5 out of 5

Developed by: Joshua Sternin, J. R. Ventimilia

Normally I’ve been criticizing DVD collections of HD shows for, y’know, not being in HD, but – besides this collection being from my favorite episodes of the season to date – the transfer quality actually seems better than usual.  I’m sure I’m making that up, but on the same TV I normally watch this stuff, I didn’t see the usual grain I normally do.  It’s definitely not as crisp as true HD, and perhaps these episodes benefit from being daytime / on-the-farm eps, so there are more colors and it’s brighter, but I don’t feel disappointed, fidelity-wise, that it’s a DVD.

My second criticism would, generally, be to the lack of extras, but the TMNT series has been consistent with its animatic inclusions, so while they might not be the most exciting – unless you’re curious about the process of particular scene and haven’t watched these things before – I appreciate that they’re including them.  It’s better than nothing, and it’s not as lazy as stock character bios.

So this is essentially the CGI show’s Northampton arc – in this show, escaping a Kraang infestation in the city and the loss of Splinter – and while the various comics and live action movie have all taken this story time to generally do reflective stuff, TMNT 2012 decides to use the forest and farmhouse setting to go… all out horror!  There are innumerable horror references here that the kiddies just won’t get, as well as some of the most inventive character designs yet, as they’re wholly original, and geniunely creepy.  I didn’t mind the mutant-an-episode setup because being liberated from the core Kraang / Shredder / mutagen plots seemed to let the creators just go all out each episode, creatively.  The humor also felt like it got bumped up a notch, perhaps for the same reason, or perhaps just the general change of scenery gave everyone the spark.  And yet it wasn’t all one-shot, because we have Leo’s slow recovery and fomenting family dynamics for both the boys and April.  The former was especially satisfying, as there was no magic pill that suddenly allowed Leo to recover – they developed it at a surprisingly “realistic” pace.  (Only in quotes because, y’know, we’re dealing with mutant turtles.)