DVD Review: TMNT The Original Series

When a new animated version of Eastman and Laird's indie comic book series about four mutant ninja turtles appeared a year or two ago, I checked it out for purely nostalgic reasons. While the stories were more loyal to the original material, I found it less entertaining than the original cartoon that I had grew up with. Part of it was I missed the original cast of Cam Clarke, Rob Paulsen, and the rest.

Finally, F.H.E., who must have desperately held onto the rights of the original since the 1980s, has released the first DVD of the original series. Contained in the DVD is the first five episodes, the usual five-part tv-movie/pilot that worked so well on other 80s cartoons. With them are four bonus episodes from the series' final season, supposedly unaired.

I was genuinely surprised on how entertaining the episodes are even after twenty years. The gags and wisecracks come a mile a minute so much in fact that you'd expect Roger Moore's Bond to appear at any second. ("April, you wouldn't last five minutes in a ninja pizzeria!") It's silly to the point of absurdity with machine gun-carrying grannies (from "Goldfinger?!") and hot-rodding interdimensional teenagers, but it's just pure fun.

The picture quality's above average, especially considering its age. The worst of the aging is in the main titles, but most of the actual episodes are clean. The animation itself is for the most part fairly detailed and probably the best the Turtles will look in the whole series. The sound quality's okay, but don't expect super Dolby 5.1 Surroundsound.

With no animated menus or even a booklet, the only effort they put into this DVD is a nice slipcover. It's nice they made an effort with the bonus episodes, but I would have preferred them putting in the episodes that came after the first five, instead of jumping to the end. Overall, this is a nice piece of my childhood which I happily embrace, and if you can find a copy for around ten bucks, it'd be worth your time as well.