Do you like it that the original toon actually took place in the 80's and early 90's?

[Dragon Turtle]

Originally Posted by Cipher Classic

I think one of the things about the 2003 cartoon that majorly bothers me is that it's set in modern times.

Turtles will always be a period piece to me. It can follow the characters to whatever decade it wants, but when you're doing TMNT, you start in the mid-eighties.

Unless you started reading the comics in the eighties and just like to grow old with the turtles, there is no particularly meaningful reason for setting the turtles beginnings in the 80's, I personally wouldn't have any problem with Mirage adopting a sliding time scale like Marvel and DC.