Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: 1987 Series - Season 1 (Review)

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They're the world's most fearsome fighting team, they're heroes in a half-shell and they're green. Master Splinter taught them to be ninja teens, Leonardo leads, Donatello does machines. Raphael is cool but crude and Michaelangelo is a party dude. When the evil Shredder attacks, these turtle boys don't cut him no slack! Those reordered lyrics from the theme song pretty much explains the premise the show. The TMNT was one of the most successful franchises of the 80s and 90s and of course, the most remembered of the Ninja Turtles' adventures came in the form of their 80s animated series which ran for 10 seasons and over 200 episodes between them.

The first season, which spans 5 episodes, was actually created as a self-contained mini series with the series proper being produced after this run proved to be really popular. The season details the turtles meeting news reporter April O'Neal and the turtles' first encounter with their arch nemesis Shredder. After Shredder's foot soldiers and goons are defeated he creates two mutants called Bebop and Rocksteady, and along with the exiled warlord Krang, Shredder tries to open a portal to Dimension X so Krang's army can conquer Earth. The thing that surprised me about these episodes is how how well they've held up over the past 20 years. Most 80s cartoons are horrifically dated and usually only loved now for the nostalgia factor. Ninja Turtles definitely falls victim to this problem (most of Michelangelo's dialogue to be specific), but not enough as to completely deter from any enjoyment of the show. The show's chock full of corny one-liners and memorable characters and features a surprisingly well done mixture of action and comedy that most other 80s cartoons were fairly inept at preforming. While the parts of the show that are dated are cringe-worthy, the rest manages to show-off why the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was one of the most popular cartoons ever and for people like me, it's a a fun and entertaining trip back to childhood.