Old Toon Discussion Thread- Catwoman from Channel 6

[JakeSully]

incorrect, Cat Scratch Fever was about Catwoman who got bitten by her own cat that got infected by Professor Milo and had a fever. "Tyger Tyger" is the episode i refer to when i mentioned the same thing like April happened to Selina Kyle and the villain in that wasn't Professor Milo, it was Dr. Emile Dorain.

Now that could make a good fanfiction story crossover of Batman TAS and Ninja Turtles, Dr. Dorain and Professor Milo joining Shredder as they want April and change her back into a catwoman and Dorain and Milo have other mutants including Tygrus who develops a crush on April but April needs to be human again with a mutagen cure that Milo has developed. I could see the turtles plus Tygrus fighting some of the criminal mutants of Dorain/Milo/Shredder plus try to cure April back to being a human again.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Killer Moth

Nice art above, oldmanwinters.

As a cheap plotpoint or plothole, as oldmanwinters noted with the tiger at the Lair among other plotholes, what about the first tiger by the alley near April's place? That tiger wasn't exactly caught or foiled by the Turtles. The segment was filler, surely, but hopefully the equivalent of animal control caught him or her in time. Otherwise..., oops.

Oh, I totally forgot about that scene! It's probably the most inexplicable part of the whole episode too. In previous scenes, we saw April breaking the tiger out of the zoo and escorting him through New York alleys in broad daylight.

All of a sudden, we see the tiger attacking the turtles outside April's apartment. They elude him thanks to the fire escape and never give him a second thought. But where was April the whole time? Was she playing with a ball of yarn down the street? Was she breaking into a fish market for a quick snack? The whole scene is just so random. And after the turtles look at photographs with Irma at the apartment they go looking for April (assuming she's turned into an alley cat or something). At that point, the tiger has rejoined April in the sewer lair to kill Splinter. What the heck?

I can't help but think Richard Merwin wrote up a script (without that tiger scene) and submitted to his editor at the studio. At that point, somebody told him, "Hey, there's not enough ACTION in this script! Add a fight scene or a chase or something!" And then the tiger in the alley scene must have been augmented to the script. I really don't get it.

But here's some scans of that scene from the manga adaptation, translated by DrSpenger! Even in Japanese it doesn't make sense!

Originally Posted by Killer Moth

Nice art above, oldmanwinters.

Thanks for the compliment! I had fun drawing it!

[Killer Moth]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

All of a sudden, we see the tiger attacking the turtles outside April's apartment. They elude him thanks to the fire escape and never give him a second thought. But where was April the whole time? Was she playing with a ball of yarn down the street? Was she breaking into a fish market for a quick snack? The whole scene is just so random. And after the turtles look at photographs with Irma at the apartment they go looking for April (assuming she's turned into an alley cat or something). At that point, the tiger has rejoined April in the sewer lair to kill Splinter. What the heck?

I can't help but think Richard Merwin wrote up a script (without that tiger scene) and submitted to his editor at the studio. At that point, somebody told him, "Hey, there's not enough ACTION in this script! Add a fight scene or a chase or something!" And then the tiger in the alley scene must have been augmented to the script. I really don't get it.

I think I prefer the manga version, as the tiger actually swiped at Don.

I made a point to see the episode a few times, recently, as until the DVD, I haven't seen it since 89. For whatever reasons, FHE never released the episode on video. Bah.

The "a superior telling Merwin to insert an action scene for filler" theory makes the most sense. I need to re-view it, as I keep forgetting if she let out two tigers or not. I don't know I keep blanking on that detail, as that's a big one. And then, Irma beat them to the apartment, anyway, which made the prior scene even more pointless. Hah....

Still, Don's lion-tamer act was amusing to see, so it didn't bother me all that much. Besides, the episode had more positive aspects, anyway -- Irma, the fact Bebop and Rocksteady put up a decent fight in the Turtles' liar, etc. The street tiger bit is a logic fail, but I'm willing to overlook it as the good outweighed the bad.

I also noticed during Krang and Shredder's final exchange (quite humorous with Krang's repairman bit), Krang did mention in passing about returning the Technodrome to Earth. I don't know if the foreshadowing meant to be that subtle for the next episode or not, but, at least, it was there.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

A Mod should probably merge this thread with the Official OT Talkback Thread:
http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/showthread.php?t=28068

I do like April's look as a cat-mutant; it could have made for a good follow-up episode if the series had decided to revisit the theme. It was an unexpected twist seeing her as a crazy, villainous threat. I'm a big fan of classic monster movies like Lon Chaney's The Wolfman, so episodes like this definitely appeal to me.

I've always thought this was a very cool episode, even though some of its internal logic falls apart at a number of points.

How does Shredder know the effects of the Matter Transporter (malfunctioning, no less) are temporary? Why does a mind control collar prolong a temporary mutation as long as its still attached to a person's neck? Are we to assume that Bebop just carries around a rat in his vest pocket for fun (I can believe that, actually)? Why did Shredder have the forethought to install cameras in random alleys so that he could watch April lead the tiger into the sewers but not have the idea to track her movements all the way and determine the location of the turtle's sewer lair? How the heck do the turtles return that tiger to the zoo after locking him in their lair's large sewer cage (the mere existence of such a thing also raises some odd questions as well)? Did that orange cat that got zapped with April exhibit any human personality traits?

There are a good number of major animation mistakes too, most noticeably the inexplicable Leonardo-Donatello swap-out at the climax. April's mutated appearance appears to get off-model quite a bit and her tail mysteriously comes and goes and random points.

I would have liked to see future writers deal with Splinter's fear of cats ("the one creature he truly fears!") similar to how Splinter helped Leonardo to overcome his fear of snakes in "Snakes Alive."

