Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles appreciation thread

[samsonlonghair]

It's a shame. I genuinely dug the 3D animated Ninja Turtles Cartoon that's been airing on Nickelodeon the last few years. It was quality stuff.

This new cartoon... Um... I'm pretty sure that is Adobe Flash animation. It's kinda cringey that they're going so cheap. Even Adobe isn't supporting Flash for very much longer.

On the other hand, maybe a smaller production company with lower budgets will have more freedom. I can see they're making April black. That's kinda cool I guess. I'm hoping that they make her a well-rounded character with depth, not just a generic "sassy black girl" stereotype.

I would like to day that most of these visceral reactions to visual changes is tied highly to nostalgia. We have a preconceived idea of what they should look like and when that does not match up, we react gutterally.

The reality is, the audience who will watch this hasn't seen much if any of TMNT. The art style is not bad, it is just different than what we saw as kids. I would remind you all that the original TMNT cartoon was horribly animated, with tons of visual errors like uncolored bandanas, wrong voice actors speaking for characters and clear cut cormers in animation that makes it look and feel unprofessional. We love the idea of the original cartoon more than the cartoon itself.

This is absolutely true. The late 1980s / early 1990s cartoon was full of animation errors. I still love it for what it is, but I can notice a lot of errors as an adult that I missed when I was a boy.

The Ninja Turtles have cranked out a lot of mediocre-to-poor media over the years. The "Coming Out of their shells" concert VHS tape is so cringe-worthy that I can't even sit through it. The Next Mutation is notoriously bad; Peter Laird went so far as to disavow all knowledge of that show. TMNT (2007) had a surprisingly good script, but the animation wasn't up to par for a theatrical release either.

[isiolia]

This new cartoon... Um... I'm pretty sure that is Adobe Flash animation. It's kinda cringey that they're going so cheap. Even Adobe isn't supporting Flash for very much longer.

On the other hand, maybe a smaller production company with lower budgets will have more freedom. I can see they're making April black. That's kinda cool I guess. I'm hoping that they make her a well-rounded character with depth, not just a generic "sassy black girl" stereotype.

Probably not using Flash, though the tools may end up producing similar end results. Even then, the quick animation and cuts are a style choice. To me, that's more what's not great - the more differentiated designs aren't necessarily a bad thing. It's the constant zipping from one pose to another that doesn't quite work to me...but that could also be the preview stuff. They do look to be doing some pretty dynamic framing, light/shadow, etc, so it might prove to be decent as full episodes.

For Nickelodeon it's actually probably not that extreme I mean, Avatar/Korra were kind of the outliers for that network.

[noiseredux]

But I've appreciated other modern art styles like 2000s show or current comics so I don't think it's that.

[Nemoide]

I love a lot of modern animation but I'm also not wild about those new designs. But I can imagine kids loving it and that's what counts! Something I appreciate about TMNT since the earliest days (ie the original Mirage comic series) is how different creative types have been allowed to do their own take on the characters. Nobody's going to like all of the incarnations, but there's at least one version to appeal to just about anyone.

Has anyone actually tried the new TMNT arcade game yet? My local arcade got a cab and it looks like the Konami beat-em-ups of old but with 3D graphics based on Nickelodeon's character designs. I haven't actually tried it yet since I've mostly been focusing on rhythm games, but it LOOKS pretty good for a modern arcade game.
I might give it a go later this week.

[benderx]

I love the first TMNT cartoon series, first two movies, and earliest games. But wow they can't make a decent cartoon or movie. It's all about the money and exploiting merchandise. The new Nick tmnt looks horrible and changed April. I did hear about TMNT arcade 2018 cabinet looks neat but probably bad developer.

[Xeogred]

I love the first TMNT cartoon series, first two movies, and earliest games. But wow they can't make a decent cartoon or movie. It's all about the money and exploiting merchandise. The new Nick tmnt looks horrible and changed April. I did hear about TMNT arcade 2018 cabinet looks neat but probably bad developer.

The 2007 movie is pretty cool.

[Tanooki]

The last TMNT that ended a year ago was a fantastic mix of the old comic and the 80s/90s cheese cartoon done with style and a few nice design updates but wasn't out of control. That new one looking like some youtube cheap web animation with strange angles, odd colors, and dumb 'attitude' about it I refuse to deal with at all and until I read this thread update forgot the crap existed as I blanked it out (thanks.)

I feel much the way about how insulting what Disney has done with Mickey Mouse cartoons and even more so the horrible bastardization of Duck Tales. Mickey just looks horribly done and a bit too modern in some of the behavior mixed with the old so it's kind of jarring.

Duck Tales though is awful, it was like they saw the old characters and decided they needed to die -- pod people body snatchers happened here. If it were a new show even with the ducks but new ducks I'd be fine, but they ruined a heritage going back for a very long long time. Launchpad is now not a bad pilot but makes Forrest Gump intelligent, Webby the conspiracy theorist instead of cute kid, Beakley now some british commando spy agent muscled out instead of cunning nanny. The triplets are now thuggist, hipster, jerkoffs, slackers each unique with their own rotten attitudes versus the others which were fun trouble making kids but good too. Gyro now the mad scientist wannabe criminal instead of genius on the payroll and the list goes on -- awful.

[dunpeal2064]

Has anyone actually tried the new TMNT arcade game yet?

I walk by this at Round 1 constantly, and always mean to play it, but always end up forgetting to. I did watch a few people play it, though, and it at least looks decent. Can't imagine it being a bad time if you have others playing with you.

[Nemoide]

So I actually played the new TMNT with a couple friends and can report: it's pretty good!
It's obviously not identical to the Konami cabs of yore, but it's definitely extremely similar and the larger screen makes for a fun experience.
BUT there's one problem with the game: it's *way* to expensive. At Round 1 it's set to six credits ($1.50) per play/continue. I managed to get to ALMOST defeat the first boss on one credit (with 2 friends helping) but I feel like if I actually attempted to beat the game, I would go broke in no time. Maybe if I had THREE friends and all of them shared a determination to beat it.

Still, for some casual beat-em-up fun, it's worth playing for a round or two.

[Tanooki]

That's a fairly unreasonable price for a brawler that are made to be quarter chewing beasts. I'd hate to think of the expense behind trying to finish that one let alone get good at it. I'm curious how long it will take this new generation of arcade games to find their ways into private hands.