Which TMNT cartoon do you enjoy more TODAY, the 1987 or 2003?

Yeah, I have to say that's where '03 TMNT took a big misstep. Sorry, but Shredder is a human named Oroku Saki, not an alien!
 
I know I'm not the first one... somebody else made the comparison earlier in this thread, and I pretty much stole it from them.:p I was going to compare it to Superfriends before that, but I decided that it had more in common with Batman so... yeah.




That might have been a serious dramatic moment, if it wasn't for the fact that a Giant Turtle was doing it.

I haven't seen Insane in the Membrane (I did all my 03 Turtle watching on TV), but I doubt it would change my mind. A show about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cannot be serious no matter what situations they are put in. It will always end up looking kinda silly.
 
I guess that just has to do with your own personal mindset. I know some people, like my Grandmother, who can't take a show seriously unless it's about flesh and blood live-action humans. Then you have people like my parents, who have a higher tolerance for aliens and fantastic things thanks to stuff like the Star Wars movies. But they still have their limits.

Me? I grew up on stuff like Toy Story. I felt sad when an action figure jumped off a stair case and crashed to the ground, breaking off his arm, because he wanted to believe he was the real Buzz Lightyear. I don't think there is any medium of storytelling that I can't take seriously, so long as the writing is good. And I consider that to be an awesome thing.



BTW, I voted for the 2K3 series. Awesome show. I wish they would finally just put it all on DVD, for God's sake.
 
I love the friendly and colorful animation of the original 1987 TMNT series, but I kind of like the darker and more serious look of the 2003 TMNT series a little more, both have left me with a sweet taste in my mouth so I can't complain about either's animation. When it comes to the fight scenes and battle sequences I do have to give 2003's TMNT the nod, it was more action based and a lot more mature in that aspect, in the original there was too many silly ending's to fights that took away from that fact that someone actually defeated Shredder or whoever they were fighting.

I do love the 2003 series to death, but when I strip down both shows I find myself enjoying the original slighty more even though the animation isn't as good and the battles are slightly cheesy. I think I'm a sucker for nostalgia and TMNT 1987 was a massive part of my childhood and 20 years from now I'm going to look back at the classic TMNT series and the 2003 TMNT series and remember having more memories with the original, but a big part of that could be the time period in which I was watching them. Obviously times were a lot less stressful as a child than as a 20 year old who had a job and school to juggle so that may have something to do with things, but still, regardless of time era the original edges out the 2003 series by a tiny margin.

I'm all about both series though, TMNT is just an amazing franchise (Fast Foward excluded).
 
Ugh, I should have phrased myself better :o. It wasn't that the Shredder fight (or any of the other fights, for that matter) weren't succesfully dramatic or believable - it was that, because of the content, there's always a strong undercurrent of silliness. That was my point from the get-go - TMNT 03 is more of a silly action show then anything else. It's grounded deeply in comedy - and that's not a bad thing, because if it didn't realize how silly the base concept was, it would be a very dumb show.
 
And that's where you're wrong. The comics came first, and Shredder was originally an Utrom. Then they made him human for the 80s TV series. I guess maybe they thought that concept was too heavy for kids then. You can have your personal preference, but there is no basis for the argument that "Shredder is supposed to be a human."
 
Um, no I don't think that's correct. I belive Shredder being an Utrom is a concept that the 2003 cartoon did. If Shredder ever was an Utrom in the comics, it wasn't something from the original TMNT comics back in the 80's.
 
See the thing with me is that by 2003 I was really too old to care about getting into a new incarnation of the turtles. I'm sure the show is really good and all but I just never got into it. Simple as that.

The '87 TMNT was MY version of those characters, and that will always continue to be so no matter what comes down the line. I was just the right age for the original series to completely dominate my entire life for several years. I was part of that generation that needed everything to be about TMNT 24/7. To this day that was a very special part of my childhood that I'll treasure and nothing done with the turtles - no matter how well done - is going to replace the original '87 series. Nothing.
 
