All 2K3 TMNTS Seasons Now Available

[M.A.C.O.]

All cloud movie and TV applications update their library catalogs every Tuesday. I just checked Apple TV and Vudu today and the long delayed release seasons of the 2K3 show (seasons 4, 5, Fast Forward and Back To The Sewer) are finally available for digital purchase. No bundle available on Apple, but Vudu has a bundle available for all 7 seasons.

I’m surprised it took Paramount/Viacom this long to release the missing seasons for the 2K3 show. Seasons 1-3 and Turtles Forever have been available for almost a decade at this point.

[neatoman]

I am legitimately confused about Paramount's treatment of this show. They have literally owned the rights to it for... Fourteen years, right? And it seems that only now do they care enough to make it this available? And I believe the best way to watch this show under their stewardship until now was Paramount+, Amazon Prime and Pluto TV, which even that took a long time for them to get around to. I think the only time they've ever bothered to air it on actual TV was like one NickToons marathon, despite the fact that the show obviously qualifies for syndication. And the DVDs they made were just weird.

I get that they probably only bought the show as part of a deal with 4Kids to make sure they had the TV rights, but like how hard can be to just keep it on a few servers and air re-runs once in a while? What made them change their minds? Did it do really well on Paramount+ or something? I wouldn't exactly be surprised if it does better than STD...

[Drose18]

Looks great lmao




Couldn't have done a better job in 14 years if I did it myself

[Antoniocafe]

Went ahead and purchased season seven since it'll never be released on DVD.

[FlawedCoil82]

Originally Posted by Antoniocafe

Went ahead and purchased season seven since it'll never be released on DVD.

Miracles can still happen!
https://www.moviezyng.com/teenage-mu...s/810134941243

[Spike Spiegel]

This is on sale in a 7 season bundle for $24.99 on VUDU at the moment.

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by Drose18

Looks great lmao

https://i.imgur.com/qXQQCM2_d.webp?m...fidelity=grand


Couldn't have done a better job in 14 years if I did it myself

Ah, that's… Unfortunate. Still, are the actual episodes correct though?

[The-Shredder]

Originally Posted by neatoman

Ah, that's… Unfortunate. Still, are the actual episodes correct though?

I can confirm the episodes are correct on Vudu and the iTunes Store previews are correct as well. The whole series is on sale on Vudu for $34.99 in "HDX" quality. However, I watched the beginning of the first episode, and unfortunately it doesn't look so great. Some shots look like they were literally smeared with vaseline for some reason. There is also an annoying Nickelodeon bumper at the beginning of every episode. Also, Turtles Forever is a separate purchase and is the edited version in SD.

Thankfully, there are HD upscales of the series and Turtles Forever that are far superior, so for me this is more of a legal, convenient, and inexpensive way to own the series.

[MrPliggins]

Originally Posted by The-Shredder

Thankfully, there are HD upscales of the series and Turtles Forever that are far superior, so for me this is more of a legal, convenient, and inexpensive way to own the series.

Is there an HD uncut version of Turtles Forever out there? I've only ever been able to find the uncut version that streamed briefly on the Fox site, and the UK DVD.

[M.A.C.O.]

Originally Posted by neatoman

I am legitimately confused about Paramount's treatment of this show. They have literally owned the rights to it for... Fourteen years, right? And it seems that only now do they care enough to make it this available? And I believe the best way to watch this show under their stewardship until now was Paramount+, Amazon Prime and Pluto TV, which even that took a long time for them to get around to. I think the only time they've ever bothered to air it on actual TV was like one NickToons marathon, despite the fact that the show obviously qualifies for syndication. And the DVDs they made were just weird.

I get that they probably only bought the show as part of a deal with 4Kids to make sure they had the TV rights, but like how hard can be to just keep it on a few servers and air re-runs once in a while? What made them change their minds? Did it do really well on Paramount+ or something? I wouldn't exactly be surprised if it does better than STD...

I suspect the 2K3 series fell through the cracks after the sale of TMNT from Fox to Paramount. This happens a lot with these acquisitions. The new studio wants to put their own stamp on the brand, and sidelines the previous incarnation; in favor of their own.

