and tries to give himself up, having deleted all knowledge of the teleportal. The Federation arrives, working with Bishop to capture both the Fugitoid and the turtles, but the Fugitoid releases a virus that destroys the Federation technology. Seizing the opportunity to attack, Zanramon order his commander Mozar to attack, but Mozar finally sees his leader as the heartless dictator he really is and aids Traximus in the rebellion. While Zanramon was accidentally killed by his own men in the comics, here he and General Blanque, the cruel leader of the Federation, are imprisoned. Traximus destroys the Triceraton throne and re-instates the Senate. Honeycutt was seemingly destroyed while uploading the virus. So Leatherhead begins living with the turtles while they deal with a group called H.AT.E. who is against aliens since the Triceratons and believes the turtles are aliens, while April meets Casey’s overprotective mother who at first seems against her but truly approves of her and somehow finds out about the turtles without telling them at the last minute, while Leatherhead reveals a split personality created by the trauma caused by Bishop. They meet a new superhero named Nobody, who appeared in Mirage Comics as a Batman-esque person. Stockman gets an apprentice, Dr. Chaplin, who has a crush on Karai. The turtles teach April martial arts while Mikey saves the day on his own during Christmas and adopts a stray kitten he named Klunk, based on a issue of Michelangelo, Mikey’s solo comic. The turtles discover Honeycutt is alive, sort of, scattered most of his mind’s data into satellites, though to survive he had to delete some of his memories. Then turtles learn that the mystery crystals used to cure their mutated friends and the odd people frozen in the underground city are really the war mongering dictators of Ilintias, known to us as Atlantis. The underground city was a refuge to try and restart their attempt to conquer Earth and the crystals were empowered by the alignment of planets. Thankfully, with help from a traitor, the turtles defeat them save Earth from the geological effects of Atlantis rising and the traitor escapes to another underground city, one free of the corruption. Then they meet Lord Simultaneous and his apprentice, the ditzy Renet as they battle Savanti Romero, a former apprentice who tried to misuse the time staff but was turned into a demon and exiled to the Dark Ages, now he has been banished to the Cretaceous period. So after that, and some episode involving Stockman’s final defect from Shredder and secretly works for Bishop, the turtles face Ultimate Ninja and Drako, their dimensional banishment caused them to merge into one being, Ultimate Drako. Stealing Lord Simultaneous’ time scepter, it sends each turtle to another reality; Michelangelo is sent to a world where he and his brothers are superheroes, Raphael goes to another planet where he has a planetary bike race with other races (based on Peter Laird’s Planet Racers comic), Donatello goes to an alternate timeline where the Shredder has taken over Earth and Leonardo ends up in Miyamoto Usagi’s world. With Usagi’s help, Leo reunites with his family and face Ultimate Drako. Suddenly, the time scepter rebels against the villains, separating them and turning them to dust. Lord Simultaneous arrives to reclaim his staff and, taking pity on the Damiyo, brings his son back to life as a child believing his former life was a dream. Then they face Bishop, after he kidnaps Splinter, and learns of his horrific monster-making plans to “protect” Earth. He creates a super-soldier called Slayer using his and Splinter’s DNA that gets flushed away into the sewers. The turtles destroy his lab and the rest of his creations, Bishop, despite getting impaled by a hook, escaped, swearing revenge on the turtles. The turtles then face the Shredder, this time he creates a ship out of remaining Triceraton ship parts to travel into space and destroy the utroms. He helped repair the city with his resources as Oroku Saki to hide his illegal plans and announces he will “leave for home”. As the turtles, and some unwanted help and trouble from Bishop, attack, Shredder attempts to make his escape. Karai tries to reason with Leonardo, still believing the utroms wrongfully imprisoned her father, but Leonardo tries to make her see the truth. Splinter reveals his connection to Yoshi to the Shredder as he attempts to stop him and in the result Hun discovers his leader is an utrom. The turtles face the Shredder onboard, but when he proves too much for them, Leonardo is forced to blow up the ship along with everyone on it to stop him. Thankfully, the utroms arrive and save them. Karai, forced to witness the crimes her father committed, and Chaplin are sent back to Earth, Honeycutt returns to the utrom homeworld, Stockman finally leaves the Shredder for good and the Shredder is exiled to an icy asteroid forever. By the way, for some reason, the Shredder’s utrom voice no-longer sounds all squishy and high-pitched, it now sounds like his human voice. I guess it hurt the actor’s throat doing it a lot.

