Shorts Reviews: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles “Teenage Mecha Ninja Turtles” ; “Don vs Raph”

Do you love being a turtle?

It befuddles me that Nickelodeon has the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise and that the network is starting yet at another franchise reboot to premiere next year. The original comics series of whence this series had been derived from is some of the best shit you’ll read anywhere. The premise was dark, Shredder is a homicidal maniac, and we didn’t have to deal with a Seth Green voiced Leonardo.

And while the NEW TMNT shorts series isn’t exactly a welcome return to yesteryear, the novelty of the first two episodes was enough to make me want to see more. For my money, the “Teenage Mecha Ninja Turtles” was the better of the two shorts. The choreography was excellent, the character designs of the mechs were passable, and the twist ending was uncalled for and hilarious.

“Don vs Raff” was alright. Yes, I know, it was produced by Jhonen Vasquez, but really it was just a five-minute long montage that really didn’t have a point. The mecha turtles bit had a bit more meat on the bones in terms of plot, dialogue, and plot whereas the Vasquez effort looked cool, but it felt like a bad Teen Titans Go! parody.

Looking forward to seeing what kind of variety we get out of this shorts series as the summer wears on. Would Leo’s Seth Green be producing a stop-mo Turtles? 

 

SCORE
8/10