NICK 2012 Improvements?

[PizzaPower1985]

What, IF ANY, kind of modifications, improvements or changes would you have made to this show IF you had been in charge from Day 1?

IF you were producer and had free reign, what would your 2012 TMNT have been?

[Luckyday]

Don't make it CGI.

•A lot of style that were put in the concept art doesn't come across in some characters.

•Characters can't ****ing emote when they really needed to for serious scenes. Talent voice actors can only do so much.

•Limited environments and ones we have are so bland to look at. Season 4 was the saving grace but everything else not so much.

•Empty environment. Where all people at? Also you would have think that there would be use more light and shadow physics because they are freaking ninjas that have to stick to the shadows but nope.

•It didn't make production go any faster, because we had so many goddamn hiatuses, so what was the point? Cheaper? Maybe in the short term but those hiatuses must have hurt it in the long run.

[The Turtle Terminator]

1. Either get rid of the mutants or give them a decent ending/more than one episode. This isn't the 1980's. Logically, the more they actually appear, the more kids would actually buy the toys.

2. Try and decide what tone the season is actually going for. Is it taking a more Mirage inspired tone (second half of most of the seasons) or a more 80-s kid friendly, toy selling version.

3. Better home media releases. Still waiting to see a good release of season 3-5

4. Get rid of the Nickelodeon scheduling. The constant breaks make it impossible for people to actually know when things are broadcast, thus losing viewership

[neatoman]

In order of importance:

1. Make sure the plot outline covers enough beats. There's clearly a lot of things that happen because the writers wanted them to happen, though didn't necessarily make sense in how it was presented. Karai turning into Snake and the consequences of that were barely relevant when the Turtles got back to earth, adding up to little more than pointless snake powers. There are other similar examples as well. Everything that happens should matter, ust let this point stand for all the other things that just happen simply because.
   
2. There didn't need to be crazy amount of mutants introduced all the time. They distract from the main story and characters and offfer little of substance. If they're going to show up, make sure they can be used in the main story.
   
3. The Shellraiser, Party Wagon and all the other wacky vehicles are antithetical to the concept, get rid of them.
   
4. The lack of sets tends to be rather easy to notice. If there's going to be countless scenes of an alleyway, at least add some details so it looks like a different alley.
   
5. The humor could rely less on screaming and yelling. I didn't find most of it funny because I recognised most of the jokes were barely jokes in the first place, just characters raising their voices.
   
6. The April/Donatello thing... Really cringeworthy.
   
7. Making it so that your intended finale is a distant epilogue where nothing the characters did in the series really mattered in the end... Probably not a good idea.
   
8. The true nature of the Kraang as brainwashed Utroms should have been foreshadowed. When Bishop shows up to reveal the truth (which is slighty contradicted later on) the concept is basically introduced out of nowhere, the closest we have is that the Kraang are implied to have a hive mind but that's it.
   
9. Baxter Stockman did not need to turn into a fly. Please stop turning Baxter into a fly. It is really stupid. The cyborg angle works better because it ties into his background as a robotics expert. Besides, the fly thing only amounts to "Buzzing and puking".
   
10. There's little point in mutating Xever and Bradford, Shreddder probably should have henchmen, though making them mutants isn't necessary and arguably cripples their potential.
    
11. Tiger Claw could either be removed or at least written better. His attitude changes for no appearent reason and is barely connected to anything on a personal level, yet is given a crazy amount of screen time.
    
12. The show not have remade Turtles Forever twice. Even once was a bit cringeworthy, I don't care what anyone says, those episodes were awful. **** you if you thoght the concept was the least bit welcome, and **** you even harder if you thought they were well written.
    
13. Bebop and Rocksteady should not have been characters in the show. There were already characters filling their shoes and they have so little in common with any other versions of the characters, they might as well be new characters entirely.
    
