Favourite Tmnt version?

[FredWolfLeonardo]

What are your favourite versions of Turtles everyone?

For me, its a tie in between the 80s cartoon and the current Nickelodeon series.

[Candy Kappa]

Mirage, then Nick.

[Utrommaniac]

IDW is my favorite for sure. It doesn't take its seriousness to Edgelord proportions and does a better job of keeping its villains off the mustache-twirling schemer wagon. Even Stockman, the driest cut among them, still feels a lot more humanized than other versions. As far as I'm aware of his backstory, he has greed for greed's sake, but it is done amazingly well for that kind of villain type. Humor is modestly sprinkled in, and is usually pretty light when it does come up. Most of all, I can believe the Turtles are teenagers, both in form and behavior.

There's an "I like it well enough" group going in order of "Nick, FW, 2003, Mirage" which should probably be going as "Mirage, 2003, Nick, FW", but that's just not the way it turned out for me. They are best enjoyed a little bit at a time for me. I certainly can't binge read/watch any of them like I can binge read IDW.

I would put Archie close to the bottom, if only because I haven't really read a lot of it, and what I have read, doesn't quite work for me (I have read that one story of Rocksteady and Bebop completely nude in the grocery store, and the utter discomfort of the turtles in that situation is just gold).

I'm not even sure if I want to see the live action films or series, even for the great puppetry in the first one, and I have seen enough complaints about Venus de Milo to keep far, far away. There's the campiness of the FW series, and then there's trying too hard to match it. So it's not an "unfavorite", just not one that I care much about seeing.

[CyberCubed]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

I'm not even sure if I want to see the live action films or series, even for the great puppetry in the first one, and I have seen enough complaints about Venus de Milo to keep far, far away. There's the campiness of the FW series, and then there's trying too hard to match it. So it's not an "unfavorite", just not one that I care much about seeing.

The first TMNT movie from 1990 is a must watch. TMNT II and III are also guilty pleasures.

[MikeandRaph87]

This topic never gets old.

1.1987 cartoon. I grew up with it and loved it from the age of two to this very day. It defines the franchise.

2. Movies 1 and 2. A solid mix of Mirage and 1987 cartoon. Shredder and evil mutants as well.

3. IDW. A mix of all that was great before it with its own twist. It should be getting more attention than the Nicktoon its so awesome.

Heck, if its not NM or Image it has some greatness to it.

[ABrown]

Definitely the 4Kids series. Not only is it my favorite version of the TMNT, but it might just be my favorite action cartoon ever created.

[sdp]

Originally Posted by Utrommaniac

I'm not even sure if I want to see the live action films or series, even for the great puppetry in the first one, and I have seen enough complaints about Venus de Milo to keep far, far away. There's the campiness of the FW series, and then there's trying too hard to match it. So it's not an "unfavorite", just not one that I care much about seeing.

The original movie is amazing, the only thing I'd change nowadays is the final fight with the Shredder since its a little lacking. The second movie is lighter in tone instead of the darker one the original had but if you enjoy the Nick show then you can enjoy this movie, I love it. The third movie is only redeemed by having the best fight scenes in the trilogy since the suits were more flexible. A problem with the old movies is all of the turtles pretty much have a similar personality and can't really tell them apart like in other incarnations. That's something the 2014 movie got right, all the turtles personalities are fun and recognizable. As far as The Next Mutation it really isn't that bad and has good villains but do you like Power Rangers? If the answer is no then you probably should skip it since the show has a lot of tropes that Power Rangers has which is why its mostly hated, Venus is by far the least offender of the show, she's usually well written and isn't the focus of the show outside the pilot.

[ToTheNines]

Mirage. Don't see that ever changing.

[MrPliggins]

2k3 cartoon and the original in-canon Mirage comics.

[Powder]

Mirage/Image > Live Action Movies > Nick > Super Turtles > FW > Next Mutation > 4kids > Archie > IDW > Home video features (COOTS, We Wish You A Turtles Christmas, etc.) > TMNT (2007) > Literally everything else but > Platinum Dunes

[CyberCubed]

Next mutation over 4kids, Archie, and IDW? Really?

[Powder]

Chalk that one up to nostalgia, but yeah. I revisit it a lot, have fond memories of it, & really like a lot of the concepts (their execution is another thing, though...). I realize it's not objectively better by any means, but I've always genuinely enjoyed it.

[Gunstar_Red]

When it comes to nostalgia, Mirage is my favorite. Specifically the 'Tales Of' and 'TMNT' era.

Without nostalgia, my favorite version is always going to be a tie between the 2k3 cartoon and the IDW comic.

When it comes to movies, my favorite is the first movie. A close second is TMNT.

When talking to non or armchair fans, my go-to answer is the 80s OT or 2k3. They are easier to explain than comic story arcs!