Disney did something similar to the Avengers EMH, Spectacular Spider-Man, and Wolverine and the X-Men when they acquired Marvel. The existing shows were cancelled. Because they were produced by rival studios (Sony and Fox). While Disney fast tracked their own shows to fill the vacancy. Nothing was stopping Disney from airing, continuing or selling media of the previous shows. Because they were all acquired in the sale.


The 2K3 series has all but been forgotten by the general audience. There is no nostalgia merchandising like there is for 87 show. The 87 turtles got a crossover with the 2012 turtles. The 2K3 series didn’t. The TMNT got a crossover with WB/DC comics and Batman, before the rest of the 2K3 series was released. Add in Rise of The TMNT’s 2 seasons and Netflix movie. Honestly, the timing feels like someone at Viacom/Paramount remembered they still have seasons of TMNT that hadn’t been released and are looking to profit off them now.


Sigh. A fan wonders where the 2K3 series went wrong and why it ended up forgotten?

[M.A.C.O.]

Just checked AppleTV/iTunes. They have all 7 seasons in a bundle for $49.99 in HD.


Yeah, I too am wondering why Viacom/Paramount has made steps to release the remaining seasons of the 2K3 series. Crazy to think it’s been 14 years since the sale to Paramount. A long time to forget you own something.

[Shark_Blade]

Yup itunes look better.

Originally Posted by Zulithe

*edit* iTunes and VUDU both confirmed for 1080p, had to double check

Well, I guess i'll be picking it up on iTunes as soon as there is a sale.

Trend tracking shows the last sale was in 2018 for OT and never for 2k3 and Rise so you’ll be waiting a lot longer for sale, or maybe there’ll never be a sale at all. The 2012 series is constantly on sale tho.

Originally Posted by Zog The Magnificent

Digitial is garbage. It has benefits, sure, but it's inherently unstable, could disappear at any time, can be edited retroactively, and you don't really own it. I try and track down a physical copy of everything I enjoy. Really, if you look hard enough, you can find a DVD or blu-ray of most shows, including this one. You just have to know where to look.

Digital is the future, portable and cheaper (also it always goes on sale mostly). Hell there is no more physical video shop in most parts of the world and it’s very expensive to import everytime. Plus when I bought HD 1080p movies they upscale to 4K for free. I don’t have to rebuy a physical 4K disc and save money.

Adapt or get left behind.

Originally Posted by M.A.C.O.

Just checked AppleTV/iTunes. They have all 7 seasons in a bundle for $49.99 in HD.


Yeah, I too am wondering why Viacom/Paramount has made steps to release the remaining seasons of the 2K3 series. Crazy to think it’s been 14 years since the sale to Paramount. A long time to forget you own something.

I didn’t know they have the whole collection! It’s a lot cheaper than buying individual seasons. Cheers!

[Zog The Magnificent]

Originally Posted by Shark_Blade

Digital is the future, portable and cheaper (also it always goes on sale mostly). Hell there is no more physical video shop in most parts of the world and it’s very expensive to import everytime. Plus when I bought HD 1080p movies they upscale to 4K for free. I don’t have to rebuy a physical 4K disc and save money.

Adapt or get left behind.

1080p for many things is pointless. The resolution change between that and 720p is miniscule in terms of what can actually be detected by your eye, and is pointless unless you've got a really nice TV, and even so the change in quality is ultimately pretty small. It's more noticible on live action stuff, but imperceivable on most animation. And 4k is ACTUALLY pointless; that's literally a higher resolution than the human eye. It's impossible to actually detect the difference.

Beyond that, physical media is still really easy to get online, and for pretty cheap. And none of that changes the point that YOU DON'T ACTUALLY OWN DIGITAL MEDIA. You own a licenese to it, that can be revoked at any time if the servers go down or the licence moves owners. There goes your library, and there's nothing you can do about it. Your stuff is gone, and the money you spent on it is still spent. Additionally, portable doesn't matter as much if you don't have an internet connection. I can watch my discs whenever I want. There are many more potential points of failure when relying on fully online tech. And once again, physical media can NEVER be edited after the fact, which we've already seen happen on older movies. I'm not getting left behind by using physical media and creating a personal offline archive, I'm ensuring that I actually own it and never lose it. I'm willing to use streaming, but I see no reason to "adapt" to what is ultimately a worse version of the previous system, nor do I wish to fully rely on something so inherently unstable.

