Friday 14 December 2012

A New Generation to fall in Love with some mutants.

'TMNT, Rise of the Turtles' Review.

It's been a little while but a new generation of television viewers have their own iteration of The 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' to enjoy.

No, they're not blind.

With the series having started back in September I've left this review for awhile, mainly due to the fact  that I wanted it to build up over the months so I could watch it in bulk. I'm glad that I did, after the hour special I have to say I am pleasantly surprised. It's decent, the most interesting part of the whole special was the chemistry between the brothers which always has to be paramount in any series that has these fellas in it. Now the oddest part of the series isn't the mutated plant man thing called "Snake", you'd think it is but no the oddest part is the choice of art direction. Now the turtles are no strangers to CGI in fact a lot of people would say it's the only direction they can truly take as live action is always a bit clunky.

However unlike the 2007 'TMNT', this iteration of the turtles takes a much more stylized angle to the team and their world. After watching the first hour long episode I can say that this new style has many pros but almost as many cons.The unfortunate quality of the CGI style comes off as a bit juvenile and the cityscape comes off as an unfinished fresco. The characters themselves are quite nice, being somewhat angular I was not sure how the emotions would come across, but the end product is satisfactory. An unusual touch, that is clearly a nod to the early years of the turtles comics, is that when the turtles go into battle-mode is that their pupils disappear and they come across as ninjas. It's a bold step and I like it. It does nothing for the story but is really just an artistic choice.

Now onto the the story, no spoilers obviously, which was one of the highlights of the episode for me. We got to see the origin of many different aspects of the turtle universe. It was a nice nod to every bit of the turtles we love. One of the other great aspects of this episode was the humour, it was just brilliant, absolutely hilarious. Some of the elements just really gelled together and made the episode great.
The final verdict on this episode will be a respectable 7.5/10
Watchable, because I will watch it again.

P.S Yes, we get a little bit of a teaser of Shredder, voiced by the fantastic Kevin Michael Richardson and its pretty sweet. 

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