TMNT: Rise 🐢

Another TMNT-related post (following my “The Cosmic Side of TMNT”) today I (Ethan Stranger) will be reviewing (in general) Nickelodeon’s 2nd TMNT series (which is “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”) and since I’ve just watched their movie on Netflix, perhaps these incarnations of the Ninja Turtles deserve a “special mention” (so let’s down to business) and pray that Nickelodeon will release some “lost episode adventures of these Turtles in the future…” 

Like Many TMNT fans, I’ve never forgotten seeing the 1st piece of character designs of the new upcoming TMNT series and had mixed feelings about it (including the bizarre mystic weapons), plus this incarnation of TMNT is depicted as different species of Turtles (interesting take)...

 

(Click here to Watch the teaser for the “Rise of the TMNT Series”)

Upon watching the 1st teaser and seeing the character designs, I had mixed feelings over this new TMNT Series, as it was consider to be “too goofy, like the 1987 TMNT series”, as the 2012 TMNT series (which had ended a year before the start of this series) had a perfect blend of mixing both action and humor (as well as respecting the source material, or either putting their own spin on certain characters from various TMNT comics or create new characters that best go with this series), as for the 2018 TMNT Series, the creators for that series were particularly inspired by the Movie (Big Trouble in Little China) (Picture: Bottom Left Corner), and I must admit, that’s a pretty interesting concept to take the TMNT property into (especailly since within the 2012 TMNT Series, they did an epsidoe loosely based around  Big Trouble in Little China (Picture: Bottom Right Corner), however, judging by the designs for the new TMNT Series and having watched the teaser, I was concered over the new TMNT series, As I mentioned within my “The Comsic Side of TMNT”, the TMNT franchise (in general) is about balancing a tone that’s appealing to an entire audience (for there are some TMNT fans who prefer the grim and grtittness of the original Mirage studios comics, while there are some TMNT fans who prefer the goofiness of the 1987 TMNT series), thus (follwoing the success of the 2012  TMNT series, I thought that Nickelodeon had manage to find that “perfect balance” with  TMNT franchise…but that wasn’t the case with the 2018 series.

Eventually, once the 2018 TMNT Series premiered, I’ll admit, it was an attempt to put an “interesting spin on the Heroes in a Half-Shell”, making them different Turtle species, giving them mystic weapons, and calling the TMNT “MAD DOGS” (Picture: Bottom Right Corner) and making Hamato Yoshi/Splinter (Picture: Bottom Left Corner) once a martial arts movie star (Stage name: Lou Jitsu), plus he’s more laid-back and lazy (which breaks the tradition of his normal characteristics from his previous incarnations).  

(Click here to watch a clip of the Rise of the TMNT series) 

Since the Ninja Turtles within the 2018 Series were gonna wield mystic weapons, I felt like they missed out on an opportunity of introducing “Bookwurm (Picture: Bottom Left Corner)”, A Mutant Worm librarian from the TMNT Archie comics who would’ve made a perfect ally addition to the 2018 TMNT series, acting like the “Dr. Strange of the TMNT Universe” and the one who grants the Ninja Turtles their mystic weapons and perhaps a long-lost friend of splinter’s (alongside Bob the Mandrill (Picture: Bottom Right Corner), serving as the “Wong of the TMNT Universe”).

The Villains within the 2018 TMNT series were quite an “oddball mess”, to be honest, Baron Draxum (Picture: Bottom Left Corner) sounded like a pretty cool villain (I pictured him as a “Mutant Fawn”), however since the series was getting canceled, they literally rushed his “redemption story”, thus made me less interested in the character (as I prefer him as a villain, one that was worthy enough to rival the Ninja Turtles more so than Shredder). Speaking of Shredder, the 2018 Series version (Picture: Bottom Right Corner) is just a powerful hulking armored demon (Seeing that version of The Shredder didn’t truly impress me and made me already miss the “Badass version from the 2012 TMNT series”), in my opinion, he was a best (animated) version of Shredder, since the 1987 Shredder was completely toned down, the 2003 Shredder was an evil Utrom, but the 2012 Shredder was a tragic (true human) figure, fuelled by rage and revenge with no mercy. 

(Click Below to witness the 2012 Shredder bring down Leatherhead)

As for the rest of the villains, I felt like they belong more to another Nickelodeon series (Welcome to the Wayne) and really didn’t feel that all threatening (except that Demon Shredder and the Krang from the Netflix Movie), I know the creators were trying to make the villains more based on what people would expect (for those who’ve seen Big Trouble in Little China) as well as try to create new villains that’ll fit the spirit of the TMNT World, but the TMNT have so many villains from many different comic runs that I was hoping for the creators to do the same on what they did on the 2012 TMNT series (take existing characters from the TMNT world and a little spin), but that didn’t happen…

                                            (Click here to view some of the TMNT’s villains)

Thus I’ll now list various TMNT-Related that should’ve been introduced into the 2018 TMNT series (or perhaps they were an inspiration for the villains seen within the 2018 TMNT series), “Crainiac (replaces Meat Sweats), Doctor El (replaces Hypno-Potamus), Bloho 