14. It's not a good idea to shift around the episode order of the final season.

[sdp]

1)Maximum of one horror episode per season
2)Don't mutate dogpound/fishface so quickly
3)be careful with villain decay
4)don't kill splinter twice, the second time it had no meaning anymore
5)don't bring back characters if they weren't going to be the characters like Hun

[Shark_Blade]

1) Character development. Irma was a waste of a good model (she’s just a robot??). Raph learned to control his anger in early first season episode only to loose it again easily.

2) Mikey needs to be chill like in Rise instead of being loud and cracking unfunny jokes all the time.

3) Make the characters romantic relationships go somewhere. All this on and off relationship status of Apritello, Leorai, etc. No baiting if you want people to be properly invested in them.

4) More horror episodes / more than 1 season

5) The annoying Pulveriser should never existed. But I’m glad they turned him into a brain jello mutant and deep freeze him for all eternity.

5) No disjointed continuity in the story. Some episodes seems to disregard what happened in the last ones - a clear indication different people wrote it. They should have same level of understanding and synergy to tell a proper coherent story

6) Better hairstyle for April. That ancient Olive Oyl hairdo needs to go.

[The Turtle Terminator]

Originally Posted by Shark_Blade

The annoying Pulveriser should never existed. But I’m glad they turned him into a brain jello mutant and deep freeze him for all eternity.

Did they ever fix the Pulversier back from Mutagen Man?

[Shark_Blade]

I think they forgot about him forever lmao.

[IMJ]

Originally Posted by Shark_Blade

I think they forgot about him forever lmao.

Last time he was on screen he waaasssss..... what? I think just mounted basically permanently in Donatello's work shop right?

[Shark_Blade]

And then didn't the sewer get abandoned or burnt down? And they left it?

Lol I need to re-watch this series again

[Zog The Magnificent]

No, it's even better. The writers remembered him... by showing his still frozen tank at the bottom of a resevoir in the future apocalypse episodes. They knew he was there and still did nothing. They had retromutagen! Would it have been that hard to devote one episode to that plot thread? Just get rid of the Bigfoot episode.

[Shark_Blade]

They remembered but still did nothing lol.

[Luckyday]

I know he was annoying but damn I always thought that was cold.



There so many things that I love conceptual within this show but the execution makes me so mad. There this huge disconnect from the writers in not knowing how bad things look in reality. If these were presented as jokes then I wouldn't care but it just makes no sense when they had presented them in a serious tone.

Just WHY?

[Torterra]

my list would be:

1. Make Casey more than just a comedic relief punching bag

2. Do more with the Mutanimals

3. Karai being with the turtles and Splinter longer before getting mutated

4. Have each season focus on one big villain instead going back and fourth between villains

5. Make Mondo Gecko a better fighter

6. Purple dragons be a actual threat

[IMJ]

The Nicktoons show was great entertainment for me at the right window of time in life. It actually made me laugh out loud once in a while, which was surprising. Some of my favorite episodes though are still the FW crossovers.

I'd love to re-watch this show, but I think it's worth a reference quality Blu Ray or 4k release - however the show was originally rendered. I don't own any of those DVD's.

[Zog The Magnificent]

The 2012 show is my favorite of all the cartoons, and one of my favorite incarnations of the franchise in general. That being said:

1. Casey Jones was used too often for comedy relief. Often he would be used to specifically reel back a dark moment, such as the end of season 3. This ruins several moments in the third and fourth season.

2. Having two pairs of mutant henchman was somewhat redundant.

3. Timothy was mutated, they said they needed to cure him, they invented a way to cure him, and then they just never did.

3. After making a big deal about Karai's deteriorating physical and mental state post-mutation, this portion of the plot is ultimately resolved offscreen most of the way through season 3, by Baxter literally saying "good thing I turned you human again." This should have been a bigger moment, having an episode devoted to it.

4.The Bigfoot episode is bad.

