What is your least favorite TMNT animated series?

[CyberCubed]

4kids series had the best overall storylines and action. Nick's humor and action is good but the stories thus far are fairly simple.

[snake]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

4kids series had the best overall storylines and action. Nick's humor and action is good but the stories thus far are fairly simple.

Personally I like nicks way of storytelling better,

[rpd123]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

4kids series had the best overall storylines and action. Nick's humor and action is good but the stories thus far are fairly simple.

Yeah, the Nick stories are very formulaic which is not something that I typically like. But what I've noticed is that a lot of tv shows are like that in their first season.

[CyberCubed]

Indeed. I don't mind the simple plots because the characterization, humor and action is top notch. However I hope when Season 2 comes along they do more continuing storylines and deeper plots. It was the 4kids series greatest strength compared to the other two.

[rpd123]

Agreed. I typically don't like the formulaic stuff (it almost killed Smallville for me) but it works pretty well in this one. The 4kids series did do a great job of creating deeper stories that spanned more than an episode and hopefully in season 2 Nick will move toward that.

[Pterobat]

Okay, let's play the rest of this game:

I prefer the 4Kids series to the OT, because, yes, my thing is for darker, more serious stuff. I also think there is a sense of quality that goes beyond whether a series is an action or a comedy, and the 4Kids series has more of that "stuff".

It is not a perfect show by any means, but I do prefer it, and think when it was great, it was damn great.

The OT, on the other hand, I accept what it's trying to be and do, and sometimes it does achieve those heights of sublime ridiculousness, or is lovable. But it's also formulaic and repetitive, and often it fails at what it tries to be. There are a lot of episodes I like watching, but many others that I don't.

Saying so doesn't mean I dislike the OT. It's false to say that calling attention to the flaws in something means you hate it.

[Candy Kappa]

tricky.

For me the Nick show at the moment is the best show, but we're also just in season 1.

The OT, I had a lot of hate for when I was younger, since all the episodes I saw was some of the lamer ones, like the musketeer episode and episodes that just didn't put the turtles in good light. But watching the whole series on an older age, there is a lot of good episodes.

The 4KIDS are okay, I've enjoyed the whole series, but the humor they try at is most often terrible, and consists of how annoying Mikey is.

I think 4Kids might be the lesser series, since. if I ever feel like watching something animated TMNT, it might be the FW season 1. And, as much fun it was the first time seeing Mirage stories adapted to 4KIDs, that good feeling quickly wears off seeing how those stories isn't really that good of an adaptation.

Except for The King episode, at least i remember it to be pretty good

[Tuxedo Moroboshi]

Even though I grew up with it, I honestly can't stand most episodes of the '87 toon, so this was an easy choice for me. Out of all the animated series, the 2k3 toon is my favorite (except for FF and BttS which I hated). The Nick toon is sorta okay-ish. I know everyone's been going nuts over it, but there's too many things about it that bug me for me to really like it, but it's still leagues above the '87 toon.

Originally Posted by Pterobat

Okay, let's play the rest of this game:

I prefer the 4Kids series to the OT, because, yes, my thing is for darker, more serious stuff. I also think there is a sense of quality that goes beyond whether a series is an action or a comedy, and the 4Kids series has more of that "stuff".

It is not a perfect show by any means, but I do prefer it, and think when it was great, it was damn great.

The OT, on the other hand, I accept what it's trying to be and do, and sometimes it does achieve those heights of sublime ridiculousness, or is lovable. But it's also formulaic and repetitive, and often it fails at what it tries to be. There are a lot of episodes I like watching, but many others that I don't.

Saying so doesn't mean I dislike the OT. It's false to say that calling attention to the flaws in something means you hate it.

I think your feelings pretty much mostly sum up mine. While I find it hard to sit through most episodes of the '87 toon, I wouldn't say that I hate the '87 toon... but then again, maybe that's probably solely due to nostalgia, I dunno.

[Icebot]

My least favorite is the 2012 show. I wish they didn't make it CGI and that it was animated like the 1987 and the 2003 ones were.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Clown Prince of Crime

Even though I grew up with it, I honestly can't stand most episodes of the '87 toon, so this was an easy choice for me. Out of all the animated series, the 2k3 toon is my favorite (except for FF and BttS which I hated). The Nick toon is sorta okay-ish. I know everyone's been going nuts over it, but there's too many things about it that bug me for me to really like it, but it's still leagues above the '87 toon

I think your feelings pretty much mostly sum up mine. While I find it hard to sit through most episodes of the '87 toon, I wouldn't say that I hate the '87 toon... but then again, maybe that's probably solely due to nostalgia, I dunno.

Which episodes are those then?

[chrisdude]

The 2003 cartoon is the only one I didn't fall in love with. I started watching it from the beginning, but I didn't make it but a few episodes. I tried again with Fast Forward, but I just didn't get into it. Wasn't fun.

I've tried digging up old Mighty Morphin Power Rangers or Pokemon eps that used to love, and they're painful to endure. But I've collected and watched through all of the OT's seasons, and the show is still fun for me to watch.

The Nick cartoon? I can't come up with one serious complaint. My only minor complaint was mutating Bradford and Xever, leaving the turtles with no recurring human martial arts enemies. Then they brought Karai, and FishFace actually turned out to not suck. I literally can't even nitpick this show.

[MikeandRaph87]

The '87 cartoon is what I grew up with and defined Ninaj Turtles as a franchise. The '03 cartoon was decent because of its great continuity and layered story even if I feel it dropped the ball by not giuving us a human Shredder or Rat King and not incorporating the classic characters that made it great beyond the b&w comic. The 2012 voice cast I am having a hard time liking to be honest and the crush on April is not funny its just a poor side plot IMHO. Its still early so it could catch up with the '03 cartoon. Time will tell.

