Around the beginning of the year, I started watching the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. Figured I really should really hadn't seen much of the show outside of clips on Youtube and this one time I rented a VHS tape as a kid. Even as a young lad that grew up primarily on the 2003 cartoon, I was pretty well aware of the '80s iteration. I not only rented that VHS tape, but I also played many of the games based on it. My favorite was the Hyperstone Heist on SEGA Genesis.
As I grew up, I learned even more about it thanks to the internet. Both nostalgic online reviewers and TMNT websites taught me a lot about TMNT mania from the '80s and '90s. Not just the cartoon, but the merchandise that went along with it. In particular, I was downright infatuated with the old toys. I'd spend hours admiring the '80s TMNT toyline through pictures. It looked so much more fun than the TMNT toyline I grew up with. I don't collect many vintage toys, but I do have a decent collection of '80s Turtles toys.
So, I have quite the background with this iteration of the Turtles but despite that I never actually sat down to watch it. It never had reruns on TV and DVD releases of it weren't super common when I was a kid. I have finally changed that and as of last month I have seen (most) of the cartoon up to season 3. Now I want to talk about my thoughts on it.
If nothing else, I can wholeheartedly recommend season 1 to anyone who is a fan of TMNT or even people that just like good cartoons. If you can believe it, the animation is actually really good. Honestly some of the best of its era, even if that's not exactly a high bar. Everything is detailed, the action is fluid, and it's all just very pleasant to look at. There are some errors and inconsistencies, but all things considered it is very nice.
I'd say the animation is probably so nice because this season is only five episodes long, so they could spend more time on it and spend less overall money than a season with a fuckton of episodes. So I can recommend it for that too, as it won't eat up much of your time.
Another nice thing about this season is that it acts as one cohesive story overall, almost like an animated movie. Just another thing that makes it unique compared to its peers and even future seasons of this very same cartoon.
Of course, the best thing about the cartoon as a whole are the characters. Most of them are very enjoyable to watch. Now, everybody has a favorite Ninja Turtle and mine is usually Michelangelo. This series is no exception. In fact, this incarnation of Michelangelo is easily one of my favorites. I honestly can't get enough of this dude and his dated surfer lingo. He's just so fun and the weird toppings he gets on his pizza is one of my favorite running gags in the whole show.
That being said, the other Turtles are quite enjoyable too. This show does a solid job of giving each of them a very distinct personality. In particular, Raphael was a surprise fave of mine. Wasn't sure if I'd like how much they softened his edges, but I really do like the sarcastic wise guy angle he's got going on. He is also still the aggressor of the group and the type of Turtle that loves to fight. Granted, this is mostly in the first season, but sometimes the later two seasons will remember this as well.
Don and Leo are excellent as well, even if I've got less to say about them compared to my two faves. I will say it's commendable they made Leo so likable, as I think that can be tough since in some incarnations he can come across as generic.
Splinter and April O'Neil are the show's other main characters and I like them a lot as well. Splinter is still the wise old master you'd expect him to be, but that doesn't mean he isn't fun. This Splinter seems to have a bit of a sarcastic bend, the stuff he says can really take you off-guard sometimes. One almost thinks Raph learned to be a snide wiseass from him.
April is the Turtles' human connection and her job as a news reporter really sets off the plot in most episodes. I'd say she's the closest to the straight man the group has, but her dedication to getting any news scoop she can, even when it really puts her in grave danger, gives her a more dynamic character than she might have had otherwise.
The villains are also great, arguably the highlight of the whole show. Shredder, Krang, Bebop, and Rocksteady all have amazing chemistry. I'd say that they're at their best in the first two seasons, where the show does a better job of balancing their humor to threat ratio.
Particularly ol' Shredhead himself. Shredder in the first two seasons has his funny moments, but he's still a genuine threat and the humor generally comes more from the situations around him rather than his own bumbling incompetence. This is the way I like his character.
Although, I'd say Shredder is always enjoyable no matter the season. Even in the episodes where he's a complete and utter tool that can't do anything right. Honestly, I am just a huge Shredder mark. I almost always love him, no matter the version. This iteration of the character has always been one of my favorites and watching this cartoon has only reinforced that love. He's great.
Krang too is an amazing villain. I'd say that, while later seasons do play up his comedic aspects, he doesn't quite lose his villainous bite as much as Shredder did. His weird manbaby android body is so unusual, yet instantly iconic. The idea of an alien brain you stick into a robotic body's stomach is also very toyetic, especially with how the body can form weapons with its hands. Makes sense considering the property, this character is just BEGGING to have toys made of him.
Bebop and Rocksteady are the two oafish henchmen. I do wish they were a bit more competent and tough, even in the first season I think they were a bit too easy to defeat, but they're still cool as heck. A punk warthog and military rhino mutants are so SO cool just based on concept alone. Helps they're also VERY funny. Another favorite running gag of mine is when Bebop screams, "MAMAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" when he's in trouble. I smile every time I hear that voice clip.