5. Donatello's crush on April, while a plot element that I appreciated and thought was well done initially, eventually started getting creepy. Since having her reject him would send the message that weirdos never win, while having him succeed would be a little creepy, the only ways to properly resolve this plotline would be to have him experience character development, realizing that it wasn't real and was just a crush, and have him grow out of it. While they did start this development, they immediately walked it back and it just sort of fumbled around in limbo.

6. While I love this show, even I recognize that Mikey just mixing a bunch of chemicals together to create super-retromutagen was a completely contrived case of bad writing that obviously resululted from the writers writing themselves into a corner.

7. Several characters were wasted. Alopex appeared once, Hun was in name only, Tatsu died immediately, and the utroms were never really follwed up on following the destruction of Kraang Prime.

8. Shinigami is a complete nothingburger of a character who adds nothing to the show. Every single one of her appearances has her being taken out of the fight immediately and then not appearing for the rest of the episode.

9. The thin white line on Shredder's neck in "Owari" should have been kept, though I understand why it was removed and the meaning and reference were still clear.

10. The Fugitoid should have stayed dead. He had a perfect arc up to that point that was capped off with a heroic sacrifice, which was not only undercut by revealing that he was alive, but they never did anything with it after the fact, which makes it even worse.

11. Furthermore, the way they resolved the time duplicates was sloppy and very rushed. At least it didn't really come to mind afterward.

12. Muckman made no sense, both in terms of his powers and the overall context of the show with the turtles as freaks but him regarded as a hero. And how does telekinetic control of garbage even work? Are you saying that If I was holding an apple he couldn't move it, but that as soon as I drop it it's affected by his powers?

13. The 5th season had a lot of problems. "End Times" was a perfect finale for the show as a whole, but then there's 16 episodes left. Furthermore, this should not have been the first arc. There should have been some time in between Splinter and Shredder's deaths before revisiting the characters. Finally, both of the finale arcs do not work as endings. The apocalypse episodes render everything pointless. While great as an elseworlds, they're terrible as an ending. Since this was confirmed, that leaves the Wanted: Bebop and Rocksteady trilogy as the ending, which it clearly was not written as. Characters disappear between episodes, and it's mostly focused on side characters rather than the turtles themselves. It honestly would have been best if the entire opening four parter was released as a finale movie.

14. This isn't the show itself, but the freaking hiatuses were really annoying. And then they also released the season 4 finale in South Korea ahead of time, who then immediately spoiled it. I try to look up when the episode is coming out and I'm immediately treated to screen shots of Splinter's death.

This really is one of my favorite shows. Believe me when I say that I say all this out of love and critical analysis.

[GoldMutant]

Bear in mind, the last time I watched anything involving the Nick show was when season 5 first began. So, the Kavaxas arc, Lone Rat and Cubs, and the crossover are all I saw in full. Usagi I saw the first episode, then ignored the rest, along Worlds Collide, Dracula, and the "finale."

That, and I haven't watched the series in a while. But, I got some of my creative juice flowing again. In spoilers (size purpose) are my thoughts. Anything I bolden is one of my big points.

That said....

Spoiler:

1. Cut the romance-There were four, maybe five romances total: Leo and Karai, Mikey and Renet/Shinigami, Don and April, Raph and Mona. In the past, I gone over despising the Mona and Raph crap. Yes, it made the four look like teenagers. Cool; however, there's more to relationships than either being puppy-eyed, or continuous kissing.

It reminds me too much of bad romance films. Literally, the only relationship I fully enjoyed for a while was Leo and Karai. It was playful, got serious, it had everything I looked for at the time. Mona and Raph is not how I'd do a relationship.

Keep the crushes for one of them, if you want. But, if you're not going to do something or write the character/relationship poorly, cut it.

2. Tying up loose ends?- This one is infamous for two particulars: Timothy, later Mutagen Man, and Mrs. O'Neil. I know Tim isn't a popular character from the series (and apparently resolved in the Carmaggeddeon arc), and we can debate if he was meant for a larger role. Same with the mystery/origin of April's family.

