What are your thoughts on old toon Raphael compared to his other incarnations?
 

Out of all the Turtles in the original cartoon, Raphael's personality was probably tweaked the most from the comics. Although there were definitely episodes here and there where old toon Raph showed his anger, he was more of a wise-cracker and enjoyed making jabs whenever he could.

Now with all the newer versions of Raph that have shown up since then, (the original movie trilogy version of Raph, the 2k3 Raph, the new movie Raph), and as well as compared to Mirage Raph, how do you view the original cartoon version of Raphael?

I still love the guy, as he was my favorite Turtle as a kid, but I still wish his anger showed up a tad more often than a handful of episodes. What are your thoughts on old toon Raph?

I definately see the difference between the OT and every other medium. I think it's best that he is more happy go lucky for the old toon due to the target audience. But I have to say I prefer the movie and mirage version of Raph.

In the old toon, Raph seems too similar to Mikey. I think it's better to have a balance in personalities so all audience members have a turtle they can relate to.

A leader, a tech head, a joker, and a hott head appeals to more people than
A leader, a tech head, and two jokers. IMO

He's still cool, but he would be so owned by the Raph that now takes center stage.

But, his personality back in the old toon wasn't that much different from my own. I get sarcastic from time to time. And OT Raph had moments when he did use his umph to get the upper hand. I remember one scene, in where he is interrogating some bad guy, and he ends up going "either you start talking, or I am going to have to get sarcastic!" while pointing his sai at the guy in a threatening way. Even when Raph has to be kiddied down, he's still so cool!:D

Raphael was my favorite for that reason...so...don't care he's so diffrent. I like raph either way.

I fell in love with old toon Raph for one reason, he made sarcastic comments like me. That and he seemed to be the turtle that was always saving April. I've been watching the old cartoons again and I noticed Raph usually catches April when she falls and whenever she grabs onto one of their shells while they escape somewhere it is Raph's most of the time. So he is the sarcastic ladies man, just like I wanted to be :D.

What the heck happened to that plan.

I liked Raph in the old toon but I definetly like the anger-filled, angst ridden Raph of the other mediums. OT Raph had some great one liners and his sarcasm was fantastic, but yeah, I wish his anger had shown a little more. I agree with Neutrino in that it was great for the target audience, though. Children probably would have accepted him much easier than the other Raph.

I love OT Raph. He's a blast. I don't think it's possible to properly compare him to the other Raphaels. He's almost a different character.

Hmm actually... the joker role went from Raph to Mike. And even then it's different, Mike's a goof-off, Raph was a smartass that even poked fun at his own show. It was more like-

A leader, a tech head, a surfer dude joker and a hot head -2003
A leader, a tech head, a surfer dude, and a sarcastic smartass -80's

I wonder where they came up with the idea of makin Raph the wisecracker instead of Mikey. I know they couldn't have made Raph as pissed and violent as he was in the original comics, but they could have at least made him the 'eager to fight, rush headlong without thinking things through' type. In the old toon, of the 4, Raph seemed the least eager to fight (always with some kind of 'do we have to' wisecrack') unless he was pissed. Oddly enough, one of the episodes I think it was called 'Raphael gets a shrink' or something like that, about him being hit by a 'nice-guy' ray or something and tricked into helping some guy commit crimes, completely revolved around the fact that Raph was the hothead of the bunch.



'Now pretend to be smashing the vending machine'. (exact line?)
*slams mashine* 'With pleasure! This thing just ate my quarter!!' *starts pounding on it'*

Man, Raph was hilarious in the old toon. But he was pretty cowardly at times, eh? He was like Rattrap from Beast Wars.

I thought it was a weak characterization, to be honest. I didn't really like the OT Raph; I much prefer the new incarnations of him... ANY of them. As a child, the comments got boring after awhile (and trust me, I am plenty sarcastic myself)... But he just never made an impact on me. I didn't like him, but I didn't DISlike him, either. He was just there.

