Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: My Look at the Cartoon Series

I love Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT), and with the new(ish) series that came out in 2012, I wanted to do a blog post about my favorite turtles!!

TMNT 1987. Source: unboreddiva.com

If you think about it, the story of TMNT is actually pretty insane. Four baby turtles and one rat get mutated by a glowing ooze, and then the rat raises them as his sons and trains them in the way of ninjutsu. They live in abandoned ruins in the sewers of New York and fight against their powerful and dangerous foe, the Shredder, a man who has a talent for ninjutsu and a vicious nature.

 Sounds crazy, right? When I was trying to explain the story to one of my friends, her incredulous look told me just how insane the story really is. It's amazing that this franchise got the fan base that it has.

I first got into TMNT when I was twelve/thirteenish and came across the 2003 cartoon series that aired on Saturday mornings. I was a little familiar with them since my older brothers had tons of action figures, but I didn't really know all that much about them. I got hooked on that show immediately and loved it. For a long time, I thought that was all there was to TMNT. Well, I knew there was a previous series but I didn't know much about it.

TMNT 2003. Source: comicvine.com

As I got more into TMNT, I learned there are several different universes and mediums of the Ninja Turtles franchise. There are the original comic series developed by Eastman and Laird that started the whole thing, three different cartoon series, at least four movies, several types of video games, and countless action figures and toys.

I want to focus particularly on the three different cartoon series. First of all, there's the series that came out in 1987. This is the most iconic series of the Ninja Turtles and it's probably the series that helped TMNT gain its widespread popularity. However, this cartoon was vastly different from the original comic series, being that it was much lighter and less violent than the comics, as the producers wanted something more appropriate for kids.

Then in 2003, another TMNT series came out, which was overseen by Eastman and Laird, the original comic creators. As a result, 2003 TMNT followed the comics a little more closely in plot and style.

Finally, we have a new series that came out on Nickelodeon in 2012. The 2012 series has captured my interest, mainly that it is better than I initially thought it would be and that it is proving to be an interesting meld between the 1987 series and the 2003 series.

TMNT 2012. Source: tmnt2012series.wikia.com

What I want to do now is take all three cartoon series and compare/contrast them according to five different categories: tone, plot, music, fighting sequences/animation, and character development.

But before I do this, I have a few disclaimers: First, I am a bit biased towards the 2003 series since that's the series that really got me into TMNT and it's the series I grew up with. Second, I'm not quite as familiar with the 1987 series so my analysis will be a bit less thorough.  Third, my analysis of the 2012 TMNT won't be as extensive as I would like since this show has only one and a half seasons so far, but I will thoroughly analyze what is currently available. And finally, I will not include the last two seasons of both the 1987 series and the 2003 series in my analysis, mainly because I feel those seasons were so different in tone and in style from the rest of the show that they don't really fit. So I decided to simplify my analysis and not include them.

Since this will be a bigger project, I'll be splitting it up into multiple posts. I'll start with my analysis of tone, and the next post will cover more.

Tone

The tones of the three series are all vastly different, mainly due to the audience that they were designed for. I think as the demographic for the TMNT franchise grew, the tone had to shift to accommodate the different fans.


TMNT 1987 

Source: always-in-control.deviantart.com

This series has a very light campy tone, meant specifically for younger kids. The humor and the scenarios are light and fun, and the show focuses mostly on the wise cracking turtles and the strange situations that they're caught in. It's clearly meant for kids, and it caters to that with slapstick humor, cheesy lines, and silly scenarios. While some of the scenarios could be potentially serious, it is lightened with the humorous turtles with their wise-cracking jokes and light-hearted.

This campy tone is also very common among other 1980s cartoons. As a result, it can seem pretty corny and ridiculous but that was the style back then. It is also geared toward a specific age group, mainly eight to nine year-old boys.



TMNT 2003 

Source: nymonsters.wordpress.com

This series is significantly darker than its predecessor, and more in line with the original comics. While it's still light enough to be mostly appropriate for kids, it has a lot of darker moments and more violent scenes. This show was leaning more towards an age group of preteens, which was my age when I discovered the show. It's far more serious with its characters, plot, and overall tone.

The tone also helps to develop a more serious plot, which is definitely different from the previous series. This show will have lighter moments, mainly with the humorous interaction between the turtle brothers. Unfortunately it can take itself a little too seriously, which falls flat sometimes and can be overly dramatic and a little cheesy. 

TMNT 2012 

Source: fanpop.com

This series is an interesting mixture of light and dark tones. On one hand, the humor tends to lean more towards the lighter side, similar to the 80s series, but many of the scenarios can be darker. There are also many more fighting scenes and dangerous situations that the turtles find themselves in. It also shows the turtles with actual injuries such as bruises and cuts.

It seems to me that the show works to create a balance between light and dark, alternating between serious and funny. For example, in the episode "The Gauntlet" the tone shifts dramatically halfway through the episode from the light humorous situation of dealing with a mutated pigeon to the very serious battle between the turtles and the Shredder, a battle in which they barely escape alive. This tone shift will happen often in episodes, but I feel that it's done well and doesn't feel like whiplash. Mainly the humorous dialogue balances the potentially serious scenarios, so that you still get some cool and intense action, but you still have the fun interaction of the turtles. This show manages to do what the 2003 series sometimes didn't get quite right: balancing light humor with darker scenarios.


Well that's all for this post. I'll be back tomorrow with more of my favorite turtles! Until later, folks!