"Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Series Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

The official series talkback for the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is here! Check out this wild new take on the classic half-shell heroes! The series debuts Sept. 17 at 6:30pm ET with three episodes back to back!

​

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Series Premiere: Sept. 17, 2018

S01, E1 - Mystic Mayhem
The turtles discover for the first time that they are not the weirdest things in New York.

S01, E2 - Donnie's Gifts
The Turtles have to fight their bad habits and a mutant chef.

S01, E3 - War and Pizza
The turtles help April throw a not-so-happy birthday party.

What do you think of the series' premiere for this radical take on the Ninja Turtles? Discuss away right here!

Please note this talkback will be for the every episode of the series, and the News & Discussion thread will house news and general discussion on Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

 

[Ghostbuster]

I watched the first episode today as a sneak-peek on Sky, and was very impressed with the show. It's going to take a while to get adjusted to the new voices, though.

 

[emocobra666]

I think it will be a fun show to watch

 

[Fone Bone]

Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "Donnie's Gifts"

That was a little bit rushed and hard to follow, but the animation is dynamite per usual.

I like Raph going back to the soft nice-guy voice once he gets Donnie on the phone. Isn't that just the way with all tough guys?

And can I just point out again how refreshing it is to have back on television Ninja Turtles who actually act like y'know, NINJAS, and can sneak up on a villain properly without getting into loud slapfights with each other, tipping the bad guy off? What amazes me about this is how easy and effortless it is. The Turtles of the 2012 series being the Three Stooges and Roger Rabbit helped nothing, and it would have been SO easy to simply choose NOT to do that. Another reason this version is superior to that horrid series. By far.

Pretty good. ***1/2.

UPDATE:

Also posting my initial reviews of the first five episodes in this thread:

Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "Mystic Mayhem"

That is going to cause a fuss. That will create a stir. That will be polarizing.

Personally? I loved it. I haven't enjoyed a Turtles project this much in years. But a lotta hatas gonna hate.

Brief Turtle opinion history from me. I was 13 when the 1987 series debuted. I really loved the five part pilot, but I thought every episode after that was boring and nowhere near as interesting as the black and white comics. I thought the first movie was one of the better comic book adaptations I had seen at the time, and I saw both underwhelming sequels years later and wasn't sad I skipped them in the theater. Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation was a visually interesting idea that unfortunately had bad scripts and villains, and Venus underwhelmed. I think the 2003 series was the definitive Turtles project to me, and the CGI animated TMNT movie was underpraised. I've only seen the first Michael Bay film and that is the worst thing in the franchise. The second worst thing? The 2012 series.

And that is where I part ways with the fandom who loves it. I cannot stand that badly written piece of garbage. So maybe you should know the real reason I view this project favorably is because I thought the last project did so wrong by the viewers in every conceivable way. Me watching this was show was like "Wait, I'm ALLOWED to enjoy a Turtles project?" I don't actually have to nitpick the show because it's ostensibly a show about Ninjas but the brothers loudly blunder around on covert missions as if they are the Three Stooges and Roger Rabbit? The Turtles can be funny without being stupid or incompetent? Why have I been denied this for so long? Why did the 2012 series make watching every episode a freaking ordeal? Why is it now the franchise is going back to the fun satire it is when it's at its best?

Let's talk about the good and the bad. First impressions can be wrong.

First off, I still hate the character designs, but the animation is AMAZING. If the trade-off to having free-wheeling, off the wall action to this is making the Turtles a little toonier than I'm comfortable with, well, the results speak for themselves. The 2003 series had surprisingly good animation for low budget and its era in history, but this blows it away. And honestly, I think the animation in the 2012 series is really bad. Outside of the Star Wars cartoons and Transformers Prime there are not a ton of CGI TV cartoons that look good. That's because CGI is expensive, and kids cartoons are usually a budget medium. Therefore New York always seemed empty, and whenever it wasn't a season finale, the action in the fight scenes, while landing well, seemed sort of overly choreographed and conventional. This is just bananas. Granted, it's just the first episode, and maybe that was this show upping the game and budget just this once. But the truth is, the 2012 series' animation got better every year. This is not like the 2003 series that went backward in the last two seasons. Animation techniques are improving so rapidly that a show can cut its budget every year and still wind up looking better. That wasn't the case in the mid aughts. But now, I think what we were given might not simply be the show at its best. It might simply be the tip of the iceberg.