(replaces Warren Stone), Antrax (replaces Repo Mantis), Johnny Yen (replaces Big Mama), Pizza Face (the Playmates Toy version, replaces Albearto), and Tora the Polar Bear (replaces Ghost Bear)”

(here’s the TMNT wiki link to look up more of the TMNT Rogues gallery)

https://turtlepedia.fandom.com/wiki/Nickelodeon?so=search

As for “Mutant allies”, instead of TMNT-favorites like “Leatherhead, Mondo Gecko, Slash, and the entire Mighty Mutanimals line-up”, we got “Todd Capybara” (Picture: Top Center), who’s an amalgam of A Beaver and Journalist Gene Shalit (to be honest, Capybaras are my 2nd favorite animal, the 1st being Zebras), however, I believe a variant version fo Either Pidgeon Pete (Picture: Top Left Corner) or Ace Duck (Picture: Top Right Corner) could be reimagined to resemble “Archibald William Nightingale Duck III (Duck for Short)”, from Cartoon Network’s Almost naked animals Series, to serve as the Ninja Turtles ally within the 2018 Series (instead of Todd Capybara).

(Click here to listen to “Duck the Entertainer”) 

(then tell me if anybody can picture a variant version of either Ace Duck or Pidgeon Pete, looking/acting like that, perhaps serving as a better ally than Todd Capybara)

Also, due to the 2018 TMNT series' goofy tone, I felt like the creators behind the series should’ve introduced a variant version of “Nobody (Officer Longer)” (Picture: Bottom Left Corner), who dons a yellowish-styled costume (similar to the one Marvel’s Daredevil (Picture: Bottom Right Corner) wore very briefly in the comics and will now be donning this look for Disney+’s She-Hulk Series). In my opinion, that would’ve been a great addition to the 2018 TMNT series (especially since (in general) Daredevil was a major influence behind the creation of the Original Mirage Studios TMNT comics), with Nobody (Officer Longer) being more of an homage to DC’s Batman (Speaking of Batman, I wonder if the 2018 TMNT should have a comics crossover with the Batman from that “Batman: The Brave and the Bold Cartoon Series” within a special comic book series). 

An interesting thing I’ve learned is that from the original Mirage comics is that Casey Jones (in the future) had a daughter (Shadow Jones) (Picture: Bottom Left Corner), thus I feel like she was the inspiration for “Cassandra (Casey) Jones” (to be honest, I thought she was gonna be this TMNT series version of Karai), though it was nice that they brought in the “actual Casey Jones” for the 2022 Netflix TMNT movie (and revealing that Cassandra is Casey’s Mom), you know what the movie was missing, a little bit of “what’s up danger music” (cue music): 

Following the arrival of Casey Jones from the future (thus breaking the so-called space-time continuum), I believe the 2018 TMNT series deserves another movie (and of course 1 more season of “Lost Adventures), A sequel to the 2022 Netflix TMNT movie should introduce “Renet Tilley” (with her costume being an amalgam of her current IDW comics style (Picture: Bottom Left Corner), but given her a more reddish look (Picture: Bottom Right Corner), with a running gag being the annoying noises that her clocks make from her costume and headgear. Since they made April O’Neil African-American for the 2018 TMNT Series, perhaps they should have Renet Tilley (within the 2018 TMNT series) be Asian-American and have either Karen Fukuhara or Kimiko Glenn, as the villain (within the 2022 Netflix TMNT movie sequel), it’ll obviously be “Savanti Romero” (but with more a “Jersey Devil-style look”) (Picture: Bottom Center), perhaps either “Tony Todd, Tom Hiddleston Benedict Cumberbatch or Tohoru Masamune” could voice him (what do y’all think, fans of the 2018 TMNT series)?

Plus, I wouldn’t be surprised (after the release of Seth Rogen’s TMNT Movie) and the follow-up villain Mirco-films that’ll follow on Paramount+, big question is how long must we wait for another TMNT series to air on Nickelodeon (as well as a wonder on whoever helms that series, which direction do they plan on taking it, because (I’ll say it one last time), The TMNT franchise must have a “perfect balance” to please both a younger and older audience, and of courses TMNT fans, both new and old (I do hope to share my TMNT ideas in the future to Nickelodeon, in the hopes that’ll be ok in sharing it with a wider audience).

Plus, I wouldn’t be surprised that if in the future, Nickelodeon Movies decides to do a “TMNT Multiverse-styled Movies (Inspired by Sony’s Animated Spider-Verse films)”, if so, it’ll be the perfect opportunity to introduce the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Sea Turtles (Picture: Top Left Corner)”, who exist in an Alternate “Spongebob Universe” (Picture: Top Right Corner), makes me wonder if the late Stephen Hillenburg was a TMNT fan?

 

So until we convince Nickelodeon to do 1 more season of “lost adventures of the 2018 TMNT”, a sequel to the 2022 Netflix TMNT movie (with time-traveling elements), or have both Starlee Hambrath (Picture: Top Right Corner) and Jessica Jaclyn (she was the only “new” human character from the 2018 TMNT character I liked) (Picture: Top Left Corner) officially apart of the TMNT continuity within both TMNT Comics and media, Ethan Stranger signs off… but not without “activating music mode 1st”

#TurtlePower