TV Review: Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Shella Fun

If you loved "Mutant Mayhem", you don't have to wait until 2026 to see where this version of everyone's favorite heroes in a half-shell go next. "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is a 2D animated series taking place in the same universe and set two months after the events of the film. Paramount and Nickelodeon are going all-in with these Turtles and I believe it's paying off.

For the most part, "Tales of the TMNT" is able to maintain what made people loved about "Mutant Mayhem" in the first place. The strongest aspect of this is the character work and chemistry which is heightened by the voice acting from actors reprising their roles from the film and new additions for the series. We also get to see another benefit of casting actual teenager as the Turtles as we can hear their voices changing via puberty; it really showcases the burgeoning maturity of these young characters.
I was a little worried about things being toned down due to the fact they seemed to be gearing the show towards a younger audience, but you can go from the film to the show and expect the same effort put in. Even the more suggestive jokes like "Nardo" and "milking" carried over.

The most obvious change is the fact it's a 2D follow-up to a 3D film, similar to what Disney has done with "Tangled" and "Big Hero 6". They do try to incorporate the film's style as best as they can, particularly the designs for characters and backgrounds. The animation itself is a bit of give and take. Some scenes are more fluid while others feel a little stilted by comparison, and it's not just when it came to the action. It seems clear some scenes took priority over others, but the end result does seem worth some slight cost-cutting.

The season is divided into two 6-part story arcs.
The first arc involves the Turtles being targeted by adaptive mutant hunting robots called Mechazoids (kind of like Sentinels from X-Men) and end up getting separated, having to fend for themselves for the first time in their lives and trying to get back to each other. What I really liked about this arc is each Turtle getting a focus episode, seeing their methods of dealing with a situation and ultimately borrowing a page from one of their brothers' books to succeed. It shows the bond between them all is strong even when they're apart.

The second arc sees the Turtles teaming up with the Mutanimals against new aquatic mutant villains known as the East River Three, working to prevent them from flooding New York during a major storm. The fun part of this arc is seeing the separate pairings of Turtle and Mutanimal, my favorite being the interaction between Donnie and Wingnut. There was also an episode I enjoyed focused on Splinter and April that got pretty heartfelt by the end.
In a way, it's like we got two new TMNT movies. So even if you don't want to binge the entire season in one go, once you start either story arc, you'll want to keep watching until the end.

If I had to nitpick one thing, it's that there's no theme song with lyrics like the previous animated Turtles shows. It's been such a staple for the franchise formula that the lack of one is a glaring omission.
In any case though, "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is a lot of fun and will be able to sate "Mutant Mayhem" fans for a little while. 

TV Review: "Batman: Caped Crusader" - Knight Time

 

It's been a long wait for "Batman: Caped Crusader" in more than one way. Not only is this the first Batman animated series since the now nearly obscure "Beware the Batman" from 2012, but "Caped Crusdaer" was announced back in 2021 and was nearly cancelled before it even began. There was a lot of hype behind "Caped Crusader" with how many past Batman creators were involved in the project. This includes Bruce Timm of "Batman: The Animated Series" (BTAS) fame, "The Batman" director Matt Reeves, and past Batman comic writers Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka. With season one's release, the wait was well worth it.

While some aspects of the series are meant to give it a timeless feel like BTAS, "Caped Crusader" leans heavily on a golden age and 1940's aesthetic. It reminds me a bit of how Earth-2 was portrayed in the Arrowverse, being modern but having those classic influences (which works for this series since the golden age DC comics were retconned to take place on Earth-2). Meant to homage the noir and detective elements of the original Batman comics, "Caped Crusader" is darker and much more mature than previous Batman animated series, with coarse language and on-screen deaths. Following up from BTAS and its successors, it's kind of like how Dennis O'Neil and Frank Miller's comics brought the Dark Knight back to his roots. And being on a streaming platform like Amazon also allows Bruce Timm to break free from the constraints of network Saturday morning standards, similar to what "X-Men '97" was able to accomplish.
Besides Timm's art style, Matt Reeves' influence seemed strongest to me. Besides a more grounded nature like his 2022 film, it's also present in the depiction of Bruce Wayne/Batman (voiced by Hamish Linklater, who leads an overall stellar cast). Behind closed doors, he's young, withdrawn, and as full of anger as Pattinson's depiction. The two versions appear to have similar character arcs, with the only difference is "Caped Crusader" Bruce is further along with his socialite facade nailed down. While most of the series focuses on the underbelly and corrupted system of Gotham in the early days of Bruce's crusade, these character moments are a real highlight to me.

The series follows a traditional "Villain of the Day" format but has overarching plotlines that culminate in a two-part season finale featuring Two-Face. On that topic, Harvey's scars are depicted more realistically but not to the extreme of something like "The Dark Knight", though his vigilante crusade carries over from that; plus, his story has better closure than what he got in the DCAU in my opinion. While Catwoman and Clayface are mostly influenced by their golden age appearances, many villains who appeared much later in comics are reinterpreted to fit that era here, including Nocturna, Firebug, and Onomatopoeia (the latter two really only being hired guns in the larger narrative). This series' version of Harley Quinn has been quite a point of contention among fans as they really flipped the script on her character, but I thought it was done well. One villain I felt was out of place was Gentleman Ghost; his episode wasn't bad, but keeping him a supernatural character just feels off in such a grounded show. Perhaps the most major change to a major villain in the show was making Penguin female in Oswalda Cobblepot. I usually don't have a problem with gender swapping a character and she's just as villainous as her male counterpart, but this circumstance just felt lazy (seriously, they just added an "a" to the end of the name). If anything, I found it funny how she has two sons clearly inspired by Trump's oldest.

Surprisingly, we get some Robins in the show. In the Nocturna episode, Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Stephanie Brown, and Carrie Kelley are residents at an orphanage run by Leslie Thompkins. I'm not sure if we will get an in-costume Robin at some point in the show, but by process of elimination, Tim Drake will be the logical choice when the time comes.

While it doesn't reach the heights of Timm's work on "The Animated Series", "Batman: Caped Crusader" should offer fans of the mythos a take that's familiar while putting its own spin on things.