Another villain introduced this season is Baxter Stockman, who is sometimes aligned with the Foot Clan and other times he's against them as much as he is the Turtles. This is one of the kinder incarnations of the character, someone who was only roped into villainy by accident. You honestly feel bad for the guy, he's lowkey a very tragic villain. He's more malicious from the second season onwards, but only because he was locked up in an insane asylum and then turned into a fly-man.
This season also introduces Burne Thompson and Vernon Fenwick, April's boss and coworker respectively. I don't like Burne too much, he's kind of a dimestore J. Jonah Jameson, but I do admittedly have a soft spot for Vernon. I know he's not the most popular character, but I honest to god think he's funny.
Unfortunately, this season also introduces the Neutrinos and frankly I can't fucking stand these annoying little fuckers at all. They look like if the '80s vomited on the Munchkins from Wizard of Oz. Their voices are also insanely grating and their insufferable beatnik slang is nowhere near as endearing as Mikey's surfer lingo. Krang was objectively right to go to war with these awful creatures. I watched the first episode they were in, but any others were instant skips.
Okay, this ended on a bit of a negative note, but l still stand by my statement from earlier. Season 1 of TMNT87 is an easy recommendation, it's great.
Season 2 continues off where the last one ended. One of the things that really shocked me is that it still has an overarching story arc it carries throughout the whole season, which is that Shredder needs to get the Technodrome out of Dimension X. However, Krang has lost faith after Shredder's failure last season and refuses to really help him. This is the last season where Shredder feels somewhat independent, which is nice.
Even with the overarching plot, it's definitely more episodic than season 1. Some episodes don't really tie into the greater story that much, beyond Shredder coming up with an evil plan to prove to Krang he can be trusted. Something really cool about it, though, is that it actually has a smaller four episode arc revolving around the Eye of Sarnath. I really like how these two seasons utilize serialized story telling, something you don't often associate with cartoons of the era outside of special events.
This season also introduced Irma Langenstein, another recurring coworker of April's at Channel 6. She's pretty okay. Sometimes she's funny, other times she can be quite grating. Really varies by episode.
The Punk Frogs show up this season as well and while none of them are very distinct from the other, they're all quite amusing in a country bumpkin kinda way. Shredder created them to be evil counterparts to the Turtles, but they're just so darn nice that it doesn't really work out for him.
As previously stated, this is also the season where Baxter Stockman became a mutant fly and I don't think it's a bold statement to say this is how most people remember this incarnation of the character. It's a cool change-up to his character and only adds further to his tragedy.
The one thing that really took a hit was the animation. It's not bad, for the most part, but it's definitely not as good as the first season. This is to be expected, but it's still a bit unfortunate.
Even if it's not as strong as the first season, I'd still recommend checking out the second season. Especially if you really enjoyed season 1 and want more Turtles!
Season 3 is the MOST iconic season of the series, without a doubt. This is how most people remember the show. It's a much more episodic affair, with only one three episode story arc at the end. The humor is also given a greater focus compared to the action, no doubt due to censorship. I believe this is also why the villains were softened up quite a bit.
If you can believe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, of all cartoons, caused quite an uproar at the time since the moral guardians thought it was exposing kids to violence. As an example, this is the season where Michelangelo slowly started losing his nunchucks because the UK thought they would corrupt the youth and turn them into violent psychopaths.
Not only is this a more gag heavy season, it's also a very highly inconsistent season in terms of animation. Sometimes it's really good and other times it's fucking awful. This can change even in a singular episode. One episode, April Fool, had surprisingly expressive and exaggerated animation that surprised me. The framerate was a bit stiff, but I thought it was really fluid otherwise. Until the ending, where everything COMPLETELY falls apart. They just keep cutting between a couple of still frames and that's it. Guess they ran out of budget.
You can't be too hard on 'em, though, this season has 47 episodes. This meant they had to pump these out in record time. Why did it have so many episodes? So the show could have the amount of episodes required to make syndication. So, between that and the censorship this show was battling a lot of outside factors.
With that in-mind, you really start to appreciate how good it (mostly) turned out. Not only is the animation inconsistent, but the episodes in general are as well. Easily the most hit-or-miss of the seasons I've watched so far. Some episodes are straight up bangers, the absolute best of the series I'd say. Others are actually fucking awful. I skipped about 6 episodes and there's two or three more aside from that I'd also call not very good. Still, this is a 47 episode season so there is a lot more good than bad.
This season also introduces a LOT of new characters, so I think I'll only talk about a few of the notable ones.
My favorite addition simply has to be Casey Jones. I love this guy so much. He is easily the most consistently funny character in the show, I was laughing my ass off at both episodes he appeared in. He's such a goddamn psychopath and even the silliest lines he says are delivered with SUCH serious conviction. I sincerely wish they put him in more episodes than they did.