[NinjaMan]

2003. It was a good show, but I didn't feel it like the 87 show and the Nick version.

[snake]

Originally Posted by Icebot

My least favorite is the 2012 show. I wish they didn't make it CGI and that it was animated like the 1987 and the 2003 ones were.

Give it a chance, the cgi is really good looking, personally I love it

[Spitfire]

Wow pretty close poll. I find it hilarious that better series is losing but this isn't a poll of quality it's personal taste. Some people prefer burping jokes and random anime moments that have no context to well written stories and story arcs.

I voted the Nick toon, no surprise. I might watch more but I don't see my opinion changing. Unless everything I hated about what I did watch magically disappears the show would have to change a lot to appease me. The OT gets a free ride on nostalgia but for it's time it was a trend setter and a lot of other series saw fit to rip it's formula off. In it's defense the show tried to have story arcs in rare occasions and at the time let us not forget most cartoons did not have story arcs of any kind. Not even the loved 90's Batman series had story arcs. Two parters sure but never an over arching storyline.

2K3 is a good series. One of the better to come out of the last decade. The last few seasons were questionable but 1-4 are solid with good writing and story arcs. The major criticisms of the show for most are Mikey being annoying and Fast Forward/BTTS being to silly and kids like. The irony is staggering.

[AT-Man]

If I'm gonna vote someday, I will vote for the OT. And it makes me sick, so I'm not gonna do it. Damn you OP, why would you do this to us?!

[Tuxedo Moroboshi]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

Which episodes are those then?

You want me to list them? Most means most, dude. I'm not gonna spend my entire afternoon typing out the titles for the majority of episodes to a TV show that consists of nearly 200 episodes.

But, ya, just in general, I found the goofier aspects of the '87 toon to be pretty groan worthy. Occasionally I'll laugh at a joke (usually one Raphael makes), but honestly the show just turned out to be very different from how I remembered it as a kid. What I remembered as a kid were the TMNT kicking butt and eating pizza. Certainly, the latter was correct, but the former isn't anything near how I remembered it as a child, and there's all this added camp that I swear I must have been too young to take notice of.

So, ya, humor I usually didn't find funny (and it was geared more toward humor than action, despite what my childhood memories tell me), fictional science that doesn't even try to make sense within the context of its own rules, villains that are usually only slightly more dangerous than Jessie and James from Pokemon, and a lack of direction for the greater storyline. These are some of the biggest issues I have with it. Ya know, it's actually kinda funny that so many people hate the ending to the first NES game. I actually thought it was awesome to see them turn Splinter back into Hamato Yoshi. I mean, that was their goal in season 1 (Leonardo even says so himself), so to me it seems like a happy ending for that universe... but there was never any progress toward that goal. In fact, it was forgotten all about rather quickly.

Ironically, I think I like the Red Sky episodes even less. But only because it seemed like they were trying TOO hard to be edgy within a universe that was established as being anything but. What they were trying to do with Red Sky probably would have worked out a lot better as a completely new series, as opposed to a continuation of the 1987 toon. I will admit, though, that Shredder blowing up Channel 6 was pretty badass (uncharacteristically so).

Again, though, I don't hate the 1987 cartoon. It introduced me to the TMNT (or was it the action figures? I honestly can't remember, I was waaaay too young), it has a very catchy theme song (still my favorite theme song among all of them), and I like some of the characters that came about from it. I just don't really enjoy watching the series again all that much as an adult, and find 2k3 to be more along the lines of what became my distorted childhood memories (though... I think said childhood memories were probably mostly influenced by the live-action movies, which I remember more vividly due to how often I'd see them). Is 2k3 perfection? Not by a long shot. There's plenty of things about it that irk me, but overall, I find it to be the most well-written, most action-packed, and often most emotionally-driven of all the animated incarnations so far.

I can't apologize for holding an unpopular opinion, but I will say that these are my honest feelings regarding these shows. Though I'm avoiding voicing my opinions about the Nick toon, since that's so popular and well liked that I'll probably get lynched if I open my mouth about it publicly (though I do think it's at least okay, and still better than the 1987 toon, for my tastes regarding TMNT).

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by AT-Man

If I'm gonna vote someday, I will vote for the OT. And it makes me sick, so I'm not gonna do it. Damn you OP, why would you do this to us?!

Agreed that's what I did not vote on the poll. I really like all 3 series and all 3 also have their own flaws.

I guess I like Nick slightly less than the others but its still way too early given only 16 episodes aired. For all we know the rest of the series could be excellent or it could fall to pieces. It is too early.

[rpd123]

Originally Posted by Spitfire

2K3 is a good series. One of the better to come out of the last decade. The last few seasons were questionable but 1-4 are solid with good writing and story arcs. The major criticisms of the show for most are Mikey being annoying and Fast Forward/BTTS being to silly and kids like. The irony is staggering.

Agreed. I like 2K3 the best. I can't give the OT a free pass personally, because I didn't grow up with it. I saw reruns as a kid from time to time, but it was at the same time 2K3 was new. So I have the nostalgia and good story arcs making 2K3 my favorite, and I just couldn't get into the OT as much. The new one is alright so far, but time will tell if it can surpass 2K3 (I don't think it will).

[Keroscene]

The question is "what is your least favorite" rather than "which is the least good" and favorites don't have to be logical, which is why I think 2003 is not doing so well in this poll. Logically, I know that 2k3 was better than 1987, on an art level, a plotting level and all the rest of it. But 1987 is always going to have a certain nostalgic appeal for me, and whilst the Nick cartoon is good enough to outweigh that, the 2k3 toon isn't.