I don’t know how long this has been going on, but Fox revived Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I was bored and channel flipping this morning and it caught my attention. I thought it’d be good for a laugh, thinking it wouldn’t be as good as the original that I grew up with and loved every minute of.
I was dead wrong. They’ve made it more like the original comic book, which I’ve never read, but I’ve heard was much better than the cartoon and less aimed at kids. This was a good move; after one episode, I’m wanting to watch more and more. The fighting sequences are fairly well done, and get this: the first time Shredder appeared I was completely in awe. This wasn’t the old purple-caped-pansy comical looking Shredder from the original series. No, he was full 100% badass. Think Darth Vader, only silver, and with lots of blades. That’s a bad guy you can really fear. They also seem to have added a new element-- they make it apparent that the Turtles are not invincible; I remember as a kid thinking “Oh no problem, the Turtles are cool, they can beat up the foot soldiers easily!”; now it’s “Well damn, they’re giving it their best but I don’t know if they’re gonna pull this one out!”
Anyone else caught this brilliant new take on an old franchise?
The Turtles still beat up hordes of highly trained Foot Ninjas a little too easily for my taste, only losing ground against them when it’s important to the story arc. That annoys me a little, but its still better than the 80’s cartoon.
This show is definately much more like the comic. April is Baxter Stockman’s lab assistant when they first meet her and later runs a antique shop just like in the comic, instead of being a TV reporter. Also they made Stockman black like in the comics, but not April, whose the same redheaded white girl she was in the old cartoon. I guess that image of April was a little too well known to be avoided, oh well, I can live with it.
Shredder is definately way more badass than he ever was in the old cartoon, and despite some deviations and a few stinkeroo eps (Junkman anyone?) the show is following the early comics rather closely.
I just wonder if they’ll follow the comics in other ways. I’m particularly interested to see how they develop Casey Jones. There’s one event from the comics I’d particularly like to see happen in the show, but I know it never will. This isn’t a prime-time toon, after all.
I’ve liked what I’ve seen. Although Raf’s voice grates on me. I figure I’ll get used to it eventually, though.
Anyone else notice that one cop that keeps popping up (with the long hair and thin moustache) looks like Kevin Eastman? (I’ve never seen Peter Laird…might his partner look like him?) Or am I imagining the similarity?
Raf’s voice actually struck me as a bit cool…it gives him extra character. Nice to see that they kept Michealangelo’s surfer voice, even though it’s a bit dated.
Fibber: I could have sworn seeing old comic covers that depicted April as a white redhead, and she only developed the more ethnic-looking look later on…
