Anyway, like I said, we have here the trailer for the sequel to 2014’s financially successful and critically….less successful: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  Produced by Michael “Boom Boom” Bay and this time directed by Earth to Echo’s Dave Green, the second installment in this new TMNT movie franchise stars Megan Fox, Brian Tee, Arrow’s Steven Amell, and Tyler Perry’s Tyler Perry.  The movie features both returning faces and brand new faces (well, brand new to the movie).

Listen, we’ve heard all the criticisms; and while I’m generally more forgiving of it, I wasn’t the biggest fan of the first movie.  It did more things wrong than right, so understandably, there’s some trepidation going into this new outing.  So let’s take a look at the trailer and see if there’s even a glimmer of potential here.

…………..

OHMYGOD OHMYGOD OHMYGOD THATWASTHEGREATETSFUCKINGTHINGSI’VEEVERSEENIN…….

….sorry, I’ll take it down a notch.  Let’s break it down shall we.

• THIS HAS ME X-STATIC

Sorry, bad pun, get used to it.  I know this looks like unused footage from Avengers, but giant portals in the sky and flying alien craft could only mean one this in the TMNT universe…DIMENSION X!  They teased this in the first movie and now it looks like they’re delivering on what we’ve been waiting for  for over 20 years now, Krang in a TMNT movie.  As for those flying ships, I’ve heard interesting theories that they may not be ships, but in fact smaller pieces that will combine to form the Technodrome!  Oh hell yes.

• “Y’ALL GOT JOKES, HUH”

The first TMNT movie was…kind of a mess tonally.  It looks like it started off more gritty and serious, but somewhere along the way, the decision was made to make it lighter and comedic.  Being that it was a hodge-podge of different scripts, that’s kind of understandable.  But this movie seems to be settled on a more fun and colorful tone, which is fine by me seeing as how the more humorous elements were the best parts of the first movie.  TMNT always works best when it’s not taking itself too serious, and this movie has sewer-lid launching trucks and mutant rhino riding a tank through water to shoot at mutant Turtle men.  They’re clearly throwing reality to the wind and I’m all for it.

• A FRESH NEW FACE

The biggest complaint lobbed at the first movie was the way the Turtles looked.  They said they were too ugly and weird looking.  Because god forbid giant mutant Turtle men would look weird.  This movie they mostly look the same, but there have been some pretty notable tweaks.  Their noses look more Turtle-like and the hue of their skin looks brighter.  Mikey in particular looks…almost cuter.  Honestly I never had a problem with the original designs, but I’m glad they tweaked them.

• GOONGALA!!!

Speaking of new faces, Steven Amell takes a break from playing vigilante Oliver Queen to stretch his acting chops to play vigilante Casey Jones.  This is my only real concern about  the movie (okay, not my only concern, but the biggest).  Casey Jones is supposed to be kind of grungy guy who’s kinda nuts.  In a world of mutants, robot ninjas, and alien brains, Casey Jones is the weirdest element.  He’s just a guy with a hockey mask and baseball bat taking on the world.  Amell looks a little too clean cut and down to Earth.  But to his credit, he’s not a bad actor and he supposedly had really good chemistry with Megan Fox, so I’ll give old boy a chance.

• A NEW CHALLENGER APPROACHES

Shredder is back, but this time he’s not just an unnamed and uncredited Asian actor brought in to replace William Ficthner because of fans calling “RACISM”!  This time he’s played by a very visible Brian Tee, who honestly looks pretty badass.  Karai is back as well, this time played by Brittany Ishibashi.  Since they went to the trouble of recasting the role, hopefully this means they’ll actually have her do stuff this movie.   Plus, we have three villains making their long awaited TMNT movie debuts.  First up is Baxter Stockman played by…Tyler Perry.  I was…initially conflicted (by that I mean infuriated) at this casting choice, but all that Madea stuff tends to overshadow the fact that Perry can actually act, and when he goes all in, he goes all in; and he looks to be going all in to the whole “mad scientist” thing for this role.  As long as he doesn’t put on a dress, we’ll be good.  Which leads us to the next two….

• “EARTH…MAKE WAY FOR BEBOP AND ROCKSTEADY”!

Oh yeah…this is my jam.  After 25 years; After waiting so long; After being denied in Secret of the Ooze…Bebop and Rocksteady are live and in the flesh.  Well…CGI, but still.  IT’S BEBOP AND ROCKSTEADY!  I know it seems weird to gush over the two dimwit henchmen from the 80’s cartoon who were honestly never that deep, but still, the characters mean a lot to us fans.  Played by human form by comedian and voice actor Gary Anthony Williams (Uncle Ruckus, y’all) and Stephen Farrely (aka WWE World Heavyweight Champion…sigh…Sheamus), respectively, the two look to be very much in true to their original portrayals.  2014-2016 seems to be the Bebop and Rocksteady Renaissance as the two have been given new life in both the current comic series and cartoon.  Now they look to make it a trifecta.  Expect them to be the highlight of the movie.

Overall: It’s too early to judge if they’ve fixed all the mistakes with the previous film, and I’m trying not to give in 100% emotionally…but god DAMN that trailer got my hyped.  They knew just what to show and kept a strong energy throughout.  If this movie is the insane, balls-to-the-wall, pure fun action-comedy I’m hoping it is, then we may have just gotten a taste of the best Ninja Turtles movie, yet.