Anyhoo, this episode was a big influence on my Master Splinter fan-comic, "Nothing to Fear." And Powder did an awesome job coloring this piece of fan-art that I drew:


Splinter's Worst Nightmare by ~oldmanwinters and EPIC colors by ~PowderAKACaseyJones on deviantART

Maybe the camera is on the mind control device.

[JakeSully]

Nice artwork i should say.

[ZariusTwo]

You should see the artwork he did for my aborted novella.

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

And how do the TMNT and Splinter suspect Shredder using a matter transporter when they are more familar with Krang's dimensional portals?

[JakeSully]

I should check out that artwork Zarius mentioned

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by JakeSully

I should check out that artwork Zarius mentioned

Ah, Zarius gives that old stuff I did for him too much credit. I was still learning how to draw TMNT characters again when I did all that. I think my best stuff so far is the work I'm doing for BentonGrey's video game Mod.

Anyway, JS, do have a Deviantart account named "CyrusGrissom?" Some of your comments here are very similar to remarks he left on my DA pages.

[NameGoesHere1066]

Originally Posted by ZariusTwo

You should see the artwork he did for my aborted novella.

why was is aborted!



shouldn't Donatello's been ripped apart from the swipe from the tiger?

[Original TMNT Cartoon Fan]

I would like to see the mousers being re-used some times (like in the UK Hero Turtles Comics, Shreder just said Baxter Stockman created them and that he stole the engineering drawing).

[Killer Moth]

Originally Posted by Swedenfan 1982

And how do the TMNT and Splinter suspect Shredder using a matter transporter when they are more familar with Krang's dimensional portals?

As I recall, it was Splinter who first figured it was a matter transporter. Come to think of it, Leo was the one who thought of using the particle accelerator in "Teenagers from Dimension X." Both characters are quite intelligent, surely, yet when it comes to the science aspects, knowing such details off-hand comes off as a surprise. Or, to be less generous, such exact knowledge could be perceived as out-of-character. You make the call.

Speaking of the manga, who did the art? Because it looks familiar, but I can't think exactly from whom.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by NameGoesHere1066

shouldn't Donatello's been ripped apart from the swipe from the tiger?

Donatello's a tough cookie, but I think the trash can may have absorbed some of the blow, even if the tiger slash knock it away.

Anyway, the manga shows the tiger had a somewhat inglorious end to his Turtle Attack idea:


But on the very next page, he's right back with April sneaking through the alleys. The fact that Shredder can see them doing this suggests he had a little more tech at work than just a camera on the collar. And I would think if the camera was on the collar it should have been a relatively easy process to pinpoint the location of the turtles' sewer lair:


Unless, of course...
This little incident with April served as a reason for Splinter and the Turtles to relocate their lair to the design that we ended up seeing regularly in Season 3 and beyond. Knowing that she had compromised the old location would explain the different appearance of the lair that appears through most of Season 2 from the rest of the series.

Originally Posted by Killer Moth

Speaking of the manga, who did the art? Because it looks familiar, but I can't think exactly from whom.

If I remember, correctly, three Japanese artists rotated duties on the 15-volume Dengeki Comics adaptations of the TV series: Tsutomu Oyamada, Zuki Mora, and Yoshimi Hamada.

Hamada did the art duties for The Catwoman from Channel Six story. He draws in a very "cutesy" style and likes to recycle his own art from time to time. Here's DrSpengler's original take on it if you're interested.

Sorry for the crummy looking manga scans, folks. This was one of the first issues I ever bought and I was really careful when scanning since I was scared to death of damaging the spine. However, I've come to discover they are pretty sturdy books; if somebody ever wants to translate the whole series, I'd be happy to offer my scanning services!

[Jester]

I guess the real question is: How many tigers did the zoo have, and would Cat April or Shredder have the where-with-all to post one to guard April's apartment?

[MikeandRaph87]

Its not often fights happen in the lair and the fact this one had two makes this episode awesome.

Is this episode what makes people think April is the cat's meow?

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Jester

I guess the real question is: How many tigers did the zoo have, and would Cat April or Shredder have the where-with-all to post one to guard April's apartment?

Or...

Maybe Shredder used his Hologram Machine later seen in "Cowabunga, Shredhead" to send a fake tiger image to distract the turtles while April led the real beast into the sewer?

Man, we are so far past the point of over-analyzing this episode!

[Jester]

This episode is gonna be interesting when we get to it...

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Jester

This episode is gonna be interesting when we get to it...

Dude, we should try to contact Richard Merwin for a guest session! Looks like he does at least have a LinkedIn account!

Maybe he could answer some of our questions!

[Jester]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Dude, we should try to contact Richard Merwin for a guest session! Looks like he does at least have a LinkedIn account!

Maybe he could answer some of our questions!

or at least help us justify the seemingly gaping plot holes...

[Killer Moth]

I have the episode cued up on my laptop's DVD player, with a few screenshots. Apologies for the lesser quality, as I'm doing it in a hurry and my higher-quality DVD playing software is presently miffed at me.

First shot and onward, we see only one tiger, on-screen. And then April lets out said tiger and end scene. Here are a few shots.





Right after the Turtles' clash with their tiger, cut back to April and her tiger. Then switch to Shredder/Krang dialogue/snark as they view her and her pet.



As a bonus cap, here is the "first" (or is that second?) tiger swiping at Don (in case anyone doubted it, as I had):



Either, April allowed the tiger to wander off and go to her apartment and the animal suddenly returned to her -- as the Turtles didn't contain that one -- or she simply released another tiger off-screen before her hunt for Splinter. It's a plothole, either way, but on-screen, she unleashed just one from the cage. So, mystery semi-solved?