Then again, to sell toys and such, we got a plethora of mutants. If I recall, the mutagen spill from season 2 was never finished. Same with many one-off mutants. Or random stuff, like the mind control.

Basically, perhaps telling more stories with what they had besides the obvious two? I would've liked to see more with the original creations, like they did initially with Bradford and Xever, as well as Tiger Claw.

3. Develop the Turtles more- This was... inconsistent, I feel. If the Turtles lack flaws, you got them nearly fully trained and boring. At the same time, it's a notable issue outside the comics. In other words: Leo being just a leader, Raph being angry, Mikey silly, and Donnie smart.

With the aforementioned crushes, they did that to varying degrees. That, and the Turtles each had individual aspects: Leo being a TV geek, Raph having Spike, later Slash, Mikey's tenderness, and Donnie being more sarcastic/impulsive. That's all good. What I am referring to, however, are the Turtles develop in one episode/individual moments, but are exaggerated elsewhere.

I've used him before as my explanations, but let's use Mikey here. I'm waiting for when Mikey can finally showcase his artistic side from the comics. Same with the hidden fighting potential indicated in the 2k3 series.

In this series, Mikey gets quite a bit of these moments. The aforementioned tenderness with Leatherhead and Raph come to mind. Same with Dimension X. Then you get episodes like The Croaking, or moments like Battle for New York. In other words, exaggerating Mikey's "goofiness" for a laugh. Fine, younger audiences will laugh, but it'll get annoying.

I maintain since my leave that The Croaking is the series' worst episode personally. At the least, it's a bottom 10 contender. I hate how after Mikey had a ton of badass/loving moments in the second half of season 2,this happens. Paraphrasing myself from before, but "He makes a big mess, runs away, and gets off scot-free later."

The problem(s) I get from Mikey can apply to any Turtle, in any incarnation. But, if the Turtles are growing from teens to adult, I'd like to see elements from the Mirage comic personalities incorporated. Or at the least, show that they're learning. Spectacular Spider-Man is a good example of how it can work for a hero's growth against villains. Hell, I'd think that version of Spider-Man would do wonders for Mikey or any Turtle.

4. Switch up the finales- This'll be controversial, as season 4 and 5 switch it up. However, this bothers me much more now of the first three seasons: the repetitive invasions.

Showdown, Invasion, and Annihilation: Earth are still among the strongest episodes of their respective seasons. However, switch up some elements (main baddie, who's helping, and outcome), and they feel the same. Showdown is a victory, Invasion is a loss, and Annihilation is a tragedy. Yet, Showdown matches up with the build to it. While Invasion and Annihilation are fantastic, they don't feel as focused.

It's a personal thing, but I wish we gotten Triceratons earlier in season 3, or a more Foot inspired finale for 2. Just weakens the stakes of the finales if they're the same.

5. Use your original characters more, not "rebooted" favorites- This goes hand-in-hand with my loose ends point. There were a lot of awesome new characters, or burning with potential. Bradford, Steranko, Tiger Claw, Xever, and Newtrailizer, to name a few. Tiger Claw got used a lot regardless, but my issue involves Bradford and Steranko.

One of the things I've seen with Next Mutation at least are the use of new villains. It's unpopular for various reasons, yes, but a noble aspect. Here, it seemed a lot of these new characters would soon become rebooted variants of past favorites. Again, action figures, or mutation as a resolution.

I do not hate all of them. Slash is amazing here. As are Rat King, Metalhead, and Rahzar (design-wise). But, for ones like Bebop and Rocksteady and Dregg? If it's not design probs like Armaggon, it's the unneeded change like for Steranko/Anton Zeck becoming the pig and rhino duo. Or, horrible writing for Dregg.

I'd rather see more done with the newer characters. We'll see the obvious characters like Leatherhead, Karai, and so forth, but show us your own characters. Tell stories with them and let em shine; don't just mutate/change them to make them interesting.