80s TMNT revolutionzied action cartoons? I'm not so sure about that. Maybe the pilot episodes did and the cartoon was a fad for years but I don't know if I'd call it revolutionary especially when shows like Transformers, GI-Joe, He-Man and Thundercats all pre-date it. None of which I like more than TMNT btw, not even close but that's because I grew up with TMNT and the Disney Afternoon not those earlier 80s cartoons. What it did do is spawn a LOT of knock-offs. Many of which were terrible, others were alright in their own right but not TMNT to me.

What "stands the test of time" with the old cartoon is the theme song without a doubt, the voice acting and the first 5 episodes. There are many episodes in the later seasons which hold up as entertaining and even unique among comedic action cartoons but the show was horribly inconsistant. That is not to say that TMNT 2003 didn't have some inconsistances but they didn't come until the later seasons when most agreed they seriously jumped the shark.

Don't get me wrong I love the original TMNT cartoon but I'd have to imagine a lot of that is nostalgia talking because when I watch the majority of the episodes I have on DVD (since I of course have all the DVDs) I really don't enjoy them as much as I did when I was kid. And that's fine, they are intended for children so if I don't enjoy them anymore outside of nostalgia there's really nothing wrong with that. It's still my #2 American cartoon behind the 2003 show but I find the 2003 cartoon almost entirely the better show except the theme song and some of the characters.

I will say this. I'm more likely to pop in a DVD of the old cartoon for the simple reason that you can watch that 1 or 2 episodes at a time with little to no commitment while the 2003 cartoon is something I have a hard time doing that with due to it's focus on story. When I got to the point that I had seen them all I wanted to rewatch whole arcs or seasons in marathons rather than just a few episodes here or there. Much like how I prefer to watch One Piece when I'm re-watching the earlier episodes.

However, at the same time I don't give into the "they're too different to judge" because they really aren't. There are certain aspects about them that are such as voice acting for various characters but for the most part since I know what kind of action cartoon I prefer it's easy for me to prefer one style over another. The only aspects bogging down TMNT 2003 are not having nearly as catchy of a theme song and having humor that's pretty well... half-shelled but what do you expect from 4kids? They don't have so much as a funny bone in their body (yes they're all missing their humorous apparently) but I can overlook that because I like engrossing stories and I like my Turtles to act more like the comic book ones. If I want a laugh I might watch 80s TMNT but truthfully if I want a laugh I'm going to pop in Freakazoid, The Tick or some other show that's a better comedy than the 80s TMNT.

However I assure you all I still watch both probably more than most cartoons.
 
I was never a big fan of the 80's turtles show, I remember watching it (usually due to there being nothing else on to watch!) but I could take it or leave it.

Today I still think the same.
Now the 2003 show is a whole different kettle of fish! (:sweat:) I didn't think I would like it but as it turned out, it was blummin good!

From the action to the great artwork and humour (I' a mikey fan!) and the excellent VA's performance its one of my favourite American shows from the past 10 or so years.



When I first saw that scene I was very suprised, if you think about it seeing that the first time with no knowledge about what happens later or the truth about Shredder, its quite violent for a kids show.

If an anime had tried that it would quite likely have been cut from the episode, so Im glad that they allowed it to stay in.
 
Now I think this scene still has the same intensity as is. Sure we know now that Shredder was an Utrom and that his severed head was merely part of his robotic shell, but at the time Leo didn't know that and had the intent to kill him.
 
Wow. As of this writing the original series is being demolished (30-12), I guess a lot of people have grown out of the original series and prefer the more recent version of TMNT, though it seems like a lot of people still care about the classic series even though the newer one edges it out slightly. Like I said, I enjoy both but the nostagia of the original is enough to put it over the top for me, though nostalgia is not the only reason it get's my vote it's a big part of it.

I guess memories can take some thing's (in this case a cartoon) a long way.
 
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