It is now time to review Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode 2 Enter the Shredder. In this episode, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meet their arch nemesis the Shredder face to face for the first time. Also Krang, along with Bebop and Rocksteady(in their well known mutant forms, show up for the very first time). Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode 2 Enter the Shredder aired for the first time on December 15th 1987.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode 2 Enter the Shredder
This episode is a solid continuation to the ground work set up in the first part. A lot of this episode has to do with the search for the Technodrome, which leads the Turtles to meet the Shredder for the first time.
We also are introduced to the Shredder’s partner in crime, Krang. The seeds for the dynamic between Krang and Shredder are well established in this episode, but it does not really get fine tuned until much later, as Shredder and Krang tend to bicker like an old married couple for most of the series.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode 1 Turtle Tracks Review
It is now time to start a brand new fresh series of reviews, in this case, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(or Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles to some people), the original series that ran from 1987-1996. So let’s start at the beginning, for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode 1 Turtle Tracks which first aired on December 10th 1987 as part of the original five part mini-series. In this episode, the origin of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is told, they meet April O’Neil, and start their battle with the evil forces of the Shredder.
We had to start somewhere and this five episode mini-series is rather something that is rather beloved by many TMNT fans. It is the mini-series that started it all, launched it all, and rather just lead to the boom of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that occurred throughout the 1980s and the 1990s. So many action figures, video games, and other Ninja Turtle goodies and of course, this cartoon, which started it all.
It kind of amuses me how so much of this episode rather set up a lot of what you’re going to see later on and most certainly certain dynamics are established throughout this five episode mini-series. Most certainly by the end of the second season, everyone was nailed down to a certain dynamic that was followed.
You had the personalities of everyone. If the theme song didn’t clue you in, then this episode did a good job. Leonardo naturally is the leader of the group. Donatello is the brains of group(“Donatello does machines!”) Raphael has his sarcastic whit and Michelangelo is a laid back guy, with a love for pizza. The strange pizza toppings are established. Master Splinter’s wisdom, April getting herself in trouble thus getting captured, thus causing the Turtles to bail her out. And her desire to get a great news story. And Shredder is evil.
Two other characters who are regulars in this series, April’s boss Burne Thompson and her future rival Vernon Fenwick are present, but rather kind of underplayed from their more known personalities. Burne later in the series, tended to put J. Jonah Jameson to shame sometimes with his anti-Turtle tirades. And Vernon was actually only mildly cowardly, as opposed to the full blown wimp and pompous blowhard that he was later in the series.
And the other quirks of the cartoon are well established. The shameless breaking of the fourth wall, the animation glitches with the wrong voices being used for the wrong turtle (example of Raphael’s voice coming out of Donatello’s mouth). And there was a really bad one later for about two frames, where there were, if I remember correctly, two Leonardos, two Raphaels, and a Michelangelo on the roof. That’s right, five turtles and not one of them was Donatello.
Although there were times where I wondered if it was just laziness or trolling the fans with the various animation errors.
The plot is very simple. April does a news story about the crime rising in New York with a daring series of robberies performed by ninjas. Naturally someone doesn’t take too kindly to this, so a gang of street punks tried to shut her up, but she was saved by four mysterious people…who turned out to be those wacky turtles that we all no and love.
Then we get the origin story, while meeting Master Splinter, who was really once a man named Hamato Yoshi. Which actually kind of makes more sense than the original comic book origin when Hamato Yoshi and Splinter were separate, a ninja and his pet rat. So points to the cartoon for that. As it turned out, Yoshi was framed by a man named Oroku Saki, who we’ll get to in a minute. Yoshi is banished, with the sensei using the wise words of “throw the bum out.”
Then there is the classic story of man finds turtles, man gets douse with ooze, that turns the turtles human and him into a rat. Yeah there’s some sketchy science going on there, but it’s a cartoon meant to sell toys for the most part, so just roll with it. Then he names mutated turtles after the Renaissance painters.
The Turtles and April go up to the surface to investigate after finding a matchbook with the words “Ninja Pizza” on it. Some funny scenes with the Turtles being confused about surface life. Crazed granny with a shot gun is always great and they get their classic trench coat designs. Don’t have those absurd rubber masks yet, that was to come.
After some time, we enter the ninja part of town. Actually it might just be me, but going to the “ninja dentist” might not be all that bad. Ninjas are supposed to be stealthy and quick, so the work is done before you have a chance to have any pain and agony or be nervous. Sounds like a winning thing to me.
Anyway, Turtles have their ninja pizzas, but April gets kidnapped(no doubt an entry on any drinking game based off of this particular series) by the Foot Soldiers. Then we have a fight and it is a good thing those guys are in fact robots, because slashing a real person with your sword might end rather messily…Leonardo! We have a fight and we see the Shredder’s charming mug on the screen.
Shredder in this series, tends to not be the brightest bulb in the box, as most Saturday morning cartoon villains of the time were. So he figures out the best way to not let the Turtles find out about the Technodrome, is to announce that all of his Foot Soldiers return to the Technodrome at once. They flood the building with so much water that it bursts. Again, just roll with it.