Cowabunga.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m fond of the stuff I used to like as a kid too, but most people romanticize the crap out of their childhoods as being a time where every cartoon and movie was perfect nothing will ever top it. “Destroying my childhood” is a phrase that pops up every time a reboot of some 80’s or 90’s movie or show comes up; a phrase I absolutely loathe (not as much as “raping my childhood”, but still). Look. We just have to accept the fact that a lot of the stuff we liked as kid mostly sucked. I grew up in the 90’s, and as much as I like to think 90’s cartoons were better, well….they were, I can’t lie. I’ve gone back and watched all the shows I grew up with, 90% still hold up but that’s a topic for another article.
All that being said, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comes out (as of this writing) in 2 days.   Once this movie was announced it’s had the sever misfortune of being skewered every which way from both critics who have every reason to be wary of a movie Michael Bay’s name is attached to, and butt-hurt fans who are fond of their nostalgia glasses. From the “Turtles are aliens now” aspect that has long since been removed, to Megan Fox being cast as legendary figure of all females in fiction and feminist icon April O’Neil, to the redesigned Turtles themselves, to the new tie-in rap “Shell Shocked” (which I’m with you is terrible, but infuriatingly catchy). This movie could make no right step in the eyes of the fans, and it’s not surprising, seeing as how everyone has already made up in their minds to hate it. They’ve seen how Transformers played out, they know the damage Michael Bay can do, and even though it’s been repeatedly stated he DIDN’T DIRECT THIS, his name is critical poison. This movie couldn’t have lower expectations, in fact, there are even those idiots claiming this would kill the franchise dead (a franchise that survived Turtles 3, Next Mutation, We Wish you a Turtle Christmas, and TMNT 2007). This movie could be no-less than Citizen Kane if it was gonna hope to sway the naysayers.

So how does it fair?

Well….It’s okay. Not great, but far from terrible.

It’s sad, because I really wish I could have been jumping for joy and telling you it’s better Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain America 2 and you absolutely have to see it above anything else, but I can’t. It’s just a okay movie, a good movie. Nothing more, nothing less. And truth be told, that’s exactly what I was expecting given the creative team. Look, this was never gonna be a masterpiece, nor was it going to be the movie that killed 30 years of a franchise that started as a parody. All this movie had to be was a fun, 2-hour, distraction that made money. And that’s pretty much what it aspires to be.

FROM THIS POINT ON, THERE WILL BE SPOILERS…

The story is simple…really simple. April O’Neil (played by Megan Fox) is a journalist mostly assigned to fluff pieces who longs to cover real news. She begins investigating crimes committed around the city by the villainous Foot Clan, and ends up stumbling across mysterious vigilantes fighting them who are actually four, six-foot, talking, mutant Turtles who are trained as ninjas. As the movie goes on we learn more about the Turtles origins, April’s past connection to them, and together they battle the Foot’s armored leader The Shredder and his partner, the shady businessman Eric Sachs (played by William Ficthner).

There are no side plots here, or any real character arcs, it sets up a very basic story and stays with it through the end. It’s about as deep as an episode from the cartoon series; The Turtles and April save the city and foil Shredder’s diabolical scheme. It really does feel like the people who wrote this movie really were fans of the original cartoon because that’s exactly what it feels like. It’s pretty corny and is shallow as a kiddie pool, but it’s still fun and entertaining enough. Also, it moves pretty quickly. Once it starts, it doesn’t really slow down. I was actually surprised on how quickly this movie seemed to go by. I was kind of disappointed, but after sitting through 3 hours of the mind-numbing nothing that made up the latest Transformers movie, this was a breath of fresh air. The villains motivation goes no further than “money and power”. The classic vengeance backstory between Hamato Yoshi, Shredder, and Splinter that’s driven the plot of most TMNT incarnations has been replaced here by nothing more than “bad guy out for money”. Hamato Yoshi has been removed from the equation, instead the Splinter learns ninjitsu through…and I’m not kidding..a book he finds in the sewer (still no more ridiculous than a rat mimicking ninja movements from its cage). It’s an odd choice, but if you remember the original cartoon, the vengeance plot line was there either. Like I said before, it feels like an episode of the cartoon. Sachs and Shredder’s plan of unleashing a deadly toxin and selling the mutagen as an antidote is about as complex as putting a mesmorizer device atop the highest tower in the city to control people’s minds. There are a couple of side plots about April trying to find her big story to cover, and Splinter being afraid of letting his sons grow, but later is poorly set up and the former has no satisfying resolution. Once the main plot gets going, everything just gets swept up into it.

Contrary to what some people were predicting, Megan Fox is not the Anti-Christ. This is arguably her best performance, although that’s not saying much. She’s clearly trying, and to her credit, she’s not bad. But still, her talent level is up there enough to make the role more captivating than what is there. She hits her cues fine, but there’s not much she adds beyond “surprised face”. Will Arnett plays her cameraman sidekick Vernon, whose role has been changed from being a cowardly and pompous rival of April that he was in the cartoon, to being a lot more wisecracking and helpful. He’s amusing. He doesn’t steal the show like I hoped he would, but he gets a few good one-liners in there, and serves as a good foil for April. Whoopi Goldberg has a cameo as Bernadette Thompson, the rule 63 version of Burne Thompson, April’s boss from the cartoon. She’s….there.

William Ficthner, as usual, plays the villain. Eric Sachs is a brand new character to TMNT lore. And rest assured he is, at no point in this movie, The Shredder. Ultimately he’s kind of wasted here, as he has no real motivation and never gets any good moments to shine. One has to wonder why he was even created when the character could have been replaced by a character like Baxter Stockman, who is already an established TMNT villain with a lot more potential. I wish he would have been more over-the-top, or had better lines, but he’s just there, as is Minae Noji who plays Karai, who has so little impact on the story I forgot she was even in the movie. Shredder is still the main villain, and for the most part, he’s pretty cool. The armor he’s in looks cumbersome, but he moves like a ninja master should. He’s so shadowy and overly-diabolical it’s kind of funny, but still pretty badass. He even delivers a classic line from the cartoon that absolutely floored me with the delivery. If he had more of a story-arc, he’d be the best movie villain of the year. They may have gone overboard with the design, but when you beef up the Turtles it’s only natural that Shredder gets the same treatment.

