Why do you like the TMNT?

[samxsteal]

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Originally Posted by FellowChucker

It's fun, creative, visually interesting, and has LOADS of heart. I mean it's a melting pot of great concepts. It's serious, while not being melodramatic. It can poke fun at itself. Self depricating. Has an origin story with rich lineage. It has built in levity that doesn't undercut plot, via entertaining personalities. It emphasises the meaning of family, and brotherhood. To me the best most unique aspect. It's roots in Japanese, ninja, bushido, samurai kung fu movie culture makes it flat out cool. Bad ass vigilantes v.s. frightening villains.

Visually the turtles themselves are slightly frightening, freaky, cool, yet at times out right cute. The turtles have an honor, code of conduct amongst them that makes them fantastic reluctant, albeit feared heroes. You've got the cool, snide, rebel fighter. The goofy, stoner, pop culture obsessed kid brother. The intelligent, albeit almost awkward dork. Then you have the well rounded, teacher's pet leader figure. The Yoda esque father figure, who while old, still has insane skills.

The toys have been nothing sort of amazing. Just too much to name. I've met, created friendships off this franchise. Everyone here has touched based on what I love about the TMNT franchise, idea, and concepts. Last but not least, I've grown up with them. The franchise started in my early youth, and I was there to witness the boom in popularity to the pop culture phenomenon it eventually became. TMNT is apart of my fabric as a person. Plus ... pizza obsession. Who doesn't have it?

Quoted for accuracy

[graphic_content]

the first season of the old cartoon really sucked me in...

...the animation was at its best in my opinion, with my favorite episode being,'ENTER THE SHREDDER' - the fights were smooth, and well choreographed-as a kid i couldn't ask for much more

...i remember that i kept going around quoting lines, while flourishing my plastic weapons.

I was an action junkie even a kid...and the Turtles were everything that was awesome about morning cartoons.

[Raphtastic]

Actually, I can see that, Kas. I was initially drawn to TMNT back in the day because they were outsiders, alienated from the rest of society. They were externally as freakish as I felt inside. They could expect others to fear, misunderstand or threaten them, and yet they had each other and could fight back and even laugh at their misadventures. The turtles, Splinter, and April were this tiny, unlikely, cobbled together family of misfits against the world.

My life at home was pretty rough and, to make matters worse, I'd just moved from Illinois to Texas, which, to a bunch of Texas kids, meant I might as well have come from the moon. I was nerdy, quiet, and awkward. At the time, I wanted nothing more than for Raphael to teach me how to really defend myself and be brave. I think I was drawn to that character because I felt so powerless and was very angry at being abused at home and bullied at school. I wanted to feel normal and safe. I wanted to be part of a family like the turtles have, to have (mostly) patient and caring adults like Splinter and April looking out for me. But watching the OT or the 1st movie or reading the comics, I felt like a normal kid and could lose myself in manageable chaos and wackiness for awhile. I'd tell myself that if they could be brave while being sucked into other dimensions, battling all sorts of aliens, creatures and ninja, I could be at least brave enough to get through the day. And the next day and the day after that.

Even now, if I need cheering up, I can find it in various TMNT incarnations. I've occasionally entertained the idea of writing a fic about the turtles literally teaching a young fan how to be brave and that she doesn't need them to save her as a way of talking about what fandom can mean to people...

[Cipher]

Why as in causation? Childhood nostalgia.

Why do I still like it?

Dude. I 'unno. Increasingly I think it's only or primarily for the Mirage series, which is the only version I could go on at length for all the reasons I think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I really enjoy the books they put out without having to qualify it or attribute anything (other than my finding them) to nostalgia.

There are some things I think I do legitimately enjoy about the tone and aesthetics of '90s fad-era material (the Fred Wolf cartoon, the Playmates toylines, games, etc., the Adventures comics). It's wild and irreverent and expansive, retaining just enough of the bizareness and punk-rock attitude of the early indie comics to feel some affection for. But more and more I think I enjoy the non-Mirage versions because they retain just enough of what I love about that series to enjoy them as alternate takes, though I might not otherwise follow them. Certainly, I don't feel any obligation to enjoy each new version.

[CyberCubed]

I think the reasons people still like it:

The current cartoons are good, the current comics are good. Should there ever be a time we get a terrible TMNT cartoon or the comics turn to garbage, I'm sure we'll stop liking it.

Just look at how disliked Next Mutation was or the apathy for the new movie. It's not like we always accept what is thrown at us.

I just think we TMNT fans are lucky that we got 3 solid cartoon series and the off-shoots of Mirage like Archie and IDW turned out really well.

[Refractive Reflections]

One aspect I think should be mentioned, but I don't think I've read so far, is that I appreciate how the Turtles' fighting skills require training and practice.

To be honest, I never found other superheroes resonate with me (not a comic book fan) and therefore never cared about them because most of their superpowers were just "dumped" or bestowed on them without requiring any type of effort or perseverance (i.e. Superman, Spiderman, etc.) or they had all the overt, plentiful resources to do so much crime-fighting (i.e. Batman's wealth). I value how these Turtles come from such humble backgrounds and (more importantly) actually train themselves up from their modest possessions/circumstances to do extraordinary things rather than easily acquiring their "powers" and then somehow be able to save the world in an instant. For me, the Turtles' struggle and perseverance parallels social, grassroots movements where there's a greater respect for those who led change with modest resources rather than an individual with political power and/or wealth who "had it all" and could easily change things.

It's far more relatable and endearing for the audience to see humble people, with the same modest environment, achieve something great and momentous through hard work rather than reading a person having some over-the-top, extreme power to accomplish anything. I mean how many people can relate to having an over-the-top skill or talent so quickly without any form of training or practice?

Yes, the Turtles have been depicted having a significant strength edge above humans and innate, martial arts talent, but they had to be developed, and those advantages are miniscule in comparison to the powers of Superman, Spiderman, and many other superheroes. (Therefore with all that being said, one could see why these 2014 Turtles having these apparent "Hulkish" strength capabilities, is one of my many reasons as to why I look unfavorably upon how this film is developing. ...But that's a whole other can-of-worms argument. )

[Raphtastic]

Refractive Reflections, that's a big part of it for me, too. In addition to all the wonderful things you said, I think it adds to their scrappy underdog status. Not only are they a tiny group of mutants who are forced to hide in the sewers of all places and scavenge for food and supplies, but they choose to train that hard and engage in acts of heroism when all the odds are against them. It really isn't like Superman or something, where it's easy. It requires sacrifice, discipline, and (in many universes) it can be fairly thankless.

[Icebot]

My interest in video games started it.

I loved the things the old toon had in common with the video game TMNT 2 the Arcade Game.

I watched the old toon and learned to like how they battle Shredder all the time. I grew up with this show and my interest for TMNT will never go away.