How would you improve the Next Mutation?
 

Let's say you had to work with the same basic ideas and 26 episodes for Next Mutation, what would you have done to fix it?

I would have kept Shredder/The Foot as recurring villains throughout most of it, and included Dragon Lord at the same time. The most promising thing about the show was it was in continuity with the movies, so seeing Shredder train more Foot and create more mutants would have been more interesting.

Bring in April and Casey obviously, no idea why they weren't there from the start.

If Venus had to exist, have her being a recurring character at best rather than a permanent 5th turtle. Have her at odds with the Turtles and a sense of darkness to her, perhaps she isn't afraid to kill or is at odds with Splinter.

Keep the same tone as the second movie at least. The second movie was silly but the characters would still be serious, the Turtles had the best balance there from the cartoons.

1. Get rid of Venus.
2. Get better costumes for the TMNT,Splinter, and Shredder.
3. Have Casey and April be recurring characters.
4. Have the tone be something like the first movie.

No more certified turtiefied!

drop the silly sound effects, keep shredder around more and make Venus inexperienced in martial arts and have her to train and grow instead of having her as a full fledged fighter. And I'd make her a viewpoint character for the audience.

What about Badaboom?..

Honestly, the most annoying thing to me was the abuse of stock footage. Every God damned episode had the same take of the turtles peeling out in their Hummer or motorcycle with the same stupid lines over it.

even using the same stock when some of the turtles isn't supposed to be on the Hummer :P

I don't understand why they had to keep showing those either.

Normal bandanas and no letter belts..

I would've just used all the storylines from the first season of the 4Kids series, though I would've kept Shredder a human... none of that alien Utrom crap!

How the hell could that happen when the show came out in 1997 and the 4kids series didn't exist yet?

Well, the 4Kids plotlines were basically animated adaptations of the Mirage comics, save for a couple of original ideas. Besides, this is all just theoretical anyway. What's the point in making a big deal out of what is and isn't logic here?

Honestly the one-note puns bother me too. For some reason I can deal with those quips easier in the cartoons than in live-action.

Yea, tell me about it. Hell, Next Mutation was way campier than the classic toon! You ever get the feeling Turtles Forever was just taking Peter Laird's issues with Next Mutation out on the classic toon?

LOL, if someone took all that footage, and redid the dubbing (voices and music) and the sound fx.. and the scripting, i'm sure it could've been a superior product. i.e. that dub over using 4kids voices ontop of the next mutation footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RsG4hlgHlQ

man.. superior.

I agree with Titan. Bring on April and Casey. That would have made it better.

Kept Leo with a yellow bandana.

Same basics but watchable?

Remove the wacky sound effects. You're done.

EDIT -- Also take away their god damn hummer. A turtle-branded, large-windowed van was fine in the Fred-Wolf cartoon when they were basically public superheroes. This show tried to push them as serious ninjas and outcasts from society, which, just ... you can't have it both ways. They can either be in hiding, or they can fist pump from the back of their open hummer.

I found Mike's choice of weapons in this show to be amusing in a bad way. Damn those censors who banned Mike's nunchucks from TV until the 4kids cartoon!

As the old saying goes, you can't polish a turd

I've often thought -- once, very seriously -- about reediting NT:TNM into like, one suitable film-length sequel to TMNT III. It may even be possible. I may revisit the idea when the full, uncut series comes out on DVD.

What would you do about Venus? Include her or find a way to edit her out entirely?

Except that you can.

well played

The audio (both the sound effects and the dialog) is the biggest problem. This is similar to Power Rangers, where if they just would tone down the obnoxious-ass audio, it's be a watchable show. Lame as it is, NM still has *some* decent ideas in it. Like the TMNT attempting to forgive Shredder, for one.

-aside from the obvious better costumes/sound/lighting/scripts, killing off Venus in the first episode as a way of enforcing that they are rare & unique. It would be more interesting to have flashbacks to her lifestory when she was alive and on her own.

Jeff Dunham said something to that effect as Peanut.

After finishing the first DVD, while the show is definitely bad, its concepts aren't exactly god awful. With some better editing, losing the sound effects, and a little less childish antics, it could have been a somewhat decent show.

Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda...

I would include her, of course.

And scrap all audio altogether. Use score from the films, 1-4, SFX and foley sounds from my Sony library, and different voice actors and dialogue.

Yeah, Mikey had the Tonfa, Leo had a two edged sword and Don's staff could retract to a smaller size (I think)

Personally, of all the flaws of this series, the one that annoyed me the most was the personality of the turtles. They seemed to barely care for each other or anyone else.
In one episode, Leo says the infamous line "They're not my brothers". My problem with that scene was not the revelation per se (I always thought they were not blood-related), but the context. Venus was simply talking about them, and Leo says out of the blue "They're not my brothers", as if the word had bothered him. Even if they are not blood-related, they should see each other as brothers.
In another episode, Don's hero, Dr Quease, is captured by the turtles' enemies. Eventually Dr Quease will join their side, but so far he was simply an eccentric scientist who Don adored. Don has to beg each one of his siblings to help him save the poor guy, but they refuse to lift a finger. Raphael even says that Don's on his own, apparently not caring that his brother will have to fight alone against the Dragons.
In another episode, Leo and Raph have a fight (nothing unusual here). They start a competition and the loser will have to leave the lair. Raph loses and starts packing. Leo is fine with it. Don and Mikey, instead of making them see reason, side each for a different brother: Don is fine with Raph leaving, Mikey wants Leo to leave. When Don threatens to leave if Leo leaves, Mikey is fine with that as well.
In the episode with the vampires, they initially want to surrender the vampire's heart because that's not their problem. Vampires are after humans, not turtles.

I could even stand the silly sound effects, if they just made the turtles a little more likable and caring.

this goes back to the vigilante debate, the turtles would probably not go out vampire patrolling, but when in a situation like that, they would have done the "heroic" thing with no debate.

I've more often wondered had TNM continued past one season how would things have gone for things such as the 2003 series, 2007 movie, and so on...

I'm sure the CGI film could've still been done, but there's a good chance the 4Kids series might not have existed had the live action show been a hit. Thing is though if that had happened Kevin Eastman would've stayed around, but then we might've lost April since he grew tired of that character.

Cast Bruce Campbell as Casey Jones.

I hate to say it, but there are so many things wrong with NT:TNM that it's beyond fixing. Only a complete overhaul--i.e. get in a time machine and go back to 1997 to make an entirely different show--could save it.

However, I would love to see someone like Andrew tackle a re-edit. That'd be a huge undertaking, though. Even if you were to re-cut it and over-dub it with different audio, there's still the major problem of the Turtles looking like hell and those spastic, overly-enthusiastic body movements every time they're speaking, a'la Power Rangers.

How could he create more mutants? Seeing how he drank the last viral of ooze.