Watching through Nick 2k12 completely for the first time

[sdp]

My watch through of TMNT 2012 has been archived here.

I made a similar thread a few years ago for the 2k3 show and later for the OT so now it's time to watch the Nick show for the "first time", technically the other shows I wasn't watching for the first time, only first time completely and that's the case here as well, I watched the first two seasons but the constant hiatuses made me stop after the first or second episode of season 3 and decided to wait until the show finished before watching it all. I wasn't crazy about it when it aired, I didn't hate it but I didn't like it as much as most people here, so let's see if that opinion changes. I also plan to watch the 2007 movie and see if I can somehow shoehorn it together as happening later.

I'm spoiler free besides two things which I'm not even sure if they remained real, and that's because thread titles with spoilers show up on the main forums, I never actively searched for spoilers, so please no spoilers. Like in the other threads I'll be posting my comments and questions and hopefully others join in like the other time. I'll probably be posting only once I finish a season, maybe halfway through a season if I have lots to say which is how I did it the last two times. I'm a bit busy but I'll try to watch as much as I can every day, at least 2 episodes.

So far I watched the first 2 episodes and random thoughts:

The episodes are title Rise of the Turtles, hmm..

They start featuring the turtles which is not how it was done in the other two shows, I guess it works ok since we get to have a lot of turtle action from the beginning but I prefer the classic April finding them. I forgot they changed the origin to having Splinter buying the turtles and meeting the Kraang, seems like a pointless change in the origin, hopefully it makes more sense later if not then yeah it was pointless.

I forgot how empty the City feels, and how lifeless some characters look, when it's the Kraang its fine since it gives them this creepy look but having April's dad reek of uncanny valley isn't good. The theme song is awesome, especially counting that these days most shows at best get a 20 second intro. Snakeweed is such a boring/lame villain to begin with though, I've chuckled a few times at the jokes, enjoying it so far.

[Vegita-San]

i thought the design of aprils father was ok, but just how it was rendered, didn't look good. also notice how they reuse the same locations, for obvious reasons.

I too, started to rewatch this show, to see if my opinion of it changed WITHOUT the constant breaks. But I stopped somewhere along season 2 and havn't picked it up again.



Maybe on day I'll get back to it.

[newfan]

I forgot they changed the origin to having Splinter buying the turtles and meeting the Kraang

I suppose it could seem that way to some, maybe they didn't want Yoshi to start out in the sewers this time so they saved it for after his mutation.

I like the theme song, and the closing instrumental.

[CyberCubed]

They add more people to the streets around the later half of Season 1.

I've been doing my rewatch since the last week of September and I'm now in mid-Season 4. I've watched 3-4 episodes a day. That's how you marathon shows. I can't believe I've already nearly rewatched the entire series in just a little over a month.

[Tarris Vaal]

I think its fair to say that you can forgive details like the emptier streets and the slightly off animation in early seasons - its a budget and technology limitation at the end of the day and not really something they could necessarily do much about.

And the animation does improve over time - especially human characters like April and her dad.

[CyberCubed]

The animation definitely got a huge boost in Seasons 3 and 4, I noticed it immediately in my rewatch.

Season 1 and 2 still look good though. But yeah, April's father always seemed a bit "off" in his design. Something about his face/head, but I guess it doesn't matter.

[sdp]

Well I watched the first half of season 1, I thought I remembered this show having mid season finales but I guess I was wrong. So far I'm enjoying it a lot, much more than when I first watched it, I don't know if its because my expectations were really high or I just couldn't deal with some of the changes and now I know what I'm getting. Like the Kraang used to bother me since I expected Utroms or real Krang not this but I guess they solved that problem later. It was also not as good as 2k3 which didn't help things and neither did all the praise, it's good but not the greatest TMNT revival since the OT.

I forgot how the show almost always takes place at night, it's kind of cool that despite the cartoony style that it keep a dark tone in the setting at least. The first episodes are not good in telling you what the show will be about since its mutant after mutant and it would let you think the whole show would be mutant of the week and boy did spiderbite and snakeweed suck as mutants.

The change between Foot and Krang is cool and keeps it fun. I loved Bradford and Xever, I was bummed that and it sucked that Xever never got an episode alone being the ultimate badass before teaming up with Bradford. I also hated that they mutated them so quickly but I liked their mutated forms as well as Dogpound and Fishface. What I forgot is how this show suffers from Villain decay, one episode Bradford is the ultimate bad guy and then the turtles can defeat him easily later and so on, this includes Dogpound after his first appearance.

