We've never been able to see the Turtles' pupils when they're wearing masks (at least not in the 2003+ series). It's a common animated/comic-book superhero thing because pupils will blend in too easily with a dark-colored mask. On the opposite extreme, you've got Superman: The Animated Series, where Supes pupils/irises are clearly visible at all times, but there are no whites around his eyes. Just a little curvy line up top and more flesh color.
In this case, it's more the bodies than anything else. They're more angular now, with less pronounced shading. It sorta reminds me of how things changed going from Batman: The Animated Series/The Batman & Robin Adventures to the followup series The New Batman Adventures, where they completely redesigned all of the characters to be easier to draw (and thus considerably easier to animate). Only in that case, it was a real problem with the original designs where they looked amazing on paper, but were a bit hit and miss when it came to animation, based on which animation studio actually worked on any given episode. In this case, the animation has never been a problem from day one, so they didn't need an overhaul to keep the quality up. It actually looks like they did a complete redesign back when they jumped to Fast Forward, and now they're bringing it back to polute the past.
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camruud
16 years ago
If this is the real reason, it's capitalism at its WORST!!! American movie/TV-industry is getting worse and worse on this, and it seems like its no hope...
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purple_dave
16 years ago
Actually, the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that it has to do with the Flash Forward smegup, and some foolish desire to make the show look "fresher" and more kid-friendly. The animation isn't noticably different, and the character designs are still sorta similar (much moreso than what happened between B:TAS and TNBA).
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calishreveguy
16 years ago
I still say they kept the Fast Forward look because they had not gotten back to their own time untill the end of the episode. If they keep it the same way in the next episode then yeah its here to stay, we'll just have to see.
Dr. Peter Venkman: NOBODY steps on a church in my town.
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purple_dave
16 years ago
If that was the case, I would think it would have worked a lot better if they'd switched back to the original look as soon as they dropped out into their own time, not just waiting until the next episode to make the switch.
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purple_dave
16 years ago
Aaaaand they changed the animation style. Again. Not the Fast Forward super-simple design, but not quite as clean as the original. For the first time since 2003, the Turtles have pupils and irises and all that, as grown turtles, while wearing masks. I know that the kid-turtles always had them, and I _think_ they showed up whenever a turtle was de-masked, but now they've got these _huge_ anime-eyes. It's obvious that it's a new "feature" because there are a lot of non-action scenes where they pointedly have the turtles look in different directions without moving their heads, but the irises are so freaking huge that you can only tell which way they're looking when they're in a close-up shot. Otherwise, they're just dark spots on the masks.
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calishreveguy
16 years ago
Yeah I hope in the next few episodes they pick up on the action a little. The last episode, while entertaining, was lacking in much action.
Dr. Peter Venkman: NOBODY steps on a church in my town.
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