So I watched that new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon on Nickelodeon this morning.
I find it funny that a bunch of people my age are complaining about how it sucks and it’s ruining their childhoods (hint: it’s for kids, guys, get over it). But I thought it was pretty cool.
The new show has a bit of an anime style, and the animation is surprisingly good. Nice colors. Emoticon expressions sometimes pop up, giving it a Scott Pilgrim vibe. Only bad thing was I thought they made Mikey a bit too stupid.
Otherwise, the storyline for this one-hour premiere was your basic “the Turtles go to the surface for the first time and encounter a mysterious enemy and oh no here comes the Shredder.”
But really? I liked it a lot.
I mean, I’ve always been a fan of the TMNT. The entire premise is like a hundred b-movie scenarios wrapped into a hundred others: A mutant rat (in some versions he used to be a pet rat, in other versions — like this one — he used to be human) raises a group of four turtles, each mutated by a mysterious ooze.
They grow up in New York City. They eat a whole lot of pizza. They fight other mutants. And alien creatures from another dimension. And, of course, the Shredder.
Seriously. I never really thought about it as a kid, but that’s some crazy stuff right there.
And it’s still totally awesome.
