TMNT Season 3 Best Episode Tournament Round 3: "Return" New York vs "Battle" New York

[JTH]

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ROUND 3

We are one match away from finding out what the final four episodes going at it will be. The final match of Round Three is 3 vs. 6. This is a match I've been looking forward to when the bracket was set. It's the Battle of "New York", Return vs. Battle. Only one can move on, but which will it be?

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Round 3 Polls will last 7 days and will be public polls.

Note: Round 3 Matches will begin on Tuesdays. Going to keep it uniform, so always be tuned in this time each Tuesday.

To check out the complete up to date bracket, the link is here:
http://www.bracketmaker.com/tmenu.cfm?tid=460628&tclass=TMNT%20Season%203%20Best%20Episode

Now with that said and done, it's time to take a look at the much anticipated "Tale of the Turtle Tape"!

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Official Seed: #3
Where JTH seeded this episode: #1
Total Points Received: 137
Official IGN Review: 8.9/10
Current TV.com Rating: 9.6/10
Highest Rating Episode Received: #1 (ME)
How did it get here?: Defeated Meet Mondo Gecko in Round 2

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Official Seed: #6
Where JTH seeded this episode: #7
Total Points Received: 85
Official IGN Review: 8.8/10
Current TV.com Rating: 9.8/10
Highest Rating Episode Received: #4 (cookie jar)
How did it get here?: Defeated Casey Jones vs. The Underworld in Round 2

- Winner faces #2 Tale of the Yokai in the Final Four


Which episode will win in your mind, vote away. Remember...HAVE FUN!!! :D

[GoldMutant]

(Note: I know you all may be getting sick of me writing long winded narratives, but I always have a lot to say on the episodes. Bear with me please, it's only three more times. :P Also had this prepared earlier)

The return and battle, a scenario of overcoming all the issues at hand with the final act of ending the prolonged Kraang arc. Although both are relatively flawed, does the action-packed battle reign supreme for a two parter like the previous season's Manhattan Project or does the opening scenario of return outdo it? Welcome ladies and mentlegen/gentlemutants, time for the final quarterfinal round! Anyways, what better way to come home..... then an alien invasion destroying said home and being alone with nobody around barring close friends? Let's take a look at the standard saga of most TMNT incarnations barring Fred Wolf and Platinum Dunes, the Return to New York.

Return to New York follows the heroes in a half shell's return to the city alongside Casey Jones and April O'Neil after a near uneventful Northampton arc. Getting back to the norm, we are reintroduced to the conflict with the mutated New York and reestablishing the team destroying the Kraang permanently. Along the way, the six also search for the presumed dead Master Splinter in addition to Serpent Karai (the latter in Serpent Hunt). However, the injuries from The Invasion from Shredder cause the Turtles' 'father' to turn feral, the third time in the series the plotline occurred since the Rat King episodes of previous seasons. With Splinter captured, the six must go to rescue Splinter from the Foot Clan who catch their father. What follows is a rather predictable story of a rescue; despite what plays out, the Elite Shredder of the Mirage Comics and 2003 television series make an appearance and the only time Baxter is an actual villain instead of lackey. Turtles battle the creatures, April brings Splinter to reality, Shredder knows the heroes are back, and a new lair is set up. Unfortunately, the description is why there's some personal issues.

The biggest weakness of Return to New York is the potential of the plot; the episode easily can be a two parter alongside other episodes in season 3, primarily Clash of the Mutanimals and Vision Quest as other major examples. Due to the Northampton arc prolonged heavily, the episode's crippling weakness is trying to get back to basics in under 22 minutes, which shows. Although repetitious with the aforementioned Rat King, the feral Splinter offers a great deal of storyline drama potential ultimately squandered. Instead of a Turtle attempting to bring Splinter to normal, April's psychic powers are forced to save the day through deus ex macchina. O'Neil's powers while divided overall in the show with reception does make sense somewhat as Donatello asks April to attempt what she did with In Dreams. Needless to say, there is further issue.