There are many more things that come to mind. Like how I'd do an episode or arc. Or, use a certain character more/less. That's not my point though.

Basically, the series gets better, or worse, depending on viewpoint. Primarily in writing; having now written a screenplay, I can attest it's rushed product. Especially because Nick can vary in scheduling. We seen it with other variants.

However, if you can develop the Turtles more and use the original creations more, the series likely can do more. The hodge-podge style helps introducing many to the franchise; many ideas exist well here. However, I feel there's more at hand that could've been done.

If I had further thoughts, I'll add more.

[Leo656]

I could probably write a book. I really did not like this show. I did try, several times, but it 100% was not for me. There's a few things I didn't hate, but very little that I'd keep.

A few big things I'd absolutely change:

- No teenage April (or Casey). Dumb. The only net result was that the internet "fan art" is 1000x more creepy than ever before. Way to subliminally promote Ephebophilia, Nickelodeon.

- No April/Donnie "romance" subplot. Full disclosure, I honestly don't care if April or Irma or ANYone wants to f*ck a mutant Turtle. But it's dumb to even introduce such a plot into a KIDS SHOW where it'll never be resolved or followed up on. If you can't address a plot element properly, then don't even bring it up. This got SO much play that it ruined the entire show for me.

- No "magic powers" for April. Dumb. She's a "normal" person and that's it. This show (like MOST newer TMNT media) was far too April-centric. She's a guest in the Turtles' story, NOT the center of their universe.

- Don't make Casey so stupid.

- Don't make MIKEY so stupid. I swear to God he gets dumber with every new version, it's horrible.

- Too many "In Name Only" versions of preexisting characters from other TMNT media. Be consistent or make up a brand new character.

- Worst Karai EVER.

- Too many horror movie spoof episodes.

- Not a fan of CGI in general. Many of the art problems this show had (like the perpetually empty "city" streets) could have been easily avoided if they weren't beholden to being "hip and modern" and using CGI. Just ONCE I'd like to see a TMNT cartoon where NYC LOOKS like NYC, and not just a deserted island with skyscrapers. Also not a fan of the anime-esque "hyper-exaggerated stuff to illustrate 'humor'" that they leaned on so much.

- F*ck those annoying-ass Kraang aliens and their stupid speech patterns. That sh*t got old in literally seconds.

- Too much FW masturbation. Especially the multiple cross-over episodes. Once was more than enough.

- Too many mutants, and most of them were SO DUMB. Stop it. I get it... "Toys, toys, toys, toys, TOYS TOYS TOYS." I still don't like it. As many others have said many times, ideally the TMNT themselves should be the strangest thing in their respective "universe". When you literally have sh*t like "Ice Cream Kitty" or cars turning into mutants and sh*t like that, it's just dumb. I WANT to say "retarded" because that's the most appropriate descriptor, but someone's gonna get upset if I do that. BUT that's what it is, so sue me.
------------------

I could probably come up with more, but to be honest, after the first Season I barely watched the show. Every so often I'd catch a couple random repeats on TV, and it always just made me remember why I didn't watch it. I bought the first few DVDs and never even watched them. I really, truly did not like most of what they did, and the things I didn't like only became more prevalent as time went on.

The "best" thing I can say about it, is that it's a lot better than "Rise". Talk about damning with faint praise. But if they both hadn't existed at all you wouldn't find me complaining. They're both bottom-tier, for me, as far as TMNT cartoons. The Nicktoon just happens to be kinda flashy and pretty, but that's it. It's just as "bad" as FW supposedly is, just from altogether different directions.

[IMJ]

Basically every single episode could have benefited from a moment where Leatherhead stretches Donatellos face out with that sort of nose, stroking motion.

That was always f'n hysterical. It was so ridiculous and just unnecessary but great every time they did it.......

[ABrown]

I would've significantly cut down the number of episodes in the Northampton arc at the start of the third season, as well as the outer space arc at the start of the fourth season. Both were way too long. A few episodes for each would've been plenty.