While I like the TMNT, I can't say that I'm an overall fan. I only watched fully the 1987 version, the live action movies (the old ones, not the Bay ones) Turtles Forever and the 2002 CGI, so if there is some background info that led to changes, I'd like to know them.
Rise of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles diverges from its predecessors by taking wild turns and twists of the previous character dynamics. For example, in this show, the turtles are younger, more inexperienced, April is also younger and overall jobless, their personalities are more or less changed, alongside the group dynamics: Raphael is the leader and Splinter is a deadbeat neglectful father.
In this specific case, it works marvelously. The overall dynamics between the turtle were getting so overly stale. Here, nearly all changes shook the mold and brought something fresh to the table without breaking too hard from the originals and offering something nice to see... except with three specific characters, but that's something for later. Most of the villains are fairly new too, and each one has their specific charm. Baron Draxum is a fighter/wizard/scientist, which is an interesting contrast to the Shredder of old.
Overall, the characterization and shift in personalities is the greatest attractive, and the investment in brotherly relationships: The turtles not only have dynamics with the whole groups, but individual dynamics as well. Raph and Donnie synergizes well because they are often seeking solutions to problems common sense be damned, Leo often teases Raph but is sometimes competitive with Michelangelo and so on. They often tease and mess with each other, but instead of being le olde 'jerks with heart of gold', it feels more of a brotherly bond. They truly love each other as siblings and, the best part, aren't afraid to say so. It's weirdly surprising and refreshing to hear them casually saying how they love each other. The banter between the turtles and the villains, or even the villains themselves is also a delight at times, and I caught myself laughing out loud often.
The animation team really did their homework. In average scenes, you'll see some choppy bits, weird angles, and poking fun of stills in order to save the juice up for the battle scenes. The styles are overall mixed with overly comical 'animesque' stuff mixed with the leftovers of ugly shots here and there, but during fighting scenes, it really shines.
For the bad part, the storytelling suffers quite a bit. Mind you, the story per se isn't bad. But it's sadly evident that this show was a patchwork made by producers who couldn't agree on what it should be. The first season is mostly episodic in nature, then the last quarter suddenly shifts to character arcs without adding more time to the episodes making everything rushed. And in a true Nickelodeon way, the second season was cut in half, making everything feel even MORE rushed and cramped with a ton of unanswered questions.
Continuity is also a serious problem: In some episodes the turtles are scared of being seen by humans, in others they just hang around in public spaces with flimsy disguises. In some they will be coherent, in others will behave wildly different for the sake of a cheap joke or lame plot. Some characters will behave as if they never met, even fight without a single word, only for another episode to reveal deep connections between them.
Now, out of the character retoolings, the ones I didn't like were Donnie, April and Splint- WAIT WAIT DON'T PICK THE PITCHFORKS! I read the original black and white comics and I don't mind April's physical changes at all! But I would be lying if this trio didn't feel like an attempt to break from their mold without careful consideration, resulting in some problems. Let me explain (as much as I can with the character limitations):
Basically, April in this series has a mild case of what I call the "Webby Syndrome" (From Ducktales 2017): It feels as if the writers were afraid of having her to be 'the damnsel in distress', or 'fun is over' girl that they made her just as manic and loud as the turtles, and also included her in the combat. And they didn't know how to balance that with the rest of the cast. How so? In action series, often you need a 'civilian' level-headed character to be the voice of reason and contrast to the fighters. In the old series, that was April, and here... no one. (I don't count Splinter as 'level-headed' either) So, since she is as manic as the turtles, when she tries to talk some sense to them, she ends up looking bossy. Continuity problems also screwed her over, since the turtles can casually go around New York as they please, she lost her role as guide and 'bridge to the human world' (she still had some episodes with that, but it was quickly forgotten). Just because your character doesn't fight, doesn't mean they're weak, and the writers seemingly forgot that, because they also don't know how to handle April's prowess: In the span of the same episode, she admits she doesn't know how to fight, hides from goons... and joins the fight against a foe that is whooping the floor against the turtles. I asked myself "Weren't you running away from mooks literally five minutes ago?". I don't hate her, at most I feel sad that there was a ton of potential wasted due to mismanagement. For example with her constant shifting jobs she would be a superb 'know a guy' character, but this facet of hers only shows up ONCE, and after that whenever the turtles need something beyond their reach, they go to another character like Todd as a cheap gag.
