TF Views

Wait, so the TMNT franchise itself effectively took a side in the inevitable debate between fans of the old and fans of the new?

That is....distasteful.


Dom
-seriously not okay with that.

Dominic wrote:Wait, so the TMNT franchise itself effectively took a side in the inevitable debate between fans of the old and fans of the new?

That is....distasteful.


Dom
-seriously not okay with that.

Yeah imagine if Hasbro did that with Transformers. We'd need a several slice pie chart just to keep track of it!

Sparky Prime wrote:I dunno about that... I watched Turtles Forever for the first time not that long ago, and I really got a mean-spirited vibe towards the '88 cartoon from it. I mean, that cartoon was cheesy and over the top at times, but Turtles Forever felt like it cranked it up to the point they were really just making fun of the old cartoon.

I don't know Sparks, how long has it been since you watched the old cartoon? Maybe it actually *was* that goofy and over-the-top and you're just mis-remembering it (lolnostalgia). Or maybe Turtles Forever just went that way because, I dunno, that's what most people liked about the '88 cartoon, so they decided to just push it to its limit?

I really should note at this point that I haven't watched the old cartoon in nearly two decades, and I've never seen Turtles Forever, so this is all purely hyperbole and me playing Devil's Advocate.

Although like Shockwave, I'm a big fan of the games, and Turtles in Time is a game where four humanoid turtles who are also ninjas travel back in time and fight a mutant boar and rhino on a pirate ship by eating pizza that makes them spin around really fast, so I don't know what the cap on "over the top" is for the old series.

Screw it, I'll at least start a download for Turtles Forever (wonderful, I'm on the one other kind of board where I can't just abbreviate it 'TF' )

BWprowl wrote:I don't know Sparks, how long has it been since you watched the old cartoon? Maybe it actually *was* that goofy and over-the-top and you're just mis-remembering it (lolnostalgia). Or maybe Turtles Forever just went that way because, I dunno, that's what most people liked about the '88 cartoon, so they decided to just push it to its limit?

I really should note at this point that I haven't watched the old cartoon in nearly two decades, and I've never seen Turtles Forever, so this is all purely hyperbole and me playing Devil's Advocate.

If you watch Turtles Forever, you'd see what I'm talking about. I'll admit, it's been a long time since I've seen the original 80's cartoon myself, but with how Turtles Forever handles the characters, you can easily tell they are blatantly making fun of the original cartoon. And there are some scenes that really goes beyond the limits of the goofyness I remember the original cartoon having. There are plenty of examples I could point out here, such as 80's April being randomly attacked by 2 Leprechauns, 2 living bowling balls, a mutant banana and a mutant pizza with the 80's turtles claiming they have to save her daily. Granted April was sometimes the damsel in distress, but she didn't need saving in every episode and often she would be helping the turtles out. And they didn't have such random villains like that, at least not what I can remember or find online.

The TMNT games were awesome.

That scene was 'awesome.' If you didn't love that scene, you don't love the '88 cartoon. Also, I feel like in Turtles Forever, they had to play up the fact that the '88 Turtles were so goofy because they were constantly being compared to the 2003 (and later '84 comics) Turtles.

The '88 villains are also painfully ineffectual (but then, so is the Shredder of the '84 comics as portrayed in Forever) but when you look at that cartoon...they 'were' completely ineffectual most of the time, especially compared to 2003's Utrom Shredder and his daughter.

As someone who watched a bunch of 80s TMNT recently, I can assure you all it really WAS that goofy.

Onslaught Six wrote:That scene was 'awesome.' If you didn't love that scene, you don't love the '88 cartoon.

Except that scene totally misrepresents what the 80's cartoon was like. If you loved that scene, then you don't even know the original 80's cartoon.

The '88 villains are also painfully ineffectual (but then, so is the Shredder of the '84 comics as portrayed in Forever) but when you look at that cartoon...they 'were' completely ineffectual most of the time, especially compared to 2003's Utrom Shredder and his daughter.

What cartoon villain is actually effective? Even with the 2003 cartoon taking a darker tone, the Turtles still win in the end.