The Turtles and April escape and evidence is brought back to Master Splinter, that indicates Oroku Saki, is back and he’s in fact the Shredder. Then the first episode airs.
A pretty good start for this show. This series might have much to make fun of but hell it was a part of the childhood of a generation, my generation and it does hold up rather well. 9/10 rating after a solid episode. You can watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode 1 Turtle Tracks on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 1 DVD.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode 1 Turtle Tracks Review
We had to start somewhere and this five episode mini-series is rather something that is rather beloved by many TMNT fans. It is the mini-series that started it all, launched it all, and rather just lead to the boom of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that occurred throughout the 1980s and the 1990s. So many action figures, video games, and other Ninja Turtle goodies and of course, this cartoon, which started it all.
It kind of amuses me how so much of this episode rather set up a lot of what you’re going to see later on and most certainly certain dynamics are established throughout this five episode mini-series. Most certainly by the end of the second season, everyone was nailed down to a certain dynamic that was followed.
You had the personalities of everyone. If the theme song didn’t clue you in, then this episode did a good job. Leonardo naturally is the leader of the group. Donatello is the brains of group(“Donatello does machines!”) Raphael has his sarcastic whit and Michelangelo is a laid back guy, with a love for pizza. The strange pizza toppings are established. Master Splinter’s wisdom, April getting herself in trouble thus getting captured, thus causing the Turtles to bail her out. And her desire to get a great news story. And Shredder is evil.
Two other characters who are regulars in this series, April’s boss Burne Thompson and her future rival Vernon Fenwick are present, but rather kind of underplayed from their more known personalities. Burne later in the series, tended to put J. Jonah Jameson to shame sometimes with his anti-Turtle tirades. And Vernon was actually only mildly cowardly, as opposed to the full blown wimp and pompous blowhard that he was later in the series.
And the other quirks of the cartoon are well established. The shameless breaking of the fourth wall, the animation glitches with the wrong voices being used for the wrong turtle (example of Raphael’s voice coming out of Donatello’s mouth). And there was a really bad one later for about two frames, where there were, if I remember correctly, two Leonardos, two Raphaels, and a Michelangelo on the roof. That’s right, five turtles and not one of them was Donatello.
Although there were times where I wondered if it was just laziness or trolling the fans with the various animation errors.
The plot is very simple. April does a news story about the crime rising in New York with a daring series of robberies performed by ninjas. Naturally someone doesn’t take too kindly to this, so a gang of street punks tried to shut her up, but she was saved by four mysterious people…who turned out to be those wacky turtles that we all no and love.
Then we get the origin story, while meeting Master Splinter, who was really once a man named Hamato Yoshi. Which actually kind of makes more sense than the original comic book origin when Hamato Yoshi and Splinter were separate, a ninja and his pet rat. So points to the cartoon for that. As it turned out, Yoshi was framed by a man named Oroku Saki, who we’ll get to in a minute. Yoshi is banished, with the sensei using the wise words of “throw the bum out.”
Then there is the classic story of man finds turtles, man gets douse with ooze, that turns the turtles human and him into a rat. Yeah there’s some sketchy science going on there, but it’s a cartoon meant to sell toys for the most part, so just roll with it. Then he names mutated turtles after the Renaissance painters.
The Turtles and April go up to the surface to investigate after finding a matchbook with the words “Ninja Pizza” on it. Some funny scenes with the Turtles being confused about surface life. Crazed granny with a shot gun is always great and they get their classic trench coat designs. Don’t have those absurd rubber masks yet, that was to come.
After some time, we enter the ninja part of town. Actually it might just be me, but going to the “ninja dentist” might not be all that bad. Ninjas are supposed to be stealthy and quick, so the work is done before you have a chance to have any pain and agony or be nervous. Sounds like a winning thing to me.
Anyway, Turtles have their ninja pizzas, but April gets kidnapped(no doubt an entry on any drinking game based off of this particular series) by the Foot Soldiers. Then we have a fight and it is a good thing those guys are in fact robots, because slashing a real person with your sword might end rather messily…Leonardo! We have a fight and we see the Shredder’s charming mug on the screen.
Shredder in this series, tends to not be the brightest bulb in the box, as most Saturday morning cartoon villains of the time were. So he figures out the best way to not let the Turtles find out about the Technodrome, is to announce that all of his Foot Soldiers return to the Technodrome at once. They flood the building with so much water that it bursts. Again, just roll with it.
The Turtles and April escape and evidence is brought back to Master Splinter, that indicates Oroku Saki, is back and he’s in fact the Shredder. Then the first episode airs.
A pretty good start for this show. This series might have much to make fun of but hell it was a part of the childhood of a generation, my generation and it does hold up rather well. 9/10 rating after a solid episode. You can watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Episode 1 Turtle Tracks on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Volume 1 DVD.
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