Leatherhead is another major highlight. A serious departure from most incarnations of the character, he's a ragin' Cajun gator dressed in obnoxiously bright colors that prides himself as something of an apex predator. They really need to bring Cajun Leatherhead back in the next major incarnation of TMNT. He ROCKS.
Rat King is another great addition to the rogues gallery. As he usually is, he's just a based schizo hobo dressed like a mummy. One of the best scenes involving him is in the episode, "Pizza by the Shred." April is delivering a pizza to the Turtles when the Rat King just pops out of the sewer to steal it for no apparent reason. You don't even expect it, this episode doesn't even hint that he'll be in it. There's also an episode where he meets Leatherhead and it's awesome.
Usagi Yojimbo is another character that's always very nice to see crossover with the TMNT, even if they got his name wrong (Usagi Yojimbo is a title, his name is actually Miyamoto Usagi).
While there are some great additions to the cast, others aren't so good. Zach is another character where I just skip any episode he plays a prominent part in. I don't know why cartoons feel the need to add these awful kid appeal characters, they're always annoying. Even when I was a child, I never really liked most of them. I get it's so the young fans can self-insert as them, but no kid wants to pretend to be the little useless sidekick that tags along, they want to be one of the main heroes.
I'd say one of the more unfortunate aspects of this season is that since it was rushed out the door so quick, there are some episodes where voice actors had to be replaced due to being unavailable at the time.
This is a shame since one of the strongest aspects of this cartoon is easily the voice acting. Each character is so perfectly cast. The VAs for the Turtles have such natural chemistry, it can be jarring enough to take you out of the episode when Donatello suddenly has a noticeably different voice.
I'd also like to give a special shout-out to Peter Renaday as Splinter. Many Asian characters in cartoons of this era (or even later on, just listen to how bad some of the accents in the 2003 cartoon are) have accents that feel really inauthentic and stereotypical, but Splinter's sounds very natural.
Of course, James Avery as Shredder is another major highlight. He chews the scenery so perfectly, it made me so sad to watch an episode where he didn't voice Shredder. Although, his replacement for this season honestly isn't that bad. Probably the best temporary voice for a character.
Pat Fraley is another excellent voice actor, not just as Krang but also for Casey Jones. Half of the humor for that character comes from the hilarious Clint Eastwood impression Fraley does for him. Also, he and James Avery have beautiful chemistry together. The dynamic between Shredder and Krang wouldn't work nearly as well with different voices.
I could go on, like I said, most characters are perfectly cast with only a few lackluster ones here or there.
Speaking of audio, another thing worth praising is this show's soundtrack! It's so distinct and synth heavy, I love it. They REALLY need to release this show's soundtrack, assuming the recordings still exist. Maybe one day we'll see it.
Overall, my feelings on season 3 of this cartoon are somewhat mixed, but ultimately very positive. I had a great time with it. Even if I can't recommend that you watch the whole season, there's still plenty of great episodes here worth seeing. Here's a big list of episodes I can wholeheartedly recommend:
Beneath These Streets, Turtles on Trial, The Maltese Hamster, The Old Switcheroo, Enter the Rat King, April Fool, Attack of Big MACC, The Ninja Sword of Nowhere, 20,000 Leaks Under the Sea, Take Me to Your Leader, Four Musketurtles, Cowabunga Shredhead, Return of the Fly, Casey Jones - Outlaw Hero, Corporate Raiders from Dimension X, Pizza by the Shred, Super Bebop & Mighty Rocksteady, Leatherhead: Terror of the Swamp, Usagi Yojimbo, Usagi Come Home, The Making of Metalhead, Leatherhead Meets the Rat King, Shredderville, Bye Bye Fly, The Big Rip-Off, The Big Break-In, and The Big Blow Out.
Season 3 is so long that even cutting it down to these episodes means there's still more content here than there was in the first two seasons combined!
Three seasons is as far as I got before I stopped. This show has TEN SEASONS and a metric assload of episodes, so I had to pause somewhere. Maybe I'll continue watching it another day! We'll have to see on that one.
As for where it stands compared to other TMNT adaptations? This series has definitely become one of my favorites. It knows exactly what it is and that's what I like about it. I just enjoy how it completely embraces the goofy appeal of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with genuine sincerity.
Anyway, I've rambled on long enough. I don't even know if anybody will actually read all of this, but if you did I hope you liked it. Maybe you'll even check this show out now. People sometimes overlook this show as just being glorified toy commercials with little actual substance, but I don't think that's entirely fair. There's a reason this incarnation of the Turtles has been so long lasting in the pop culture consciousness.
If nothing else, you really owe it to yourself to watch that first season if you're a fan of this franchise. I don't want to overhype it, but it is really solid Ninja Turtles content and defining for the franchise as a whole.
All that said, I'm finally done. Thanks for reading!