Although the Elite Shredder are often simple genetic abominations and prevent the Turtles from fighting Shredder, their roles are a lot more forced, nearly an addition for longtime veterans of the franchise. Younger demographics may gain interest, but their role is relegated to being creatures for Splinter to destroy in an amazing fashion. Granted their return in Attack of the Mega Shredder is a nice addition, but here the roles of the three crustacean mutants could have been filled by Rahzar, Fishface, and Tiger Claw or adding the trio in too. This does bring up a strange issue: Tiger Claw's a mere cameo and Baxter is prominent, but where are Fishface and Rahzar this time? A minor nitpick, but ultimately doesn't make any sense overall to keep the reoccurring henchmutants out of the picture.

While the storyline is heavily rushed, the episode gets some minimal aspects correct. For example, the music cues in the episode are among the best of the entire show with a personal favorite being the lurking in the lair. In a way, the episode gives forth a vibe of John Carpenter's Escape to New York throughout. Also, despite personal issue with the Elite Shredder besides fanservice, they are a welcome addition as well as Baxter finally getting usage for the only time this season outside a mad scientist. Ultimately, Return to New York's aesthetics are the highlight in addition to getting back to the story many have lost hope on through continuous filler. Although in the top 10 for the season, the crunched plot make it at the lower end of the top 10 personally.

Although the New York triumphant return was good, one may think the battle to rescue all can be an epic finale to end all; again some aspects were right, but Battle for New York most certainly conveys several hiccups. I've said the same thing in the match with Casey Jones vs the Underworld, but I'll repeat them again, especially because it's actually on the lower end of my favorites this season. Anyways, let's take a look at the episode that took the most time reaching the quarterfinals, Battle for New York.

Opening up with Michelangelo deus ex, Mikey toys with Donatello's retromutagen with Ice Cream Kitty; surprise though, the antics result in a "super" retromutagen that can save an even bigger population. The Turtles then head out to battle the Kraang for the possible last time and are surrounded when some unlikely allies show up; banded together by Jack Kurtzman, the presumed MIA Slash and Leatherhead are joined by Pigeon Pete and a now talking Dr. Rockwell. These four mutants in this series form the very first animated Mighty Mutanimals; although Don and Mikey accept Slash easily, Leonardo on the other hand disagrees with Slash's tactics and "change to the good." Also before the end of part 1, we are introduced to the Turtle Blimp (made fun of earlier by the brothers towards Don) and Kurtzman getting shot, injured though. This culminates in an attempt to stop a mutagen rocket by Kraang Sub-Prime with the two leaders unable to decide on a method to save the city. In the end, the rocket is stopped and the two teams join together to storm TCRI and save the citizens in New York, continuing into part 2.

(Continued in part 2 due to length)

[GoldMutant]

(part 2)

Come part two, the Turtles enter Dimension X on the Turtle Blimp to demutate the city (with Savage Michelangelo back!) with Sub-Prime going in to hunt them down for good. Meanwhile in TCRI, after opening the portal for the team, the Mutanimals are taken down and captured by the Kraang, Bio-Droids, and Ms. Campbell leading to Slash questioning his leadership. Once more the obvious happens: being able to steal a Technodrome shockingly, the Turtles are able to save the city (with SP presumed dead again from the Technodrome going boom) whereas the Mutanimals comfort Slash and escape their capture. Following all the imagery in Dimension X and the acceptance of Leo with Slash partially, the city is safe from the Kraang barring the city needing to return to normal with the crystals and environment of Dimension X present. With an ending of "Booyakasha!" the hour long finale ends on a triumphant note, supposedly ending the Kraang arc (spoilers: it doesn't).

Personally speaking, Battle for New York remains one of, if not the weakest one hour special in the entire Nick show at this current time. Identically to Return, the episode needs to accomplish an entire arc held off on in a small time frame. Though the fault of Return to New York's potential stems from a rather hit or miss eight episode arc, Battle having an hour time frame is rather off putting. There are some really good ideas though as the Mutanimals are introduced onto television for the first time, Sub-Prime referencing The Shining's rather infamous quote "Here's Johnny!", Slash's development, and of course Dimension X. Despite the concepts being a marvel, the rest is merely contrivances in the concepts instead of executed to further potential.