Speaking of the Turtles, they are where this movie shines. The Turtles are all perfectly in character. When they’re on screen they quip, the bicker, and the absolutely command the spotlight. They’re never juvenile, or obnoxious, or vulgar like a group of certain giant robots from another Bay-attached film, they’re the same characters we all remember growing up. Leo is the straight-man of the group and the commanding leader. Donnie is the nerdy tech genius spouting technobabble and gets a few good “adorkable” moments. Raph is the snarky and sarcastic tough guy who thankfully doesn’t end up taking over the entire film. He’s not as emo as he was in the original movie, but the seeds are still there. Mikey comes out the best here, as they thankfully make him closer to his Mirage comics counterpart. He’s not hyperactive and spouting surfer slang, instead being more laid-back and actually funny. There’s a running gag with him attempting to woo April that surprisingly doesn’t feel forced and get old, and actually manages to stay both charming and humorous. All the best bits of humor come from the Turtles banter and interactions both amongst themselves and other characters. The actors and animators both deserve a lot of credit for how much emotion they’re able to convey. The designs for the Turtles caught a lot of flack, especially with all the added flair, but not only is it not distracting, they actually work here. They serve as quick visual indicators of each Turtles personalities and give this movie’s Turtles a unique look of their own. Splinter is also on point here, and the movie shows him as both stern and humorous when he wants to be. He’s portrayed as both a caring father and a badass warrior, and the best fight scene in the movie his clash with Shredder midway thorough.

The action scenes are good. My biggest disappointment here is that unlike the previous movies, the “Ninja” part of the title takes more of a backseat to the “Mutant” part. There aren’t really any intricate, well-choreographed martial arts fight scenes, the Turtles kind of plow through the Foot soldiers with sheer strength alone a lot of times. There are some kicks and weapons play thrown in here and there, but these Turtles are so strong it’s a wonder why they even need them. That said, the centerpiece of the movie is a giant chase scene through a snowy mountain as the Turtles, April, and Vernon try to escape a squad of Foot. It’s here where you can see where the budget mostly went. The Turtles are sliding through the snow at high speeds on their shells dodging attacks, flipping around, and bantering all the while. It’s fast-paced, it’s exciting, it’s where both the director and visual effects team sunk their hearts into and it pays off. If there’s any reason to see this movie in 3D, this is it. This movie also does something the original two movies never accomplished; it gives the Turtles an active role in Shredder’s defeat. Unlike the first movie where Splinter had to save them and the second where a pier falls on him, The Turtles, while getting their asses kicked through most of the fight, manage to get the upper hand on the Shredder in the end. I love this because it makes the Turtles look like actual competent fighters who can take care of themselves.

So overall, how does this rank? If Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t come out a week ago, I would have said this was the perfect summer movie, but it’s not bad. It may not have the same depth as Guardians, but has the same level of fun and charm. You can go to this movie with your brain off, and for two hours be entertained. It’s not gonna blow your mind, but it won’t offend you, it’s harmless. Kids especially will love it, and it’s clear they are the target audience here. But there’s enough humor that adults wont mind it either. In terms of other Ninja Turtles movies, it’s actually on par with the first one. Look, remember what I said before about romanticizing our childhoods? Well, time to face facts. The first movie isn’t a great movie either. It throws a lot of stuff at you at doesn’t really bother explain the rationale behind any of its choices, Shredder has less motivation there than he does here, and Turtles themselves are very underutilized. The best storyline in that movie is hands down April and Casey’s relationship as Judith Hoag and Elias Koteas are really charismatic in their respective roles. If your new to TMNT or just not a fan, it’s a very weird movie, but us, the kids back then, we ate it up. That’s ultimately what this movie will be for kids now. It’s weird and goofy, but fun non-threating. People who complain about the CGI over rubber suits need to get over it. Those original rubber suits were clunkly and broke apart a lot. The actors didn’t like being in them. They looked spot-on, but they were a hassle. Plus, this is 20-freaking-14 and movies like Avatar and Rise of the Planet of the Apes exists. Motion capture technology has advanced and this movie uses it to the best of its abilities. If that isn’t good enough for your childhood, well, to hell with your childhood. It probably sucked more than you realize, anyway. If you liked the old cartoon, you’ll like this. If not, the IDW comic and Nick cartoon exist and they’re much better written.

So get some popcorn (or pizza if you’re a purist), sit back, quit your bitching, and enjoy it for what it is.

6 ½ Shells (see what I did there) out of 10.

I wouldn’t know of course, I only have one sibling, but like most things in life, I experience them through TV. The Brady Bunch introduced me to some of the problems middle children often face. Not being as popular as their older sibling or as doted upon as their younger one. The middle child is often overlooked and not always able to measure up to their other siblings.

“How does this relate to TMNT”, you may be asking. It’s simple…it’s a perfect analogy for the, as of this time, three cartoon series the franchise has had…

The 1987 Series is the Marcia Brady: The older and more beloved one that was the first to catch our attention and the first in all our collective memories. The 2012 Series is the Cindy: Younger and cuter, or at least more appealing visually. It’s still growing and yet to reach its full potential.

The 2003 Series is the Jan.

The 2003 cartoon series is the one that never gets a lot of attention, outside the fandom, of course. Ask some people about it and they’ll either go “huh, oh yeah, that one, it wasn’t as good as the old cartoon” or just not know it exists at all. It lasted from 2003 to 2010, producing 7 seasons worth of episodes, an unheard of number when you know how Saturday morning cartoons work. Very few cartoons ever hit that number and even fewer surpass it, especially in the “boys action genre, (Funny enough, the original TMNT is one of those, lasting 10 seasons). Even some of the most critically acclaimed cartoons or it’s type like Batman: The Animated Series, Avatar: The Last Airbender, Samurai Jack, and Spectacular Spider-Man never reached that level. It’s a testament to the lasting power of both the franchise and the show itself.  So why is this series very often forgotten by all but those within the TMNT fanbase? Most point to the lack of solid marketing for the show, but I think the reason goes a lot deeper. I think the answer lies in the quality and presentation of the show itself. Simply put, I don’t believe the show was all that good in the first place. Why? Well, follow me down to the sewer as I give an in-depth analysis of the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, pin point all the things it did right…and the many things it did wrong, and try to answer my initial question.