I forgot the turtles had double weapons and that this was a controversy before the show started, it seems only Mikey uses the bladed chains though, I can't recall what other special weapons the others have. Don't care for Shredder being burnt, always felt cliche. Splinter is not great so far, he's ok.

April is handled poorly so far, I mean she doesn't have as big of a role in the origin as in other incarnations and then she disappears and is magically their best friend when she shows up again. We never saw that relationship get to that point, it felt very odd.

I remember hating Baxter Stockman in this incarnation but while not great he's fine. I loved Ratking, they could've been a bit more subtle with his origin but I liked him. I love the Teen Titans-esque things they do and they don't over do them so its cool.

The CG looks awful though, some things look fine like the turtles but some other character models look really bad, and there's no excuse Clone Wars was already miles better as were other shows on TV, it seems odd Nick didn't invest more on the CG when it was their flagship franchise to show off. Can't wait to finish the season.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by sdp

The CG looks awful though, some things look fine like the turtles but some other character models look really bad, and there's no excuse Clone Wars was already miles better as were other shows on TV, it seems odd Nick didn't invest more on the CG when it was their flagship franchise to show off. .

Really? Outside some human character faces like April's Dad I think the CG animation still looks fine. Are you watching in HD? And not some blurry youtube videos?

Make sure to watch in the best quality if you can.

[FredWolfLeonardo]

For some reason, I prefer the stiff and quick animation of season 1 as opposed to the smoother animation of later seasons.

Not to say the newer animation was bad, we all definetly agree it was great and even breath-taking at times, butI found the older animation to have a unique charm to it.

[CyberCubed]

I think the only CG animation that looks dated is on some of the human pedestrians who walk around the city, but they're just background characters so it doesn't matter.

All the mutants, main cast, aliens, etc. look good. And good thing most of the Kraang with human skins are robots so they're intended to look "bland," lol.

[sdp]

I'm perfectly fine with the CG, I'm just making the comparisons because it is noticeable. I don't mind it. I believe I'm watching in 720, it's not the resolution the character models just don't look as good as other stuff that was around at that same time, not comparing it with 2017 stuff either.

The empty streets are creepy but it kind of works and I guess you can say those adventures happen at 3 am or something. April's school being completely empty does look really odd. Not a fan of April as mentioned so far, also I like Donnie but I think in both the OT and 2k3 he is easily the best turtle even if not my favorite character but so far here he isn't the "best" all around turtle. So far I'd say Leo/Mikey are getting the best episode moments.

[sdp]

Just finished the first season and had a blast doing so, I definitely enjoyed it more than my first time I saw it. I still don't think it deserves all the praise this season got but it's a nice cartoon even if lacking the charm of the OT or the thrills of 2k3 during its they're first seasons.

Man Dogpound becoming so useless so quickly was such a horrible decision to make, no wonder people didn't take Fishface/Dogpound as replacements to Rocksteady and Beebop, they became jokes without being fun like R&B. Hun suffered some villain decay but not as bad, he was still a threat even at the end of the show.

NYC being so alone in some episodes definitely felt off.

I liked the Shredder/Kraang alliance, its something we never got to see how it formed in the ot.

I like that their eyes turn white, that's something that the 2007 film did in the trailer but then didn't in the film.

I liked most of the original characters they came up with, the only exceptions were Snakeweed and Spiderbites. Snakeweed's second appearance didn't make me like it more, but all other mutants were cool, I especially loved the Newtralizer and the cockroach was cool as well, I hope they appear later. Filler episodes like the one where the mutant hornet or whatever infects everyone was cool as well.

Karai is a huge let down for the most part and the most interesting parts about her where things that 2k3 had already done better. The Splinter/Shredder relationship is new and interesting but so far not handled excellent

April is a horrible character and the reason for the Kraang needing her was dumb and a cheap way to make her relevant to the plot. I would've preferred the route of Kraang only wanting smart scientists. I do like that Splinter was training her but even then how did she beat Karai on her first fight?

I want to know more about the Kraang but I guess we find out more later so I don't want spoilers.

Now to season 2.

[CyberCubed]

Nick's Karai is much better than the 2k3 one. The Miwa subplot is the best thing the show came up with. I also like April a lot personality wise, she's the best utilized April of the 3 cartoons. The original was a damsel in distress too often, and 2k3 April just faded into the background as the show progressed because the writers found it difficult to involve her in the Turtles adventures.

The ep where Karai and April fight each other was one of my favorites of the season. Also where on earth did you get she beat her? Karai kicked April's ass the first time they met. And she barely held her own in the rematch.