Gomess wrote:As someone who watched a bunch of 80s TMNT recently, I can assure you all it really WAS that goofy.

I've re-watched a few episodes on youtube. It's goofy, but NOT to the degree Turtles Forever takes it.

Sparky Prime wrote:I've re-watched a few episodes on youtube. It's goofy, but NOT to the degree Turtles Forever takes it.

So apparently that few didn't consist of the episode where Irma grows to giant size and her clumsiness wrecks New York, the one where Leo, Don and Raph are turned into babies, any episode with Zach, the one with the monsters that come from pizza, the one where Don has to grow to giant size to fight an ape called Jocko that has also been grown to giant size, the one where Shredder's mam comes to visit, the one where Leo, Raph and Mikey drink a love potion, the one where Shredder thinks he's Mikey, The Turtles and the Hare, any episode with April's super sleuth aunt, or the one where the Turtles recruit Merlin's help in stopping Shredder from turning the world Medieval?

I guess we have different definitions of "goofy". Random leprecauns would've been a welcome change of pace!

As for villain effectiveness, of course the goodies win in the *end*, but O6 is talking about kids regarding the villain as a legit threat. That wasn't the case in the 80s show, but likely was for the recent one. I didn't watch it. But there is such a thing as an effective cartoon villain; it's one who tricks the kids into thinking they MIGHT win.

Sparky Prime wrote:

Onslaught Six wrote:That scene was 'awesome.' If you didn't love that scene, you don't love the '88 cartoon.

Except that scene totally misrepresents what the 80's cartoon was like. If you loved that scene, then you don't even know the original 80's cartoon.

I've re-watched a few episodes on youtube. It's goofy, but NOT to the degree Turtles Forever takes it.

Okay, I’m still at work so I haven’t had the chance to watch this thing yet, but it sounds like this just may be a case of how you’re contextualizing it. Sparky, you’re seeing this as the Turtles Forever writers going “See this? This is why the ’88 cartoon sucked!” while Six sees it as them saying “This is why the ’88 cartoon was *awesome*!” I guess it comes down to what it was you personally liked about the ’88 show. If you thought ’88 TMNT was SRS BZNS then you’d probably be insulted by such treatment of it in this, but if you liked the cartoon for its goofier parts, then it probably comes across as nothing less than celebratory.

Gomess wrote:I guess we have different definitions of "goofy". Random leprecauns would've been a welcome change of pace!

That's the thing, I'm not saying the old cartoon wasn't goofy, I'm saying Turtles Forever took it beyond the goofiness of the old cartoon (yes, that includes episodes like Shredder's mom coming for a visit), to the point it felt like they were just making fun of it.

As for villain effectiveness, of course the goodies win in the *end*, but O6 is talking about kids regarding the villain as a legit threat. That wasn't the case in the 80s show, but likely was for the recent one. I didn't watch it. But there is such a thing as an effective cartoon villain; it's one who tricks the kids into thinking they MIGHT win.

Even with the campy kid-friendliness of the old cartoon, it wasn't without legit threats to the Turtles. Such as Shredder having a mutagen gun that the Turtles sought after to restore Master Splinter to his human form, while at the same time obviously having it as bait to lure the Turtles so he could turn them back into ordinary Turtles with it. And then he'd have them for turtle soup...

BWprowl wrote:Okay, I’m still at work so I haven’t had the chance to watch this thing yet, but it sounds like this just may be a case of how you’re contextualizing it. Sparky, you’re seeing this as the Turtles Forever writers going “See this? This is why the ’88 cartoon sucked!” while Six sees it as them saying “This is why the ’88 cartoon was *awesome*!” I guess it comes down to what it was you personally liked about the ’88 show. If you thought ’88 TMNT was SRS BZNS then you’d probably be insulted by such treatment of it in this, but if you liked the cartoon for its goofier parts, then it probably comes across as nothing less than celebratory.

I don't think I'm contextualizing it at all. The movie pretty much has the 2003 characters constantly, constantly complaining about their 80's counterparts, and like I've said, they take to goofiness over the top.