Well, I do prefer new toon/movie Raph to OT Raph. I can certainly identify with New Raph's hotheadedness and tendency to explode ( because I have a vicious temper myself ). In the old show Mikey was my favorite, but nowadays, I prefer Raphael.
Not that I dislike OT Raph though. His sarcasm always amused me, as I'm a bit of a smartass myself. But newer Raph is definately the better of the two.

He was my favorite as a kid too,

I prefer his sarcastic persona though, the new show makes him out to be more of a "jock" or "i love fights" which makes me not like him as much. His movies (old) interpretations were good in my book as well i liked those.

I agree Raph was more sarcastic and Mikey more "surfer" dude joker. I was just saying that there was no true rebel in the OT the way there is in other mediums. I know there are people who identify with Raph's hot head version.

Jo Dawn sums up my feels well, though I'm not a sarcastic kind of person.;) I never much cared for OT Raph, though I like Paulson well enough. OT Raph was my least fave of the four, I just couldn't relate to him. "Too watered down" are the words I'd use to describe him. His sarcasm made him seem too much of a bully at times toward Mikey and I hate bullies. It's one of reasons I prefer the new toon, Mike gives as good as he gets insult wise. Also, as Rooish said OT Raph could seem cowardly too. That is like the the exact opposite of what Raph is supposed to be, so not the Raph I know and love. I like my Raph angry and angsty, foolhearty and hotheaded. After I saw the first movie, Raph went from my least fave to my fave. While I came to apreciate OT Raph after that, (he could be pretty funny) I do have to wonder why they "neutered" his personality so much in the first place.

That was one thing I was worried about when the new toon first appeared. Would they get Raph right this time? As soon as I heard the "teacher's pet"/"ninja dropout" exchange though I knew I had nothing to fear. I always wished they could have made OT Raph more like Archie Raph in the later seasons, like season 4 on. Archie Raph was closest to OT Raph. I could hear Paulson doing his voice when I read the comics but he also had the attitude. I don't hate OT Raph, he's okay. But movie, Mirage, and new toon Raph rock.

Yay, someone who feels the same as me! So many people seem to identify with hothead Raph, but I have always identified more with smart-arse sarcastic Raph.

Raph is possibly still my fave in the new series (although sometimes I sway more towards Don or Leo when Raph's being a jerk). My ideal Raph would be a healthy balance between OT and NT Raph. :nod:

Although 'Angry Raph' can get quite annoying and repetitive, I do prefer him to the sarcastic joker of the old toons. I do think that he fits well into the format of the old series though, because you have two smart people and two jokers who are more relatable.

I really do prefer the "angry" incarnation of Raph compaired to the Old Toon. The Old Toon Raph was pretty easy going compaired to his other incarnations, which I didn't like at first. Now I like it a bit more, since I see now that the Old Toon focused a bit more on comedy than action. In the wise words of Peter Laird - "It was like comedy with a little bit of action in it".

I love the new toon and movie incarnations of Raph the most since they are true to his Mirage roots. He is angry, quick to act on impulse, moody...I can basically see myself in him. In the Old Toon incarnation...the only thing I had in common with the dude was that we both liked to shoot sarcastic comments (only his were better than mine :P). Some of his smart-ass comments really knocked him down on my favorites list in the Old Toon incarnation, but he still remained my favorite. A Raphael fan will never change his or her ways ;)

Yep, quoting my own post, as you do!

Having stated the above, and having just walked in the door from seeing an advanced screening of the new movie (I'm in Australia and it doesn't officially come out til tomorrow), I can now state that 2007-movie Raph is my favourite incarnation. To me, this Raph is exactly as I stated above: a combination of OT and NT Raph. I know some of you may not understand why I think this, but there you go. :)

Hope that if there's a sequel they keep this Raph the way he is.

Uh oh, I think I might be turning into a Raph fangirl! I promised myself it wouldn't come to this!! :lol:

While I prefer angry crybaby emo Raph as seen in most other incarnations, the old toon Raph was still alright.

I liked him best in the first season, though, where he showed off some of his pent-up anger at least once per episode. Later seasons completely erased that aspect of his character.