Most well animated episodes
 

In the 1987, 2003 and 2012 series, which episodes had animation that was well done and fluent? Some are almost movie quality. Which stuck out in your mind?

"I, Monster" (2003) comes to mind.

1987 series: All season one episodes, Turtles on Trial

I remember the 1st season being all good particularly the 2nd, 4th and 5th episodes. Turtles on Trial also had good animation? Were there others? Those are the ones that stick out in my mind.

I think there were some others like The Big Zip Attack and Get Shredder. I haven't watched most of the series in years, though, so it's hard to remember which episodes had the best animation.

Also, I think it's worth noting that all episodes of the Nick series pretty much look the same in terms of how well animated they are. Due to it being rendered in CGI, there is no need to constantly make new frames as the computer will handle the frames, so the animation is about as fluid in all episodes.

So the only way the Nick cartoon is really improving in it's animation, is in how many things can be put on screen.

1987: Season 1, Shredderville, the Maltese Hamster (my favorite episode), The Big Cufflink Caper!, Leonardo Versus Tempestra

2003: Shredder Strikes Back (I haven't seen all of this show)

2012: season 2 finale (I thought the animation in it was the best of the series so far), Of Rats and Men, Eyes of the Chimera (those flying scenes)

Of the 1987 episodes all the Red Sky(last 24) were well done. I know there was the scripting error of Krang's body being on Earth when they were stranded but that is not necessarily an animator mistake. So the first five and last 24. In between? Not many I suspect. Even the title card was messed up for a number of the first 65 episodes having Leo with an orange mask.

Good animation and OT do not go in the same sentence :lol:
Imo. In the first or second episode Donatello jumps over April to stop here and all you hear is Raph's voice :lol:

Hearing different voices happens a lot in the OT alright. Planet of the Turtloids, My Brother, the Bad Guy and Rock around the Block had good animation I think.

Well that's due to inadequate editing, not inadequate animation. I believe the OT had very good animation is some episodes where it was almost movie like quality. Some not so much but then that often applies to just about every animated series.

All of Season 6 and 7 has great animation.

I agree. There were some season 3 episodes that had great animation such as Ninja Sword of Nowhere, Green with Jealousy and Casey Jones: Outlaw Hero.

There are a couple of beautifully animated episodes in season 3 - Turtles on Trial and The Attack of the 50 ft Irma. Seasons 6 and 8 arealso pretty well animated.

Season 2 has good animation.

My favorite piece of animation from the OT is Krang's introduction in episode two. He looks really slimy and gooey, with his body stretching and morphing and being very detailed.

The title sequence has the best animation, the anatomy and fluidity is perfect there.

I wish we had a Disney-tier animated film. Man, to see the boys in that level of quality, the fluidity of motion, the physics of it all, if only...
Much of the OT is very stiff. It doesn't hinder my ability to enjoy it, but it's noticeable, & unfortunate. The first season is wayyyyy ahead of the rest, but even that is lacking at times.

That'd be nice to see. That'd be nice to see any animated show have that quality of animation. I've always wanted to see my favorite animated shows have Disney/DonBluth quality of animation. TMNT, Gargoyles, X-Men, Spider-Man, Mighty Max, Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers, Darkwing Duck, the list goes on. Imagine the fight scenes, too, having that kind of quality.

I read that when DuckTales The Movie was released they had plans to do a Chip N Dale Rescue Rangers movie but DuckTales did bad at the cinema so plans were scrapped.