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