My Short Critique of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2012
My first exposure to TMNT was the 2003 series, which aired on TV. Due to my inability to navigate cable, I only saw sporadic clips and action scenes, but what I saw really interesting me.
My second exposure was the 2012 series. This was the first TMNT show where I watched the pilot and decided to watch the series in order.
It was a decent show, but after a rewatch, there were some things that bothered me, like:
April O’Neil (she was poorly written as I'll touch on down below)
Donnie x April x Casey love triangle
Mikey and Donnie not getting serious focus/growth compared to their brothers
Karai's character arc (or lack thereof)
The poorly written humor that feels a bit juvenile at times
The shipping in general (RaMona is the only good one)
The animation in certain places (Donnie retracting his limbs into his shell seems wrong, and the human mouth animations feel a bit putty-like)
Now, I can forgive animation and poor humor (it was the 2010s), but I cannot forgive poor writing.
It's not something that you would notice as a kid, but it becomes more apparent as you keep watching (and especially during a rewatch) that this show was not written cohesively.
The best analogy I can make about the viewer’s experience is this: Twelve people were baking a cake, and at first, everything seemed fine. They knew which ingredients to use, how much of each ingredient, and how to incorporate them into the mixing bowl.
But as time went on, there were arguments, and each baker tried to throw their chosen ingredients in the mixing bowl to overpower the others’. Then, they got notified that the bakery was about to open, so they baked the batter and sold the cake.
And it’s a good cake, many people love it on their first try, but as you keep eating, you bite down on bits and pieces that don’t taste right. You spit them out and examine them. You first throw them away and continue eating, but you keep finding them.
This is most obvious with April O'Neil. It feels like for every three minutes of April per episode, she was being bounced around between five separate writers.
Is she into Donnie or Casey? Is she creeped out by them and just wants to be alone? Is she a whiny brat who endangers the group with her inability to read bad situations or is she a competent fighter with good control over her powers? Is she focused on saving her dad or trying to live a normal life? Does she have good control over her powers or is she flying blind? Is she part of the family or just the resident human acquaintance that eats their food and takes up their living space?
I can't even give you a clear "I love/hate 2012!April" because I know nothing about her except "She was poorly written", and that's not something I can blame a fictional character for. That is the fault of the creator/writer.
Feel free to comment & reblog. Let me know if I got anything wrong, or what things about TMNT 2012 that bothered you.
