Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - new show in Nickelodeon

[FoolKiller]

Having a toddler, I find my TV is often in the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon range of channels. The other night I turned my TV on to see a new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. I caught the full first episode later in the week on a rerun.

Basically it is going for the anime-style remake like Thundercats on Cartoon Network, but with one important difference. The story is the same. The animation has a bit of that cutesy anime look to it, which American audiences might find annoying, but over looking that what you have is this:

A martial arts master is attacked in the streets while bringing home four baby pet turtles. Those who attack him are carrying a canister with green ooze in it. The canister breaks open and the martial arts master and his turtles mutate into forms shared with the last creature they touched (he stepped on a rat just before getting the ooze on him). He is now the father to four mutant anthropomorphic turtles, forced to live in the sewer, out of the view of the public. He names them after his favorite renaissance artists, Leonardo, Michaelangelo, Donatelo, and Raphael and raises them as his sons, training them in the martial arts to become ninjas.

After 15 years they are like any teenage humans, with ninja training. They venture to the surface and become heroes over night. And discover pizza.

Everything from before is here. Leo is a tactical leader. Raph is a powerful fighter but quick to judgment. Don is a scientist at heart and a whiz with mechanics. Mike is...Mike. The colors are the same, the weapons are the same, the names are all the same, but they have dropped the surfer dude language from the late 80's. There is Shredder, The Foot, KRAANG, and even Raphael's pet turtle. The one major thing they did change, and it bothers me, is that April O'Neal is now a teenage girl.

But ultimately, I think this can be a good show. It brings the story I loved to a whole new generation. And it brings them that exact story. In a world of barely recognizable remakes or retellings of older stories (I'm including movies based on books, comics, and games here) it feels refreshing. I hope they took a page out of Marvel's book and realized a good story doesn't need to be made "better" or newer.

 

[CoolStory]

Spot on 👍

I watched it too and at first I didn't think I was going to like it because of the whole Nickelodeon thing (seeing as DisneyXD sort of, you know, destroyed Spider-Man...) but it was actually pretty good. I'm probably just out of the age group for TMNT but I watch it anyway...because Ninja Turtles

The anime take on certain things seemed a little out of place and I agree with you about the teenaged Amy thing, but whatever - the turtles are still the same!

And I've actually never seen the first episode start to finish...I always come in at about fifteen minutes for some odd reason