Grown man confesses to enjoying Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

[madhair60]

hello I like TMNT. always have. always will, probably, unless I grow up some day. I don't know what it is about those green lads that works for me, but it does. The inherent absurdity of it played totally straight (even in comical takes like the most recent animated series) is very appealing and there are lots of loud, vivid characters to enjoy.

Anyway I just want to make sure I'm not alone in enjoying the silly, shlocky adventures of Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, Venus de Milo and Aloysius Hardcocks.

I even liked the Michael Bay produced movies from a few years ago, daft fun. Not a patch on that first live-action film though. Which is a treat.

[Dex Sawash]

The rat one is kind of scary

[frajer]

Yeah it's absolutely ace. I was obsessed as a nipper and had dozens of figures. Never could afford the van, though.

Top roster villains too. I like Shredder, Bebop 'N' Rocksteady and Baxter Stockman but I love the sheer insanity of squishy pink Krang gnashing out commands from a Zardoz android's tummy.



State of that.

[bgmnts]

Yeah its great. Used to have a little donatello toy and everything.

[Chedney Honks]

Man, I just love being a turtle!!!

Edit: RIP PICTURE BOX

What the fuck is it in this subforum for idiot

[madhair60]

Man, I just love being a turtle!!!

Edit: RIP PICTURE BOX

What the fuck is it in this subforum for idiot

because its films you criterion cunt

[Catalogue Trousers]

Comics were good, TV series was shite, films were mediocre

[JaDanketies]

I'm sure OP knows, but the voice of Shredder in the animated series was:

[El Unicornio, mang]

I remember getting this when I was a kid from the local newsagents, basically a UK comic book adaptation of the animated adaptation of the comic. "Hero" turtles and Michelangelo having to fight enemies with his bare hands because nunchakus are bad. I think the cartoon had the same daft censorship. Clearly it worked too, you don't see British kids being injured and killed with them. They copied Raphael instead.



I mentioned it in another thread but a really bad cam bootleg VHS of the first TMNT film was hot property at my school. Would probably enjoy it on a nostalgic level these days.

[Chedney Honks]

because its films you criterion cunt

I'm actually looking forward to the Eureka Masters of Cinema Blu-ray release of the first film.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It's odd. I was just the right age when Turtle mania was at its peak - I watched the cartoon and the film. I had a few of the toys. I bought the comics - and yet, they don't really inspire much nostalgia.

It's not like I'm too mature for it. I've spent far too much time discussing Marvel stuff to claim otherwise.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I'd definitely have a go on this again though, a genuinely good game iirc

[Phil_A]

I remember getting this when I was a kid from the local newsagents, basically a UK comic book adaptation of the animated adaptation of the comic. "Hero" turtles and Michelangelo having to fight enemies with his bare hands because nunchakus are bad. I think the cartoon had the same daft censorship. Clearly it worked too, you don't see British kids being injured and killed with them. They copied Raphael instead.

That comic was pretty bizarre as it was half a reprint of the Archie comics "TMNT Adventures" series and half an original Fleetway version, which would alternate issue by issue. So one issue would be the Fleetway Turtles which was a very straight adaptation of the cartoon with mostly simplistic single episode stories (although with some decent painted art by the likes of Mick Austin and Richard Elson), which would be followed two weeks later by the Archie version with whole load of new characters and complicated ongoing stories and a completely different art style. It was incredibly confusing, not least because the comic was really hard to find in newsagents, so you'd have to try and piece together the story from various disparate issues, which would be mixed up with these completely random side-stories that didn't relate to anything.

I remember once in school some lad brought in the softcover book reprint of some of the original Eastman & Laird comics, and seeing this more disturbing and violent version of the characters felt oddly illicit, like getting a glimpse of a dirty mag or something. I've read those comics since and they seem fairly tame now, certainly nothing worse than you'd get in late eighties 2000AD.

[Chedney Honks]

I'd definitely have a go on this again though, a genuinely good game iirc

Cane and Rinse have just done an episode on the Turtles Arcade game. Will be on their free public feed in a couple of weeks. Great ep.

[jobotic]

I'm sure OP knows, but the voice of Shredder in the animated series was:

Our very own John Pienaar.

I did not know that.

[madhair60]

Comics were good, TV series was shite, films were mediocre

the cartoons from 2003, 2012 and last year were excellent :)

[thecuriousorange]

The NES platform game was great, despite retrospective reviews of it being incredibly negative for some bizarre reason. My favourite was Raphael and, yes, I had the action figure. 28 years...
ago I lost it playing in a field.