I like that they didn't do an origin story. Maybe they will down the line, but that sets this apart from the other Turtle stuff. And so much stuff is set apart that I am willing to see the show take chances and mess with the formula a bit. Part of the reason I hated 2012 so much is that they were ruining a ton of great source material. If it's a non-factor here, of course I can sit back and enjoy the series more and on its own merits. It's crazy more shows based on comic books don't try this to begin with. But we've gotten to the point where maybe stepping away a bit from the huge amount of canon will be healthy.

I like the humor. It's urban, and half the cast is African American, and it strikes me as observational too. The quips are things you'd hear somebody say on Park and Recreation. The characters are funny, self-aware, and not actually stupid. They don't overexplain their jokes to each other or the audience and nobody cares.

I hope they don't say "Leon" too often though. It hits the ear wrong.

I also like that the brothers are much less contentious. That was a great source of occasional drama in the 2003 series, and I think the TMNT movie was amazing because of it. But it was unending on the 2012 show, and nobody ever learned a lesson, or at least carried what they learned in one episode over to the next, which was tiring. There was no growth. That might not have been an issue if the Turtles weren't so unprofessional, incompetent, and stupid on their missions. Silly me, I had assumed that that would be a season one problem, and the hook of the show would be watching the team grow together into an amazing fighting force. And the freaking series finale is literally the Turtles getting every single one of their allies killed because they suck at their job so much. Yay, closure, am I right?

Here the Turtles joke around on the mission, but they don't eff it up, or at least eff it up in a way that damages anything. The 2012 Turtles were responsible for so much misery and destruction in New York City just based on how carelessly they handled the Mutagen containers alone. I will rest easy that I will not be watching a show where the Turtles mutate April's father because they were petty bickering when their friend actually needed them. And the crazy thing is, that watching these Turtles work well together like a well oiled machine tells me that that specific sort of conflict was always unnecessary and made the 2012 show worse for no good reason. That's probably why all of the in-fighting on the 2003 versions stayed in the sewers and they rocked the missions. If there IS gonna be upcoming conflict I hope they do the same thing. They are off to a good start.

The 2012 show was nonstop unforced errors, and if anything, I suspect this show is going to prove how unnecessary and stupid every single one of those mistakes was. I already like the first episode of this show better than every episode of the 2012 show. And there WERE admittedly episodes of that show that I liked. But I had few real complaints here and my gripes were unending even during the rare good weeks on the last iteration.

Can't wait for more. I expect good things. ****1/2.

Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "Newsworthy"

Back to the Turtles being incompetent. The twist? They mess up against a foe that doesn't actually matter and don't lose anything.

I loved them looking in horror at Leo just cutting that worm in half. What a hilarious line reading from Raph on "Leo, what did you just do?"

I love that Raph WANTS to wear the costume. Supposedly the thing that only Mikey used to enjoy is actually a leader perk on this show. Good to know.

That joke about the Turtles using math to nitpick Stone's quip about not growing back four sizes and two strengths was a REALLY smart joke. I love the 2003 series, but it was NOT known for smart jokes. This is probably the first smart Turtles project.

Fun. ****.

Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "Origami Tsunami"

Oh, these Turtles got it covered. It don't matter HOW much they mess up. The salami paper doesn't work? Donnie put a tracker in it! Braap! Don't worry, he put in two! These guys have contingencies.

"Look, they're gone!" "Then what are we looking at?" That is both a very smart joke and a very stupid joke at the same time.

I love that Leo is a bit of coward. I love that he wants to make sure the first adventure is Junior Mystery material. These are not the Turtles rushing out to face spine crushers and manglers. Nope. And when he see how impressive the Foot he's like, "Well, we outnumber you 2 to 1. Maybe we'll just call it even and go home." That's is SO freaking funny.

I love the other Turtles reactions to Raph eating the salami. Somehow I don't think the five second rule was intended to count former salami glop monsters. That is NOT what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they invented it.

Funny episode. And the animation was again amazing. ****1/2.

Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "Repo Mantis"

That was more slight than the other episodes (only Donnie and Mikey appear) but it's funny, and the facial expression are top-notch and hilarious.

When that guys all "Dogs have 8 nipples" I was like "This is not your father's TMNT cartoon."

Michael is similar to Leon in hitting the ear wrong. Stop it.

All right but the weakest episode so far. **1/2.

Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles "War And Pizza"

Okay, so I've added the figures and done the math, and according to my calculations, forgetting to change a battery in a remote control is a completely plausible reason for a robot to become evil and gain sentience and start destroying the building. Totally checks out. How? Shut up, that's how.

