Rise of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the latest incarnation of Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird's legendary comics heroes for Nickelodeon. The series has already launched in Canada, but got a soft open in the US with a sneak-peek on July 20. The series will begin a regular run on Nick September 17, meaning the plan apparently is to run it daily. The first five episodes are available online.
The animation style is closer to the average cartoon on either Nick or Cartoon Network, meaning it looks a little too busy in places. Among other changes, April O'Neil, the team's most recognizable human ally, has been flipped into a young African-American woman, just because the producers felt it necessary. No sign of Shredder, long the leader of the Foot Clan. Instead, the Foot answer to a new villain, one Baron Draxum (John Cena, Total Bellas). 70's rock icon John Lydon (Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols) will also be heard in the series.
Edit, 7/21/23: The video was deleted. In its place is the intro:
I don't see a lot of these changes as being necessary, especially the artwork. An African-American April is fine, but the design looks somewhat familiar. Can't place where I've seen it before, though.
I've always believed that if it isn't broken, you don't fix it. Nick went ahead and did it anyway, rather than continue the last series, which we'll eventually look at.
The target demo will love it, but older fans? I'm not so sure.
Rating: C.
4 comments:
The producers of Rise have stated that they don't want to use Shredder. On the one hand, I applaud them for daring to try something different, but on the other, I'm not sure how this idea is going to go over with fans.
Based on what I've seen, some of RotTMNT looked OK; I know a lot of fans (particularly older ones) are gonna hate that there seems to be a greater emphasis on comedy this time around, but I prefer jokes to action, so that's not a problem for me, and kids love comedy.
I'm OK with an African-American April (the original April was a Person of Color in the comics, IIRC), but I'm not sure how I feel about all the characters being so loud and excitable. I only saw the sneak peak, so things may be different in subsequent installments, but Leo and Mikey just seemed to be there, they didn't really contribute much in terms of character. There was a passing reference to Mikey being an artist, but I didn't see any of his trademark goofy charm. And I'm definitely not feeling Raphael as team leader; without the position of command and devotion to Bushido, Leo just doesn't have much to do (though I read that by episode 2 Leo is for all intents and purposes still the leader).
Overall, what I saw wasn't bad, though for right now I still prefer Nick's first TMNT show.
I hope the toys sell well.
@Silverstar: Was April African-American in the original books? If so, that would explain the decision to change her for the new show, which, in effect, would bring them closer to the original comics than most previous adaptations.
@Steven: If it wasn't for the obsessive need to tie toy sales to ratings, I think we'd still have the previous Nick Turtles and certain CN programs....
April was drawn as half black in some early issues (she was based on the girlfriend of one of the Turtles' creators) but it wasn't long before she was redrawn into the girl we've known for decades. It's a SJW pandering at its finest.
That said, I thought the series was terrible and dare I say - unwatchable. It's a big step down compared to previous versions.
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