Tartarugas Ninja: A Próxima Mutação

I must admit from the start that I only watched half of the 26 episodes of terrible show and I was a huge fan of the previous movies and cartoons.

Though the first, and only, season of this show was terrible, it was supposedly suppose to become better with addition of April O' Neal, Casey Jones, and the Rat King in the second season, and the rumors of Bebop, Rocksteady, and Krang being added after. This is a show that could have became great if given time, but like everything on TV they get rid of good ideas quickly and leave bad ideas on forever.

The reason for me not liking this show was I thought the bad guys were bad character ideas, they should have got the rights to use original and good villains, like Krang, Leatherhead, Rat King, and such, they were good ideas. This show might have seemed better if I hadn't seen any other Turtles shows or Movies, but compared to anything else associated to the Turtles, this show was complete crap.

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation is a flawed attempt at reviving the green team after Power Rangers overshadowed it and became the popular children's heroes. Made by Saban Entertainment, the same company behind Power Rangers (and therefore, the company partly responsible for TMNT's downfall, other factors being the horrible third movie and the fact that the Turtle train ran out of steam, resulting in a drop in quality for the toys and cartoon), it's an okay attempt at a live-action Ninja Turtle series, but sadly, it is a flawed one.

The series is a loose continuation of the New Line films (therefore, we have the subway lair seen in the second and third film, and Splinter is still missing an ear). However, with this one, there is no April O'Neil or Casey Jones to be seen (although it's been said the two would appear had the series gained a second season). The heroes-in-a-half-shell are now 18-years-old in this show and are in for new adventures along with a new female Turtle, Mei Pieh Chi, a.k.a. Venus De Milo, a Shinobi apprentice (which in this show, Shinobi is another word for chi magician). Shredder is there, but only for the first two episodes, as he is defeated and replaced by a new villain named Dragon Lord, an evil dragon who leads The Rank, a group of dragons who were imprisoned by the ancestors of Venus' sensei, Chung I. Other villains used are all exclusive to this series, and that includes Silver, a yeti who is a crime boss, Dr. Quease, who is basically the show's Baxter Stockman, only he is into studying mutation, and Simon Bonesteel, a big game hunter who hunts and sells endangered species.

So, with this series, it is live-action with suit actors (like in the New Line films). However, the editing is poor, as you can see the suit actors missing stuff and a scene where Mikey accidentally touching Venus' chest in one episode due to the suits not giving much vision. Also, Saban make a lot of continuity mistakes in the series (like the controversial dialogue where Leonardo tells Venus the four Turtles we know and love are not really brothers). Plus Venus herself has been a controversial character. She is basically a fish out of water who uses "Shinobi magic" and her main thing is getting sayings wrong (like calling the Turtles' home a toilet and Raph correcting her that it's sewer).

Those flaws were enough to turn many TMNT fans away. The reason for its cancellation is conflicting, with official sources saying the ratings were not good, with another source saying Saban pulled the plug due to the show being expensive to produce and as Fox Kids did not own the TMNT franchise, they did not make any money from merchandise sales. From there on, the story continued online, however, when Kevin Eastman sold his share of the franchise to Peter Laird, Venus and all the other characters introduced would be erased and locked away, never to be used again (even as a joke, as Kevin Munroe would say in an interview for the 2007 TMNT film). While this is okay, the flaws do detract this show from being great, but I believe characters like Venus and Simon Bonesteel should be used in future series, especially if they were given improvements to fix the flaws this series showed.

This is the worst thing the TMNT franchise has ever spawned. I was a kid when this came out and I still thought it was deuce, even though I liked the original cartoon.

There's this one scene I remember when the mafia ape guy explains to his minions what rhetorical questions are. It's atrocious. Many fans hate on the series for including a female turtle, but that didn't bother me. So much so that I didn't even remember her until I read about the show recently. All in all, it's miserably forgettable.

The only okay thing was the theme song. Guilty pleasure, they call it... Nananana ninja...

Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation was a nicely done series. There were some flaws, but that can happen in any tv series. It lacks what the cartoon series and first movie had that made some special though. Basically, this show tries hard to live up to the previous incarnations and that's worth something. Good show.

This show suffers from what people refer to as the Saban Touch, but even if it does have poor effects and tired stories, it did serve as a fun, unique installment in the TMNT franchise. It may not be better than the old show, it's certainly not better than the new one, and the first two movies could be considered leaps ahead of this, but for a group of people who like their cheesy monster men made of rubber and silly fun, this show does bring out the inner child. Besides, the writing was good and funny, the voices of the characters worked well, and the action was a cut above other Saban series. It's darker than Power Rangers, but still completely child friendly. While many complain about Venus, I thought she was a good addition, if only for that show. She added a fun element that many TMNT fans secretly thought should be there, which was a female turtle. I mean, come on, what fanboy could honestly hate a CUTE ninja turtle? :) Anyway, this show should probably be considered an acquired taste for older fans, and for the PR generation more of the same stuff that still passes for Saturday morning action fare.