The rumors about this version of splinter were true: He is this serie's scrappy. The writers wanted to do something clashing with the 'old wise father', and chose a rat ball based on Danny Devito who casually refers to his sons by the colors of their bandanas. While there is one episode where 'callous neglectful father' joke was actually good, it was grating so fast and overstayed its welcome so soon that I didn't mind when the character did a 180° and became a loving father... except that his personal continuity also suffered a lot. In some episodes, he was still a force to be reckoned with, in others he could barely get out of the chair. Sometimes he was competent at teaching the turtles, other times, the 'neglectful incompetent' joke came back with force. There was a personal story of glory and regrets, duty and parental abandonment, but it was so rushed, only a shred of it remained.
Lastly, Donnatello, probably because they wanted to avoid romantic interest in April (I heard it was a romantic plot tumor in the 2012 version) and overall his usual shyness of a tech-whiz, made him... an annoying arrogant pr$#k. While it doesn't reach the point of being insufferable, his self-absorbed and jerk attitude ends up grating, and sadly he doesn't learn from the lesson of the week. Sure, he confesses why he behaves like that and changes for the better... three episodes before the series end. So I ended up understanding WHY he behaved like that, but there wasn't enough time for him to proper develop and be forgiven.
In the end I overall enjoyed the series, warts and all, but I know it won't be for everyone's tastes. There was a sadly unfulfilled enormous potential that burned bright with shiny new ideas and dynamics, but only for one season and half.
WesternAnimation A candle that burns twice as bright, but twice as fast.
While I like the TMNT, I can't say that I'm an overall fan. I only watched fully the 1987 version, the live action movies (the old ones, not the Bay ones) Turtles Forever and the 2002 CGI, so if there is some background info that led to changes, I'd like to know them.
Rise of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles diverges from its predecessors by taking wild turns and twists of the previous character dynamics. For example, in this show, the turtles are younger, more inexperienced, April is also younger and overall jobless, their personalities are more or less changed, alongside the group dynamics: Raphael is the leader and Splinter is a deadbeat neglectful father.
In this specific case, it works marvelously. The overall dynamics between the turtle were getting so overly stale. Here, nearly all changes shook the mold and brought something fresh to the table without breaking too hard from the originals and offering something nice to see... except with three specific characters, but that's something for later. Most of the villains are fairly new too, and each one has their specific charm. Baron Draxum is a fighter/wizard/scientist, which is an interesting contrast to the Shredder of old.
Overall, the characterization and shift in personalities is the greatest attractive, and the investment in brotherly relationships: The turtles not only have dynamics with the whole groups, but individual dynamics as well. Raph and Donnie synergizes well because they are often seeking solutions to problems common sense be damned, Leo often teases Raph but is sometimes competitive with Michelangelo and so on. They often tease and mess with each other, but instead of being le olde 'jerks with heart of gold', it feels more of a brotherly bond. They truly love each other as siblings and, the best part, aren't afraid to say so. It's weirdly surprising and refreshing to hear them casually saying how they love each other. The banter between the turtles and the villains, or even the villains themselves is also a delight at times, and I caught myself laughing out loud often.
The animation team really did their homework. In average scenes, you'll see some choppy bits, weird angles, and poking fun of stills in order to save the juice up for the battle scenes. The styles are overall mixed with overly comical 'animesque' stuff mixed with the leftovers of ugly shots here and there, but during fighting scenes, it really shines.