Season 4

The turtles return to Casey’s old cottage for rest, though Leonardo seems somewhat ticked and has a damaged shell. Casey deals with his cousin Sid, who owns a loan to the Purple Dragons. Then they meet an alien who is fighting to take her world back from its tyrant and discover mermen who were slaves to the ilintians… oh yeah, and Leo reveals his attitude change comes from the fact that he had to try and commit suicide to bring down the Shredder, feeling he wasn’t good enough and needs to be better. Meantime, Hun, now no longer a part of the Foot, takes over the Purple Dragons and tries to take it from a street gang to a criminal empire… oh yeah, and they meet a monster who was apparently a subject to Bishop’s experiments. Then they meet the Rat King, unknown to them as Bishop’s slayer, having survived but lost his armor, stealth abilities and parts of himself, somehow developing an ability to control rats. Mikey gets a rematch at the Battle Nexus with his opponent Kluh, who is now cheating by removing the safety spells. Leo shows that despite his attitude change, he still cares for his brother when he chooses to train Mikey when no one else would, not even Splinter. The Damiyo’s son, with little to no memory of his past life, seems to remember Leonardo, but thinks they were friends. Mikey defeats the cheater and reclaims his title and a new trophy to annoy his brothers even more. Mikey at one point makes a Star Wars reference to Leo’s new brood, worry leads to fear, fear leads to anger, anger leads to a dark, moody Leo. Then what happens? An angel named Raptarr and a demon named Mephos have a fight that results in the demonic one stealing the angel’s diadem. It turns out they are descended from slaves of Iliantis. Mephos thought they should rule the land and for causing a civil war, his wings were removed, forcing him to make metal ones, much like Archangel from X-Men. With help from the turtles and their new jetpacks, the Avians defeat Mephos once and for all. Then the turtles lose their loved ones to Bishop’s forces and the return of the Shredder as they are exposed to the world… but it turns out to have been an attempt by Karai’s mystic elemental ninjas to attack them mentally. Weak a bit… but this was still a pretty dark and surprising episode than I thought. It also reveals that they have less respect for her than they did the Shedder and must obey her due to her holding the heart of tengu, a diamond necklace. Meantime, Bishop fakes an alien invasion so that the President can continue funding his Earth Protection Force funding. The turtles attempt to save the president, but get blamed for the event. Oh, and Raph makes a funnier joke than the 80’s Raph, “Hey, look, an alien invasion. You don’t see that everyday! Oh, wait, yeah we do…” And Mikey goes “Why can’t we ever get cute, furry alien invaders?” Bishop also apparently took some genetic manipulation to live this long, since his head and arm look like they’d pop a vessel like an atom bomb. The turtles are framed for being aliens… rendered with red bandanas like how they look in the comics… but the slime used for the blood of Bishop’s fake aliens drift into the sewers… Casey tries to get payback on Hun and the Purple Dragons for torching his father’s store as a child. The Dragons steal some high-tech equipment while Splinter beats Raphael and Casey at poker, Mikey seals his comics while Leo becomes more aggressive as time passes. Casey has the opportunity for revenge, but passes the chance when he is forced to save Hun from death. Leo begins to scold his brothers for not being good enough. Casey then pays a visit to his father’s grave. The turtles meet the Nobody again when he asks for their help to protect an old man targeted by a gang… and once again see Mikey cross dress like usual… weird. They convince a gang to abandon their leader and choose a better life. It turns out Hun sold the gang weapons… oh and Hun meets with Karai, who made the public, believe Oroku Saki was killed in some tragic event. Despite what he was, Karai remained loyal to the Shredder because he gave her a place to live and vows to avenge him despite the horrible atrocities he caused. Then they face the King of Thieves, no not Aladdin’s dad, on Halloween, as he tries to steal and ancient idol to summons demons to do his dirty work. The turtles reminisce about the good times they went trick or treating, but Leo’s too focus to do so. Because of Leo’s newfound attitude, Splinter asks Usagi and his rhino friend Gennosuke to come; Usagi reveals he lost his master in battle but had to learn to live with failure and fear. This is one of the few episodes where the epilogue is more humorous than