Let’s start with some history. The early 2000’s were an awkward time for the TMNT franchise. After the debacle that was Ninja Turtles: the Next Mutation came and went, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman’s (the duo that created the Turtles, for the clueless readers) creative partnership had come to an end. Laird had bought Eastman’s creative rights to the franchise and was now in sole control of the TMNT’s future direction. He started by launching a new volume of the long running comic that started it all in December 2001 with himself as writer and veteran TMNT artist Jim Lawson on pencil duties. Around that same time, Laird was approached by 4Kids Entertainment, (who brought such anime as Yu-Gi-Oh and One Piece to American televisions, with varying results in quality), to produce a new TMNT animated series for their Saturday morning block: The FoxBox, which had replaced Fox Kids (that will be another article, because I have a lot to rant say about that). By this point TMNT had already been off the air for about four years, six if you don’t count Next Mutation(I don’t), so this was a chance to repackage the Turtles for a whole new audience of kids, and maybe some of the older fans, now in their late teens to mid-twenties.
Now, here’s the thing about Peter Laird. While I have nothing but respect and admiration for him and what he helped create, it’s clear that kind became the franchise resident George Lucas at this point, in that he was very particular about which version of the Turtles he prefers. While Kevin Eastman may be more diplomatic and accepting of all the different aspects of the Turtles, Laird never shied away from telling people which parts he didn’t like; and while he didn’t outright despise it like Next Mutation, it’s painfully obvious he wasn’t particularly fond of the original cartoon and the direction it went. He makes it pretty clear he didn’t like the slapstick nature and softer designs of the Turtles, so with full creative control, he sought to take the Turtles back to their indy comic book roots. For this new series, the aim was to go darker than before; no more cartoonish fight scenes, no more whiny Shredder, no more Bebop and Rocksteady, no more Turtles walking around in the daylight, no more April being a reporter/damsel in distress, no more pizza and “Cowabunga”. This new series would be more reminiscent of their early comic book days. The designs got sleeker, the Turtles stuck to the shadows and actually used their weapons during fights. Shredder would get a massive makeover that was both beneficial and detrimental (more on that later), but needless to say, he became a much bigger threat.

The 2k3 series was something most TMNT fans who were unfamiliar with the original comic were not expecting. The tone was changed from light-hearted and humorous to edgier with more effort placed on complex, interconnected, multi-arc storylines and character development. Now, during this period, the influence of anime was strong in action and adventure animation, so most series coming out at the time had styles that reflected that, but for the first five seasons of the 2k3 series, the art style had a striking balance of both eastern and western visual styles, as well as incorporating strong usage of shading and comic panel-style layouts. The backgrounds gave us a grittier and more expansive New York City, with lots of tall buildings for the Turtles to leap across. The music, composed by Ralph Shuckett, was faced paced and intense, often incorporating taiko drums, sanshins, and various Japanese instruments and sound effect, mixing classic Japanese with modern American rock.

The characters themselves all received facelifts to match their original comic counterparts. Leonardo was still the leader, but this time he was more self-doubting at times to add a new layer to him. Donatello was still the scientist and inventor, but this time he was less cynical and absent minded and more quiet and reliable, and a foil for Michelangelo who, without his trademark catchphrase and food of choice, was portrayed as more of a hyperactive and unfocused pop culture junkie, as well as becoming the sole vessel for all the comedic moments of the show, often to an…irritating degree. Raphael received the biggest change, going back to being the angry, aggressive, and rebellious hot-head he was in the old days, but still retaining a sarcastic streak, but more directed at his brothers rather than to the audience. Master Splinter was still the wise mentor, but went back to his original origin of being Hamato Yoshi’s pet, rather than Yoshi himself, his rivalry with Shredder remaining. April O’Neil, true to her roots, was here portrayed as a smart and capable science buff and rarely required saving. She once again starts off as a lab assistant to mad scientist Baxter Stockman, who was now black again, as he was in the old comics. Casey Jones now became a more prominent supporting character like in the comics, only now being portrayed as a good-natured lunkhead rather than a psychopathic vigilante. In addition, the show also introduced audiences to characters from the Mirage comics never before seen in animation like Karai, Nobody, The Fugitoid, and Renet the Timestress; restoring previously known characters like Baxter Stockman, The Rat King, and Leatherhead to resemble their original portrayals, and giving us brand new characters like Silver Sentry, Angel and villains like Hun and Agent Bishop.

As I said before, the show lasted for 7 seasons. The first four were pretty standard; we’re introduced to the Turtles and Splinter, we see their first meetings with April and Casey, their battles with The Shredder and Foot, and adventures that have them come up against aliens, dinosaurs, alien dinosaurs, time travel, superheroes, interdimensional fighting tournaments, mystical ninjas, monsters, mad scientists, ancient demons, all the standard stuff the TMNT encounter. The episodes were sometimes stand-alone, as elements that may seem minor in one episode, would re-appear in a later episode as a main focus. There was always some overarching storyline going on each season, with major one of the first three being the Turtles conflict with The Shredder, which ended in the Turtles “defeating” him in Season 3. The fifth season, dubbed “The Lost Season” due to the fact that originally never aired on regular television in favor of season six, was a break from the established formula, giving us one long season wide storyline that saw the Turtles get new magical powers and weapons to go up against a demonic Shredder. Season six was a massive departure in theme, tone, and visual style. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Fast Forward saw the Turtles and Splinter flung into the far future, fighting evil alongside Cody Jones, April and Casey’s great-great-great-grandson. The show gave us new allies, new enemies, and a brand-new theme song.

The final season was a sort-of “back-to-basics” approach. The aptly named “Back to the Sewer” returned the Turtles and Splinter to the present, though keeping a few elements from Fast Forward, including the more stand-alone storylines and the simplified visual style. The show proved to be one of, if not the most popular show on the FoxBox’s (later renamed 4Kids TV). Like its predecessor and successor, the show spawned toys, clothing, video games, comics, party supplies, etc, yet still to general audience this show remains both underrated and unacknowledged. So what’s the problem? Let’s start with a the minor problem…marketing. Bottom line: it wasn’t great.

With all the merchandising, kids, specifically young boys, were the target audience. However, the tone and storytelling suggested their aim was also for a teen to young adult audience. While they got the kids whom TMNT was a brand new thing, they kinda of ignored the older fans, once that probably would have appreciated what the show was trying to pull off. They could have tied it in to the original cartoon more, saying that if you grew up with that version, then prepare to graduate to this one. They had the storytelling quality and fast-paced action to balance both audiences, but due to the limited imagination and skill of marketing people today and the lack of outside promotion, most people wrote the show off as “dumb kids stuff”. It didn’t help that the network didn’t have any strong shows to market it around, sandwiching the show between Ultimate Muscle and The Cramp Twins. But beyond that, the show didn’t make much of an effort at all to get itself known to the mainstream in general, to which I blame 4Kids’ limited marketing budget and venues. You can see the striking difference between then and now, because when Nickelodeon got the rights to the franchise, they made sure their new cartoon was well known, with ads appearing on everything from billboards to buses, the characters showing up on morning talk shows and in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, not to mention slapping the Turtles onto every piece of merchandise possible. 4Kids had none of that influence.

