Not really, but I also don't think it actually did anything negative either.
The show was just naturally running out of popularity even in the silly seasons right before Red Skies.
You guys are basically right, the show had been running for about 8 years by the time they tried doing this in an effort to compete with newer superhero/action cartoons like Batman and X-Men. It was too little, too late to get the attention of the younger generation who were watching those newer cartoons, and they were more likely to prefer shows that were always like that than an older cartoon suddenly trying to jump on the bandwagon, while it was too much of a change for any of the audience who'd been following TMNT since it's earlier years.
It was a no win scenario though, if they'd just ended the show and rebooted with a new version of TMNT to fit the times, it would have been relaunching too soon to distance itself from the original cartoon and what it's fandom wanted, but it had been running so long, and Turtlemania had been over for a few years, that it couldn't really have kept going much longer anyway. The best thing to do would really have been to just keep going with it as it was and build to an ending that involved the show's main villains who'd been there from the start, instead of some new OC villain from out of nowhere.
Jim Lee's ninja turtles
I do wish they'd released the whole team in this style, along with the main villains and supporting characters.
Not really, but I also don't think it actually did anything negative either.
The show was just naturally running out of popularity even in the silly seasons right before Red Skies.
No, the fad was done. Power Rangers had stolen their thunder because they gave us ninja fights AND Voltrons vs Godzillas. TMNT couldn't compete. Once they change the theme song, dead franchise (until the reboot, of which there have been plenty.)
It might've worked, but folks forget Red Sky was full-on boring rather than bad. Tony Jay is a VA god, but even he couldn't make Dregg compelling. Carter was a nothing.
The Turtles stopped being characters (they barely change expression), cast kept shrinking and half the VAs moving on (James Avery had Fresh Prince, Rob Paulsen quit over pay or such) didn't help either.
It just feels like David Wise got a BTAS writer episode and felt embarrassed that he had squandered the show he basically had to himself for years. But he was still a bit of a hack so the best he could do was like c-tier X-men TAS and 90's action cartoon plots
Well, no. Not because they tried a new direction, if anything that was somewhat refreshing, but because they just kind of kept the same shitty production values. I'm not sure why a bunch of seasons that were eight episodes each looked as sloppy and seemed as poorly written as when they were literally doing 30-50 episodes per season? Maybe they simply sliced the budget of the seasons by cutting the number of episodes while keeping the budget for individual episodes the same, but why do they still come across like they didn't spend more time on them? If you go from 47 to 8, then you'd have like six times the amount of time to make each episode.
Regardless, it's also a little confusing as why they still felt the needed to make up original villains and stories at that point. It made some sense to just ignore the comics and make up bullshit back when said comics didn't have that many issues and their only goal was to make a pointlessly large amount of episodes to promote a toyline, it was basically just a scam to get syndication and toy sales. But at that point they were trying to save the show itself and they attempted to do so in the most shallow way possible without ever considering the fact that they had plenty of canon material to work from.
Wasn't this also the point where the Archie comics purged almost everybody that wasn't the Turtles, April, Splinter, and Shredder? Seems like every form of TMNT media was in a mad panic to bail itself out by any means necessary.
I find the Archie comics a far better representation of my youth's obsession to TMNT. I loved the cartoon, loved them to death, nostalgic for it, but I remember hoping that someday the cartoons would in the later seasons would add character from the Archie run.
Wasn't this also the point where the Archie comics purged almost everybody that wasn't the Turtles, April, Splinter, and Shredder? Seems like every form of TMNT media was in a mad panic to bail itself out by any means necessary.
The weird thing is... the toyline still had a bunch of new concepts and designs. The secondary mutations and Dregg and other new concepts never got toys.
That was morethe early 90's, by 94-96 at the end they shifted to doing more action/fantasy oriented sublines..with the weirdest backstories. > And so it came to pass that the world's balance of power had shifted because of the displacement of the secret Mutant treasure - the Metallizied Kowabunga Coins. Warrior Bebop and Warrior Rocksteady scattered the coins, knowing they would create a pro-foot flux - and that's just what happened. Now, Warrior Winged Leonardo, along with Warrior Winged Donatello, fight for all that is wrong! Allied with the Foot, our Warrior Winged Turtles turn their fighting skill against Warrior Metalhead Michaelangelo, who is the lone voice of truth. Don't even ask what happened to Raphael. Let's just say pizza will not be part of the picture for awhile until all the Metallized Kowabunga Coins are re-united and balance can be restored. Unfortunately, the Warrior Winged Turtles still have the fighting finesse of true Ninja Turtles. Wielding their weapons of ultimate Turtle terror, and protected with their Metallized battle plates, these Turtle terrors power-pound dents into Warrior Metalhead Michaelangelo with their mighty sewer spiked clobber clubs. it's a metallic battle face-off finale when Warrior Winged Turtles challenge Warrior Metalhead Michaelangelo, bad boy battle weapons in hand and victory just a swingin' slice away!
You know think about it 2003 and 2012 were solid reboots and Turtles seemingly always came, died, and came back strong. Its just New Mutation and Rise are the stinkers of the franchise
Jim Lee's ninja turtles
I think the internet ruined hyperbole more than it was already set to be overused, but this literally looks like shit.
Your shit literally looks green and silver? What have you been eating?
>Eric Larsen gets the rights
>Jim Lee designs the action figures
>McFarlane doesn't manufacture them
Wasn't Todd supposed to be THE business man?
