Nickelodeon revived the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 2012 in a CGI format with noted stars as the voices and a little bit of edge when compared to previous animated incarnations. Even thought the reptile warriors have been around since the ’80s, the new approach made them feel fresh. The episodes were a bit more physical with the fighting and rather dark in the lighting. The CGI animation added to the feeling that these weren’t the normal cowabunga adventures. After five seasons and a slight name change Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Final Chapters wraps up this version of the Heroes in a Half Shell.
The boxset contains 12 episodes that represent four story arcs. “The Wasteland Warrior,” “The Impossible Desert,” and “Carmageddon!” takes them into a post-nuclear apocalyptic time. Donatello gets turned into a robot known as Metalhead. They have to battle against a pack of bikers led by Verminator. It’s a Road Warrior kinda world. “The Curse of Savanti Romero,” “The Crypt of Dracula,” “The Frankenstein Experiment” and “Monsters Among Us!” time travels the turtles into the past where they have to deal with classic creatures of the night. Things go bad during Halloween and no matter what the turtles do, things get more nightmarish. “When Worlds Collide” is a two-parter with the Newtralizer ready to take a bite out of the Big Apple. “Yojimbo,” “Osoroshi No Tabi” and “Kagayake! Kintaro” zips the teens back to ancient Japan to hook up with a Samurai Rabbit. Does anymore need to be said about that cool team up?
The Final Chapters is rather bittersweet since the show looked good. Starting next fall we’ll have Rise of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles which will have a 2D animation style and a new batch of voices. This version got closer to the comics and went a little bit beyond. Over the course of 124 episodes Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello and Michelangelo did more than just eat pizza.
The video is 1.78:1 anamorphic. The CGI animation looks fine in the resolution. The audio is Dolby Digital 5.1. The sound of action sweeps around you in the kinetic scenes. The episodes are Closed Captioned.
No bonus features.
Nickelodeon and Paramount present Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Final Chapters. Starring: Seth Green, Rob Paulsen, Sean Astin, Greg Cipes, Hoon Lee, Mae Whitman. Boxset Contents 12 episodes on 2 DVDs. DVD Release: December 12, 2017.
