Posts Tagged ‘ TMNT ’

TMNT Season 10 on DVD

2012/05/29
By

Season 10 of the 1987 TMNT cartoon will be released on DVD on August 14th. Two episodes were left off the fifth season release, and they will be included on this set as bonus episodes. That means that all 193 episodes will be available on DVD.

So on the one hand, there’s Lionsgate. Lionsgate will have released the entire 1987 series later this year, which has almost 30 episodes more than the 2003 series. The only season that got broken up into pieces was Season 3, which had 47 episodes. The only real issue with their DVDs was leaving off two episodes in Season 5, which is being fixed with the Season 10 release.

On the one hand, we have FUNimation. Their releases were almost entirely piecemeal, with many DVDs having about five episodes. Season 3 and 4 had episodes that were horribly out-of-order. Season 2 is nearly impossible to find, with Part 2 going for $400, if you can find it all. And they never completed the Region 1 release, so Season 7 may never see the light of day.

In short: Lionsgate > FUNimation.

Answering Questions that Lead People Here

2012/05/28
By

One of the odd things about running a blog is seeing the search terms that lead people to my blog. Sometimes the search terms are actual questions, most of which I haven’t actually answered. Today, I’ve decided to fix this.

Here are some of the questions that lead people to my blog and their answers.

Read more »

TMNT (2003): Season 2 DVDs

2012/04/16
By

I mentioned previously that the DVD releases of the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon were horribly mangled. This annoys me, since I only saw a little beyond the first season, and I really liked what I saw. I’ve been wanting to see more of the series for a long time now, but I haven’t had the money.

Well, I finally saved up enough money to buy some of the DVDs, and I discovered that the DVD releases were even worse than I’d thought.

You see, the simplest way to get Season 2 is to buy the two compilations: Season 2, Part 1 and Season 2, Part 2. The problem? Part 2 is extremely hard to find, to the point that it’s selling for $400 on Amazon. I don’t care how good the show was. I am not paying $30 an episode.

So the cheaper alternative is to buy Volumes 9 – 14 instead of the season box sets. Naturally, the episodes are out of order, just like the later season DVD releases.

Here’s the order of the episodes:

Season Two

  • Episodes 1-4             Volume 9
  • Episodes 5-8             Volume 10
  • Episodes 9-11            Volume 11
  • Episode 12, 13           Volume 12
  • Episodes 14-16          Volume 14
  • Episode 17                Volume 12
  • Episode 18                Volume 11
  • Episodes 19, 20         Volume 14
  • Episodes 21, 22         Volume 12
  • Episodes 23-26          Volume 13

Saban on DVD

2012/04/05
By

Saban is the maker of Power Rangers (up until 2009), Big Bad Beetleborgs, VR Troopers and Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. These shows have been available on Netflix for less than a year, but their DVD availability has been very poor.

Some scattered released of Power Rangers have occurred. Beetleborgs hasn’t had any DVD releases. VR Troopers had a few episodes released on DVD, but only in the UK (Region 2). All of Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation was released in Region 2. The UK version of NT:TNM was censored to be the “Hero Turtles.” The UK version also removed some of the non-slapstick fighting (i.e., one of the best parts of any Turtles incarnation). The DVDs retained the censorship.

Yes, I know this because I own the UK DVDs of Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation. No, I don’t live in the UK. Don’t judge me.

Anyway, it was announced that Shout! Factory has made a DVD deal with Saban, and all these shows will be released on DVD later this year.

TMNT (2003) – DVD Episode Order

2012/04/02
By

Although I didn’t watch the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at the beginning, I got in the series before it ended. Sadly, the DVD releases have left a lot to be desired. Some of them are expensive, due to being out of print, and you need a minimum of sixteen DVD sets to have all the episodes available on DVD. And even then, you’ll still be missing the final season.

