Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)--Season 3 Epsiode 8: "Vision Quest" (And A Few Other Thoughts)1/22/2015 Just a warning: I've seen a few more episodes since my last entry. As in 2 1/2 seasons. Spoilers abound. If there’s one thing TMNT 2012 has consistently been good at, it’s looking good. Even the comparatively boring human designs are distinctive from one another, and all of the mutants are very creative (yes, even Spider Bytez, which is honestly the most unique spider monster I’ve ever seen, no matter how doofy everyone else considers it). And everything from the backgrounds to the color palette goes into making this one heck of a good looking show. However, I often get the impression that TMNT 2012 is so caught up in looking good that it forgets that it needs to make sense, too. It’s been trying to have a consistent and dramatic storyline, therefore it can’t just do whatever it wants narrative-wise whenever it wants, because that’s not what we’ve been led to expect. If the show had been episodic from the start, I would not be complaining about this. "Vision Quest" is yet another episode in the series that looks incredible, has incredible character designs and set pieces, good action and is overall good , but yet again contains a disconnect between what I’m told to feel and what I actually experience. The biggest reason I’m drawn out of the episode, I think? Because it went out of its way to look cool instead of make a wholly compelling story, complete with an extraneous character who has extreme and unfulfilled importance put on it.
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I was right when I said in my second entry that the early episodes of a show are hardly as good as the later ones. I also said that I'd go easy on the first ten because those are usually the ones that trip up the production team before everyone settles in and a steady rhythm is established and the show really starts to cohere (if it ever becomes good, which Ninja Turtles 2012 is). At any rate, I'm really glad I've stuck with it, even if the first eleven episodes have been fairly awkward and disjointed. There are still good episodes, but "good" in that way that'll keep your attention rather than living up to the hype and potential of a show. Starting with episode 12, though... boy, oh boy, does the series become what it's been hinting it could be for the last half a season. I decided to go over four episodes this time. Not because I didn't like them or thought they were meaningless. No, actually, it's partly because I just don't have as much to talk about with all these, partly because I watched ahead. I found them all quite cohesive and highly enjoyable. They're also, importantly, fun, a good sense of humor and timing coming from them. And when plot gets involved, they're well-grounded. I Think His Name Is Baxter Stockman That's a shell of a title.
It's fairly obvious that this incarnation of Stockman (Dr. Baxter Stockman? Just Baxter Stockman? Does he have a PhD?) is based in the '87 version of the character. He's dorky looking, he's got a sweatervest, and he doesn't seem to be as big a threat as the Krang or Shredder. He might also turn into a fly like the 1987 Stockman did. I wouldn't be surprised. All in all, he looks like he's going to be a delight to watch. The early episodes of any given series will hardly ever be as good as the later ones. Usually, the further a series goes, the more cohesive it becomes—the writers sink into the characters and world, and the actors bring more life and color into their roles. That’s not to say the episodes can’t be good, just that the ones coming after will usually be better.
I say this because it’s one of the reasons I’ll generally be forgiving of this show in the first five to ten episodes. I am intrigued to see what happens, since the pilot was so good, but I also know that things of a serial nature will not remain static. A bad episode is still a bad episode, but a boring or predictable or slightly unfocused one has more leeway. That being said, episodes three and four—“Turtle Temper” and “Old Friend, New Enemy” respectively— provide examples of both: a good, if mediocre episode that will probably not be indicative of the whole show, and a downright bad episode. I don’t know why I’m just now getting around to watching the 2012 Ninja Turtles series. Well, I kind of know, but it does feel like a shame I’m getting here about two years late. I’ve been a fan of the Turtles since I was young, and despite being born in 1991, I still have some nostalgia for the 1987 series. When the 2003 series came on air, I was an ecstatic middle-schooler. It was like old friends returning from a long vacation. The news of the 2012 series had a similar effect. But it being barely three years after Turtles Forever concluded the second series in 2009 with a particularly grand finale, and I being two years into college, I was a little skeptical. Nostalgia dies hard, but this was the Ninja Turtles we’re talking about, so I gave it a go. But never kept up. But I’m here again, two years later, ready to give it an actual go this time. And this is quite a new start for the Turtles. Viacom owns it now. It’s CGI. The kids who were five when the first cartoon came out are in their 30s and ready to share their fandom with another generation. So, here’s my initial reactions to the 2012 Turtles and the pilot, “Rise of the Turtles”. If I had to grade TMNT 2012 on its character design, it would get an A+++. It’s been awhile since the Ninja Turtles got some innovative design, but even giving them differently colored headbands and initials on their belts back in the 1987 series never fixed the problem of the turtles’ identical designs. It’s honestly exciting to see the effort put into each different model and how the designs give a further sense of characterization. The 3D animation probably gives the animators more freedom to play, since the characters don’t have to be redrawn frame by frame by frame. Thanks to this, this is probably the first Turtles incarnation to make a concerted effort to stay away from sameface. You might think the 2003 show was getting fancy with the different skin colors, but let me just say this: Pallet Swaps |