But the real problem doesn’t have to do with the marketing, because even if it was bettered promoted, there were two very major factors that kept the series from really succeeding beyond its core fanbase. These are primary reasons the show is the forgotten one of the bunch…It was a show that, at its core, was not designed for casual TMNT fans and It didn’t offer anything substantially new to the franchise to justify its staying power.

Now, you may be saying, “Colin, what kind of jibba-jabba are you jibba-jabbering about”? Well, shut up and I’ll tell you. Let’s start with the first point. You’d think by virtue of the title alone, the show should already be appealing to casual TMNT fans, well, let me explain. As I rambled on about before, the original cartoon was drastically different in tone than the original comic. Due to restrictions on Saturday morning cartoons the show couldn’t be anywhere near as violent as the comic, so the tone was shifted to be more comical. As a result you have this unique situation where the franchise has two definitive original incarnations that are polar opposites of each other. Both are responsible for introducing the world to the TMNT, but let’s face it…95% of the TMNT fanbase was introduced through the cartoon. One was a black and white independent comic and the other was a mass syndicate television show with shit tons of merchandise, of course the cartoon is the one everyone loves. Well, everyone except Peter Laird, who made every effort to distance the 2K3 cartoon from the original one. While it’s cool that he wanted an incarnation that closer resembled the comics, I really don’t know if he’s aware of the fact that there’s a large percentage of the fanbase that either don’t know or don’t care about those comics. I’m talking about the hardcore fans like yours truly, who’ve spent a lifetime digesting everything TMNT from better to worst, I’m talking about the fans who grew up watching and loving the Turtles cartoon, playing with the action figures, playing the video game, maybe reading an issue or two of the Archie comic, renting the movies from Blockbuster (yeah, I’m old school), begging their Moms for everything Ninja Turtles, but then when Power Rangers came out, moved onto them, then Pokemon, then grew up and got on with their lives. The fans that never took the time to look back further and discover the Mirage comic that started it all frankly because they had no interest or just simply were not aware of them, and you can’t blame them, seeing as how the comic was never a Batman or Spider-Man with a major publisher behind them, you had to go looking hard for these comics, and they weren’t being reprinted in any form at the time. These are the casual fans that, while they’ve moved on to other aspects of life, would still get a twinge of nostalgic excitement if something new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles came out.

What makes these fans kind of important is that they represent the mainstream; the greater public audience outside of the hardcore that ensures longevity in pop culture history. They’re not the types to frequent message boards and write fan faction, but they are the types that will buy a ticket for your big budget movie adaptation, or maybe even catch an episode or two of your new TV series. It’s even better if they have kids, because it gives them a chance to both relive their childhood and introduce it to a new generation. That’s the audience that the 2003 series completely alienated. How?

For starters, the theme song. Long gone was Chuck Lorre’s instantaneously catchy theme song from the old days that tell you exactly what you needed to know about the series and gave a memorable hook that is synonymous with Ninja Turtles so much so that just by saying the words “Ninja Turtle” you start hearing the song. What we were left with was this…cacophony…

Admittedly the instrumental is nice, but the lyrics are a weird and jumbled mess that just throws out random phrases that have something to do with Turtles, but not in any coherent way. Tell me, which gives you a more accurate description of what you’re about to watch…

“They’re the worlds most fearsome fighting teens/they’re heroes in a half shell and they’re green/when the evil Shredder attacks, these turtle boys don’t cut ‘im no slack”

Or

“Mutant chain reaction/Living underground/ninjitsu action/it’s a shell of a town”

It doesn’t make sense. It’s like they grabbed a bullhorn and just started yelling random things about the franchise at you. The catchy “Heroes in a half shell, Turtle Power” hook, they try to replace with “Turtles count it off, 1, 2, 3, 4” and it just comes off as laughable. They even edit the theme song in season 3 to add descriptions for each Turtle like the old series did, but it’s way too forced and just pathetic; like, wow, we’re three seasons in and you still don’t know these characters. Let us spell it out for you.  Plus they have that weird bit during the opening sequence where the Turtles are riding roller blades and razor scooters like this was 1997 and those things were still hip, sending a weird mixed message of “we’re going totally serious with this show, but here’s the Turtles on scooters because teenagers and EXTREEEEEEME”!

The interconnected storylines, while nice for the fans that watched week-to-week, were too convoluted for any causal viewer to jump right into. In this series, if you missed an episode or two, chances are you could be lost as to what’s going on in the main story. It was one of those shows you had to watch from the beginning and pay attention to or you were gonna miss a key detail. They didn’t even have the courtesy to do a recap segment at the beginning like Gargoyles used to. There weren’t that many stand-alone episodes, and even fewer that we’re completely stand-alone, so you couldn’t just jump into the middle of a season and know where everything stood, you still had to go back to the beginning. It’s not a bad aspect, but it’s a double edge sword; it something that appeases the hardcore fans, but can cause to lose the casual viewer who might be peaking in for the first time.

As I said before, the series had a darker tone; one casual fans wouldn’t be used to. But it was also an inconsistently dark tone. What I mean by that is they would take it seriously up to point, but then throw in an awkward beat of humor to lighten the mood at a time where the mood shouldn’t be lightened, and the humor wasn’t always particularly funny.  Jokes were sometimes awkwardly thrown into a fight scene, mostly be Mikey, and they were never presented as something we should find intentionally funny.

