I have, within the last six months, taken it upon myself to get re-acquainted with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Now I was born in '84, so I wasn't aware of the original comics. My love with the hero's in a (WHOLE) shell began with this..
(Damn that's a catchy theme!)
I was not a "girly" girl in this respect. Mutants and alien cats were my thing. And it hasn't changed. I avidly watched the 2003 Turtles, as well as the movies (though I could have done without the live-action TV series to be honest) and yet, when the 2012 series rolled around, I dismissed it, based purely on the look of the animation!
Oh what a fool I was! I have never laughed so hard, and so often, at a cartoon since Animaniacs! The animation is so. much. better than I initially thought- the moves look natural, and the turtles are as beautifully distinct in looks as they are in personality. And so it didn't take me long to catch up!
And then several weeks ago (before any confirmation was made) rumours whipped around the internet that Jason Biggs, the voice of Leonardo, would be leaving the show. It's a toss up as to what provoked this change of cast, but that didn't really matter to me, I was more interested in who was going to be the next "leader in blue".
For a while Dominic Catrambone replaced Biggs. And I gotta say that at first I didn't really notice. A second watch confirmed the change- but Catrambone did such a good job, you could hardly tell the difference. And yet he wasn't confirmed for season 3. Curious.
And then, at last, there was some news, and my little geeky heart EXPLODED with joy!
Because Nickelodeon had hired SETH GREEN to voice Leonardo from season 3 onwards!
(Via ToonZone.net)
This guy played my all time favourite character on Buffy the Vampire Slayer! I cried RIVERS when he left (and left again!). And Robot Chicken Star Wars! He was part of my teenage years, and he was GINGER (very important to me at the time, being ginger and teased constantly it was really cool to see such a great actor with the same "weak spot" as someone so delicately put it to me).
Anyhoo, when I heard he was going to be a huge part of my first real fandom, suffice to say I was very excited. And when I watched his "debut" episode, I knew without a doubt, that this show had firmly secured a place in my heart.
Season 2 ended with "The Invasion" parts 1 and 2. And they were hugely tense affairs. Not only had the Kraang invaded New York, mutating their way through the city in vast numbers, not only had a shadowy military presence turned up to fight them off, not only had Splinter been thrown down and washed away in front of his sons by the Shredder down a large drain BUT Leonardo had been forced to go up against the Foot Clan, Tiger Claw and fellow mutants AND Shredder alone. Without his brothers or sensei. He'd been beaten (but only after putting up a magnificent fight) and the Turtle's world had been turned upside-down.
And so season 3 opened on them in hiding in Northampton, on a farm April had grown up on, awaiting Leo's return to consciousness..
The story itself makes for a terrific Halloween tale, the setting is "cabin in the woods" style horror, with what has to be one of the series best, and most dangerous mutants The Creep (yeah thanks Mikey, for giving it that name). A dangerous plant creature, The Creep is created from the medicine Donatello created for Leo to recover faster (the delivery method into the swamp where Creep came from, is less funny than it first appears, because Leo is in a really bad way, mentally as well as physically- and Green makes you feel it).
(301 production art)
I got a sense of early Supernatural/Lovecraftian influences here. The animation and background art on this show is amazing, I'm surprised the team behind it hasn't one (or at least been nominated) for more awards. It's surprising how much tension and action and emotion this show fits in a half hour, a lot of hour long shows could do with taking note of it, and whilst it is scary and even deals with quite difficult situations, at no point do you feel the show is too scary, or violent.
There is always a moral to the characters actions, they always leave the most "violent" choice as a last resort. It is a message that is repeated often.
There is no-way this is just a kids show. It is made by fans, for old fans and for new fans. For such a "silly" concept of teenage mutant ninja turtles, it is given weight- but not so much that the humour suffers, and it is a show that pretty much anyone can watch and enjoy. And I am sooo glad Paramount/Nickelodeon are giving the creative team the freedom to do the characters and the world they inhabit, such justice.
No comments:
Post a Comment