MovieChat Forums > Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) Discussion > 2003 series is over...Thoughts

2003 series is over...Thoughts

posted 15 years ago by Rockyfan1
4 replies | jump to latest

Its weird that the 2003 series is over. I have watched it since its debut in Feb. 2003.

After a great run, what are some of your favorite moments? Also, what did you think of the finale of Turtles Forever? Personally, I wish they would have had one more scene with the 2003 turtles back in their own dimension, running on their roof tops or in their sewer. But it was still an epic finale.

Sometimes I think the creators intended the Ninja tribunal season to be the final season and then they drew it out a little too long. I liked the final episode of Back to the sewers though and Turtles forever was still a good ending.

Anyway, thoughts on this show as a whole, Reflections on your favorite episodes or your opinion on the ending. Please share..

[–] RivenWinner 15 years ago

Unfortunately, I have still not seen this final episode, so I can't comment on it. (Really want to see it, though).

I thought this series was a great run for TMNT. I think it was well made, both for the children and older audiences alike, and obviously it did a great job making TMNT popular again. However, I think its great success brought about its downfall. The first few seasons (especially Season 1, and to a lesser extent Season 2) were excellent. The series was darker in tone, and adhered to the comics much more so than the original 1980s show did. Mirage did throw in a few new twists though, to keep things new and surprising. I'm not a huge fan of The Shredder being an Utrom, but in the context of the show it worked well.

I feel as the series progressed, Mirage felt and acted on the pressure that 4Kids! demanded, and as such the last few seasons were rather silly and competely unnecessary (Fast Forward, etc.).

That, and of course the news that Mirage sold the TMNT property to Nickelodeon. This was quite a blow to me, and a complete letdown. After holding on to the property for so many years, and then making it popular once more in the early 2000s, Mirage decides to sell the property to (of all people) Nickelodeon. I don't like this, and I think it basically shatters our hopes for a darker, more mature (and faithful) film adaption of the comics. In all honesty, that is the least of my concerns. My main one being that once the transition phase is over, the TMNT comics, as we know them, will cease, and that's a shame, as the past few years have been pretty solid IMO for the comics.

To summarize, the first few seasons of the series were quite good, I think, but I could care less about the last few ones. Let's see what Nickelodeon has in stores for the Turtles.

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At long last BLADE RUNNER: FINAL CUT !

IMDb needs to get rid of the "Sponsored Links" section.

[–] joshthejedimaster 15 years ago

I watched TMNT when I was just crawling (born Jan 1990 - brother was 3 years old). The old series was great! Was very sad to see it leave... and in 2003 I found out that it came back on (2nd episode I saw... first I missed but saw later).

Anyways. It was as good - probably even better - than the old show. Much more mature. But I stopped watching it when it went to Fast Forward. Never saw a full episode cause I though it would be dumb. I did watch the Ninja Tribunal lost episodes on the internet... and they were retarded. No disrespect to retarded people. But giving the TMNT super powers? People coming back from the dead? Yeah... OK.

[–] Cyborg89 15 years ago

As much as I liked this series in Seasons 1-5, I think with all the pandering to kids and dumbing down of the series in the last two seasons it's way past time to end it.

Season 1 had many great adaptations of the Mirage TMNT comics. It showed that like Batman and Spider-Man in the 90's, TMNT can also have a great series that stays true to the orginal comic book stories. Despite not being so well known TMNT had some great comics. The Shredder was introduced as a ruthless no nonsence villian. And April O'Neil wasn't a Lois Lane corbon copy, she was smart and could help the turtles. We also saw the Utroms appear outside the comics for the first time.

Season 2 was really great too, it started off with a bang with the 'Turtles In Space' and 'Secret Origins' sagas. Some of the best episodes IMO and they finish off the first story whole that started with the first episode. I know some people were upset that the Shredder was revealed to be an utrom but I liked it. That's combining two concepts that was familiar to fans of the old series since this series has no Krang (and doesn't need a evil brain from Dimension X I might add). We also got to see the REAL Leatherhead for the first time. This leatherhead is smart and has a interesting and tragic backstory. He's much more interesting than the cajun villian one in the original series. Karai makes her debut in the City of War adaptation and she is pretty interesting character as well. And I really enjoyed the Battle Nexus. Just like Harley Quinn (from Batman:TAS) and Livewire (from Superman:TAS) before it, the Battle Nexus was adapted into the comics. We also got to see Miyamoto Usagi.

Season 3 started off with a bang as well which gave us the return of the Tricertons and the debut of Agent Bishop. I also like the episodes where the turtles went to different realities. Mike's was adapted from a A Mirage comic story, Raph's world came from another mirage comic book series, Don's was a serious adpataion of "Shredderville" from the original series, and Leo went to Usagi's world. And the season finale was great and gave shredder what he deserved.

Season 4 showed us something we never saw in the old series, the turtles injured physically and psycologically, as you could see with Leo. Leo felt guilty, had a attitude that rivaled Raph's and literally had a chip on his shoulder (or shell). Not even Usagi could sooth his friends pain, so Splinter sent him to the ancient one. And Karai the new Shredder was a good move since Playmates and 4Kids seem to think Shredder is needed. And the 100th episode was a clever way to adapt Master Yoshi's story

Season 5 wasn't all that great but it had the feel and look of the previous seasons. Nothing was really dumbed down. Altough I really think they should have just shown Season five, the Ninja Tribunal, for it's original intended TV season (2006-2007) and just ended the show after that.

Seasons 6 and 7 were crap! I mean who did they really think would watch or buy toys from that fast forward crap? The whole "new direction" was requested by playmates to sell more toys. And the tone and artwork from the last season would make any original series fan cringe. I see nothing good that came from these seasons. They changed the show to sell more toys (which failed), it became lighter and kid friendly than the original series ever was, people thought Peter Laid sold out, Playmates acted like @$$h0les, 4Kids enjoyed these years, and whose of all TMNT's popularity took a huge nosedive since they became more boring than ever. The ONLY good thing that MAY have came from this is the Turtles Forever movie. And even in that all the characters from the 2003 series except the turtles looked like crap (just like the 2007 movie). I remember the Seasons 1-5 designs where April and Karai looked like real women. Despite the ugly designs, the movie was good. A great way to end this era of TMNT.

[–] mbh42498 10 years ago

My favorite moments were the introductions to new villains, especially ones that appear in the 2012 series. I found Bishop's character to be ominous, menacing, but interesting.

What I did NOT like was that during S3, the turtles are no longer fighting gangs and clans. They now have to fight ALIENS to save the entire city. And with what? Ninjitsu skills and some melee weapons....cmon, that just sounds dumb.

Then when S5 rolled around, mortals with regular melee weapons have to defeat a DEMON??? Whats worse is that they inherit spirit weapons and powers? The turtles are fighting a being that is on a whole new league. Kinda like having Captain America fight Ultron or Dr. Doom, alone. Mortals can't compete with higher beings, and if you make it so they CAN, then that is a complete exaggeration, even for a cartoon. Using "spirit avatars" that turns them into dragons to defeat a demon, yeah.... ok..... I liked when they were getting their butt whooped by swarms of Foot grunts and when Casey was actually useful, and that seems most consistent with the enemies that Past TMNT cartoons/movies have focused on. MORTAL enemies, excluding the 2007 movie (which also seems far fetched for a villain to be another demon) and many from the 2012 show. These guys are ninjas, not frigging superheroes (even though they are implied to be heroes).

Perhaps I'm just not used to immortal villains for the turtles. I just don't think it fits such a hero class. With that said, I won't even delve into S6-7