Not saying the show did this all the time, but this was an example of another aspect the show got wrong: the humor.  Part of what makes TMNT so appealing is that it’s so weird in concept, but it’s in on the joke. The Mirage comics originally began as a parody of the ultra-gritty comics of the day, though it gradually grew out of the parody. The original cartoon chose to put its focus purely on the humor, but instead of making fun of the comics and cartoons of the time, it mostly made light of itself. Being aware of its sheer ridiculous it had fun with the concept. Plus, you had a great comedy dynamic with the Turtles; Donatello was the absent minded scientist who’s inventions sometimes backfired, Michelangelo was the hip, pizza-scarfing, surfer dude who epitomized the franchise namesake, Raphael was the snarky and sarcastic one who could step back and joke about the sheer absurdity of everything, a lot of times right to the audience; throw in Leonardo as your straight man and you’ve got a perfect combination. They would sometimes get serious, but were careful to never go too serious. Even when the show got darker in season 8, they didn’t go too far as to lose the overall charm of the show 9 (well, until season 10). The 2003 cartoon emphasis was on the action, and while It did that exceptionally well, the funny stuff it left to Michelangelo, making him the sole bearer of humor; which resulted in him coming off as obnoxious and juvenile most of the time. When he would make a joke, we were never supposed to laugh at the joke, but at Mikey from being stupid and making it in the first place, as if to say “No, take all of this shit seriously”. The humor came off as being too forced, rather than letting it come naturally from the characters, and when you have a property called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, you would think you could derive natural humor from it. Granted the original comics never delved much into the humor, but they were at their core a parody of comics at the time, just played straight. The whole pseudo-dark and serious tone of the 2003 cartoon was really off-putting to casual fans franchise expecting lighter and funnier Turtles.

The show would very rarely make reference to the original cartoon, usually just a quick visual gag or a throw-away line. Aside from keeping the different color bandanas, it made more effort to shy away from every popular element of the series prior. Michelangelo’s signature catchphrase was gone (Instead replacing it with the oh-so-much more superior: “It’s Ninja Time” …*gags*), as was any reference to pizza and the tongue-in-cheek; and it’s understandable. Hey were trying to build this series into its own thing, and leaning too heavily on the more popular incarnation wouldn’t be doing them any favors. Still, you can easily tell they were not too keen on embracing any aspect of the original series, no matter how popular. It could have been a nice middle ground, but instead chose to eschew the original completely and take its cues more or less from the Mirage comics. Though, funny enough, while the original TMNT cartoon is often accused of being a 30-minute toy commercial, but season four, that was exactly what the 2003 series became. Finding any excuse at all to throw in a new vehicle or costume change for the Turtles just to promote the toy that would follow it in a month. Here was one episode called “Grudge Match”, one of the better ones of that season, that showed the Turtles wearing shiny and decorative battle armor…but they didn’t wear them till the very end of the episode, after all the conflicts were resolved. They served no purpose but to promote the toys of the Turtles wearing the exact same armor. It was off-putting, and it would only continue like that all the way through Fast Forward and Back to the Sewers. Still, the series was content with existing as its own show, and it was never malicious toward the original…

…Until Turtles Forever.

My take down of this one will come soon

Now, I’m sure all of you are at least familiar with Turtles Forever: the crossover movie that teamed the 2003 Turtles with their 1987 counterparts. It was well received when it debuted, and I admit, I was in love with it when I first saw it. However, after having a while to think about it, as well as developing a new appreciation for the original series, I now see this movie for what it really is…An 81-minute long middle finger to the original cartoon. I mean it, the whole movie is just basically an excuse for them to go: “Look how dark and cool our show is and how goofy and stupid that old crappy one was…BUY OUR TOYS”! The 1987 Turtles are portrayed NOTHING like they were in their show. It’s so bad it’s like the writers had never seen an episode of the old show in their lives, then were shown a single random one from that crappy “European Vacation” season of episodes and then told to write. It didn’t help that old non-union 4Kids couldn’t get the original voices back, so you have these atrocious stand-ins that sound and act nothing like the originals. All the Turtles act like incompetent, weak, doofuses and the 2003 pulls no punches in relentless mocking everything about them, while never once acknowledging their own faults, instead being constantly painted as the superior version that does everything right. When the 1984 Mirage comic Turtles make a cameo, suddenly everyone bows down to them as the almighty versions, further supporting Peter Laird’s anti-old cartoon stance. Aside from a few legitimately funny bits, this is mean-spirited, resentful, ego-stroking, wretch of a movie that “celebrates” the history of the TMNT by knocking everything that wasn’t Laird-approved.

Well, after that long rant, I’ll let you take a breather before I move onto my second point…I’ll wait…

….

…..you ready?  Good.

My second point got me some flack on a TMNT message board, but it’s one I wholeheartedly believe. This show offered nothing new and interesting to make it stand out as a memorable part of the franchise.

Let me clarify, I’m not saying the show wasn’t important or meaningful, it was. However, when compared to other, more popular entries in the franchise’s legacy, it’s hard to see just what this show did to set itself apart from what had come before and what would come later. I say the Mirage comics and 1987 series were the most important to the TMNT franchise not simply because they were the originals, but because they would both be integral in how the franchise would be viewed in the public eye. The Mirage comics of course gave us the main characters whom the series would revolve around for 30 years (The Turtles, April, Splinter, Shredder, and Casey Jones), but they would also set the tone in terms of action, whether in terms of gritty street brawls with the Purple Dragons, crazy sci-fi fights with the Triceratons, or intense martial arts battles with the Foot Clan, in ran the full spectrum. The comic is also important for establishing an important theme of the series: Family. One of the most enduring elements about the franchise has been the development of the family bond between the four Turtle brothers, their father Master Splinter, surrogate sister and sometimes mother figure April, and their best friend/crazy big brother Casey. This aspect would come to be the most focused on element of the original comics, especially during the last two story-arcs in volume 1 where they begin to drift apart but are inevitably drawn back together. The Mirage comics set the tone for the story of a truly odd family unit brought together by even odder circumstances.

