TMNT: Fast Forward so far: Thoughts and Speculation (Possible Spoilers)

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Avery Danger

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No new episode this week, and since we're nearly halfway throught the season, I thought this would keep us occupied.

Ever since Fast Forward was announced as a "lighter, funnier" series, most people dreaded its coming, fearing it would not match up to the previous series. Now we've seen what it has to offer, and whether those fears were justified. So, what does everybody think of the series now? Is it everything you feared? Do you find it (gasp!) a worthy season six? Anything you'd like to see from it? Suggestions?

Also, given that we're already seeing some of the season's arc take place, what do you think the writers have in store for us?
 
It's had it's ups and downs but the later episodes like "Bishop to Knight" "Night of Sho'Konabu" "Fly Me To the Moon" and "Invasion of the Body Jacker" Show that Fast Forward has not lost what made TMNT 2k3 a great show to begin with, even if this is the weakest season.
 
You know, it's won me over. And I say that as someone who didn't like the initial premise, didn't like them changing the 2k3 series, and didn't like the episodes previewed during summer.

The writing's really put the emphasis on fun, and the new tone actually discards one of the problems I had with the old series: raised expectations. 2K3 was something that you desperately wanted to feel like Batman:TAS in terms of storytelling and depth, but ended up falling short because the writing wasn't up to par or there were censorship restrictions. Fast Forward isn't attempting to be edgy or serious, and it's fun for once to sit back and not think "that could've been a real gun but was censored!" or "he really should've said 'kill' there instead of 'destroy' there."

Overall FF is still the more disposable series and 2K3 should be the one that's remembered, but as long as Cody doesn't hog the spotlight and "it's ninja time!" is kept to a minimum, saturday mornings will still be fun.

AND...what are these rumours popping up on the technodrome forums? One is that FF has been split into 2 13-episode seasons, and the other is that the Ninja Tribual arc has been cut from 13 to 12 episodes?
 
By my count it's 14 episodes, 13 brand new one, plus the "Ninja Tribunal" whic was the last episode of last season. Has anyone heard when this supposed to come out anyway?

As for Fast Forward, I've greatly enjoyed it and I think that it's slowly improving. To me, it feels like a combination of the action and story telling of TMNT 2K3 and the humour of the 80's series.
 
I like Fast Foward, as well as the fact that all the recent episodes have been better than the start, but I feel they could have done a little bit more with it.

Why not take elements from the Volume 4 comics? Why not show us an Utrom facility on Earth? Why didn't the writers even touch up upon the Turtles seeing the Utroms?

Heck, Mortu is still alive, right? And how about Fugitoid? Shouldn't they still be alive? Imagine the Turtles seeing them on Earth in the future? How could would that be?! Heh, the thought of Fugitoid, Biggles, and Serling all playing cards with one another has just popped into my mind for some reason. :sweat:

That being said, I'm fine with the series, despite the fact they could have brought some storylines from the comics over to this.

I'm even preparing myself for this possibly being the last season, just in case catastophe strikes and 4kids decides to cancel it since revenue is down. It'll be a shame to see it end this season, but I at least hope they get home in the final episode. Would be retarded to see the show end with them stuck in the future.
 
It's still the best action show on Saturday mornings IMO but it doesn't hold a candle to TMNT 2K3. It basically feels like lots of futuristic filler from 2K3 but the animation change also bugs me. I really feel like its wasted potential so far but some of the exclusive plot is interesting. Still... it feels a lot more like 4kids usual than TMNT 2K3 did and that's an awful shame. What's even more of a shame that the ratings so far are weaker than even season 4's ratings of TMNT2K3. Looks like this chapter of the TMNT will close soon and it's just as well. I can't see them going back to things as normal if FF does any better.
 
Actually with the surprisingly strong season four of the Batman it's actually the second strongest Action cartoon on Saturday mornings. Makes me happy they are not on at the same time. This would be the first time in three years that i would watch The Batman over the Turtles if given the choice.
 
I think the relative lack of characters and storylines from the previous series are an attempt to let the new characters and situations be established without being overshadowed, as well as an attempt to make the series stand out on its own. The new characters have been given a tough time by viewers and are already competing for screen-time; imagine how much harder it'd be for them if they'd had to compete with fan favorites. If Fast Forward lasts longer than one season, I could see the writers returning to old ground.

Has anybody taken to comparing this show with Legion of Super-Heroes, based on the shared "character(s) from the past...in the Future!" concept?
When they start using similar concepts (Monster movies in the future! Galactic Presidents...in white!), it becomes especially hard not to do. I like them both, thought.

One of the things I've noticed about this series, unlike LSH, is that the action has been taking a backseat to pure exposition. Almost every episode has spent some time introducing one or two new concepts, something the previous series didn't need to do as much, unless they set the story outside of NYC--then they used multi-parters to balance the stories out.
While it helps establish scenery (so far, I find the 22th century far more interesting that the 31st), it's made for relatively action-less show so far.
Hopefully, once exposition doesn't become as necessary, we'll be able to see some good fight scenes.
 
Watched about the first 7 episodes, then gave up on it. The only thing that it does for me is remind me of how good the old TMNT 2k3 was. Everything about it screams "contrived in a boardroom". The "future" is barely futuristic at all, looks like they basically took a few ideas from Futurama, threw in some "techno" weapons for the Turtles, and figured that would look enough like the future to please the kiddies. The stories so far have garnered zero interest for me. The new characters are dull. And don't get me started on "it's ninja time." So why should I waste valuable space on my tape for this show full of perpetual afterthoughts? There's way too much stuff on every weekend that's more worthy of the 8 hours I can fit on it. I sure as hell ain't gonna start waking up at 6:00AM for it (when it's on by me).
 