serious. Liking our world and its food, Gen takes of to venture on his own, even at one point dresses and looks like a middle-aged Rocksteady. Meantime, an assassin hired by an enemy Leo met in Usagi’s world is after him, Usagi and Gen. Oh, and on their way home, Gen took Mikey’s comics… heheheh. Anyway, Leo’s obsession with getting better finally goes too far when he attacks Splinter during a training session, now he realizes he has to do something about it. Splinter sends him on a journey to be trained by Yoshi’s master, the Ancient One. Along the way, Leo meets a short, rude, farting old man who causes him trouble, making demon ghosts attack him and forcing Leo to surrender, saying “A warrior who never fails, never learns”… then Leo fights a rock monster who claims to be his worst enemy, but when Leo fights and attacks the face, it reveals to be a helmet and what he’s fighting is himself! The short man, now revealed to be the Ancient One, helps Leo see that his obsession with perfection and getting stronger has hardened him, making him literally his own worst enemy; he’s comes to accept he’s not perfect and finally goes back to being his old self. Meantime, two months later, Karai becomes the new Shredder and attempts to take her revenge, seemingly killing them with improved Foot Ninja. But they survived, found by the restored Leo who later faces Karai, giving her one last chance to stop serving her father, destroying her shrine to him in the process. With their lair destroyed, the turtles use an abandoned dam as their new lair. They quickly discover the fake blood from Bishop’s “alien invasion” has caused hundreds of animals and people to mutate upon contact, so now Bishop has to undo his mistake by destroying the mutations. Meantime, after a battle with a mutant, Donnie comes down with a cold and gets cut on the leg. April re-meets with her sister Robyn and reuses the artifact that made her Uncle Augie disappear to anotherworld and meets with her Uncle, who is serving a reptilian race called the Brotherhood, who claim they want to make peace with Earth, but really want to eat humanity, making a reference to Twilight Zone’s “To Serve Man”. The three escape to Earth while trapping them in the insect world April and the turtles were in the last time they found the artifact and it seems the Brotherhood is now even lower on the food chain. Stockman tries to clone a new body, but using the super-soldier serum causes it to decompose too fast. In his unstable mind, he tries to take revenge on April, the source of all his problems. I should point out that this episode is so graphic it has never been broadcasted in the U.S. Stockman survives thanks to Bishop, despite now welcoming death. Then the turtles join Renet again to face Savanti Romero, having tricked them into coming to the late Cretaceous to exact his revenge. Savanti is seemingly killed by a lightning bolt and it takes them 3 months to find the Time Sceptre home. Oddly enough, there were toys piggybacking off this called Paleo Patrol. I’d also like to point out the nice homage Mikey did for Zog by naming a Triceratops he befriends that. He thinks this Zog might be the other Zog’s ancestor, but Donatello corrects him by stating the old Zog was an alien. Then Leo tells the story of how Master Yoshi came to New York, adopted with his friend Yukio Mashimi by the Ancient One and trained as ninja. They fell in love with a girl named Tang Shen, but she loved Yoshi only. After befriending an utrom, they join the Guardians, but as Yoshi excelled, Mashimi was left behind and killed Tang Shen and then joined the Foot. This was seriously dark, as they showed her dead body… the actually have a corpse not only shown but held by someone… Yoshi claims his revenge on Mashimi, but his act haunts him afterwards. He takes in Tang Shen’s pet rat, naming him Splinter to remind him that vengeance is like a splinter, it gets under your skin. Anyway, now Donatello realizes that when he was bit by a mutation, it infected him and turns him into a monster. Forcing them to ask Bishop for help, Bishop has them run an errand as a mystery man tells him that Karai’s Heart of Tengu, which allows her to control the Mystic Ninja, is a source of power. Hating both Karai and the utrom Shredder, they allow the turtles to go get it. With Donny cured, the turtles leave the Heart for Bishop, only for him to accidentally destroy it and learn he was tricked. Since they couldn’t touch it, they needed someone else to do it for them, and able to turn into their true forms, the warriors seek to revive the true shredder… Then the turtles and four other fighters meet four Shredder lookalikes who take them on a quest…

