Having being a child born in the late 70’s I was able to grow up watching cartoons through the 80’s and 90’s, all that were vastly superior to the crap that is force feed to the children of today. Show’s such as Cops, Bionic 6, M.A.S.K, Transformers G1, Battle of the Planets / G-force, Dungeons & Dragons, The Bots Master, The Mighty Orbots, The Galaxy Rangers, Pole Position, G.I. Joe, Defenders of the Earth, Robotics, Jayce & The Wheeler Warriors, Thunderbirds 2086, Bravestarr, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, Spiral Zone, Silverhawks and yes even Jem. Jem kicked ass and don’t even say you didn’t watch it cause you did! Hell I can sit here for another 2-3 hours about all the greatness that those era’s contained but I can’t since we’re not talking about them right now.
While thankfully many of those shows haven’t been attempted or corrupted I should say except for a few, Transformers comes to mind but they have managed to make the show with greatness so I can’t complain,other shows on the other hand haven’t been so lucky, and this time up its the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles turn.
Originally making their debut in a graphic novel by Kevin Laird & Peter Eastman, the Teen Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were rough and gritty, they handed you your ass when you acted out of place. They we’re the stuff of ninjas and we loved it. Shortly afterwards the Turtles were given an animated show within 2 different series, a two part Japanese anime (OVA) titled Mutant Turtles: Choujin Densetsu-hen that was used to promote toys and damn was it horrible….., a live action series (Who also appeared on Saban’s Power Rangers in Space) and four movies; Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III & TMNT, the later being a full length CGI movie (Which I enjoyed).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwqKg76GJCo[/youtube](Hey Elf here, sorry to interrupt but as a Turtle Fan, I got to chime in here. While most fans of the 80’s just left after the beloved cheezy Fred-Wolf Cartoon, true Turtle Fans kept with the Green Team past those atrocities Hax mentioned and our patience was payed off in a big way:)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRnRUtMHGow[/youtube](In 2003, 4KIDS Entertainment managed to bring back the Fab 4…and miraculously, not fuck it up. Seriously, this was their best cartoon: Not as charming as the 80’s toon but it was more action-packed, more serious, and was as close to the original comic book as kids will ever get. It went so far as having a movie that united the Modern Turtles with their Comic Counterparts and their 80’s incarnation. Check it out when you can. And yet….most media will pretend this toon never really existed…sigh. Back to you Hax )
Flash to to September 29th 2012 where the Turtles make their debut back to TV thanks in part to Nickelodeon, which is where I have an issue with. For the most part, Nickelodeon doesn’t have a stellar track record with rehashing shows from yesteryear, case in point “Voltron Force”. I can’t even look at that damned show without my inter child wanting to erupt from my body and smashing my TV with anything that it can grab. Now you’re probably saying “That you raved about both Avatar projects” and I did, I love the Avatar series. But I said that they are terrible with rehashing content.
Still I have to be fair and by doing so I’ll drop my reserve judgement and give this show a chance. Sure I’m not a fan of the art style, I mean what the hell is up with the way Donatello looks. Also the Turtles backdrop is a bit dated so hopefully we’ll get some new content that hasn’t already been covered in the earlier to cartoons. Hopefully this can keep the Nickelodeon train going at least until the second season of “The Legend of Korra” is aired.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XK8EOD9buLc[/youtube]Until next time Go, ninja, go, ninja, go! Go, ninja, go, ninja, go!