While the Mirage comics were a parody played completely straight, the 1987 cartoon was a parody with tongue firmly in cheek. The original cartoon was key for establishing another crucial aspect of TMNT: the wit. What’s helped the Turtles appeal to a larger audience outside of comic fans is their ability to step back and laugh and have fun with itself. Granted, all superheroes are pretty ridiculous, but the Turtles take it to the next level. Played totally at face value, the show would have been passed off as something a stoner thought up, but because the cartoon was in on the joke, it became better embraced by the world-at-large and set it apart from its contemporaries like Transformers and Thundercats. Granted the jokes were never next-level brilliant, but there were always some moments that could induce some legitimate chuckles. Plus, the cartoon introduced other aspects that would become important to the franchise; including the different color bandanas, fleshing out their individual personalities, and of course the pizza and theme song. Also, while the franchise had The Shredder to tie the martial aspect of the show around, the cartoon introduced a villain to help tie the sci-fi element together: Krang the alien brain from Dimension X. I would argue that Krang is just as important to TMNT as the Shredder is. Without Krang, the sci-fi bits feel more like random side adventures, whereas with Krang, it feels more like part of a larger and more important story.

The movies, video games, and even the Coming Out of our Shells tour that everyone remember are pretty much extensions of the show’s popularity and showed how well (or unwell in the case of Coming Out of our Shells) the Turtles could translate into other mediums. Even Next Mutation was so horrendously bad it’s hard to forget it. The current comic and cartoon are still in their infancy, but you can see the strides they’re making in establishing their own place, mainly by combining everything good about the previous incarnations.

But what did the 2003 series offer to the table? It wasn’t the Turtles first foray into animation, nor was it the first time we’ve seen them go more serious. The Turtles were no different from how they were originally portrayed, and for the most part it borrowed heavily from the Mirage comics without really doing anything new or unique with them. It did give us a couple of new characters, but none of which your mind would automatically go to when you think TMNT. It did offer one new twist, though some would argue it wasn’t for the better…
Remember when I hinted that Shredder was much different this time around. Well, in season 2 of the show they reveal that The Shredder, who we all assumed was human like in all previous incarnation…was actually an alien; an Utrom (an alien race from the comics that created the Mutagen served as the inspiration for Krang). His human body was actually a robotic exo-suit, from which he took inspiration from an ancient demonic Shredder who was the true original. This was the one thing this series could actually claim to uniquely be its own, and…it’s not really something to be proud of, and here are two reasons why; 1. It’s detrimental to the character of Oroku Saki. Instead of being a highly trained, badass ninja master, he’s instead a super robot who just kind of tosses the Turtles around. It kind of lessens the suspense when we know The Turtles are barely hurting him while fighting. 2. It turns this series into a purely sci-fi show. I’m not saying the sci-fi element is bad, but TMNT has always worked best when they had a balance going. By turning their main human, ninja bad guy into an alien, suddenly everything revolves around this one genre, and it gets tiring. It’s a needless twist that didn’t really add anything interesting and really just gave them an excuse to keep the Shredder around for longer.
So after all that, it must seem like I hate the 2003 series, right? Far from it. I like it. When it was first airing I loved it, but for me it doesn’t hold up well to repeat viewings. Still, I loved the emphasis they put on action. The animation of the fight scenes was on point (in the first five seasons), making them very fast paced and even adding some genuine creativity to them. I loved that they developed the family element, and a lot of the characters they introduced were pretty great, with a couple even showing up in the new IDW comic, proving this series isn’t truly forgotten. And though I ragged on them for the long, interwoven storylines, I still appreciated that they did that. I was one of the fans watching week to week, after all. The writing could be really good in the show, especially in episodes like “Bishop’s Gambit” and “Hun on the Run”.

It’s not a bad show by any means, but it’s still not what I would call one of the most memorable incarnations of the TMNT. Most people I talked to back then either had no idea it was on, or hated it because it wasn’t the 87 series. I think it’s finding new appreciation now, mostly through people bitch that the 2012 series is nothing like it. But still, it’s unfortunately not as successful as its older or younger siblings.

It’s the Jan Brady.

I’m known amongst my peers as somewhat of a Ninja Turtles connoisseur, so my merciful overlord Aaron has graciously allowed me to cover it for this new installment of Tease Me, Baby.  And truthfully I’ve been waiting for a long while to cover this.  Ever since this movie was announced way back when and Michael BayBLAAA!!@#@#$*KILLRAPECHILDHOODBLAAAAAARRGH!!!

….Sorry, that seems to be the general reaction most people have to his name….and Michael Bay was attached as PRODUCER.  Not director, though this trailer does have a few certain Bayisms.  Needless to say I’ve been curious as to what this movie was gonna look like.  I try not to cry suck at movies before I see them, but with the inclusion of the guy who directed Cash of the Titans being at the helm, I’ve adjusted my expectations accordingly.  But enough jibba jabba, let’s dive into this shell-first.

–WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU MISS O’NEIL

Here we have multi-time Academy Award viewer Megan Fox playing TMNT mainstay April O’Neil.  Her attachment, too, was met with similar rage, but honestly I think she’ll do okay.  April’s role has never been too complex and layered, especially if they’re going by the old cartoon which it looks like they are given that she’s a reporter in the flick.  She’s feisty, adventurous, loyal, and get’s kidnapped a lot.  From all the behind the scenes stills she seemed to be enjoying herself, and reportedly she lobbied hard to get the role, so as long as there’s some personality injected into it, she’ll be fine.  Besides, it’s the Turtles we came to see, so they should carrying the lions share of the film.  Speaking of which…

-THE TURTLES PUCKER UP

Here’s our first true look at the Green Machines in full motion.  From what little we saw, their personalities remain intact (Thank God).  The real differences come in their physical appearances.  These Turtles are…jacked.  They’re big, bigger than ever.  Traditionally they’ve never gone past 5’10, but these Turtles tower over humans and make big thud noises when they land, which given the new origin (which we’ll get to in a bit) and producer, it makes “sense”.  They’ve also seemed to have taken a cue from the new TMNT cartoon and given the Turtles different body types.  Leo has the typical hero physique, Raph is more muscular,  Don is the tallest and lanky, and Mikey is the shortest.  That I really like.  The Turtles also have different attire.  I’m guessing that was done to make them even more distinct than incarnations in the past.  Given that we’ve seen literally thousands of Turtles figures of them wearing battle armor, sports gear, farmer overalls, etc…this isn’t anything new.  Onto the face, the Turtles have…*GASP* LIPS!  …Has the world ended yet?  Nope?  Yeah, go figure.  Honestly the lips aren’t a problem.  I can’t say this for sure, but I’m guessing the lips just made the mouth movements a lot easier to animate.  A human-like mouth is definitely easier to manipulate than a turtles beak.  So the lips, not an issue.  The nose, on the other hand, just looks dumb.  I don’t know why they did this.

