I started watching TMNT 2012 - 2017. Prior to this one I haven't watched any TMNT since the early 90's with the classic Turtles show. And holy SHIT this one is HELLA DOPE!!! so much action and comedy. I love every second of it. What does Cinemaphile think?
It's a mixed bag for me. Season 1 was just okay, all other seasons wildly fluctuate in quality.
Drags on for too long, humor is corny and characters get annoying.
Woke shit. Worse than Rise.
Are you serious?
I'm pretty sure Rise was the woke one
It wasn't exactly subtle.
Sad that things have jumped so far off the tracks that we've now got people looking at 2012 and declaring it "woke."
funny
I'd have expected things to go the opposite
people becoming so used to obvious wokeness to "help" a brand that they miss actual woke stuff like TOS's "black people exist" Uhura
Whatever point you're trying to make, you're trying too hard.
One of if if not the best TMNT series out there. Pays respect to both new and old ideas in fantastic ways. And as time goes on the turtles start to explore time and space because there basically traveling with the Doctor. So a good choice in this instance.
its good
2003 is better. Just better.
Loved the art style and the voice actors
Just wished they hadn't let Donatello be so cringe towards April for so much of the series...
Really enjoyed it until the space arc, then it became kinda meh. The fact that their competence varied wildly within episodes was a bit irritating. Everyone was losing until they suddenly weren't.
Good designs and characters though, I like that they gave them different body types. The way they'd randomly drop in absolute horror shit was both funny and weird.
It is a good show and good version of the TMNT.
It has some flaws of course. Especially when it comes to the constant maintaining to the status quo for awhile. And Michelangelo can be annoyingly dumb at times.
But it overall has some good characterizations (especially for Leo and Splinter). And good action and humor.
The monster designs didn't vibe with me. Even though 2003 had shittier action it had better character designs.
I liked it but I enjoyed Rise of tmnt more. The horror inspirations did give it a style of its own though.
I'm Mixed
This had the absolute worst incarnations of Donatello, Michaelangelo, and April
But also had the Best incarnations of Leonardo, Splinter, and Raphael
Ah frick you, this was the best April and Donnie. Worst versions of them were Rise.
April was way too bland to the point where her wishywashiness over Casey and Don seemed insulting when it was really just her being polite. Donnie was embarrassing.
She ends up dead and he loses his dick.
>April was bland
...Compared to the other Aprils? Are you being serious right now? Rise and 2003 barely qualified as characters. 2012 April told the turtles to get fricked when they accidentally mutated her father. If that had happened in 2003, she would have limply gone "that's unfortunate guys but I instantly forgive you because I'm incapable of anything else."
03 April being bland doesn't make 2012 April any less so. That incident is her only major freak out and even then she ends up hanging with them. The 03 team had the decency to realize they didn't want to do much with April so when they had no real idea they'd just not put her in the episode or toss her with Casey. The 2012 staff wanted to use her, but then never really finish her storylines so her being tertiary is much more apparent.
It's her only MAJOR freak out, and it takes several eps and them saving her life AND her hearing "sometimes bad shit just happens by accident" in an unrelated heart to heart from Casey for her to accept them back. She has a few less-major tiffs with them, and when there's important adventure stuff going on she doesn't take "stay behind April" without a good explanation for why she should (and even then there's a chance she'll go along after them anyway, because she's her own person, not an npc they can just give orders to). Saying the 03 people "had the decency to realize they didn't want to do much with April" is being too kind to them. They gave us an April that reacted to news of the turtles "dying" like she might react to news that they got a flat tire. She was there because April was grandfathered in, but they didn't seem to want to use her at all, and when she DID show up she had the depth of a thimble. Hell, her long-lost uncle was a character with more depth.
April and Donnie sucked ass. April was a literal Mary Sue and Donnie's whole character revolved around his stupid crush on her. April went from teen girl, to being part mutant, to being part Kraang, to being a psychic, to being a ninja in training, etc. The writers had zero clue on what to do with either of them, yet was desperate to keep them relevant somehow.
>Mary Sue
I don't think we've ever come up with a more disastrous term when it comes to having any sort of discussion about entertainment media. "She was a Mary Sue" is where discussions go to die.
>this was the best April and Donnie. Worst versions of them were Rise.
How can you be THIS wrong, the love triangle ruined 2012 April and Donnie. It was so bad Rise made them platonic best friends out of spite and it worked out great.
>Behold, what working out great looks like
Goodbye Bizarro.
Hello Bizarro.
And all that attention to teen April's BUTT ...
When you factor in that they couldn't do straightforward adaptations of the Mirage stuff (since 2003 already did it), it's incredibly strong. They did a better job of creating new non-Mirage stories than any of the other TMNT cartoons.
The show promises a lot, but later underdelivers, goes in circles, doesn't solve or ignores dozens of started plotlines, fails to expand on many characters/themes and ends a total mess.
