Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Season 7 (Parts 1-4)
+ The Complete Season 8 (Lionsgate
DVD)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C+/D Episodes: B/B-
Oh
Shellshock! We are finally coming down
the home stretch of the ten season run of Teenage
Mutant Ninja Turtles. With only Season 9 and 10 (a total of 16 episodes
between the 2 Seasons) Turtles’ fans
will be clamoring to complete their animated collection that started over 5
years ago. The episodes are still not of
the best quality in terms of picture and sound for these DVD releases; but the
episodes remain fun and continue to deliver the quality turtle action fans have
come to expect.
Under
review here are Seasons 7 and 8 of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series. Season
7 is presented in 4 individual volumes (entitled Parts 1-4) and each set features a different TMNT on the cover
along with including a TMNT miniature action figure that reflects that same
turtle. The individual volumes are
obnoxiously huge (due to having to house the 2.5” TMNT toy) at about the size
of three DVD cases stacked on top of one another; though they are very light
weight and only hold a single DVD with 6-7 episodes on each disc [Part 1 has 6 episodes and the rest have
7]. Though it is hard to say what order
the studio decided to put the season sets in (most likely being aired order
father than production order) Season 7 starts off with the fan dubbed “European
Vacation” episodes of the TMNT Series. The episodes were originally produced (and
fit into the story arch) of Season 4,
but never saw the light of day until Season
7; making the Season 7 box set
odd to view as the first 13 Episodes don’t exactly mesh with the next 14
episodes, due to the confusion with air date/production date.
Nevertheless,
the episode order is not all so distracting that it detracts from the TMNT experience; in fact it is nice to
know that the studio stuck to their guns of using the air date as a marker for
what is considered a season. Season 7 marks the beginning of the end
for the TMNT that fans had grown to
love over the past 7 seasons; as with Season
8 we would see a darker, less fluffy TMNT
than had been viewed in years past. This
is not to say that the TMNT turned
into an emo, bloody, gothic series; but some things definitely changed as
slapstick humor was out and edgy was in for Saturday morning cartoons. The episodes of Season 7 are just as great and brilliant as they always were and
whereas the TMNTs were certainly
never Shakespeare, they certainly did (and do) manage to capture the hearts,
minds, and undying devotion of a cavalcade of fans.
Whereas Season 7 had the ever so slightly
“darker edge” than we had previously seen from the TMNT; Season 8 completely turned the series in a new direction. From the first second of viewing Season 8 fans will notice a drastic
difference as the classic TMNT theme song has been replaced by an odd and
uncreative track that darker and intertwines clips from the 1st TMNT film and the newest episodes (i.e.
Season 8). The change in the theme song was the first of
several ill choices that were made for the series in Season 8. The zaniness that
had been the first 7 seasons of TMNT, with
pizza chomping and corny jokes reigning supreme, had now for Season 8 been replaced with straight
arrow “butt kicking” turtles that had no time to be “party dudes.” It was almost as if they went from frat boys
to investment bankers.
With only
8 episodes in Season 8 fans will be
disappointed to find everyone of them lacking the classic turtle elements
lifted it to the success it had become.
Bebop and Rocksteady were suddenly competent henchman, Irma was nowhere
to be found, and the sky had even turned red (apparently even God knew the show
had gone to hell)! These changes are not
to say that Season 8-10 were all bad;
they were very different, but not necessarily bad. The creative team chose to utilize a formula
that had not been used since Season 2,
as they returned to using the eight episode run to create one huge story arch
rather than the very individualized episodes of the previous seasons. The darker turtle edge was and is a bit hard
to get used to and has its merits. If
you loved the TMNT up to this point, now is not the time to slow down.
The
technical features have not worsened over the past 8 seasons, but they
certainly have not improved either. The
picture is once again presented in a 1.33 x 1 full screen that remains gritty,
unclear at times, and overall retains the quality of an analog VHS. Whereas I may have been a little too kind in
rating the picture as a “C+” in the past, now is not the time to change as the
picture remains of the same quality (both good and bad) as it always has. Perhaps one day we will see a remastered
release of these brilliantly classic episodes, but for now just be happy that
we are on the path to having a full series collection of all 10 seasons. The sound remains stagnantly adequate in its
2.0 Stereo track minimally gets the job done as it projects solely from the
front. The sound for the most part is
clear and concise, but certainly will not add any turtle power to the
presentation.
Whereas Season 8 does not feature any bonus
features (sadly), the turtle team did manage to (quickly) throw together 4
featurettes for the 25th Anniversary of the TMNTs and the Season 7 release. Season
7 offers fans 1 bonus featurette per volume (or Part in this case). The
featurettes are as follows; Part 1 –
A Shellabration with Points of
Articulation: A Look Back at the Most Turtletastic Toys; Part 2 – New Interviews with TMNT Creator; Part 3 – New Interviews with
the hit Show’s Creative Team, Devoted and Die-Hard TMNT Fans Speak. The bonus feature on Part 1 is the most intriguing (at least by the title) as it
presumably features one of the biggest and longest running toy series in history;
but I am sad to say it is not all it is cracked up to be. The bonus feature minimally showcases the
classic toy series and instead talks with the “new staff” at Playmates to
slightly discuss how big the franchise has gotten and the process of developing
an action figure. Other than that the
featurette briefly shows some old television ads for the TMNT action figures;
personally this reviewer feels it was too short (at ~5minutes) and did not
feature enough of the ads. The other
featurettes on Parts 2-4 offer
little as the featurettes are way too short and exceedingly drab. If anything I am happy that some effort
toward extras was made for at least one TMNT release.
Eight
Seasons down, two to go! COWABUNGA!!
- Michael P. Dougherty II