But as the indiscriminate TMNT fan as I am, I really don't have a least liked or hated version. All versions have their faults and positives. My "least liked" might have cringeworthy acting, but fun stories. My favorite might have the best animation, but then think a voice actor doesn't fit a certain character at all in my opinion. Etc, etc, etc. I seriously think all versions are my favorites in some way or another.

[darkknightdonatello]

i have to say my favourite tmnt is the 80s cartoon and the nicktoons one

[Utrommaniac]

I just realized why IDW is my favorite. It shares a lot in common in terms of tone and infrastructure to Disney's Gargoyles, which is my personal nostalgic show even though I didn't watch it until the early 2000's. And it all started with realizing that IDW Baxter Stockman has a lot more in common with David Xanatos than any other version of him.

Now, it could be argued that most versions of TMNT could be similar to it, but I personally have just realized that IDW would come closest. I tried to figure out if Mirage or 2003 would also make a fit, but it ended up not working.

The similarities boil right down to "absurdly rich guy with a massive company, high tech robots, and amazing facial hair has an uneasy partnership with an ancient creature who has been compared to a demon by humans at some point or another that is one of the last of its kind and is really really vengefully angry about that, and he's perfectly willing to stab them in the back-and has". There are characters of stories legend that are actually real (Kitsune & The Rat King/Pied Piper; Macbeth and all the fairies of A Midsummer Night's Dream(?!) and so, so many others, such as Aboriginal and Egyptian deities, and a few figures from Native American legend)
It even has a magic fox lady! (Okay, so Gargoyles' fox lady couldn't use her magic because she never learned to do so...but she had magic in her blood).

But most of all, the tone is similar. It has a fair level of darkness that isn't overbearing, but it still hits hard when it does. It gets a fair enough level of dimension into all of its characters, and can plant some empathy into most of their villains, even when their actions are completely and utterly wrong on moral and logical standards.

I keep realizing more and more, and I just need to organize it all. And this just blew open a huge revelation on how I enjoy things. I'm not sure where I'd put it. And it would take a while to put it all together. Some of it might even be grasping at straws. But boy, it might explain so much about the way I enjoy things.

[Chabrendeki]

My favourite version is definitely Mirage.

And if for a ranking:
2. Nick
3. Archie
4. IDW
5. 4Kids
6. 90s movies
7. Fred Wolf
8. 2007 movie

The PD movies are not on the list, because I don't like them at all.
Next Mutation isn't there either, just becaue I don't know it yet, but I'm unsure I want to (I've seen some Power Ranger episodes back then in the 90s, and I didn't like them).

[TurtleTitan97]

1990 film, 2k3, 2k12, Mirage, and IDW

[neatoman]

I say IDW because it's the only one I don't have major problems with and I really like the story and how it presents the characters, the only negative things I can say about it is that I don't like some of the artists, I don't like one particular mini and one certain writer should stay far away from actually writing scripts.

In terms of comics, Mirage above Archie. I like Mirage's TMNT comics but the narrative is all over the place, they tend to be a bit too depressing and sometimes you can really tell the people behind them weren't all that professional. Archie's TMNT comics... Are not very good to be honest, I guess they have more value as entertainment than the cartoon they're a tie-in to but they're still not very good.

For all of the TV shows I see them as all having very similar major flaws.
Out of the three I think the 4Kids show is the best one but I still see things wrong with it. I watch the Nickelodeon cartoon but I lost any real interest in it midway through season 2. Contrary to what some may believe, I don't "hate" the Fred Wolf cartoon, but it is a really boring and poorly made show. I have only watched one episode of Next Mutation so I can't judge it, didn't like what I saw though.

None of the movies are actually good, but if had to decide I'd say the first one.

[CyberCubed]

So neatoman what exactly made you get into the TMNT franchise if you have problems or don't care for almost all the different series? Going by your age you seem to have been too young to have been around for the original 80's fad so what made you get into TMNT?

[neatoman]

Originally Posted by CyberCubed

So neatoman what exactly made you get into the TMNT franchise if you have problems or don't care for almost all the different series? Going by your age you seem to have been too young to have been around for the original 80's fad so what made you get into TMNT?

I think I saw the movies on TV when I was a little kid and years later (I think I was 14) when I found a bunch of episodes of the Fred Wolf cartoon and the 4Kids cartoon on Youtube, I watched both and got tired one rather quickly and stuck with the other because it was more fascinating. A few years later I started to read what IDW was putting out and watch the Nickelodeon cartoon around the same time.

Anyway, in case you're curious, I'm just the kind of person who sees problems in nearly everything. If anything the flaws in the stuff I like is more clear to me than things I don't like, that doesn't mean I can't enjoy them.