Oh, and the DVD episodes are horribly out-of-order in the boxsets, which makes actually trying to watch anything beyond Season 2 a huge pain. The Super Friends DVD releases are easier to figure out than this, and that show changed its name about 8 or 9 times! I have never seen another TV show that mangled the DVD releases this badly.

And just to add a cherry on top, there are currently no plans to re-release the DVDs. So for the foreseeable future, fans are stuck with these lousy releases. Since the company producing the DVDs couldn’t be bothered to release the DVDs in a way that make sense, I’ve created this list.

Here is a list of the episodes and what DVD boxset they appear on. Abandon hope all ye who enter here.

Read more »

Teenage Mutant Alien Turtles?: Michael Bay and the TMNT Reboot

2012/03/21
By

“These turtles are from an alien race. And they’re going to be tough, edgy, funny and completely loveable.” — Michael Bay, producer of the Ninja Turtles reboot movie, set for release Christmas 2013.

And with those two sentences, Michael Bay caused the Internet to explode.

Read more »

TMNT and Nickelodeon

2012/01/02
By

As you may have heard, the world is ending this year due to misinterpretations of how the Ancient Mayan calendar worked. Some Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fans look at the new animated series coming out this year and see it as a sign of the end. Or at least a sign of the Turtles being RUINED FOREVER!

Reasons for being RUINED FOREVER include:

  1. CGI animation: As you may know, CGI has never produced anything good. This is why Pixar and Dreamworks never make money with their movies.
  2. Different weapons: Donatello is shown using a naginata instead of a bo. Michelangelo will wield kusarigama. As you know, true ninjas never learn to use more than one weapon, and the Turtles have never been shown using different weapons in their history.
  3. Nickelodeon is producing the new series: Nickelodeon has never produced anything good. That is why Avatar: The Last Airbender is widely considered to be unwatchable.

In all seriousness, so far fans have only a little to go by: a 19 second promo, the names of some of the voice actors, and some vague announcements about the series. (Michelangelo is goofy and fun-loving! Donatello is a techno geek! Raphael is hot-headed!) At this point, we don’t know if the series will be good or crap. It could go either way. It’s way too early to condemn the whole series when we don’t even have a single episode to critique yet.

Here are a few things to think about.

The Animation: The 3D animation is not going to be up to the standards of Pixar or Dreamworks. Most 3D animation isn’t. But then again, Beast Wars‘ animation was far inferior to either studios, and it managed to be a fairly intelligent show that appealed to both adults and children. Also, the first animated TMNT series did not have great animation, and it still managed to be a fun and entertaining show.

The New Weapons: Donatello’s bo comes with a retractable blade. So it’s more a weapon upgrade than a replacement. Two weapons in one. Michelangelo’s new weapons (kusarigama) are in addition to his nunchaku. It isn’t replacing them. Mikey’s just diversifying.

Nickelodeon: Like I mentioned above, Nickelodeon has produced good shows, so condemning the show simply because they made it is unfair. Heck, do you remember the hatred that resulted from the announcement that 4Kids of all people was producing a TMNT show?  And that show managed to get a lot of fans in spite of this. I’m embarrassed to say that I was with the “4Kids is Satan” camp at the time. I’ve since matured into having an intense dislike of some of 4Kids products and their dubbing decisions rather than hating everything they’ve ever done.

Personally, I’m going to try to remain optimistic until the series comes out, and I’ve seen a few episodes. Then I’ll say the Turtles have been ruined forever. ;)

Random Confession #2

2011/05/19
By

I own Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation on DVD. It was only released in the UK, so I had to do some hunting to purchase the DVDs (although they were pretty cheap). The DVDs are the censored UK version, which means that the Turtles are the “Hero Turtles”, and a lot of the non-slapstick violence got cut.

Yeah, I actually went through a lot of trouble to get the censored version of a show that most TMNT fans consider an unholy abomination. I intend to review episodes of it someday . . . after I’ve caught up with Young Justice. I’m guessing at my current rate, that’ll be sometime in 2018. Oh, well. Something to dread look forward to.