You know, it’s been a while since I’ve talked about anything
related to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Let’s change that, shall we?
By now, the newest movie has come out. The word of mouth has
been a little mixed from fans. I know it’s not a good film, so I’ll just wait
this time. Besides, there are other movies to look forward to. A long time ago,
I said I wasn’t going to comment much on the original tv show. It was mostly
because I had no access to the original series at that time. I am a fan the
franchise, but I’m not going to go out and get everything with them in it.
Besides, I think I had enough TMNT toys from back in the day to fill some sort
of chest. Too bad I don’t have them now.
This kind of changed a couple of years ago when I found the
DVD to TMNT’s first season. TMNT’s first season is a short one. It only
consisted of five episodes and it was first aired in syndication in 1987. I
guess the episode run for the season was so short so they could see how it
would do, I’m not sure. Of course, I wasn’t watching the show at that time. I
didn’t start to watch the show until it aired on CBS. I do remember seeing
these batch of episodes on VHS. The whole season was also cut to be a feature
length movie and I used to rent that at Jitney Jungle. It didn’t include the
third episode for some reason though.
The season pretty much where it all began with the Turtles.
We get their origin and their first meeting with April O’Neill. She’s gets
accosted while reporting on the Foot Clan, Splinter’s old ninja clan, and they
save her. By they way, Splinter is Hamato Yoshi here instead of being Yoshi’s pet rat. As the mutagen changed the turtles, it turned him into a rat. Afterwards,
they get involved with saving her from the Foot Clan which is being led by the Oroku
Saki, the Shredder. He’s also in league with Krang, an alien from Dimension X
who wants to rule the Earth. The rest of the season involves the Turtles trying
to stop Shredder and Krang from doing this.
PROS
Yes, I know it all...
I really enjoyed this when I revisited it back in the
spring. It may even be one of the best seasons of the show. I really can’t say
that since it’s been a long time since I’ve seen other episodes, but this was
pretty good. It started everything off so well. The stories were pretty cool and I liked that it's all one little arc. So much got introduced in this miniseries. We got the origin, Shredder, Krang,
the Neutrinos (eh…), Beebop, Rocksteady, and a white Baxter Stockman. He’s
actually black in the comics. Why did they change his race in the first place?
Oh well, it’s not like I liked the character.
The turtles are in fine form here. They all have their
distinct personalities unlike the Turtles Forever movie from a few years ago.
They’re more light-hearted than the comics, but this was a kids’ show after
all. I liked them all here. Splinter was also a cool mentor and a cool
character in his own right. He even had a nice role involving that
retro-mutation gun. While April was the stereotypical reporter/damsel in
distress, I did like her sometimes. Then, we had the villains. Shredder was
pretty cool in this first season when he was actually threatening. The same
goes for Krang since he had the tech and the army towards the end.
The animation was pretty good for the most part. It was
handled by Toei Animation for this season only. For a cartoon from the 80’s, it
still works well. The character designs were good for our main characters. The
action was also pretty good too. Here, the turtles actually got to throw down and
kick some butt. I know that the action was toned down and made more slapstick-ish
in later seasons, so soak in what you can. The voice acting from the main cast
was also pretty good. Everyone sounded good and fit their character. I never
knew that James Avery (Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince of Bel Air) voiced the
Shredder until a few years ago. The music is also cool in all of its 80’s-ness.
The theme song still kicks some butt.
Since I haven’t read the early comics, I can’t tell how
correct they were in terms of source material. I only know of the differences
through some research. I know Raphael is the sarcastic one here instead of the
angry guy from the comics. It’s a change that still works for the show since he
says the funniest stuff. Then, there’s Splinter’s backstory change. Hamato
Yoshi’s end from the comics was pretty bloody, so I get why they made Splinter
Yoshi here. April’s a scientist in the comics, the Foot Soldiers are men
instead of robots, and I don’t know where to start with Krang. Still, these
changes don’t hurt the show especially when you view it as a separate, lighter
entity.
CONS
Not a lot of bad to say, so here is some more of that awesome intro.
To tell you the truth, there really aren’t that many
problems to the season. I wouldn’t say it’s all perfect from beginning to end though.
The animation could sometimes be a little lackluster. Some background
characters wouldn’t look too good. You’d also have some weird goofs in the
animation. One notable example is during the first episode where five turtles
suddenly show up. I will say that the animation goofs are pretty funny. I’m
also not a big fan of the Neutrinos. They weren’t annoying (I actually like
that episode a lot), but they didn’t help things.
The episode with Baxter Stockman is probably my least
favorite of the five. It’s not a bad one but when compared to the others, it
does come a little short in my mind. Other than those things and probably a
couple of others, I don’t have anything bad to say about the season. It did
change some things from the comics, but I can accept it for what it is. It’s a
Saturday morning cartoon aimed for kids. If they were going to put this on at that time, they had to keep it safe. Luckily, it had a lot more going
for it than most cartoons did.
…………………………………………………….
Since the season is only five episodes, I’ll skip the
“Favorite Episodes” section this time. I
do recommend this especially if you’re a fan of cartoons. If you’re a fan of
the TMNT, then why haven’t you seen this? This was pretty awesome. The DVD also has episodes from the show's Ninth Season, so you get a little more than you bargained for. If you’re
watching the current series on Nickelodeon and haven’t seen this, then check
out this series and see how it all started for the franchise. I don’t know if
I’ll look at the rest of the series on here but you never know. Until then,
Peace, God Bless, and someone pass me the pizza with the salami, anchovies,
marshmallows, and onions right away!
Looks like they're about to dance or something...
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