Since we don't already seem to have a discussion thread for this. http://comicbook.com/tv-shows/2018/02/01/rise-of-the-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-art-revealed/
I am very much not a fan of the visual design of this show. But it took me a little while to warm up to the last one, so I'll definitely try to give it a chance.
Yeah -- the last new episodes aired on Nickelodeon in November, though the actual series finale had already aired two months before on Nicktoons. There were a couple of storylines that only ran on Nicktoons, I'm guessing because they were a little too intense/violent for Nickelodeon. One was a time-travel 4-parter that pitted the Turtles against Dracula, werewolves, Frankenstein's Monster, and a mummy, and the other -- the final 3-parter, aired as a movie -- was a post-apocalyptic story with Raph as a cross between Mad Max and Old Man Logan. Those new designs are... very revisionist. They will take some getting used to. And I've never heard of any of the voice cast. Several things suggest this is going to be a younger-skewing version. The bright, cartoony designs suggest that, as does the young-looking April. Also, Raph's sais have been replaced with tonfa, and both the tonfa and Leo's sword (only one) are glowing, suggesting they're going for a more fanciful energy-weapon approach. Nice to finally get an African-American version of April. The character in the original black-and-white comics was drawn ambiguously, and apparently Kevin Eastman modeled her on his African-American girlfriend/future wife, though Peter Laird thinks she's supposed to be white. Pretty weird that the two creators/collaborators on the comic couldn't agree on that. (Baxter Stockman was unambiguously black in the original comics, but the '80s cartoon whitewashed him as well as introducing the redheaded version of April. Later adaptations have restored Stockman's original ethnicity, but April has been a redhead ever since.)
Ben Schwartz who voices the new Leo is voicing one Scrooge mcducks nephews in the very smartly written ducktales https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP0Neif7Y4E The humor is soooo smart
Sometimes I've thought character designs from an animated show looked bad at first glance, but once I saw them in motion, I came to like them a lot better. Heck, when I first saw the Batman: The Animated Series character designs in a magazine in 1992, I thought they looked ridiculous, but they ended up working amazingly well. And I initially thought the X-Men: Evolution character designs were ugly, but when I saw them in motion, they were beautiful. So I've learned not to trust my first impressions from still photos.
Maybe I’ll grow to like the new Turtle designs but that Splinter? Don’t think so. First of all, he looks evil. And a pig. An evil pig!
Wow that is a very different look. I didn't even realize they were doing a new show, and I even with the new looks I'm still to check it out.
Seriously? Yet another Turtles reboot? First impressions! Visual design? Ugh. Black April O'Neil? Sounds good. Everyone has mystical powers? Meh. There are also personality changes that I'm not in favor of, like making Raph the leader, Leo more like Michaelangelo, and Michaelangelo even MORE Michaelangelo. Donnie seems to be the only one not futzed around with. I don't know what to think beyond it's probably not going to be my cup of tea. I'll likely stick with the original comics, the cartoon, and the original movies. To each their own, though.
That's the only good thing about having so many differing versions, we all have our faves. For me, it's all about the '90 movie, the '07 movie, and the Nick '12 series. All the others, not so much. (Despite loving the '80s cartoon growing up. I was a stupid kid who didn't realize how crappy it was.) That ugly little pug of a Splinter keeps making me think of Egg Shen. No offense to Victor Wong.
True. I both love and hate the cartoon from the 1980s. I hate it for its clearly blatant commercialism, awful writing, and cheesiness, but I also love it because it's fun and hits the nostalgia button for when I was a kid. I will forever love the original movies, though, especially the first one, which is my favorite. The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie nailed it in tone, story, and characterization, as far as I'm concerned. Still, I hope kids watch this new TMNT iteration and have fond memories of it, too.
Ironically, I didn't like it very much the first time I saw it. It was almost the opposite of what I wanted, which was the cartoon. I was the stereotypical kid who wanted Krang and Bebop and Rocksteady and big sci-fi stupidity, and instead I got dark moody character stuff (but with great comedy too, I just didn't get a lot of it back then). I still liked it because it was TMNT, but I was very disappointed. Little did I know how much I would love it years later.
I understand. When I was a kid, I loved the first film, but the second film was more like what was expected when compared to the cartoon. It was much more cartoony and silly. While I adore David Warner's role in that film, and did get a kick out of the opening scene in the mini mall (also, that opening made me crave pizza for a week), the first film hits all the right spots for me.
Oh, I didn't even read the linked article. All the Turtles except Donatello have different weapons -- odachi instead of katana for Leo, tonfa instead of sai for Raph, Kusari-fundo instead of nunchaku for Mikey. Don still has a staff, but "high-tech." I guess after three prior animated series (plus the movies and the Saban live-action series), they wanted to mix things up. Interesting idea to model them on four different species of turtle. That suggests that they're not biological siblings in this continuity (something that I think was true of the Saban series too). And Splinter is Eric Bauza, so that's one familiar voice; he was Tiger Claw and Hun in the 2012 series. Good that they're going for an Asian actor in the role again; he's only the third, after Mako in the '07 film and Hoon Lee in the '12 show. The original cartoon had kind of a progressive downward slope in quality. The very first episode of the original 5-part miniseries was actually pretty good. The rest of the miniseries was somewhat good. The next batch of episodes added to flesh it out to a full Saturday-morning season were less good; the next, longer season made for weekday syndication was less good; and so on, getting dumber each year. I think the last season got darker and more serious, but I'd tuned out by then. I think the 2003 series is pretty good. I gather that the majority of it is strikingly faithful to the comics, directly adapting many of their storylines, and it has some impressive stuff in it. The more kid-oriented final two seasons were less good, though.
I've watched way more cartoons than an adult should be able to justify and it's kind of surprising how much creativity is given to these shows at least in the last decade or two. You would think if there'd be anywhere that cookie-cutter shows and designs would be prevalent it would be in "kiddie shows" but it seems that many creators really want to put their own stamp on their product and the networks have obliged. Mind you, many times I'm not crazy about the results but I appreciate the attempt and sometimes we get really interesting shows. You have Steven Universe exploring gender fluidity and same sex partnerships or Adventure Time exploring memory, family and identity and even puberty amongst stories about talking candy.