Michelangelo's actions have already been brought up; even though Mike is comic relief, why would he toy with the one invention to save the city? It's heavily out of character, especially because late season 2 all the way to The Croaking demonstrates Mikey growing opposed to relegation to the comedian again. This issue persists for some episodes and can question The Creeping Doom on his idiocy and sudden fixture of Dumb Donnie in comparison to Parastica from season 1. Besides the foolish deus ex, a main issue is the sudden formation of the Mighty Mutanimals.

Originally appearing in the Archie Comics, the Mighty Mutanimals serve as allies to the Turtles; the original team took mutants rarely to never used in Fred Wolf and also returning in IDW. Outside the hatred for the Kraang in the Nickelodeon TMNT, how and why do these four randomly band together? Slash, Leatherhead, and Pete have all been members in the respective comic series which does make sense. On the contrary though, LH and Slash have gone missing with the former possibly dead in The Invasion and Slash leaving after Newtrailized! whereas the other two are hidden after Metalhead Rewired. Furthermore, although Slash's growth is excellent, Leo being the only Turtle possessing a grudge towards Slash makes no sense; Raph is understandable, but not Mikey nor Don after both were brutally beaten twice in the past.

Overall, the main issue from Battle for New York is the episode's attempts at fusing all the previous Kraang plots together to go full circle since The Invasion. With the exception of Kraang Prime not appearing strangely, shoehorning in all the previous plot points while admirable doesn't assist the overall narrative barring Savage Mikey, the Technodrome, the obvious Sub-Prime (with Irma mockery. :lol:) and retromutagen. Due not enough time taken to assist buildup in comparison to the Foot Clan plots, the Kraang are nearly an afterthought outside dialogue in Buried Secrets and the New York episodes in season 3 beforehand. As a result, the lack of screentime personally is what destroys Battle for New York's supposed epicness narrative wise. On the bright side, at least the action is awesome, especially Dimension X aboard the Technodrome!

To conclude, putting aside issues with both episodes, Return to New York is superior over the more action orientated Battle for New York. Although I nowadays prefer Tale of the Yokai over both episodes in this bracket, I vote for Return to enter the semifinals. With that said, let's see how it goes; ciao! :)

[Splinter the boss]

Return to New York: The turtles had spent a lot of time in the farmhouse and were finally going back to NY.
It was amazing. It had been a long time since we had seen the Kraang, Shredder and company that we did not know what was going on with them. What happened to the city and people? as Kraang Prime successfully invaded earth. What was Shredder doing all this time? What state is Splinter in? They were all questions we wanted answers to. That said, people were excited and wanted to watch it.
Besides that, the episode was action packed with the turtles building the party wagon, invading NY, In which everyone was under control of the kraang.
Fight scenes: The episode introduced shredder mutants which were formidable opponents.

Finding Splinter in the state he was in was a shock for the turtles, and reaching
to him was really difficult as he was a savage animal.
The episode also put April's powers to good use. And, it was good to know that April and Casey were considered as members of his family, as they were without a family during the time.
And the Splinter and Shredder interaction was cool. Not to mention the way he took out those mutants of his.


Battle For NY: The episode wasn't a bad one. It had some great concepts like the mutanimals. The kraang were about to launch a mutagen bomb which would get other states and the world, and would put them under Kraang domination as was intended. Savage Mikey was there and was useful.
It was a funny episode, especially with the Kraang subprime and lesser kraang interaction(proper english one).
However, the episode felt a little rushed even when being a two parter. We did not get any info on how the mutanimals was formed. I personally found Subprime annoying in the episode, as all he did was talking and he let the turtles escape.
Also, the teleporting of the Kraang back to their home world and humans back to earth was a little unreal to me.

In conclusion, I think
That Return to New York has a better chance of taking this one.

[JTH]

Early on, it definitely looks like Mets > Yankees. ;)