Old Guy Watches Nickelodeon Show
 

I was born in 1984 and can't remember a time before I loved the original TMNT cartoon, toys, movies and a few Archie issues. I grew out of it in the mid-90's, then got pulled back in by the 2k3 show in college, which lead me back to the Mirage comics. Volume 1 as well as 4 and Tales volume 2, which were also coming out at the time. Then the franchise was sold and I moved on again and didn't follow any of the new stuff until Mutant Mayhem. I saw that in the theater, enjoyed it but didn't dwell on it beyond that. Then I saw The Mirage Years Compendium of Volume 2 randomly at the comic shop in Spring 2025. I'd never read Volume 2 and always wanted to, so I got it and immediately got sucked back in. I got the other IDW compendiums and reread Volume 1. Actually the first time I've started at the beginning and read them all in order, I had all of the stories in various versions and formats and read them as I got them but not all together like this.

So after reading tons of comics, rewatching the 2k3 show and the new Tales cartoon, I finally started the 2012 show. I just finished Season 3, so I'm not done yet, but here's my experience so far.

As soon as I saw the cg animation when the show started, I hated it and was primed to hate the show. Over the years, though I've heard nothing but good things about it, so I came in with an open mind.

I still don't like the animation when they're in normal New York, but it works well in the 50's sci-fi inspired environments with the Kraang. Speaking of which, as a horror fan, I had no idea how horror and old sci-fi influenced this show would be (there's an extended Texas Chainsaw Massacre 3 reference, not the original TCM… the third one. Crazy).

Beyond the janky 2012 tv cg, the character design on the turtles is actually really good. I've been reading the comics based on the series, too and they look great. The designs are strong, the animation can't do them justice. There are some character designs I don't like. Rahzar is the poster child for the big but scrawny villain designs that I'm not a fan of. Reminds me of the old Shredder figure. Lanky… I don't know, just don't like it.

Speaking of Shredder, I find this version boring. The Kraang are super interesting (even if the speech pattern can get irritating). Shredder just feels generic and I don't like the design, either. Some of his henchmen are more interesting than him.

Aging April and Casey down to the turtles' age works great for this incarnation. They need to be older in other versions but April, while very different from other series, is great. Casey is irritating sometimes, but I think that is mainly because I'm old and as a kid, I would have loved him.

Anyway, some pro and con bullet points:

+ Sci-fi and horror influence
+ Individual turtle character designs
+ Good balance of adapting things from other iterations and new ideas
+ Kraang/Dimension X storylines bring originality without feeling out of place
+ April and her father's story
+ Humor/action/sci-fi balance is good (this is the first cartoon Mikey that is actually funny)

- Already outdated animation
- Cookie cutter villain Shredder
- Lanky villain designs
- Donnie/Casey fighting over April is cliche and boring
- Minor thing, but Napoleon Bonafrog as Napoleon Dynamite was so annoying

I'm sure I'll think of more I want to say later.

I thought this was gonna be a CyberCubed thread, judging by the title.

Agreed about the Kraang being more interesting than Shredder.

I always felt the Kraang should've been the bigger villains with more focus.

I think the show got better as went along. I found the final two seasons to be the best.

I'm about halfway through season 4 now and I agree, it's still continuing to get better as it goes. They just got back to Earth, so I don't know if that will continue. I already talked about how much better the animation looks for sci-fi environments compared to normal cities, so the space arc continued to have good writing and in addition, it was by far the best looking part of the series.

I feel like it curved. It started out really strong and then the middle seasons were less than stellar and it ramped up again near the end.

Basically as long as the Turtles were in New York the show was good - a lot of the "anywhere but New York" and it was harder to watch.

I felt that way about Northampton, but not the space arc.

The canon event of the Northampton retreat is supposed to be slow, somber and reflective. Unfortunately the writers took the opportunity to take their penchant for horror pastiches to yet another level. They also fumbled the vision of Splinter at the campfire, which was odd because this show normally excelled at nailing emotional moments.

The space arc was fun, visually appealing and more or less in line with the story it was adapting. Just a fun adventure with them teaming up with Fugitoid against the Triceratons. Added bonus being there was enough variety and side quests that it felt like it dragged much less than its 4kids counterpart, even if that take had less episodes.

And Davis Tenant was incredible as Honeycutt.

The Bigfoot ep in Northampton is the worst ep of the entire show. Literally the only ep I get embarrassed to watch. It's all the worst tropes of the show dialed up to 11, and doesn't feel like a TMNT episode.

Well, OP is only one year older than CC. Cubed was born in 1985, after all.

As much as I disliked the Northampton arc, I guess I should point out that “Return to New York” was surprisingly fun and “Battle for New York” was pretty good. The rest of season 3 mostly coasts until the Zog episode and the finale.

Conversely, I liked the Space Arc but thought “Earth’s Last Stand” was pretty awful. The first two acts are a snooze fest and then they just give up on any dedication to their time travel logic and didn’t fully commit to Fugitoid’s sacrifice.

But rest of season 4 is great once they’re back.

What do you guys think of the Wyrm episode? It's fun for a filler-type episode.

Well, now that I know the episode is based on a script taken from a different show with minimal adjustments, I consider it to be a lazy thing and they should have done better.

Before I knew that, for like a day or so, I just thought it was it was yet another instance of them just taking one of those old toy characters nobody really cares about but pretend to care about and did whatever the hell they wanted with it, regardless of what the intention was back in the day. Still, kind of an odd choice to pick Wyrm, isn't there another one more suitable to be shoehorned into the role of deceptive genie?

neatoman obviously never grew up with a Wyrm action figure and that’s really sad.

The 2012 show really deserved 7 seasons. Especially now that we know what came after it (Rise and Mutant Mayhem), which I would have gladly sacrificed for another 2 seasons of this cartoon.

It didn't need 7 seasons, though. The "story" was over after Season 4 and the Season 5 opener. Everything after that was bonus. Trying to drag that out for two more seasons would have just brought the show down.

I don't even necessarily hate Rise. It had some legitimately interesting ideas. But I'd sacrifice Mutant Mayhem to not have Mutant Mayhem exist.

Imagine if they'd have just let the Nick show rest and not air a single new TMNT cartoon or animated... thing... until like now. And if they'd spent all that down time actively developing something good.

I strongly agree. It was time to end and they never overstayed their welcome or resorted to gimmickry or cheapened the production. I guess they could have went on forever if they stuck to the Tales format and just told one-shots with no real continuity, but even that would have gotten stale eventually.

So yeah, 5 seasons was just right but… they should have made a movie by now.

I say this all the time, but Rise was DOA for me due to how quickly they churned it out after 2012 ended. Seemed borderline disrespectful.

They rushed it out and then cancelled it just as fast. Never really gave it a fair shake. Obviously some people felt differently, but as an older fan I basically had to tie myself down to the couch to make myself watch it all. It did eventually start paying off and going interesting places, but it was too late. Even the very good movie couldn’t save it.

The MMverse is getting a similar treatment too, with even less redeeming qualities.

And look at what a mess the IDW ongoing is. The only thing Paramount really has that is consistently both critically and finically successful is the TLR stuff and they take their time and let those trickle out slowly.

But you’re absolutely right. They would be wise to pump the brakes on all fronts and put out some quality ****. But they won’t lol