So apparently Donnie's type is giant, adorable, and sinister. Thank God it's not actually April. 2012 Donnie perving on a clearly cringing 2012 April never stopped being creepy.

I love that Alberto is moved that he finally gets a birthday and April just destroys the moment and starts demolishing him with a sledgehammer. Can I just say how glad I am Happy Birthday is public domain again? Pop culture has immediately started to suck less since it became so.

Donatello reminds me of David Cross. He's the funny one.

Fun episode. April's fired. ****.

 

[Radical]

After seeing it, I so love Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles next to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2003 reboot/CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012 reboot(I'll miss them), it's awesome/enjoyable, both Transformers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' next epic new reboots, sweet,

Both Mystic Mayhem, Donnie's Gifts, and War and Pizza were awesome/enjoyable,

The new animation/character designs are super amazing.
Both Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, and Michaelangelo's new character designs are pretty cool with Raphael more bigger/taller and is a snapping turtle, epic.Their new voice actors are great in their roles and African American voice actors doing Raphael/Michaelangelo was cool.
Raphael being the leader is pretty cool/interesting like Bumblebee the new team leader.
The next Reboot April great/funny, but she's African American/black, odd/interesting next to making Baxter black.
Mayhem is cute/cool.
The two new mutant villains are pretty cool.
Raphael/Donatello/Leonardo/Michaelangelo vs. the two new mutant villains was pretty cool/funny.
Splinter cool/funny, his new character design is sweet.
Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, and Michaelangelo wanting to ask Splinter was funny.
Raphael/Donatello/Leonardo/Michaelangelo and April wanting to save Mayhem was great.
Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, and Michaelangelo having cool new weapons and mystic ninja powers is pretty awesome.
Baron Draxum and Hunginn/Muninn, my favorite best new major villains, John Cena as him, awesome, love his cool new design.
Baron Draxum creating mutants with Oozesquitoes was cool like Shredder/Dr. Cortex on mutant creating.
Raphael/Donatello/Leonardo/Michaelangelo vs. Baron Draxum was pretty cool.
Raphael/Donatello/Leonardo/Michaelangelo and April saving Mayhem and giving it a name was sweet.
Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, and Michaelangelo trying to make a name for themselves was great/funny, hehehe.
The Oozesquitoes escaped, more mutants will be created in New York.

No Shredder in Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is interesting next to no Megatron in Transformers: Rescue Bots/Robots In Disguise 2015.

Love the mutant silverfish.
Both Raphael, Donatello, Leonardo, and Michaelangelo having bad habits is funny, hehehe.
Donatello creating new gear for Raphael, Leonardo, and Michaelangelo to overcome their bad habits when it becomes a nuisance for them was funny, hahahaha.
Meat Sweats, my favorite great new funny minor villain, love evil piggies.
Meat Sweats has absorbing powers, cool.
Raphael/Donatello/Leonardo/Michaelangelo vs. Meat Sweats and his little clones was great/funny.
I'll enjoy Meat Sweats' return.

Poor April dealing with crazy party kids and a birthday brat named Timmy.
Raphael, Donatello, Michaelangelo, and Leonardo helping April was great.
Raphael, Michaelangelo, and Leonardo wanting to get pizza was funny.
Both Albearto, Cheery Tomato, and Presient Pepperoni, my next favorite great funny minor villains, cool for Tom Kenny to play a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles role for the first time.
Having animatronic robots be the villains is a fantastic idea and Albearto is really dark/scary.
Seeing Timmy suffer was satisfying.
Raphael, Michaelangelo, Leonardo, Donatello, and April defeating Albearto, Cheery Tomato, and President Pepperoni was cool.
Poor April fired, she'll get a much better job though.

 

[Action!]

This episode was really funny. My favorite part was the Rat Flu stages.

 

[superkeegan9100]

I laughed at the "fanfiction" stage.

 

[Action!]

I laughed at the cuddle stage.

 

[Radical]

Shell in a Cell was pretty sweet/funny,

Leonardo accidently landing on Ghostbear was funny.
Leonardo being cocky/arrogant letting the fame and glory go to his head was funny.
Nice seeing the Raphael/Leonardo rivalry which was funny, hehehe.
Donatello vs. Michaelangelo was pretty funny.
Both the selfish witch Jessica and Ghostbear, my favorite great new minor villains, Cree Summer as Jessica, sweet.
Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michaelangelo's wrestling nicknames was great/funny.
Poor Raphael which his idol Ghostbear is a dirty rotten cheater/villain.
Raphael/Leonardo defeating Ghostbear was awesome/funny/satisfying.
Jessica taking all the credit winning was terrible at the end, poor Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michaelangelo.

