3 out of 5

Developed by: Andy Suriano and Ant Ward

covers seasons 1 and 2

One episode at a time, I am frequently so impressed by Rise of the TMNT. I was definitely in the crowd making stink eyes at the show’s rather radical visual and tonal overhaul, and though I was one of those trying to calm myself (and the louder naysayers) by accepting the franchise’s flexibility, I do think Rise was one of the more radical examples of that… perhaps, in many ways, on par with the Fred Wolf original. And just like that show, it’s a mixed bag, one that, when removed from the more overwhelming take – for Rise, that it was some woke-baiting, Teen Titans knock; for Fred Wolf, using nostalgia eyes to overlook how frequently crap it could be – proves to have some truly rewarding, brilliant, inventive bits.

To further underline this alignment, imagine being a reader of the original black and whites, when hearing it was being converted into a Saturday morning cartoon, and seeing the bubbly designs versus Eastman and Laird’s crunchy, squat ‘zine heroes: while the Mirage comic was never really as dark as I think it gets discussed as sometimes (it was always a bit goofy), it was still very much an underground looking thing that I would not have immediately figured for kids show potential. The complete demo swap was pretty damn drastic.

From thereon out, even through the Bay flicks, I feel like you can trace the pieces that led from one show / movie to the next. But Rise…? This was, legitimately, a complete re-do, which of course made it first suspect to TMNT fans, and then rankled the, er, more fervent ones, by throwing a die with the various Turtle personalities, and goodness me, making April black. And if there is a criticism to make – a big one – while none of these things break the show in quite some shouting-from-the-rooftops might’ve imagined, it is hard to see the TMNT core amidst all the memes and bravado. …But not impossible.

The show is, firstly, funny. If you’re down with Adventure Time-style nonsense and Teen Titans idiocy, applying the high-octane animation style of both, then further upcycled through short-attention-span storytelling and visual tics that sift through Tik-Tok / Youtube culture – any maybe you don’t like all of that, but if you like some of it – you’ll probably get a laugh here or there. The cast is well-selected to match the chosen tone of each character, with seasoned players helping to ground things with a bit of patience when the animation style and storytelling are trying to go gonzo. But: it’s the downbeats that kill it – in a good way. The litany of cool teen talk and key-framed animation style quirk is often distraction, and then you’ll see all of these little offhand visual jokes inbetween. Those are often brilliant, and got the biggest laughs from me.

Secondly, the show is.. slowly… rewarding. We hang out in the 15-minute segments setup that Nick animated shows often use, and that means there’s practically no serialization, at least until the series can build up its cast a bit, and have enough loose story threads going. Even then, the gap between one-offs and “plot” is massive, and because of the show’s tendency to do 4th wall breaks for jokes, and undermine its own stakes at any opportunity, it can be hard to get wrapped up in that plot. Which is too bad, because it’s actually pretty good: turning the Foot Clan into a pair of otherworld-brawlers who are trying to procure pieces of an ancient armor set to resurrect their boss (guess who?), and zips through mutagen and Battle Nexus references and more, offering up a couple of truly impressive twists along the way.

But that gap is the biggest offender: while we’ve seen how the 2-segment episodes this can work on some of the aforementioned shows, doing silly and serious (Star Vs. also comes to mind), it really ends up feeling like two shows, down to its animation style split between social media editing and its more traditional, hand-drawn vibe. As an old man, I didn’t even mind the former, as it led to some pretty good visual yuks, it’s just so disconnected from the latter, and this necessitates the other coffin nail: no one’s the straight man. Every character is over the top, and this blurs the lines of distinction between each brother, between the villains and good guys, and between ninja students and masters. It’s quite a mess.

However, the benefit of those bite sizes is that they go by pretty quickly, and the series actually dares to do something cartoons of this type rarely do, and leaves us on a legit what-can-happen-next? cliffhanger going from season 1 to 2. You ponder what that means: that the storytelling has sort of been coming together, and sit that aside some of its belly laughs, and those twists I mentioned, and you realize that core is in there, but its like the creators figured they had to doll the show up in a more modern appeal before slowly starting to reveal it. Not a bad plan, except when you’re dealing with adult fans who couldn’t effing deal with Leo being an idiot and Raph now the leader and Splinter a lazy oaf, and then you start season 2 off with… a nonsense episode that completely ignores the cliffhanger.

Tonally / visually / conceptually at war with itself, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles takes some effort to spot its franchise bona fides, but skates by with some funny writing, inventive concepts, good voice acting, and a high-speed pace which takes a kitchen sink approach, hoping something will keep its viewers around. After a fashion, I think it achieved that, but the pool had shrunk in size enough that season 2 was chopped down, and we never got to see this thing fully evolve.