So if you remember, I said that Turtles Forever is the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie ever, since it was a crossover between 80s turtles and 2000s turtles, with a little original comics thrown in. Well, it's 2016 and we now have another universe crossover episode this time with the 80s turtles and 2010s turtles. Since the last one went over so well, how does this match up? I mean, this is the best incarnation of the turtles yet (on TV at least) and there have been cameos of the 80s series in the past.
Well first and foremost, this isn't a TV movie like Turtles Forever; it's a season 4 episode in the 2010s current series. Now I haven't been keeping up too much on season 4 since it drastically changed tone to a space travel sci-fi series at the beginning of season 4, but from what I can tell, this is kind of a "filler episode," that MIGHT lead into something new in the series (more on that to come). What I'm getting at is that this isn't meant to be a major event like Turtles Forever was. It's more meant to be a fan service episode, and that's perfectly fine, but with the previous hour and 30 minute crossover TV movie we had, it left me wanting more. But I'm going to try to look beyond that, and review it as a major episode. OK, now for the review.
SPOILER WARNING! I go deep into the plot in the next couple of paragraphs. Skip to the "ALL CLEAR" if you don't want spoilers.
We start with the turtles and crew flying in space, when they are suddenly transported to a 2D dimension (if you don't know, the 2010s series uses 3D character models in a 3D environment), and there's some fun at the fact that things are all flat. Soon, they meet 80s turtles, and there's a pretty funny "clash of designs" such as the initials on the belts. It turns out that 80s Crang wants to blow up their dimensions, and he's using like some kind of black-hole generator bomb. Then there's even more clash of designs in 80s world.
After 80s Crang goes into 2010s dimension, all the turtles (80s and 10s) follow him using 80s Donatello's inter-dimensional ray gun. This time the 80s turtles are clashed with a 3rd dimension, and it's pretty funny. This isn't "present day" 2010s turtles though, since the earth isn't destroyed, but rather 6 months in the past. There's a really nice reuniting of Splinter and 2010s turtles, and some scolding of having parallel universe turtles in the lair, but it's funny. The turtles find the black-hole generator in 3D universe, then they go to the 2D 80s universe to get that black-hole generator. However, there's one more generator to find, and that's in Turtle Prime, aka, comics turtles. The turtles try to go there, but they are intercepted by 2010s Crang sub-prime, and have to fight them to get to turtles prime.
After fighting the crang, both Donatello's go to turtles prime and get the black-hole generator, but not without running into the prime turtles. There's no fight, or prime dialogue, but more of a chase scene. The entire thing is done in a "motion comic" style complete with comic book panels and "sliding pictures." After stopping all the black-hole bombs, we find out that 80s Crang was banished to 80s universe for being incompetent, and that really answers the question of "who is Crang" from the 80s. We end on the 2010s turtles going back to their dimension (possibly in the past) and the 80s turtles going back to the 80s.
ALL CLEAR! Spoilers over.
OK, so spoilers over, let me look at some technical parts. Lets start with visuals. Now in an older episode of the 2010s series, there's a fan service easter egg where a mutagen worm is sent to the 80s dimension, and the animation is very limited and not fluid, at like 15 frames a second. It's meant to poke fun at the low budget of 80s cartoons, and it's good for a minute long gag. However, a good 7 minutes or so is spent in 80s dimension, and the limited animation is very annoying. The 80s cartoon isn't limited and jerky like they make it out to be, and it would have been better if it was fluid like the actual cartoon. Luckily it isn't a majority of the episode.
Next I want to talk about the "blending of the designs." Now in Turtles Forever, it was much easier to have the characters keep their original art style since both 80s turtles and 2000s turtles were 2D animation. However, with 80s turtles being 2D and modern turtles being 3D, it's not as simple as "keep the exact same art style across dimensions." While I would have loved seeing 3D turtles in a 2D world, and vice versa, that would have been far too distracting for 22 minutes. What they did instead was keep all the character proportions and design features (like modern Raf's cracked shell and Donny's tooth gap, and the 80s turtles "quadruplets" design), when they crossed dimensions. This way, it was basically "this is what the characters would look like if they were drawn 2D or rendered 3D." It looked pretty good. I was able to tell who was who, and they still looked like they should. The "extra spoiler" part, left much to be desired in terms of "blending the styles," but it lasted 1 minute so whatever.
One thing I have to talk about is the voice acting of the 80s turtles and Crang. While it's been years since I've watched 80s turtles, I know that they weren't the original voices. I don't know all the specifics, but it has to do with union contracts of 80s voice actors. I didn't mind all that much. Plus they played the background music from the respective series whenever a character was doing something cool, like "heroes in a half shell" when 80s turtles were kicking butt and the rap-like music when 2010s turtles were kicking butt.
Now if I had one complaint, it's that it was WAY to short. With Turtles Forever being a full TV movie, it really had the opportunity to explore the differences between old and new, and poke fun at how different they are. With this episode, things felt very rushed, like we weren't able to explore all the differences. Sure, 80s turtles aren't nearly as different as 2010s turtles as they are to 2000s turtles, with a whole lot coming back from the 80s series to find itself in the 2010s series (like Beebop and Rocksteady), but there's still plenty to explore. One thing that could be really explored is how unique each modern turtle is compared to how identical the 80s turtles are. Another thing is how modern Rocksteady is Russian and 80s Rocksteady is just a goon. There was just so much to explore, and it was just kind of crammed into a 22 minute episode.
I REALLY hope that this is explored again, and we get a "Turtles Forever 2," but with all the cartoon iterations; 80s, 2000s, and 2010s. It was great with Turtles Forever, and there's even more to explore now with 2000s turtles, the TMNT movie turtles, and Bay turtles. Nickelodeon, please make another cross over movie, because all this episode did was tease us. I would love to see 2000s turtles thrown into 2010s turtles, and there being some confusion at "OK, I know there are other turtles, but you guys aren't like those goofy guys from before," and funny situations ensue, only to have the 80s turtles come in and 2000s and 2010s recognize the 80s turtles, and all sorts of fun happens. I would also like to see more characters see their dimensional counterparts, like teen 2010s April meeting 80s April, and 2010's Donatello going super drooling over 80s April, and 2010s Kacey meeting 2000s Kacey thinking both are really cool. One can dream.
Well, this has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
