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An Insight for Bay Area Gamers
Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles feels closer to what some wanted from Rise of the TMNT while showing that their particular brand of personality and mayhem isn’t going anywhere.
I’m still a bit in awe by how much I enjoyed Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, and the 2023 hit sent out a wave of Turtle Power few expected, offering us more of the Mean Green Machine in cartoon form. It may not be the old familiar Saturday morning showcase, but this Paramount+ event had me glued to my monitor. Sure, I’m a huge sucker for the franchise, but fans can be the cruelest to the things we love, and I am head over heels for Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Everyone is back, two months after saving the city in the film we get 12 episodes consisting of two side stories meant to fill the gap leading to the upcoming sequel (I can’t wait) and show how our characters spend some of their downtime between adventures. Micah Abbey steps into the shoes of the best turtle once more, Donatello, Nicolas Cantu tries to make a leader out of Leonardo, Brady Noon is constantly working to put Raphael into ‘Beast Mode,’ Shamon Brown Jr. is making good jokes but questionable decisions as Michelangelo, and Ayo Edebiri impresses as the young intrepid reporter April O’Neil once more. The gang is back breathing life into these excellent characters, even though they recorded their lines separately this time and the show splits them up to offer more individual focus, they still shine as young and passionate personalities with fresh takes on our favorite heroes.
The show was overseen by Christopher Yost and Alan Wan, both of which have had previous experience with multiple versions of TMNT cartoons and it seems they were the right hands to guide this outing. Both stories are just that, “tales,” as they either didn’t happen at all or are being told by numerous unreliable narrators, making it seem like these could just be anecdotes or based on real events that have now been extremely exaggerated. The first story looks to be a comic book Leonardo is working on, while the second is Splinter retelling a story that no one can agree on the details of. Even if they are fictional, it seems that we will likely be seeing elements from both in the future and the drama is still nice and tense.
Both of these adventures purposely have the turtles separated, giving us more time with them to let the characters mature a bit and break away from their archetypes, like how Donnie swears, “I’m not the IT guy,” even though that’s how he fixes some of their problems at the end. They have to listen to their brothers’ advice and try things outside their wheelhouse, but still get to lean on their strengths in the end. The episodes starting in medias res help ramp up some of the excitement and make each part feel more like a comic book issue, to go with the framework, but begins to feel a tad formulaic until everyone comes back together in the end and we see how they all were split up in the first place.
The second story is set during an epic storm and involves thwarting a heist, so I was there. This time the turtles are apart again, but each partners up with another mutant and it was awesome spending time with some of the side characters that we enjoyed from the film. These episodes all feel more varied even though they fit together, different enough and following a slightly different theme. We have one outing that’s essentially the movie Crawl, just set in a convenience store, and I’m almost certain they recreated a scene from Predator 2 in one of the later episodes. So much of what they did had me buzzing.
There are many smaller references as well, mostly from the Turtles themselves, and though I’m not sure if the average high school student would know these, I was here for them. We get one extra-long conversation about Akira before going into some quick-fire stuff like, Godzilla, Peter Pan, MacGyver (the original only), and Star Trek, but specifically Star Trek Enterprise for some reason. One of the villains modeled himself off of the James Bond movies and a hero gets in a quick, “I am Batman,” but the best stuff is the Leon the Professional reenactment, some of their outfits being callbacks to the original toyline, and even a ‘Hero Turtles’ moment for the UK fans.
The writing is clever, mostly in the aspects of tying all of this together and the dialog. It isn’t hard to believe that the showrunners said the movie Superbad inspired parts of this series, especially some of the interactions. Keep an ear out for one of the stars of that film too, as McLovin (Christopher-Mintz Plasse) has a small role here, furthering the connection. Some parts of the show are a bit goofy, like the pigeon poop gag, and since they didn’t have Jackie Chan for this series they smartly say that he’s speaking Vermin (performed by Fred Tatasciore) only to grow closer to Scumbug. In the second story, Raphael narrates and does Splinter’s voice, so it all works out.
I also appreciated them bringing up the conversation of what actually is a mutation and what would count, as a mutant myself due to my albinism this is an important subject for me. I still haven’t received my X-Men membership card in the mail yet. The show is certainly aimed at younger kids and rarely strays from that, but April does ax a robot right in the crotch at one point, characters are disgusted when a mutant fish eats sushi, calling him a cannibal, plus a couple of the Turtles’ friends go through existential crises over whether they want to be mutants or go back to being normal animals. These events feel more charged by a world where the Turtles are out and known as heroes to the whole city.
A few interesting characters pop up, most from the movie, with a couple of pleasant surprises from other TMNT media, and some new players also. Some wonderful guest stars are voicing a few of these characters, but the three that stand out for this series are Timothy Olyphant, Danny Trejo, and Pete Davidson. Then you have Post Malone as Ray Fillet, who, just says Ray Fillet over and over again.
The visuals in Tales of the TMNT are mostly wonderful, expertly handled by Titmouse, and especially with masterfully crafting the backgrounds for the show. From the energetic and colorful comic-book-style intro to the quick and ricochet-powered fight scenes, there is a fast and raw movement I enjoy, for the most part. The budget is lower here and sometimes the lines look thinner, waving more than I like, and there are more instances of slowed motion that make the rougher elements of the punkish graffiti style stick out negatively. There’s less overall detail, some of the boldness is absent, but the characters feel lively, are emoting strongly, and I don’t think it’ll matter too much in the end–still, it’s noticeable.
This initial group of episodes was a blast. It looks like there will be a season two and I think it’d be a mistake not to do another one. I can’t wait to see what else Goldfin gets up to, how Bishop might enter the story again, and if Rod will become Mutagen Man. There are issues with the show, mostly in the formula, and a couple of pacing problems, but I have to wonder if that would have been helped by having the show air weekly instead, stretching it out like the episodic adventure it was meant to be. The show could have also benefited from a couple of licensed tracks since the movie used them so effectively, but that can raise a budget quickly.
Maybe I’m just itching to hear Ante Up again. This is aimed at that younger audience, but everyone can get something out of it. This one feels closer to what some people wanted from Rise of the TMNT while showing that their particular brand of personality and Mayhem isn’t going anywhere.
Disclaimer: I watched the entire season on Paramount+, which I pay for myself.
8Bit/Digi is an independent news outlet that provides insight into the video game and fandom community of the San Francisco Bay Area.
Writing in the dirty South, this recovering internet addict wakes up every morning wrestling with nightmares of Silent Hill, Battletoads, and where to put that third comma.
@StephenWilds
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