You can’t stop the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. You can only hope to reimagine them in various mediums. In the course of nearly thirty years, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo have appeared in comic books, painted animation, live action and various levels of CGI. They’ve been stars of movies and TV shows. Now they are back once more as a TV series with Nickelodeon as the home their CGI sewer. The series reboots the origins of the heroes on the half shell with a few new villains along with the classic bad guys. The show ups the voice talent with Jason Biggs (American Pie), Sean Astin (Lord of the Rings), Kelly Hu (X-Men), Clancy Brown (Highlander) and Rob Paulsen (Pinky on Animaniacs). The voices bring a human quality to the CGI reptiles and their foes. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Enter Shredder is the second volume of episodes that includes the arrival of a key bit of evil.
“Monkey Brains” features a psychic mutant monkey meeting up with the turtles. “Never Say Xever” lets the turtles chase Purple Dragon hoodlums out of a noodle shop. This leads to bad things for the restaurant owner when all the gangs arrive hoping to turn his dining room into a major battle zone. “The Gauntlet” turns into a triple threat when along with Shredder there’s the double transformation of Chris Bradford and Xever into Dogpound and Fishface. That still doesn’t quite out number the turtles, but it’s a worthy fight. “Panic in the Sewers” spooks Master Spinter with a dream of Shredder defeating his Turtles. He puts them into a training overdrive to prepare for such a battle. The teens think its foolish. “Mousers Attack!” along with the Purple Dragon gang. This splits up the team in their battles. They’re not quite as effective as two duos. “It Came From The Depths” brings up a mutant alligator. Turns out he has something the turtles can’t let return to Kraang. “New Girl In Town” proves the one thing that can split up the turtles is a female ninja. She doesn’t plan on using his power for good once he’s fully seduced.
The revamped Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles keeps up the fun and action found in previous editions. Nobody tries too hard to reimagine them as some dark creations with truly troubled psyches. They’re just turtles that mutated into humanoid teens with cool marital art skills. This is still an exciting show for kids who can handle TV fighting.
The video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The transfers bring out the green and gunky quality of their life in the sewage system. The audio is 5.1 Dolby Digital. You can hear the swords slicing the air. There’s also Spanish and French dubs. The episodes are Closed Captioned.
Animated Comic Books include Tales from the Turtle Liar, Part One & Part Two are set up so each panel takes up the screen. You press the arrow to see the next page.
The Mutation of a Scene (9:18) breaks down the fight from “New Girl In Town.” They demonstrate the various steps to bring about the final CGI frame.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Enter Shredder continues the job of getting a new generation of viewers hooked on the reptile stars. The show does a fine job of mixing old favorite characters with new figures out to battle them. It’s a fun show to watch with your kids who like the Kung Fu fighting.
Paramount and Nickelodeon present Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Enter Shredder. Starring: Jason Biggs, Sean Astin, Kelly Hu, Clancy Brown and Rob Paulsen. Boxset Contents: 7 episodes on 1 DVD. Released: July 9, 2013. Available at Amazon.com.
