Sunday, December 21, 2003

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Yet another of my child hood programs has a refit for the modern day. This one really isn’t that much of a surprise considering how much of a success it was the first time. By my reckoning it’s also the youngest. The Tutles I watched lasted into the 90s, so this new series isn’t a major overhaul like He-Man has been. The stories have a similar feel with the humour much better than it was before where it relied on the stupidity of the villains.

The first difference you notice if you’re from the UK is it’s actually called Teenage Mutant NINJA Turtles instead of Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles because of some stupid law there was back then making Ninjas and Michelangelo’s nun-chucks illegal. Next is the art style, which is very very nice. Also the characterisation of the Turtles themselves is much better, to me Raphael was a slightly less cooler Michelangelo before, now they seem to have gone with the movie (and quite probably the comic that started it all) version of Raph. All the better for it, in the old cartoon Raph always felt that the character wasn’t adding much now he does. Finally the theme tune, and it’s another bad one, the 80’s tune was much better and that’s saying something. As for Shredder, well my viewing to meet him but judging from the adverts it’s another good improvement. The Foot are proper ninjas now instead of robots that fall apart all the time. No Bebop and Rock Steady, ok I loved them as kids, but really what were they except comedy relief?

So in closing another good update from my childhood. Now if someone will get round to bringing back MASK! Just don’t go doing a Transformers Armada!

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