Thoughts on the European Vacation episodes
 

I've recently been watching through the DVDs again and I've been going through these episodes specifically. What are your thoughts on this 13-ep arc?

Its a shame that Raph has an alternate voice in all these episodes, but otherwise this season is strictly average fair. The episodes are about the same as most Season 4 episodes of that era, some of course being worse than others.

I totally forgot that we see Atlantis in this season, which is amusing because in Season 7 we see Atlantis again with Merdude. In this season some cult was trying to make Atlantis rise with April being the queen...I guess they were a sect of the Atlanteans we see in Season 7.

What I like best is Michaelangelo twirls his nunchucks around in almost every episode! It actually amuses me how much we see his chucks in this season....

Thought they were decent at best. Would have loved it better had raph had his original voice and shredder and company to not have been in them at all. By the way were these episodes taken from VHS Tapes? They look rough.

I actually just completed those episodes not too long ago myself. I found them almost unbearable. I think they were among the show's worst episodes. I can't really blame the voices as my reason for not liking them. In season eight, Shredder had a different voice. Also in season ten, Raphael had a different voice. And those are two of my favorite seasons. I just found the episodes to be very boring. They felt almost forced, like everyone involved didn't even want to do the episodes.

Some of the eps were pretty dull, but some did stand out as being pretty fun.

It is the weakest overall "season" of the series though. As I said, its similar to some of the worst eps of Season 4, which is where these eps fit in anyway.

Shell no. The weakest was syndication Season 4. If you wanted to say "2nd weakest, I'd buy that. There were only one or two eps that were really terrible.

I always found it hilarious that Mike uses his 'chucks in most of these eps, when it was Europe that got 'em banned in the first place. :P

No Rob Paulsen, and thus crap.

Kidding, I actually liked them more than I expected too. I didn't remember them and mainly heard how bad they were here, so I was primed to hate them. Ain't that just how it works, you are primed to loathe something, only to watch it and find it ain't as bad as everyone says.

I also find way too many April captures, plus they're animated in Europe instead of Asia, causing some animation to be off. But there are still some good episodes that I enjoy. I don't understand why so many people hate the episode "Artless", when there are some clever references about who the TMNT were named after; plus it's cool seeing the adventures take place outside of NYC. I'd like to see perhaps a Florida/California mini-vacation in the new series for instance. Despite some scientific quirks, the Orient Express episode is a fast-paced episode wit several crucial moments. Only the last two/three episodes I really find as filler rewatching this a couple times.

There's a Dublin in France? O_o

I liked the episodes just wish they would of used differnt villains. Not shredder and krang it would of bieng cool if shredder and krang stayed back in NYC and caused some terror for the turtles to come back to.

I always wondered why Shredder started attacking the world in Europe just when the Turtles started traveling there.

I dont remember these eps really, but wasn't the third tmnt game "Manhatten project" based off these eps...???

The European 'season' on the whole is rather forgettable. I had never seen any of them prior to the dvd releases. There are a few episodes I enjoyed, but I thought the majority of them were bland.

LOL, the "Ring of fire" ep has an alternate voice for Raphael, Donatello, Shredder AND Bebop.

4 alternate voices in the same episode. I don't think there was ever another episode where 4 of the main characters had alternate voices.

As a fan of voice over acting, this is probably my least favorite episode....:P

I don't think any of 'em are all that great, but as far as being OK goes, they're half & half.

To be honest I don't mind the alternate Shredder in a lot of these episodes and the Season 7 eps.

He's not as good as James Avery, but he still pulls off the Shredder voice fairly well. Even the humor when he's arguing with Krang.

Yeah, I still dislike the alternate Donnie. And because of one line:
"Those chemicals are mixing together to make mute-uh-gin!"

No. What gave you that idea?

Japan
 

They should also visit modern Japan.

One of the best parts of this season is when they use the rust weapon to turn metal into rusted material, and they shoot it at Shredder.

He stands there frozen with his armor all red yelling, "Oil! I need oil!"

Hilarious.

Turtles on the Orient Express
 

I loved the "Turtles on the Orient Express" episode.