Season 5

Since I took up too much on the previous one, I’ll explain this one fast.
It turns out the four other Shredders are the Ninja Tribunal who along with a warrior named Oroku Saki defeated a Tengu named the Shredder, but Saki’s lust for power allowed the demon to merge with his soul. He turns into a dragon and tries to conquer Earth, but is defeated, his helmet and gauntlet were separated and his body buried. The utrom Shredder took the name to gain fear and respect, but the Ancient One and Tribunal looked down on him and underestimated him, feeling there is only one true Shredder. The turtles and the other warriors were chosen to be acolytes to stop him. Splinter protested, as they didn’t help Yoshi stop the Utrom Shredder, thinking he isn’t worth the effort, partially blaming them for his death. The turtles fail to stop his resurrection and the tribunal and other warriors were seemingly killed. Returning to Earth, they get help from the Justice Force, with new recruits Raptarr, Nobody and the reformed and matured Nano. There was an episode that revealed that Hun and Garbageman were conjoined twins separated at birth and Garbageman was abandoned, but this episode was too dark for 4kids so it was never finished in production. The turtles discover a link between Karai and the Demon Shredder, but she refused their help, underestimating the demon’s power. The turtles discover his heralds were the Mystic Ninjas and how they were tricked into helping the Shredder’s resurrection. The Shredder defeats Karai and the groups retreat. By the way, does anyone else see some hidden message when Shredder said he’d make Karai his slave? He strips her armor away until she’s only wearing skin tight black, he looks down on her, using magic to pin her to a wall and says he’d make her his slave… Wow… Oh yeah, and the turtles gain the magical ability from amulets to turn into dragons… but the hidden rape message… now that’s just… wow. Then a flashback to reveal the turtles met the Ancient One before when he learned of Yoshi’s death and they met a demon serving the Tengu Shredder but got magic amnesia. Anyway, after a plan to prevent the Shredder’s darkness from spreading failed, the turtles have their enemies and allies, along with the other acolytes who somehow survived unite to stop the Shredder, but Splinter has a dark vision of their death… After slaying his heralds, the Mystic Ninjas, the turtles fall by the Shredder. Thankfully, when this was occurring, Yoshi’s spirit arrives and saves the turtles, helping them turn to dragons. Karai uses her link to the Shredder to drain his dark energy, allowing the turtles to defeat him and Yoshi’s spirit to cut him in half, killing the demon for good. The Tribunal arrives, revealing to have been forced to let events occur, as had they helped Yoshi defeat the Utrom Shredder, then Splinter would never have found the turtles and they would never have been mutants. With the Ancient One joining them, the Tribunal depart, while Karai begins returning Dr. Chaplin’s affections for her and the turtles celebrate the world being safe again. This season was so dark that it wasn’t released on TV until after 6th season.

Season 6

The turtles are transported to the future by April and Casey’s great grandson, Cody Jones in the Fast Forward season. Unlike the rest, there isn’t much to say that has no relevance to the entire series. Cody Jones is the heir to O’Neil tech, basically the Wayne Enterprises of the future. Being interested in the turtles, he created a time window to observe them, but it accidentally brought them to the future, now he is helping them find a way home. As a thanks, the turtles teach Cody martial arts. He takes an old robot and turns into battle armor called Turtle X. Then there is Serling, Cody’s robot janitor. He dislikes the turtles due to their manners and actions, since he talks and acts very proper and refined, with deadpan sarcasm. After Cody’s Turtle X armor was destroyed, Serling was given the ability to turn into Turtle X himself to keep an eye on Cody. At O’Neil Tech, there’s a young alien girl named Starlee Hambrath, an intern with a genius IQ. She has feelings for Cody, somewhat making her the April to his Casey. In this future, with a reformed Bishop as president, humans and aliens live in harmony, but Earth’s changing atmosphere and gravity caused everyone to need special tech to get used to it. And now, it’s for the Fast Forward enemy roll call: Darius Dun, Cody’s uncle and O’Neil tech’s manager until it was discovered he was using it for illegal purposes; Sh’Okanabo, a black alien shape-shifter who plans to infect Earth with his spawn and Viral, a living computer virus that acts as his servant; the Dark Turtles, clones of the turtles created by Sh’Okanabo and used by Dun to defeat the turtles, but show a nicer side to them; the Street Phantoms, a gang that use alien tech, such as phasing through walls, to commit crimes and lead by a dude named Jammerhead; Triple Threat, a three headed wrestler with each head having a different personality and Torbin Zixx, a wanted criminal who tricks the turtles into helping him, but when he tricks them the last time, they turn the tables on him. There isn’t much to say other than by the future of 2105, Bishop and Stockman reform and the turtles pass as Chunin, becoming Naruto’s superiors. Mikey almost failed and had to take a make up challenge, but it turns out his problem isn’t his goofy and lazy attitude, it’s his fear he’ll never keep up with his brothers. As you’d think, he passed and all 4 turtles graduate. There were to be other episodes, including one to introduce a Triceraton Shredder, but it never came. What pissed me off was a completely new theme song, the animation was slightly different and lighter, and the dark atmosphere was taken out with more light-hearted comedy to match the 80’s

