Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" is an American 3D rendered computer animated television series that premiered on Nickelodeon in 2012. It is the third animated TMNT television series (Following after the 1987 and 2003 series) and has presently been renewed for a forth season by Nickelodeon.

Like many 3D remakes/reboots/renditions of a classic cartoon series, a lot of people, especially longtime fans were rather turned off and groaned in dismay upon laying their eyes on the previews for this show. And the truth is, I really can't blame how they feel, it is reasonable to feel that way, especially when you grew up with the original. But it really is most unfortunate not to give this version a chance as I feel that it not only stays true to older versions, but also adding their own unique ingredient into the mix.

This show might seem a little more childish at times if you were to compare it to such shows like "Transformers: Prime" or any of the other DC 3D animated shows at the time, a considerably unique aspect of the show is how 2D 'anime' expressions are applied to the characters during many comedic moments, while I was a little caught off guard when I had first seen it, I was surprised to realise that it just... worked.

And the best thing was that the animators didn't get lazy when it came to animating their more 'normal' expressions. The expressions most of the characters (And not just the turtles) pull almost never fails to make me giggle or aww (I swear there's a whole archive just for all of the amazing expressions made throughout the show). And I am not just talking about the goofy and cartoony expressions, they have done a wonderful job in making these characters appear like real living, breathing beings, even the most subtle expressions are well done.

While the personality of the turtles have been somewhat established over the years (Thanks to the 80s theme song), I feel that the animation used in this series was able to fully flesh out their characters as compared to previous incarnations, each one has their own unique mannerisms, expressions and body language, that even without the differences they sport in their appearances (More on that later), you can actually still identify who is who. As mentioned before, they are given so much energy in the way they are animated, that you can definitely tell that they are still teenagers.

The show definitely took a more stylistic direction as compared to other 3D shows (Well... I suppose there's "Tron: Uprising"), there were many moments when more comic-book-like visuals were used instead of more realistic ones, which made the scenes all the more dynamic, aside from paying homage to the original comic.

Honestly, while I have watched the 80s and 2003 version, this still remains my most favourite representations of the turtles yet. This is probably a little bias on my part but they are just so unbelievably adorable in this version (Though of course the 80s version had their moments too). Ever since the first live action movie, designers have begun adding in unique elements to each of the turtles to differentiate them from one another, aside from the coloured masks they wore of course.

Honestly, the designs actually grew on me.

While the turtles in the recent movie wore unique attires from one another and had incredibly different body builds to boot, this version's design of the turtles are a little more subtle and simple but are still different enough to be told apart from one another, even without their masks on (It also helps that they have a pretty good voice cast). 

Taking out the fact that they each have different coloured masks, eyes and even skin tone, each turtle's facial features are considerably different from one another, such as Donatello's head being... thinner than the rest I suppose... I'm not to sure how to describe it but I'm sure you will agree with me that his head shape is the most different out of all four of them. One of the more obvious differences between their designs are the shape of their eyes, with Michelangelo having the widest and most innocent looking pair out of them all, and Leonardo having the most almond shaped ones, though you probably won't notice it as much once they start pulling those silly faces again.

And there are of course other little things added to their appearance like Michelangelo with his freckles, Donatello with his tooth gap, and heck, Raphael with his little beauty mark.

Much like "Transformers: Prime", I felt that the animators for this 'new' version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were able to fully (Or greatly) utilise the perks of 3D computer animation, they were not only able to animate more complexly dynamic and detailed fighting sequences (Because hey, this is still a show about ninjas... and mutants) but also bring more... development to these already well known characters.