For the bad part, the storytelling suffers quite a bit. Mind you, the story per se isn't bad. But it's sadly evident that this show was a patchwork made by producers who couldn't agree on what it should be. The first season is mostly episodic in nature, then the last quarter suddenly shifts to character arcs without adding more time to the episodes making everything rushed. And in a true Nickelodeon way, the second season was cut in half, making everything feel even MORE rushed and cramped with a ton of unanswered questions.
Continuity is also a serious problem: In some episodes the turtles are scared of being seen by humans, in others they just hang around in public spaces with flimsy disguises. In some they will be coherent, in others will behave wildly different for the sake of a cheap joke or lame plot. Some characters will behave as if they never met, even fight without a single word, only for another episode to reveal deep connections between them.
Now, out of the character retoolings, the ones I didn't like were Donnie, April and Splint- WAIT WAIT DON'T PICK THE PITCHFORKS! I read the original black and white comics and I don't mind April's physical changes at all! But I would be lying if this trio didn't feel like an attempt to break from their mold without careful consideration, resulting in some problems. Let me explain (as much as I can with the character limitations):
Basically, April in this series has a mild case of what I call the "Webby Syndrome" (From Ducktales 2017): It feels as if the writers were afraid of having her to be 'the damnsel in distress', or 'fun is over' girl that they made her just as manic and loud as the turtles, and also included her in the combat. And they didn't know how to balance that with the rest of the cast. How so? In action series, often you need a 'civilian' level-headed character to be the voice of reason and contrast to the fighters. In the old series, that was April, and here... no one. (I don't count Splinter as 'level-headed' either) So, since she is as manic as the turtles, when she tries to talk some sense to them, she ends up looking bossy. Continuity problems also screwed her over, since the turtles can casually go around New York as they please, she lost her role as guide and 'bridge to the human world' (she still had some episodes with that, but it was quickly forgotten). Just because your character doesn't fight, doesn't mean they're weak, and the writers seemingly forgot that, because they also don't know how to handle April's prowess: In the span of the same episode, she admits she doesn't know how to fight, hides from goons... and joins the fight against a foe that is whooping the floor against the turtles. I asked myself "Weren't you running away from mooks literally five minutes ago?". I don't hate her, at most I feel sad that there was a ton of potential wasted due to mismanagement. For example with her constant shifting jobs she would be a superb 'know a guy' character, but this facet of hers only shows up ONCE, and after that whenever the turtles need something beyond their reach, they go to another character like Todd as a cheap gag.
The rumors about this version of splinter were true: He is this serie's scrappy. The writers wanted to do something clashing with the 'old wise father', and chose a rat ball based on Danny Devito who casually refers to his sons by the colors of their bandanas. While there is one episode where 'callous neglectful father' joke was actually good, it was grating so fast and overstayed its welcome so soon that I didn't mind when the character did a 180° and became a loving father... except that his personal continuity also suffered a lot. In some episodes, he was still a force to be reckoned with, in others he could barely get out of the chair. Sometimes he was competent at teaching the turtles, other times, the 'neglectful incompetent' joke came back with force. There was a personal story of glory and regrets, duty and parental abandonment, but it was so rushed, only a shred of it remained.
Lastly, Donnatello, probably because they wanted to avoid romantic interest in April (I heard it was a romantic plot tumor in the 2012 version) and overall his usual shyness of a tech-whiz, made him... an annoying arrogant pr$#k. While it doesn't reach the point of being insufferable, his self-absorbed and jerk attitude ends up grating, and sadly he doesn't learn from the lesson of the week. Sure, he confesses why he behaves like that and changes for the better... three episodes before the series end. So I ended up understanding WHY he behaved like that, but there wasn't enough time for him to proper develop and be forgiven.
In the end I overall enjoyed the series, warts and all, but I know it won't be for everyone's tastes. There was a sadly unfulfilled enormous potential that burned bright with shiny new ideas and dynamics, but only for one season and half.