[elliszeroed]

I watched the first film a few years ago, thought it was genuinely good. Raphael does a James Cagney impression.

Was Raphael or Leonardo the leader in the films? I remember in the cartoon it was Leonardo. But in the original film it was Raphael, wasn't it?

[bakabaka]

The only issue I read was the Cerebus crossover, which I enjoyed. Though admittedly a lot of the enjoyment was in seeing such a cynical cashgrab of a concept succeed. And even better than that it was succeeding as an independent comic, not part of any megacorporation. TNMT and Cerebus proved that independents could succeed and that creators could keep control of their creations in the comics world. Of course this is all a given now, but at the time it was exciting to watch after having seen so many great writers and artists get chewed up and spat out by the industry[nb]Steve Gerber's Howard the Duck got me into comics and to this day I have to resist saying "Obligatory Comic Book Fight Scene" out loud when watching Marvel movies[/nb].

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

I grew up on the '87 cartoon (also called Hero Turtles in Ireland). Michelangelo was my favorite. I never saw the last three "Red Sky" darker, more serious seasons, either because RTÉ didn't get them or I'd grown out of TMNT by then. Vaguely remember seeing the first film and being a bit thrown by Angry Raphael. I remember The Next Mutation. Didn't watch the 2003 cartoon, a combo of me being in college and not having time, not liking the art style, and the sense that these weren't "my" turtles. I did see the 2007 movie, but more or less I thought of TMNT as a part of my childhood that had been and gone.

Then in 2015 I was on holiday in Kerry with only RTÉ to watch on telly, and I stumbled across NickTMNT. I was intrigued and when I got home I went looking for it on Sky, and fortunately they had a ton of episodes on demand. I love NickTMNT. Best series. I love how it was crafted with sad bastards like me in mind and pays homage to and reimagines stuff from '87 and from the comics. I love the new spins on the characters. I love that April is a genetically engineered mutated half alien teenage girl with psychic powers but they built up to it so well that you accept it. I love the homages to movies and other comics which is what TMNT originally was. I'm sad that it ended but I understand why it ended.

I wanted to like Rise. I thought changing Raph to the leader and Leo to the cocky super-talented one would be a good way to shake up the dynamic. And artist!Mikey! I was excited for that because in NickTMNT he was mostly a Stupid Genius and shared a lot of his other traits with Raph. Unfortunately I couldn't get past the first episode because of the animation style. But it's not made for spinster nerds is it, it's for children.

I saw most of the 2012 movie a couple of years ago and it was pretty much what I expected, a Michael Bay movie with no attempt at a coherent plot.

[popcorn]

I like the first two films. Rewatched them a couple of years ago and was surprised at how watchable they are. They have that strange air of intrigue and mystery that lots of 80s things had. Had great music too.

There is something uniquely appealing about the green lads but I don't know what. That old-fashioned idea of what NYC is like is appealing.

[Poirots BigGarlickyCorpse]

New movie set to come out some time in 2022 perhaps.

Meanwhile an old-skool brawler-style game based on the 1987 TMNT is "coming soon" for PC and Nintendo Switch.

And is anyone else reading TMNT The Last Ronin? I normally don't bother with the comics because there are so many, but I had to get this one because

Spoiler alert

"the last Ronin", the last ninja turtle left alive in a dystopian NYC ruled by Shredder's grandson, is Mikey. My fandom son. I've wanted Dark Mikey for so long.

[close]

#3 being delayed till May is a pain in the arse though.

[Magnum Valentino]

The IDW series is fantastic and collected in order in really lovely numbered hardbacks. The smaller paperbacks that the hardbacks compile are a wee bit harder to figure out the reading order of, so maybe avoid those.

[Bence Fekete]

I mentioned it in another thread but a really bad cam bootleg VHS of the first TMNT film was hot property at my school. Would probably enjoy it on a nostalgic level these days.

First pirate movie I was ever consciously aware of and could probably cite every line to this day. The stretchy, jumpy graininess seemed to add to the rainy, nocturnal Americana charm of it. First album (vinyl), probably the most iconic soundtrack front cover of all time. My best friend's mam had stuffed a folder full of clippings and random movie art he gifted me. Everything about turtlemania felt wholesome.

Went mad for a bit. Obsessed with the animatronics after watching a Jim Henson doc. Built a Donatello costume out of bog-roll and spent the best part of a week trying to convince my gran to play various parts for a turtle film I was writing.