These episodes were pretty good. They were fun. Not the best written ones but still great to watch.

Does anyone know why these eps were made in the first place? I know these eps have special credits to this "Bruno" person.

Was this arc made because Turtles was becoming popular overseas?

Partly that and partly the plot. First, in the Season 4 premiere, "Plan 6 From Outer Space", the turtles mention about wanting to go to Europe. They even use a slide projector (remember those that we probably last saw sometime in the '90s?) to view different locations, then at the end of that episode from a pizza company win a trip to Europe. There are even a couple moments in Season 3 mentioning the turtles wanting a vacation as well. It's a bit unfortunate that there was no "time to head home" at the end of the arc. And with European animation here, simply the production reflects the growing popularity of TMNT at the time. I also find it odd on the special credits that only some of the French production staff is listed, and no English credits (music/sound, voice talent) are listed. If you've ever watched the French dub of a TMNT episode, you'll notice that some of the names on that version are found on those special credits.

The only vacation episode I did like was "A Real Snowjob".Mainly because April calls Krang out.The scene where she's being carried off by Bebop and Rocksteady she says something in the order of"I knew krang was behind this".Raphs voice during that run of episodes was annoying.Funny that Rob Pauslen wasn't used for these episodes.

I think it would have been funny if some slapdash European passerby pointed and said "look, it's the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles!"

Or since Mike still had his chucks at this time, during one of the UK episodes someone said "I thought nunchucks are banned in England!" :D

I think you make a good point. Just about every stereotype of the Old Toon is present in heavy doses over the course of those episodes. It makes me think that Peter Laird sat down to watch these eps one day and decided to never again bother with watching any more shows produced by Fred Wolf.

huh i thought i was the only one who didn't really care for season 7.

i mean one of the most stupid things about it was how every freaking time shredder wanted to "rule the world" the turtles would so happen to be in that same country at the same time. it just did make since!

yea i know, gotta stop the bad guy, but come on make it a little bit more believable! but then again kids don't pick up on that, so i guess the plot line didn't really matter.

The Euro episodes aren't Season 7, they take place during Season 4.

The regular Season 7 eps are some of the best of the series.

Which makes it really ridiculous the way that the dvds were released. Both of the releases weren't the ideal way to release the episodes. They should've done 2 -2 disk sets. The first set would've been a two disk set featuring the European episodes. The second set would've been the actual season seven episodes. I realize that's kind of what they did with the initial release, but it was more expense than a couple of two disk sets would've been. Cause each of the four disks was what? $10 each? Whereas Each of the two disk sets probably would've been like $15 each.

Technically, the Euro Cruise eps were premiered in '92, alongside Season 6. Molly Bode just took it upon herself to list it as "Year 7" on NinjaTurtles.com, and it snowballed from there.

I skip them. They're actually unwatchable to me. The plots in some of them are even dumber then in the normal series. It was stupid enough Shredder and Krang only ever tried to be evil in and around New York as had they moved one state over it would have taken the turtles so long to get there they could have been done. Then they move their evil to Europe, right as the turtles are there. After the first encounter they should have headed back to New York and conquered it so by the time the turtles got back they were too late.

There was always a plethora of mad scientists or gangsters they could use instead of Shredder and Krang, why they didn't use them here was beyond me. Hell do a Baxter episode here, he needs the Eiffel Tower as some kind of conduit for opening a portal. Bring in a goofy version of Jack the Ripper or have aliens attack. Anything would have oddly made more sense and would have been more entertaining to watch. Also the subs suck.

I thought you meant "subtitles" for a few seconds there. :embarass:

Actually I meant sandwiches :P

I figured that out. :sweatdro: Seriously, I did.

I also noticed that in the episode "A Real Snow Job", April mentions that it's the middle of winter (even though summer skiing is possible in some of the highest mountains of the Alps). Given a typical vacation in Europe would last between 2 weeks (most likely given 13 episodes) to a month, that definitely throws the time plot off here, given that it's Bastille Day (July) in Tower of Power!

Does nobody like the Viking episode? I thought that was the best one.