Review: Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles “Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man; The Ancient Art of Ninja Hide and Seek”

Overview (Spoilers Below)

Turtle-dega Nights: The Ballad of Rat Man

Splinter wants to relive the thrill of competition so he enters Mikey and Donnie into a destruction derby that goes a little crazy at first, but when Donnie learns how much this means to his master he shows everyone all the tricks from his sweet Shell Hog.

The Ancient Art of Ninja Hide and Seek

Splinter has a new lesson for his boys…ninja stealth. But, when the turtles get TOO lost, Splinter has to infiltrate an enemy HQ to save them and put their new trainings into action. Turns out, the boys are fast-learners and make their sensei proud.

Our Take

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wraps up its first month in primetime for Nicktoons with premises that are less about action and more about Splinter being a good dad to his boys. The real story is how the last episode concludes showing a shadowy figure doing research on Splinter which could indicate that business is about to pick up here. In the meantime, both episodes were silly fun though the destruction derby bit has been done before countless times and while we didn’t get the traditional take on hide and seek presented in the last quarter-hour, most of the popular plot points in which an episode of this variety takes on were accounted for. We’ll see if a juicier plot is on the horizon in the coming weeks.