[TheSkeletonMan939]

The show was almost certainly finished in 4:3 standard definition. I think DC right around this time started to board their shows in widescreen -- and 20 years later eventually were able to release those versions on bluray. But I don't think 4Kids was doing that back then. If these are HD files then they're upscales.
Master material for this show is all over the place since some DVDs had commercial bumpers spliced in, and I recall some even had the rating bug at the start of the episode. Are those TVY7 notices on these digital copies?

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by TheSkeletonMan939

The show was almost certainly finished in 4:3 standard definition. I think DC right around this time started to board their shows in widescreen -- and 20 years later eventually were able to release those versions on bluray. But I don't think 4Kids was doing that back then. If these are HD files then they're upscales.
Master material for this show is all over the place since some DVDs had commercial bumpers spliced in, and I recall some even had the rating bug at the start of the episode. Are those TVY7 notices on these digital copies?

From what I have seen, original commercial bumpers are retained in the digital batch. Each episode also has a newly added "You're watching Nickelodeon" ooze-bumper at the front end.



Thus far, I haven't noticed any TVY7 stamps on the front side yet.

The episode end credits are interesting. Unlike the broadcast and DVDs, they seem to move at reasonable speed instead of fast-forward, but they are now scrunched into vertical split-screen alongside a re-air of the opening animation sequence.

[Digital Ghost]

Originally Posted by Zog The Magnificent

1080p for many things is pointless. The resolution change between that and 720p is miniscule in terms of what can actually be detected by your eye, and is pointless unless you've got a really nice TV, and even so the change in quality is ultimately pretty small. It's more noticible on live action stuff, but imperceivable on most animation. And 4k is ACTUALLY pointless; that's literally a higher resolution than the human eye. It's impossible to actually detect the difference.

Beyond that, physical media is still really easy to get online, and for pretty cheap. And none of that changes the point that YOU DON'T ACTUALLY OWN DIGITAL MEDIA. You own a licenese to it, that can be revoked at any time if the servers go down or the licence moves owners. There goes your library, and there's nothing you can do about it. Your stuff is gone, and the money you spent on it is still spent. Additionally, portable doesn't matter as much if you don't have an internet connection. I can watch my discs whenever I want. There are many more potential points of failure when relying on fully online tech. And once again, physical media can NEVER be edited after the fact, which we've already seen happen on older movies. I'm not getting left behind by using physical media and creating a personal offline archive, I'm ensuring that I actually own it and never lose it. I'm willing to use streaming, but I see no reason to "adapt" to what is ultimately a worse version of the previous system, nor do I wish to fully rely on something so inherently unstable.

Excellently said... I collect physical media, for all of these reasons. We see these licensing issues with video games as well. Activision for example; everyone wants to play their older games, Transformers, Marvel, etc... and I've seen nothing but complaints for years from fans begging them to re-aquire the rights to sell them digitally. Physical media is certainly not dead. Vinyl records are a perfect example. I collect bluray steelbooks, vinyl soundtracks and know several others that do... while some big box stores may have stopped offering it, that's due in part to online shopping being the preferred means to acquire it.

I'm not fully against streaming or digital purchases though. I've acquired several video games on the cheap in recent years but I think both forms of media are thriving. Physical will always be where it's at for me.

[frank_one]

Is it really HD or just upscaled?

[M.A.C.O.]

Originally Posted by frank_one

Is it really HD or just upscaled?

It says it’s HD. I think for AppleTV shows it’s 720p standard. But I can’t be sure. AppleTV does samples of episodes. So you can click on an episodes and check for yourself.

[The Turtle Terminator]

From what I’ve watched, I think the episodes look better (or, to sound more technical, the HD looks sharper) on the Paramount Plus editions. I did find some remasters on YouTube and they look absolutely stunning and are fully remastered. The iTunes versions are better than the DVDs offered.

[frank_one]

Can someone post a screenshot or throw me a Youtube link? I'm curious to see if this is an upscaled version of SD quality material or something else.