Also, fond and infuriating memories playing the fuck out of this for years in juniors:

[Mister Six]

Never really "got" TNMT for the most part beyond their initial hyper success in the UK, when I watched the cartoon snd coveted the toys, but Leonardo is one of the best Injustice 2 fighters for button-mashing scrubs like me, and the old four-player arcade game was mint (although The Simpsons was better).

[Chedney Honks]

No, it wasn't.

[idunnosomename]

Also, fond and infuriating memories playing the fuck out of this for years in juniors:

fuck me. You know i dont think i ever got far enough to hear splinter speak. I think i got to shredder once but died when he'd only put his foot on screen.

There was the first one where you had to go left to right back and forth through obstacles to get a key to rescue April which I had more success with.

[Huxleys Babkins]

I saw most of the 2012 movie a couple of years ago and it was pretty much what I expected, a Michael Bay movie with no attempt at a coherent plot.

That movie was, famously, in development hell for years, rewritten several times. There was a draft that had the Turtles and Shredder revealed to be aliens. It's very... hmmm;

In August 2012, an early version of the script, dated January 30, titled "The Blue Door" and written by Appelbaum and Nemec, was leaked online. It featured major changes to the origins: the Turtles hail from another dimension that consists of turtle warriors, Splinter is an alien from the same dimension as well, Shredder is "Colonel Schrader", a government agent who is secretly an alien who can grow blades from his body, "The Foot Clan" is just "The Foot", an elite Black Ops unit led by Col. Schrader, Casey Jones is an 18-year-old security guard/amateur ice hockey player that finds the Turtles and is the focus of the film, April is also 18 and is having relationship troubles with Casey because she is moving to New York City due to an internship at CBS, Raphael is the comic relief instead of Michelangelo, and Michelangelo falls in love with a turtle woman from his home planet.

Part of the reason why the movie doesn't make any sense is that the "final" draft that they shot had William Fitchner's character revealed to be the Shredder (Eric Sacks=Oruku Saki), but test audiences apparently didn't like the twist. They went back and reshot key scenes so that Shredder was just some random gun for hire with no connection to any of the main characters and Sacks gets beaten up by April and Vern in a separate scene. These changes were made so late that there's a Nintendo 3DS adaptation that has the original twist left intact.

[idunnosomename]

you can't have them coming from another dimension where they're a species. that's teenage pedigree ninja turtles!

[notjosh]

hello I like TMNT. always have. always will, probably, unless I grow up some day. I don't know what it is about those green lads that works for me, but it does. The inherent absurdity of it played totally straight (even in comical takes like the most recent animated series) is very appealing and there are lots of loud, vivid characters to enjoy.

Sitting here now in my TMNT boxer shorts[nb]Have a look at this picture, and see if you can guess the genuinely hilarious thing I do with them to amuse my wife[/nb] and pyjama bottoms. Feel the same as you. I think I was exposed to the them (via the original cartoon) at such an impressionable age that I feel like they're imprinted on my soul somehow. I don't think anything is more nostalgic to me than the chord change at the end of the first chorus in the 1987 opening credits.

Here is my personal Turtles ranking from best to worst:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 cartoon) (with series 1 at the top of the pile - perfect mix between serious and silly)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990 film) (some of the best animatronics I've ever seen)

The toys and basically any piece of merchandise relating to the original series

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003 cartoon) (better storytelling than the 1987 series but not as charming)

Any of the side-scrolling arcade games

The original B&W Mirage comics run (not familiar with the more recent ones, please give recommendations)

Turtles Forever (2009 TV Movie) (a lovely send-off to the pre-Viacom era, though they really should have brought back the original voice cast)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012 cartoon) (rare to find TV CGI animation that is genuinely nice to look at, and the stories are decent)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (bit silly, but David Warner's in it)

TMNT (2012 film) (liked the Raph & Leo fight but generally a bit of a mess)

Any of the non side-scrolling computer games

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (bit crap)

Mutant Turtles: Superman Legend (you know what's better than FOUR mutant ninja turtles? ONE big generic power ranger thing)

Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (boring, Batman is shit)

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation (a teenage mutant ninja FEMALE turtle? Do me a favour!)

Coming out of their Shells tour and any of the associated albums/Christmas specials ("Deck the Halls with Pepperoni" and so forth)


NOT SEEN
Rise of the TMNT (animation looks weird)
Anything to do with Michael Bay (Michael Bay)