What was it about Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the latest incarnation of the long-running franchise and the second developed for Nickelodeon, that made the children’s network confident enough to renew it for a second season before its official premiere next month? Co-produced by Ant Ward and Andy Suriano, one can tell at first glance how radically different it’s aiming to be from any prior TMNT show.
It’s unsurprising that there’s been a varied reaction to all of the new designs, a more stylized art direction, and altered character dynamics. After watching the first few episodes, I think there some aspects that could be made better, but I was impressed by far more things that I wasn’t.
The opening is, dare I say, beautiful. The theme follows the usual rock-rap vibe of the last series, and the vocals starting the song sound rather Queen-ish. The 2D animation coloring and lighting are a marvel to look at. You get an early glimpse of how expressive and fun these characters can truly be.
In the first episode, “Mystic Mayhem”, what seems like a typical night patrol for the Turtles and April becomes a rescue mission for what they think is an innocent looking cat, and a battle with a battle against massive, purple alien creatures. This new April O’Neil (Kat Graham) is far more action-oriented than the version from the prior Nick-produced Turtle show, and she winds up chasing after the bad guys into an interdimensional portal through a wall.
I’m not really sold on Splinter’s design yet, to tell the truth. It certainly stands out from any of his others, but my personal favorite was the Splinter that Chris Allan drew in Archie’s TMNT comic book. He doesn’t do much in these first five episodes outside of watching TV and showing skepticism on whether or not the boys are ready to be trained. But Eric Bauza voices him nicely, so I’ll reserve most of my judgment for how he’s presented in further stories.
The search for their friend leads them eventually through the portal to the hidden lair of a new villain named Baron Draxum (John Cena), a sinister looking armored creep with a fascination with mutating creatures. When he first sees the bizarre looking ninjas, he’s overcome with joy at potential new specimens to experiment on.
Upon his attack, the Turtles make use of some advanced alien weaponry that allows them to tap into unknown chi-based powers, while Donatello (Josh Brener) trusts in his homemade staff. Between his role as the boyish Ferdinand and the droll robot half of Dallas and Robo, Cena’s showing some nice range in his voice acting as he plays Draxum as seriously and ominously as a cartoon this off-the-wall will allow.
The second episode features April and the Turtles going after what appears to be the new version of the Foot Clan, followed by a battle with a giant paper monster. Some of the visual choreography in these fights are quite impressive, and they do manage to blend in some nice slapstick without undercutting how intense the action actually is. The animators employ some good squashing and stretching, so it’s far less realistic than the fights in the 2003 show.
Our third episode “A War and Pizza” gives us Donnie’s sense of over-ambition when one of the animatronics at the Pizza-play center April works at breaks down, and he adds some hot new upgrades. As you might guess, it malfunctions and turns to the dark side, so the Turtles are forced to battle the Rockafire wannabes with a few nods to Five Nights at Freddy’s.
Looking at how well the birthday party-obsessed “Alberto” (voiced maniacally by Tom Kenny) was rendered, I’ll say the art style initially threw me off when I first saw it, but watching them in motion gave me a different impression. I appreciate how various designers have tried to make each turtle look more distinct from each other over time, as opposed to their early years in Mirage comics when they were identical looking brothers. All wearing red masks.
Raphael (Omar Benson Miller) has always been considered the physically strongest turtle in many canons, so in Rise he’s a massive hulk with a full bandana over his skull. Donatello has the same kind of mask as Raph, only with goggles- a visual indicator of him being the technical genius (that’s one of the few touches from the Michael Bay-produced films I appreciated), along with his oversized forehead.
A jokier, lighter-hearted Leonardo (Ben Schwartz), who has some odd red markings around his eyes, and party dude Michelangelo (Brandon Mychael Smith) both have swimmer-like physical builds and retain their usual eye masks. I love how Mike refers to himself as “the artist of the group” a trait he’s had in many Turtle versions. Even in stuff like “Cyber Samurai”, he spent his downtime sketching beautiful comic book art, so the writers have done their homework.
Speaking of things that are oversized, “Newsworthy” gives us what might be either this show’s Vernon Fenwick- or a Plankton style character- in Warren Stone (John Michael Higgins), a former news anchor transformed into a worm and is out for revenge against the Turtles, interfering with their search for Hypno-Potamus (Rhys Darby), a mutated hippo-magician villain on the loose. Raph is the official leader of this team instead of Leo, so he takes on the responsibility of dressing in a hippo costume with perfume to hopefully lure it out.
Blink and you’ll miss a brief My Neighbor Totoro reference in “Repo Mantis”, Mike and Donnie’s effort to acquire a Jupiter Jim buggy from the episode’s title character (Fred Tatasciore), a self-centered mutated junkyard operator. All they need is to get an RV owner to give up his property- if he doesn’t kill them with kindness first.
The showrunners for Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles so far are more interested in establishing a speedy, energetic tone with an affable cast than any sort of serious lore, which is something quite different from how the 2012 TMNT show began. I’m still looking forward to the rest of the series down the road, but I hope that the stories will solidify and add more detail to the world, these antagonists, and the main characters.
Since most of the episodes will be in eleven-minute segments, whatever development we get in the future will likely be condensed and bring along a considerable amount of humor. I’m fairly sure while it could become more serious than the campy 1987 show was, it’ll usually be looser than the 2003 Turtle cartoon from the Fox Box in most episodes.
Still, most of the jokes are rather funny, not excessively childish as Teen Titans GO often is and features some sharp wit and good slapstick blended with the action. The top-notch animation is also a plus, with a wonderful palette and a uniquely expressive art direction. With some stronger worldbuilding and better pacing, I feel this could easily be one of the more entertaining Turtles shows.
It’s not perfect, but I’m happy to check out how it evolves. If you’ve had a chance to see this new version of TMNT, drop us a line at @Official_FAN on Twitter as always and give us your opinion!