[sdp]

Finished the first half of season 2, going a lot faster than I thought I would which is good since I'll be fairly busy in a few weeks so I want to finish the show before then.

Does Shredder know where the turtles live? We've seen the turtles attacked at their home various times, seems odd since they've never changed the location of their lair when the enemy seems to know and also weird that if they know they don't attack more often.

The first half of the season is mostly boring, I remember liking season 2 more than one, the season opener is a bit generic but the idea of the mutagen being everywhere sets up the season just fine. The April subplot of being mad is so dumb and barely even lasted to have wasted so much time on it. Still not a fan of April at all, she's only gotten more annoying with her psychic powers.

=
I kind of liked that the foot soldiers became robots but at the same time i didn't want all the foot to be robots. The squirrels episode was really lame, I liked the similar one they had in season 1 with the wasps but here I just felt no tension eliminating the point of it, the fungus episode was that same type of show but done much better.

Seeing Chrome Drome was cool even if they just re-used Bradford's design, mutagen man was cool and tragic. Slash's origin was fine but I feel like Spike was only mutated to make fans happy since people had mentioned since the first season how spike should be mutated.

Making Dogpound into Rahzar gives me mixed feelings, I liked Rahzar but he feels weird without Tokka and also that he is a ninja since he's Bradford and such a radical change to a zombie like creature, not a fan. Especially since him being a threat didn't last too long as he was replaced by Tiger Claw not long after.

Casey Jones is such a let down, he has a different mask and he's just some punk kid, which makes no sense for him to be able to take out all these ninjas and what not. Also in his episode they finally mention where the turtles names came from, they messed up not having that since the first episode.

The midseason finale wasn't as good as I remembered but it was still fun to find out more about what's going to happen and see things change.

[CyberCubed]

Season 2 is mostly about building up the ground work from the first season while introducing new mutants most of which will become important characters for the rest of the show such as Slash, etc.

I love how this show built up the backstory of the Kraang more and more as it went on. It's as if they kept giving us new information one by one rather than dumping it all at once, and I really liked that. Learning where the mutagen came from, where Dimension X is and dimensional portals, what the Kraang were trying to do, experimenting on April with her powers, etc. I also like how the Kraang keep getting new robots/weapons/ships making them more and more powerful than before. We get new backstory for the Kraang with each arc about them and it was great to see their lore expanded.

As I said before I never cared for Dogpound's design and love Rahzar's. Had they kept Dogpound's design for the entire show that would have been boring as hell, I already got bored of his design by the end of Season 1. All the villains will of course suffer from "villain decay" where the Turtles beat them easy and easier each time, but that's expected for kids shows do it doesn't bother me. Rahzar's design is cool and I love how we got an obscure movie character like Rahzar as a permanent staple of this show.

I love the Squirrlenoids episode, it's of course a homage to the Alien movie franchise just like the Pizza Monsters ep in Season 2 of the original cartoon. Fungus Humungous is also my favorite "filler" of the series due to how hilarious it was and all the great visuals and backdrops.

[sdp]

Finished season 2 and this season was definitely inferior to the first, it has a few stronger episodes but it also has plenty more horrible ones. The second half was better than the first half of s2.

The finale is a rehash of the first one and even though it was done much better and was more enjoyable it still feels like we've already done this.


Irma as a hipster was neat but her being Kraang Subprime was a bit lame, April having psychic powers is not cool though her being resistant to the mutagen is a cool enough story as to why the Kraang want them.

The mecha turtle was awesome, I didn't remember this had happened. Leo's new voice actor isn't that good, I miss Jason Biggs. Casey Jones was never amazing though he did get a little less annoying in his other appearances.

I already miss the human foot soldiers. I loved the episode of the chinese spirit and granting mystic foot ninja powers to the Purple Dragons. Speaking of which the purple dragons are only those 3 members? And wasn't one of those the one who helped the turtles in one episode? Why hasn't that been followed up on. NY still looks rather empty even with the second invasion and all it had was a minor Earth Defense Force appearance?

The pizza episode has to be one of the worst ones the show has made, it was also the third horror themed episode this season. The LARP episode was ok.

I had no idea this season ended in a cliffhanger, odd that the invasion seemed pretty small in the end.

[CyberCubed]

Season 2 was consistently great, but yeah the Pizzaface episode was the worst ep so far, and the Sir Malachi Larp episode was pretty weak too. Thankfully they're one-shot characters and don't appear again.

Other than those two eps I enjoyed every other ep of Season 2. Some were better than others obviously, but they were all good. The way they built up the Shredder/Karai story and the Kraang was done well, although it's going to go on hiatus for awhile due to the Northampton arc in Season 3.