 

[Ghostbuster]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks 'Leon' just doesn't sound right for Leo.

 

[Action!]

I liked today’s episode and I liked the Turtles nicknames for wrestling. 8/10

 

[Radical]

Repo Mantis was great/funny,

Mikey/Donnie's attempts to get the Jupiter Jim moon buggy vehicle was great/funny.
Repo Mantis, my favorite great funny new villain, cool that they create a mantis villain after a spider, mutated squirrels, and nasty beavers for great new villains.
Mikey/Donnie as repo men was great/funny.
Love the random My Neighbor Totoro reference there.
Todd Capybara, a great funny minor character, his rescue puppies are cute,
cool for Thurop Van Orman(Flapjack) to play a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles role.
Mikey/Donnie helping Todd building a new type of residence was great.
Mikey/Donnie getting the Jupiter Jim moon buggy vehicle was sweet.
Mikey/Donnie vs. Repo Mantis was great, Repo Mantis's defeat was funny, I'll enjoy his return.

Raphael/Leonardo not in the episode, I wanna see their funny moments in it, oh well.

 

[Fone Bone]

Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles “Down With The Sickness”

What in the name of all that is holy and decent was that?

That was awful. That was gross and disgusting. That was nonsensical. That was me could having lived with never seeing Splinter’s rat nipples.

Two interesting things:

Why do the Turtles call Splinter “Dad”? I’m not the only one who thinks that’s weird, right?

Leo seems to think he’s Splinter’s least favorite son. Why?

A blight upon the Earth. 0.

Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles “Shell In A Cell”

Both the writing and the animation to that were extremely choppy. Did not like that. **.

Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles “The Fast And The Furriest”

Back on track.

I cannot decide whether I love or hate this version of Splinter. On the hate side, he’s gross, and stupid, and irresponsible, and can’t even be bothered to remember his sons’ names. The “Dad” thing still irks me too. On the other hand, he’s actually funny! When Meatsweats tells him his name is Rupert, I’m pretty much rolling when he says he should go with Meatsweats.

I love that April tells them they have five seconds to explain breaking her door, and then she beats them all up with a baseball bat. Did I mention I like this version of April?

I love Donnie’s “I don’t understand how you mind works,” to Mikey. Also funny was Leo getting excited about how many parking tickets they are gonna get.

Tracking the van around the circumference of the parking lot protocol was smart, and I love the nonchalant way Don says “Oh look, there the van is.” I also love that they reference the fact that Donnie DID put a tracker in the salami paper in a previous episode, and the only reason there isn’t one in the tank, is he hasn’t gotten around to it yet. It’s still a plothole if you ask me, but it’s less of one of the Turtles themselves are questioning the logic of it.

This was great. The last couple of episodes worried me, but the show is back to being awesome. ****1/2.

 

[Radical]

Origami Tsunami was pretty sweet/funny, Nickelodeon airing them out of order is odd though,

Leonardo wanting excitements for hero life was great/funny.
Rapheal, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michaelangelo's reactions to the paper thieves was funny.
Cool to see the Foot Clan, the Foot Lieutenant/Foot Brute, my favorite best new villains, and cool for Rob Paulsen to return to play a villain role who's the Foot Lieutenant.
Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michaelangelo's comments on the Foot Clan name was funny, hehehe.
Cool seeing the Foot Soldiers who are now origami instead of robots, cool.
Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michaelangelo vs. the Foot Lieutenant/Foot Brute was a great battle.
The Foot Lieutenant/Foot Brute getting away was great, I'll enjoy their returns.
Raphael eating the origami food was funny, hahahahaha.

 

[Poweranimals]

So Origami Tsunami is actually the second episode, right? Despite Nickelodeon airing them out of order.

 

[kanc]

So Origami Tsunami is actually the second episode, right? Despite Nickelodeon airing them out of order.

Shows A-Z - rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles on nickelodeon | TheFutonCritic.com

Production wise, Original Tsunami is the first episode; along with Donnie's Gifts as second episode

 

[Fone Bone]

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles “Mascot Melee”

Now we see why all the Turtles wanted to wear the Hippo mascot costume.

I love that Raph has a Build-A-Bear type store card. Very endearing.