I'd argue it wraps up the majority of the plots. There's a handful that Ciro was supposedly handing on to for the purpose of the movie he wanted to make (resolving the love triangle and the mystery of April's mom being the obvious ones). Aside from that, what's really left? I know there's some people really hardcore bitter that Pulverizer's story just dragged to a close, but I could do without another story with him. He was a dumbfrick that kept sticking his nose into things when he was repeatedly told that he would get himself hurt, and then he got himself hurt. There's your arc. An ep with Donnie curing him would have been nice, but eh.
It feels a tad too heavy on the 80s show, but it was generally good.
My one big problem with it was that the longer it went on the less willing they were to do straightforward adaptations of things from other TMNt media.
"Here's a character named Mona Lisa, except she's not actually named Mona Lisa and also she's an alien."
"Here's Alopex, only she looks more like Ninjara, and is written like neither of them."
"Here's Wingnut. He's actually April's dad turned into a barely-sentient monster for a few episodes."
It's a shame because a lot of the early adaptations like Leatherhead were fairly in keeping with the source material. Baxter felt like a bit of a miss, but 2003 had adapted him perfectly so I guess they felt obligated to do their own thing.
Every TMNT show, 03 included, has this problem and it gets tiring for those of us who just want a proper 80's show update.
But the 80s show took more liberties with the source material than any other version.
And its the most popular one. The other shows have tried so hard to subvert things expected from it it gets cringy.
The first time that "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" got exposed to the wider public was the most popular, sure.
Where I scoff is the implication that it was most popular not because it was FIRST but rather because of things that didn't show up in later versions.
Tmnt 2012 raph>Rise Raph
Tmnt 2012 donnie<Rise Donnie
Tmnt 2012 mikey>Rise Mikey
Tmnt 2012 Leo<Rise Leo
Dogshit > Anything Rise
Rise is weird for me One hand one of the pros of Rise is that it actually did something different unique but on the other hand rise being different also led alot of fans to Hate it severely based on principle.That said rise wasn't perfect but I respect what it was trying to do
Born in 1979. I've liked at least some aspect of each TMNT incarnation (except the Bayverse and Next Mutation because they were just so shallow, performative, and crassly money-fishing). I think 2012 is my favorite of all the shows. It definitely did some things wrong and got too drawn out, but even still I thought it was a near perfect blending of the more cartoony OG cartoon and the more serious versions like 2003. I know some of the emotional stuff was over-the-top, but I'd found 2003 to be stilted, and the original cartoon was almost entirely cartoony. 2012 was in the Goldilocks "just right" spot.
Hottest April. Pretty sure this show turned me into a pedophile.
My man!
Definitely has the worst version of April
The lamest April of them all, and yes black April is way cooler
>black April cooler than anything
Boy she's so cool. I especially like the way she was barely in the show, showing up in way less than half the eps, and often just being a cameo when she did show up.
The voice change for Leo was jarring as frick and they had no fricking idea what to do with April pretty much after season 2.
That said there was some real effort put into this stuff, the mushroom episode from early on has some great fricking shots. Compete filler but damn did it look good.
>They had no fricking idea what to do with April pretty much after season 2
wut? They pretty much made her a fifth member of the team. She was in more eps than not. It wasn't always well done (the Dark Phoenix stuff was dogshit), but that wasn't a lack of knowing what to do with her.
Now RISE April, there's a character they never figured out a role for. She's just there. Sometimes. For some reason.
>They pretty much made her a fifth member of the team.
On and off, but they kept changing up her story and couldn't decide what she was to the team going on. It was the most random "Maybe she's X?" over and over again every season, never got more egregious than the space season where she didn't seem to do anything except be part of a love triangle. By the last season she was just there. She was in plenty of eps, but her story and progression just seemed to stop start and restart every season or so.
I never saw Rise so I'll take your word for it that she was useless.
I mean, "just being there, fighting the bad guys, maybe with a bit of a story but not much of a lasting one" goes for the turtles too, surely? Once you got past the interpersonal relationships like Leo-Karai hashing it out?
They all had something they continually worked at throughout the seasons though, they always had something they were trying to do for themselves outside of the main story. Hell Raph had a whole subplot dedicated to him in the same space season just about not feeling useless and Donatello had more of a subplot about wanting April than April did wanting... literally anything.
Like, compare the subplots in season 2 when they're on the farm, all the Turtles go on this big spiritual journey that keeps going even after they go back to the city, but April's thing kind of just stops when she learns about her mom and that's that. Then they just don't do anything with that when she literally goes to space, what was up with that? Fugitoid pretty much took over her exposition role and when they went back to earth she really didn't have much to do, the turtles at least got to deal with Shredder.
I mean, I didn't care for the whole "April ODs on psychic crystal power" plot, but I feel like it's just as much a plot as whatever Raph had going on at the time. Hell, she had more dedicated plot points than poor Mikey, even in the later seasons. I don't HATE 2012 Mikey as much as some people do, but the writers definitely weren't tripping over one another trying to give him storylines.
Yes
I think I liked it very much and wish the showrunner had gotten the stupid movie he was saving final plot points for.