No. It was too little too late.
You guys are basically right, the show had been running for about 8 years by the time they tried doing this in an effort to compete with newer superhero/action cartoons like Batman and X-Men. It was too little, too late to get the attention of the younger generation who were watching those newer cartoons, and they were more likely to prefer shows that were always like that than an older cartoon suddenly trying to jump on the bandwagon, while it was too much of a change for any of the audience who'd been following TMNT since it's earlier years.
It was a no win scenario though, if they'd just ended the show and rebooted with a new version of TMNT to fit the times, it would have been relaunching too soon to distance itself from the original cartoon and what it's fandom wanted, but it had been running so long, and Turtlemania had been over for a few years, that it couldn't really have kept going much longer anyway. The best thing to do would really have been to just keep going with it as it was and build to an ending that involved the show's main villains who'd been there from the start, instead of some new OC villain from out of nowhere.
I do wish they'd released the whole team in this style, along with the main villains and supporting characters.
nah but setting it in the future did.
Not really, but I also don't think it actually did anything negative either.
The show was just naturally running out of popularity even in the silly seasons right before Red Skies.
It was already long in the tooth by that point. Just dozens of formulaic shlock episodes produced for 5 days-a-week syndication.
It was just too late it needed a break
It was just done.
No, the fad was done. Power Rangers had stolen their thunder because they gave us ninja fights AND Voltrons vs Godzillas. TMNT couldn't compete. Once they change the theme song, dead franchise (until the reboot, of which there have been plenty.)
Yeah it's time was just up but I personally love these seasons! apart from S1 for me they're the best
It might've worked, but folks forget Red Sky was full-on boring rather than bad. Tony Jay is a VA god, but even he couldn't make Dregg compelling. Carter was a nothing.
The Turtles stopped being characters (they barely change expression), cast kept shrinking and half the VAs moving on (James Avery had Fresh Prince, Rob Paulsen quit over pay or such) didn't help either.
It just feels like David Wise got a BTAS writer episode and felt embarrassed that he had squandered the show he basically had to himself for years. But he was still a bit of a hack so the best he could do was like c-tier X-men TAS and 90's action cartoon plots
Well, no. Not because they tried a new direction, if anything that was somewhat refreshing, but because they just kind of kept the same shitty production values. I'm not sure why a bunch of seasons that were eight episodes each looked as sloppy and seemed as poorly written as when they were literally doing 30-50 episodes per season? Maybe they simply sliced the budget of the seasons by cutting the number of episodes while keeping the budget for individual episodes the same, but why do they still come across like they didn't spend more time on them? If you go from 47 to 8, then you'd have like six times the amount of time to make each episode.
Regardless, it's also a little confusing as why they still felt the needed to make up original villains and stories at that point. It made some sense to just ignore the comics and make up bullshit back when said comics didn't have that many issues and their only goal was to make a pointlessly large amount of episodes to promote a toyline, it was basically just a scam to get syndication and toy sales. But at that point they were trying to save the show itself and they attempted to do so in the most shallow way possible without ever considering the fact that they had plenty of canon material to work from.
Wasn't this also the point where the Archie comics purged almost everybody that wasn't the Turtles, April, Splinter, and Shredder? Seems like every form of TMNT media was in a mad panic to bail itself out by any means necessary.
I find the Archie comics a far better representation of my youth's obsession to TMNT. I loved the cartoon, loved them to death, nostalgic for it, but I remember hoping that someday the cartoons would in the later seasons would add character from the Archie run.
>character
would characters* from the archie run
The weird thing is... the toyline still had a bunch of new concepts and designs. The secondary mutations and Dregg and other new concepts never got toys.
Snapping Turtles scare kids, anon
You mean how the toys were just the four Turtles being put into every ridiculous outfit Playmates could shit out?
That was morethe early 90's, by 94-96 at the end they shifted to doing more action/fantasy oriented sublines..with the weirdest backstories.
> And so it came to pass that the world's balance of power had shifted because of the displacement of the secret Mutant treasure - the Metallizied Kowabunga Coins. Warrior Bebop and Warrior Rocksteady scattered the coins, knowing they would create a pro-foot flux - and that's just what happened. Now, Warrior Winged Leonardo, along with Warrior Winged Donatello, fight for all that is wrong! Allied with the Foot, our Warrior Winged Turtles turn their fighting skill against Warrior Metalhead Michaelangelo, who is the lone voice of truth. Don't even ask what happened to Raphael. Let's just say pizza will not be part of the picture for awhile until all the Metallized Kowabunga Coins are re-united and balance can be restored. Unfortunately, the Warrior Winged Turtles still have the fighting finesse of true Ninja Turtles. Wielding their weapons of ultimate Turtle terror, and protected with their Metallized battle plates, these Turtle terrors power-pound dents into Warrior Metalhead Michaelangelo with their mighty sewer spiked clobber clubs. it's a metallic battle face-off finale when Warrior Winged Turtles challenge Warrior Metalhead Michaelangelo, bad boy battle weapons in hand and victory just a swingin' slice away!
See, now THAT would've made an interesting animated series.
No, but what people do no, constant reboots are a good way to go. Turtles are versatile.
Probably not, because most people seem to pretend like those seasons didn't exist.
I had no idea they did until recently.
You know think about it 2003 and 2012 were solid reboots and Turtles seemingly always came, died, and came back strong. Its just New Mutation and Rise are the stinkers of the franchise