If you're complaining about horror eps now, be warned, the Northampton arc goes on for 8 episodes in Season 3 and at least 5 out of those 8 eps are horror themed.

[sdp]

You weren't kidding, I just finished the first half of season 3 and it was alright, I thought I had seen the first two episodes of season 3 but that was not true, I had never seen an of this so outside the first crossover episode everything else should be new to me.

I didn't hate the horror stories but man do the writers have a boner for the horror genre, not sure I like it too much. The Jason/weed story was kind of cool but odd, especially as the first episode. The Freddy/Dream Beavers episode was also cool. I wouldn't consider the other episodes really "horror" themed though the others have some roots but not really straight out homages.

I wish they'd had more episodes in the daylight, almost all took place at night, that makes sense in NYC but not in the woods, that's the one place it made sense for it to have been early.

I liked the appearance of the Punk Frogs but not a fan that there were so many mutated frogs, in fact that's one of my problems with the show, there are too many mutants, this show is literally what people thought the OT was, the OT didn't really introduce that many villains, at least not at first and relied on other villains like mobsters and aliens and yet this show makes everyone a mutant, it gets tiring even if I like most of the mutants created.

The Kraang mutated the early humans but later they retcon that I'm guessing accidentally, maybe in the bigfoot episode but now I can't remember in which one they did it.

Didn't like Rocksteady/Beebop in this show, Beebop's human form was cool in his appearance last season but as a mutant he just doesn't feel like Beebop at all. Rocksteady being the Russian guy was also a dumb idea and I liked the Russian guy, I wanted to see more of him and become another main villain, all we have is Kraang/Shredder or mutant episodes the mutant usually working for Kraang and Shredder. I feel this show needs more diversity in villains.

I liked the Mighty Mutanimals finally becoming a real team in a cartoon, hope newer incarnations keep them since IDW is also using them. The Mutanimals also redeemed Pete and the professor who before I thought were bad characters.

I'm not a big fan of Leo's new voice, the original voice was definitely the best for him, I don't hate the new voice but it doesn't fit this incarnation. April's psychic powers are still dumb.

Too many mutants, but I don't necessarily hate it, I just hope its only unique to this one show. Other shows need a better balance that 2k3 and even the OT had.

If time passed slower in dimension X then didn't the few seconds the Mutanimals were keeping the gate open mean were months? Did they forget their own rules? That also means Mikey is older than the others, then again this show throws "months have passed" every other peiosde which I'm guessing doesn't make much sense.

[Vegita-San]

it's pretty clear this creative team was more interested in horror and lost interest in turtles real fast season 2 on. especially with all the gross designs they did.

I agree that it had WAY too many mutants. and a whole POPULATION of Punk frogs that no one discovered before the turtles did was just way too goofy.

for me, Season 2 onward is where the show started to fall apart and I REALLY lost interest. i was willing to put up with things i didn't like in season 1. but season 2 onward things just compounded. and the super long breaks didn't help keep my interest either.

i was hoping for good things with nick and viacom. but now it really does seem like this series might b e the best we get at this point.

[CyberCubed]

sdp, Rocksteady's Russian accent gets really funny as the show progresses. I really enjoyed that take.

I think they did a great job giving us a new take on Bebop/Rocksteady as opposed to making them carbon copies of the original. They made them still humourous but still gave them new concepts like Bebop's cloaking/laser fights, Rocksteady's Russian human and big weapons, etc.

Ugh, now here comes you know who:

Originally Posted by Vegita-San

it's pretty clear this creative team was more interested in horror and lost interest in turtles real fast season 2 on. especially with all the gross designs they did.

LOL, Vegita-san, the writers themselves didn't "lose interest" in the Turtles. I don't know what that even means.

I agree that it had WAY too many mutants. and a whole POPULATION of Punk frogs that no one discovered before the turtles did was just way too goofy.

There's no problem with the show being mutant heavy since that's the direction they went in. The frogs lived in the woods and were secluded, so it makes sense many people didn't come across them. Either way, who cares? Maybe they did come across humans, what does it matter?

for me, Season 2 onward is where the show started to fall apart and I REALLY lost interest. i was willing to put up with things i didn't like in season 1. but season 2 onward things just compounded. and the super long breaks didn't help keep my interest either.

Season 2 was one of the best seasons, your constant whining and complaining about "breaks" when the show is over now and you can marathon many episodes every day like sdp is doing is absurd. You're basically whining for no reason now.