Season 7

This was the final season, the animation changed again to make it look like a 2D version of the TMNT movie that came out 2 years before and a new theme song. There was an online contest to see which new theme would be the show’s theme, trust me, the others suck. On their trip back home, the turtles are attacked by Viral, having taken over Serling and used the decompiler weapon they used to defeat her on Splinter, turning him to data and sending him to the internet. Feeling guilty he underestimated Viral, Donatello became obsessed with finding Splinter. Meantime, Viral escape to the Internet, but with nothing to drain, she was forced to drift forever until finding a data vault that seemed more powerful than the entire internet. She tried to drain it but something goes wrong… it’s a Foot data vault! It destroys her and absorbs her data, and the data within the vault becomes… the new Shredder! The turtles then meet their old friends, Casey and April, introducing them to Serling, who is eager to return home and learn Casey’s Karate instructor is really a servant of the Foot. Then Donatello uses a Cyber Portal to venture into cyberspace to find Master Splinter’s data bits to save him, but meet the Cyber Shredder; it turns out sometime before his defeat, the Utrom Shredder created a digital Ingram that would act as his replacement in case his defeat, so when Viral attacked it, she activated the defenses that caused her to be absorbed. Since he was created before his defeat, the Cyber Shredder has no idea what happened to his original self. I wonder why it took 3 seasons to reveal this. I guess Karai felt a digital copy couldn’t compare to the original. Anyway, the turtles venture into cyberspace to save Splinter, while Casey and April become engaged and The Shredder plots a way to escape to the real world. Eventually, when seeing his brothers in danger by the Shedder, Donny realizes that his obsession with saving Splinter has caused him to ignore his brothers and promises to not let them down again. Serling builds his own time portal to return home, but gets turned into a tiny toy-like being and ends up in the turtles’ childhood, but returns to the present back to normal. The turtles continue to endure Shredder’s plans, from hypnotizing them into serving him, to facing cyber monster reminiscent of Bishop’s outbreak. Eventually, the Cyber Portal is destroyed and the turtles have to repair, eventually, they learn the Shredder trapped them in a fake reality to trick them into giving the blueprints for a Cyber Portal. Freeing himself, the Shredder attempts to take over New York, but the turtles stop him. After an episode with Raphael becoming a Green Lantern wannabe, the turtles bring Master Splinter back in time to get to Casey and April’s wedding at the cabin. Inviting all their friends, the Foot arrive with a restored Shredder to take their revenge. Finding a way to delete the Cyber Shredder for good, the turtles finally defeat their enemy and all goes well as the series ends with Casey kissing the bride.

I’d like to point out there are also shorts called Mayhem from Mutant Island about an unused story and some Flash animated short that are about humor than action. The last two seasons, like the 80’s cartoon, was meant more for a toy deal than to adapt stories from the comics to cartoon format.

My major complaint is that sometimes it gets either too dark, like dead bodies, to too light… like Fast Forward. That season reminded me of Spider-Man Unlimited. Because of Fox giving up on kids programming, the final season aired on the CW. I must admit I like the better action, stories and fleshed out characters, but it sometimes lacks the nostalgic humor of the first series. Still, this is a pretty damn good show… I’d say watch it on youtube if possible.

Sorry it took so long, but the show felt more like several shows put together than just one show.

This Ninja Turtles cartoon gets the rating…

9 out of 10