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it back in a half-shell Commentary by David Gilles Watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was every young kid's favorite thing to do come Saturday morning. Now, some ten years after today's teenagers have abandoned their cartoon watching, they can stop reminiscing and finally experience it again. I can still remember playing with the multitudes of action figures, dressing up in a shell and mask, listening to Coming Out of our Shells, having my first crush on April O'Neil, playing the TMNT video game and watching the best cartoon series ever made. Over the past few years, I would randomly come upon bits and pieces of my TMNT past-a Donatello plush doll here or Michelangelo action figure there. Each thing made me long to have the series come back on again. My wish came true when a friend informed me that there was going to be a new TMNT series on Fox's "Fox Box" on Saturday mornings. I was so pumped that I went through closets full of junk and boxes full of old clothes and toys so that I could find every "turtle-esque" thing that I ever owned. On the Friday before the premiere, I set three alarms and had two different tapes to record the show just to make sure there was no way I could miss it. I was only hoping that the show wouldn't be a failure and a heart-breaker to grown kids everywhere. The next morning I turned on the long-awaited show. Leonardo talks as the opening scene fades in, saying that they're in "a mess of trouble…cornered by the toughest street gang on the East Side." This doesn't faze the Turtles, however, and I knew that the evil gang was going to get the shell kicked out of them. Also, the Turtles looked so much more ninja-like than the original series. Already, in the first five seconds of the show's existence, it's almost as good as, if not better than, the first series. But I knew there was a catch-the theme song doesn't come anywhere close to the quality of the original. Despite this minor setback, you get a peek at what the new April O'Neil and Casey Jones' characters look like, and, may I say, I am looking forward to seeing them in future episodes. I was also not disappointed in the excitement of the show. The action begins immediately when the brothers are being taught to be silent ninjas by Splinter, their mutated rat ninja master. The Turtles' sewer home is attacked by mousers, robotic mice creatures who destroy the sewer and cause the Turtles to be separated from Splinter. The Turtles are forced to go to the streets to find another manhole so that they can meet up with Splinter once again. Along the way, the Turtles come up against the Purple Dragon street gang. The Turtles easily do away with the gang, but then suddenly foot soldiers come out of the shadows and put up quite a fight. Don must drive the Turtles away from the battle, but don't you worry, of course they are not defeated. The show ends when the Turtles reunite with Splinter and find a new home. The first episode only had one little scene of Shredder and no Casey or April, so there are still many more firsts to come. The writers got everything right, though, when it came to describing the characters; they had Mike as the familiar "party dude," Don as the know-it-all, Raphael as the hothead, and Leonardo as the trusty leader. Unfortunately (or fortunately), there will probably be no appearances by Vanilla Ice or any of April's extremely skimpy outfits. I'm sure, however, that there will be plenty of "Cowabungas," and corny sayings, and "funnies" from Splinter. So if you're an avid TMNT fan, or you were at any time in your life, you should probably struggle out of bed to watch the new show at 10:30 a.m. on Fox every Saturday. To describe it in a halfshell, it's worth waking up for. |