Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was announced almost immediately after the success of its theatrical predecessor Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Picking up two months after the film’s events, it sees the return of the four heroes and their companion April O’Neil as they navigate the human world. While many humans applauded and appreciated their city-saving efforts, the destruction from Superfly damaged Bishop, who now pursues the turtles and any other mutants. Even though the stakes are much lower this time around, the TMNT has a lot to endure both as a group and as individuals.
Gorgeous animation and incredible voice casting in Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
The show’s art style helps emphasize the teenage portion of the ninja turtles that sometimes does not get conveyed in other series/mediums. The grungy 2D animation shines in this series and the thicker borders around the characters make them stand out even more. Sometimes the action can be a tiny bit stiff but still manages to be delightful for the bigger sequences. It’s practically a moving comic flipbook and it works so well! The animation in the movie was amongst some of the most unique art that’s been experimented with for a major release, so it’s nice to see them take another gamble. Also, the title opener is fantastic, with great music, and a short but sweet animation that fuels excitement after each cold open.
Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Raphael (Brady Noon), and April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri) all return from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. Which is the greatest feeling ever, as they continue to deliver the most believable teenage voices that have ever been done for the TMNT. Alongside the main cast returning some new faces pop up with equally stellar choices. Bishop (Alanna Ubach) and Rod (Pete Davidson) are the antagonists for the first 6 episodes (all that were screened) and add so much to the storyline.
Davidson as Rod is a great addition as he plays a lazy and practically useless assistant to Bishop. Then you have Bishop with her motivations as a result of the chaos from the kaiju attack in Mutant Mayhem. Ubach’s demeanor is brilliant, and each word uttered by her carries every sliver of bitterness that Master Splinter warned them of. Sadly, Splinter sticks to speaking only in vermin, so no luck on hearing more of Jackie Chan’s turn as the father figure rat.
The story structure for the first half of the season is remarkable
In Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, they act, talk, and respond to the world as a teenager would. The first few episodes each focus on the individual turtles, starting with Leonardo. While he may be the team leader, running alone makes him realize that he needs his brothers to be fully effective as their leader. Seeing Leo fly solo and grasping why they work best as a group was fabulous.
Choosing to separate the turtles was a bold move, but it displayed each character’s insecurities, and strengths while weaving them into the overall narrative. The pacing of following just one can sometimes be a bit of a drag, but they manage to interject the other turtles hilariously. At some point, they resort to imitating their brothers with a strong bias of how they perceive one another. Episode 5 reunites them and pits them against Bishop, consolidating the lead-up from the threads earlier set in motion.
In their episodes, they all have to conquer adversities that vary per turtle. As stated earlier, Leonardo has to solely rely on April for help. Michelangelo has a robot to destroy, Raphael gets captured by the Purple Dragons and eventually outwits them. And lastly, Donatello leans into his nerdy tendencies to change the tide of the situation.
Overall thoughts on Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
One thing that was a bummer was the lack of carryover of the soundtrack that made Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem so instantly iconic. No hip-hop tracks to rouse the fact that they are in New York City, as so expertly done in the movie. Still, the score for the show does help elevate all action scenes throughout. The impact of the fight scenes is strongly enhanced by the heavily distorted punk-rock riffs that highlight the messiness of their endeavors.
Sadly, I was only provided with the first half of the season, focusing only on the arc with Bishop and her robots. It wraps itself up nicely at the end and sets up a future alliance that will absolutely be detrimental to the turtles when the time comes. There are six more episodes that will stream with the rest of the show, focusing on the boys taking on some marine mutants dubbed the “East River Three.” As the castings for those characters were already revealed, there is still tons of excitement about seeing that encounter for the first time.
Overall, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is brilliant, short and sweet. It spends a little too much time with every character before rightfully corralling them back together. April as always hangs out as a good ally, and the addition of Davidson as Rod was perfect in adding a little New York flair. Bishop is a great villain, with arrogance that nearly rivals her genius. Her personality plays well into the hatred of misunderstanding the turtles and what they mean to the city. When you see why she hates them, it makes total sense, even if you can’t sympathize with her.
Hopefully, the second half of the show provides even more teases for the sequel movie that was announced alongside this show. All the choices for this franchise are beyond amazing and have the momentum rolling by not having too big a gap between releases. Whether Shredder makes an appearance, after the shocking post-credits scene building up his arrival to NYC, remains to be seen. But with the difficulty faced by the crew here, they will definitely have many more challenges ahead of them.
Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is now streaming all 12 episodes on Paramount+! Have you already watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem? Let us know if you’re excited to get shell-shocked on social media @mycosmiccircus or join our Discord server! We have various forums and channels where we gather to enjoy and discuss this and so much more.
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