Not bad. ***.

 

[Radical]

Both Newsworthy and Mascot Melee were pretty sweet/funny,

Warren the mutant newsanchor earthworm, my favorite best funny joke villain.
Warren trying to be their nemesis and always failing was so funny, hahahaha, the poor loser, hehehe.
Raphael as Turtlepotamus, cool/funny.
Macho Warren is pretty cool.
Love Hypno-Potamus, cool new mutant villain, and cool seeing a hippopotamus villain.
Hypno-Potamus the first new villain to beat Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michaelangelo was interesting.
Warren being an anti-hero to defeat Hypno-Potamus was pretty cool.
Funny ending with Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michaelangelo not recognizing Warren was funny, hahahaha.

Both Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michaelangelo getting a new robe for Splinter was great.
Turtlepotamus returning was great/funny.
Raphael/Leonardo/Donatello/Michaelangelo vs. the evil Time Square mascots in a dance-off was great/funny.
The evil mutant cockroaches, my favorite great new minor villains, nice that the evil Time Square mascots were revealed.
Raphael/Leonardo/Donatello/Michaelangelo vs. the evil mutant cockroaches was great/funny.
Funny ending, but I enjoy the Reboot Splinter when he's irresponsible/reckless, hahahahahaha.

 

[VGCinema]

I just joined this forum and I'd like to join in the conversation so I'm gonna just give a small summary of what I thought about the previous episodes so far. Hopefully this is fine, I'm 100% sure if that's okay. Any episode that isn't here I haven't seen yet.

Mystic Mayhem was a really cool introductory episode for this series. It really gives you everything you need to know about all the characters, tone, animation style... Pretty much everything. I really love the character changes presented here, especially Donnie and Leonardo, which I surprised about because the descriptions for Leo made me think I was gonna hate him. Raphael is great as well, and while I like Mikey in this version he does seem to be the one with the least interesting personality. Although I honestly HATE Splinter here... What the heck why was this chosen? All voices were great as well. John Cena specifically surprised me. He did great with Baron Draxum. April's voice actress is my favorite so far. Turtle's new weapons and powers are a welcome addition. The secret underground city is an awesome idea.

Down with the Sickness was really interesting to me... It was a premise and idea that could've been really cringeworthy. Especially with all of the random stages that honestly didn't make much sense. But the way they presented it and animated really made it something special in my opinion, and after seeing the last episode where Splinter and the Turtles were kinda at odds it was cool to see how far that goes for both sides. Their relationship isn't perfect, which to me is kinda interesting even if I know the show probably won't expand on their relationship too much. I liked it but I hope the show isn't full of really random comedy like this.

Shell in a Cell was a really good time. As a wrestling fan I can definitely relate to Raphael and Leonardo's arguments about Sports Entertainment. Also seeing the beginnings of a small rivalry between Raph and Leo this early is really cool. I'm glad even with the change in character that is something that hasn't changed.

Repo Mantis wasn't all that great in my opinion. The problem with this one is just that I've seen this concept play out a million times but nobody ever puts an interesting twist to it. I did like seeing Mikey's and Donnie's personalities grow a bit more here. Especially Mikey. I liked seeing Donnie call him Michael. I feel like that is something this version would say. Just gives Donnie a cool little quirk compared to everyone else in the series.

The Fast and the Furriest was a lot of fun! I finally really like Splinter here! I mean he's still a bad father... He can't even remember his kid's names. But that actually turned out to be a really funny joke, which mean there might be reoccuring jokes throughout the series, which I'm going to love so much if that is the case.

Origami Tsunami is my favorite episode since the pilot! Not much to comment on, but I'm glad to see The Foot and I can't wait to see whose the one controlling them.

Mascot Melee was incredible! Two new favorites back to back! Like I know this is basically just a dance off episode, but there is something about the way it's animated that made me so enthralled in the action. If the show stays this good it could possibly become my favorite TMNT series and that's saying a lot for me I think...

Newsworthy is... well... oof... I didn't like that at all. I really liked Hypno-Potumus. Really cool idea for a villain. But Warren Stone was unbearable. He's definitely the type of villain that needs a lead up to... I hate having to have a little flashback to explain who he was and what his deal was. Too much was happening here. Warren Stone and Hypno-Potumus should've had their own dedicated episodes.

 

[Toons Fan]

Zap2it and my TV Guide shows a new Rise of the TMNT airing on Saturday, October 6th at 9:30AM called "Minotaur Maze"