Boy I hate to be the bringer of bad bad news but the DVD release in America of the Lost season is currently no longer on the 4kids release schedule. It is being released in Australia and New Zealand. Also one of the episodes was not finished and has been pulled. The one with the Garbageman. I found this out on the Technodrome forums where Steve Murphy from Mirage comics has been answering questions. When we will get the DVD in America remains unknown.

Before I forget Murphy also said that Fast Foward has been changed from one 26 episode season. to two 13 episode seasons. That means only three more episodes this seasons.
 
I still find it hard to believe 4kids is going to delay the last 13 episodes till September.

They're airing episodes 11-13 over the next three Saturdays, so this "season" will be over before Christmas. Does that mean we have 8 months of repeats after that? WTF?

I don't think they'll do that, it's pretty dumb, especially with the new movie coming out in March.
 
Yeah...although considering 4Kids skipped Insane in the Membrane and deliberately ended season 4 on that Ninja Tribual cliffhanger, I wouldn't be too surprised in the long run.

The Lost season will get a dvd release eventually...you dont pour that kinda money in and not get something out of it. But I thought Nightmares Recycled was too far along in the production to get canned? I mean with four of the episodes airing on comcast already, I though the whole season was basically ready to go.
 
Well the former is because Fox refused to air it if I remember correctly, nothing really to do with 4kids. (which is why it was on the DVDs)

The latter because they were desperate for toy sales/ratings to improve I guess. But 4kids thinking people will sit through 8 months of repeats to wait for the last 13 eps of FF in September '07 is really insane. That long gap would kill interest in the show completely, and most people wouldn't bother watching by then.

It's why I don't believe they're doing that, and if there is a rerun break, I imagine they'd start new eps around the time the movie debuts in theaters since 4kids is getting revenue from the movie as well.
 
Theoretically, Turtles dosn't even need a break. This franchise has enough history and potential to go on for as long as Superman and Batman. Too bad there's such a thing as money in this world that controls wether a series lives or dies, and not wether or not it's a good series or bad one :evil:.


I absolutley hated the first three episodes. As someone said, they just borrowed a bunch of stuff from Futurama. It's a Fox show, so I guess they own some of those ideas....gave them new weapons, and boom. Future. That'll keep the kiddies eyes glued long enough to buy the all important toys, that suck anyway because Playmates has lost any creativity it may once have had. Can you tell I'm bitter? :evil:

That being said, I did enjoy the wrestling episode. Serling has become a rather fun character with an interesting twist.....Biggles could be interesting if they don't just make him a one worded character. Starlee is cool, but not on enough to judge. Maybe the reasoning is that young male viewers don't want to see cute female characters and just want to see guys fighting? This is executive thinking here, people :).

This series does have the potential to get better, but they need to get rid of a few things, and change others. Get rid of 'It's Ninja Time'. Turtles of this erra have evolved beyond the need of a catch phrase. Give Splinter something to do or kill him off like they did in the comics. I hate how they have him around, yet he almost does nothing....Yoda is old, and he's usefull!

Focus on Don and Mike more....Raph and Leo have been given there time. Heh, I find it odd that the two least likley to be friends, Don and Mike, where usually paired off in the old cartoon, continue that tradition in the new and play off that relationship a bit : ). The turtles are already teenagers. Get rid of Cody in the opening title splash.

Other than that, it could really be good and last more than one season :).
 
Well I did some poking around the Technodrome forum as well and now I've got a few things to say.

Splitting up Fast Forward in to two batches a "season" apart is a terrible idea given how much its struggling already. Unless this means they're just going to can it they'd be better off pushing forward (hmm, I made a funny) and ending the 26 episode run of FF and going back to "the usual" back in the Turtle's time. Breaking it into two seasons seems like a feable attempt to stretch out Fast Forward to try to get some kind of success out of it (which even if the movie does well probably wouldn't help things).

I'm dissapointed they're stopping production of an episode as that one sounded really interesting but eh... nothing can be done besides hope they put up the script somewhere. I'm really ticked that 4kids is delaying the Lost Season release and have taken it off the VOD listings. Where do they get the gull to do that when Peter Laird paid for these episodes. I considered 4kids to be good for nothing douche bags before but when it comes to TMNT's treatment this is the last straw.
 
It is moves like this that make me question whether Peter Laird has any more executive control over the franchise anymore.

TMNT: Fast Forward started off pretty weak for me but gradually got better when they introduced Bishop and Torbin Zixx and from there concentrated on Sho'Ka'Nabo's plot. The show can be pretty good if it sticks with its character development and plot buildup rather than going with the future cliche of the day. I'll give the show this much: at least they're not flying aircars in the future. I consider aircars the ultimate future cliche.
 
When they say splitting up into two 13 episode "seasons", I'm guessing they probably mean that they're showing the first 13 episodes in the fall, and the remaining 13 episodes in the spring. That would make more sense, as that's what most shows seem to do to make the episodes stretch out over the course of the year. Also they probably want to have new episodes coming out when the movie comes out.
 
That's what I'm hoping. I want all 26 episodes of Fast Foward done by around May or June '07.

That way we can have a new season (hopefully) in Sept. '07.
 
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