-THE FOOT GO COMMANDO

This seems to be a holdover from that god awful script that leaked a year ago.  The Foot are less ninjas now and more black ops soldiers.  Which as I stated before, given the new origin and producer it makes…”sense”

-TURNING JAPANESE…I DON’T THINK SO

So yeah, The Shredder, traditionally Japanese archenemy to the Turtles and Splinter, here is played by traditionally NOT Japanese actor William Fichtner.  This was the bit of casting that made me scratch my head.  But at least the good sense not to put him in yellowface.  He’s playing a new iteration of the character named Eric Sachs.  By the look of that painting he seems to be inspired by the Japanese, though…

Cool armor, bro.

-THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY DON’T ACTUALLY CHANGE ALL THAT MUCH

So the biggest reveal of the trailer is that the Turtles, who look to still be mutants and not aliens so put your pitchforks down, nerds, owe their existence to Sachs and *DUN DUN DUUUUUN* April’s Dad!  This new origin…isn’t really THAT new.  At least if you paid too much attention to the TMNT franchise like certain people that totally aren’t me.  I have a life….

…

Shredder being responsible for the Turtles creation isn’t at all surprising seeing as how he’s always been either directly or indirectly responsible for their existences in every incarnation.  Hell, in the 1987 cartoon he was the one who exposed them to the mutagen (which this movie correctly labels as TCRI and not TGRI).  As for April’s dad being involved, yeah that’s an interesting little twist, though the new IDW comic has seemingly beat them to that, at least in terms of getting it out there.   When it comes to new origins, nothing gets more radical that the IDW comic origin (which involves genetic modification and reincarnation), so this one in the movie is pretty par for the course.  What this doesn’t explain is how Splinter fits into this.  I’m mentally preparing myself for the possibly levels of stupidity this may go to.

-COOL, BUT RUDE

Like I said before, the Turtles personalities seem to be in tact.  There’s a nice little bit where Don whips Raph shell first into a truck in their way, yelling “BATTER UP” beforehand.  This is good indication we’ll get some classic Turtle wisecracks going.  Which is a relief.  They should not try to go full on serious with this.

-OH HAI, BAYCOPTER

It wouldn’t be a Michael Bay joint, produced or otherwise, without his gratuitous military porn and…

BAYSTRUCTION!

What is interesting is that we don’t see what’s actually causing the destruction.  Which could either be saved for a future big reveal, or it might just be that in Michael Bay’s world things randomly blow up.

I’m guessing the latter.

————————————————————————————–

Overall: The extreme secrecy of the movie all this time had me worried, but this new trailer gives off…very slight hope.  As long as they have a good balance of action and comedy, they’ll be able to capture the feel of the original Turtles cartoon nicely.  It’s easy and understandable to be apprehensive about this, and you should, but there’s always hope.  As long as the movie is at least dumb fun, it’s done it’s job.

But above all else remember this, the Turtles have been around for 30 years now.  This movie won’t kill the franchise no matter how sucky it may turn out.

Part 2

The Comics

 Last time I talked about how everything went so wrong.  Now I’m here to regale you about how everything began to go so right.

It’s fu­­nny that so many people know of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but many of those same people have no idea it started out as an independent, black-and-white comic three years before the beloved cartoon series ever started.  Eastman and Laird’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles still remains the most successful independent comic of all time, but as I said in the previous article it went generally unnoticed for years, in the shadow of it’s more popular counterpart.  The most recent TMNT comic was written and self-published by TMNT co-creator Peter Laird himself and never made any headlines.  The series was still in production when Nickelodeon’s buyout of the franchise occurred, and is currently in hiatus.  It’s not really known if the series will ever continue, as Laird still maintains the right to produce up to 18 Ninja Turtle comics a year if he wants to.

When it was announced Nick bought the Turtles franchise, there was general fear that they would run it into the ground, or worse, just let it sit on the shelf and never touch it again.  But to the relief of the fandom, they had a clear plan in mind from the start.  They wouldn’t simply be doing a new cartoon, but they were going to push the Turtles back into the public eye through all different mediums.  And just like back in 1984, it all began with a comic book.

They’re back!

A New Home

Back in April 2011, it was announced that IDW Publishing had acquired the rights to publish a brand new TMNT comic book series.   IDW was known for producing comics based off licensed material such as G.I. Joe, Star Trek, Godzilla, and Transformers.  Now, IDW is nowhere near Marvel or DC in terms of popularity, but neither can they be considered really, independent.  They’re certainly one of the more prominent secondary publishers, much bigger then Mirage Studios and much better equipped for marketing.  Let’s put it this way, with IDW you didn’t have to print and fill-out a mail order form to get your comics every month and unlike before, people would actually know a TMNT comic existed.

The new comic wouldn’t follow the continuity previously established by Mirage, (which now saw the Turtles in their 30’s, Raphael mutated into a hulking Gamera-looking Turtle monster, Master Splinter dead, April revealed to be a drawing brought to life, and other really weird stuff), but instead be a complete reboot of the franchise, taking elements from the original Mirage comics, the popular 80’s/90’s cartoon, and pretty much every incarnation of the Turtles and finding a way to spin it into something totally new yet completely familiar.  At the helm, senior staff writer for IDW Tom Waltz, whose previous work for the studio included Silent Hill and Ghostbusters.  Joining him in writing dutties, in a welcome surprise to every TMNT fan out there, was TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman, who left the franchise in the early 2000’s to focus solely on the comic magazine Heavy Metal, which he’s the owner of.   Having Eastman back on board was a welcoming sign for longtime fans, who’s last contribution to the franchise was 1996’s stand alone, hyper-violent Raphael and Casey Jones story, “Bodycount”.  Throw in Dan Duncan on art duty and you’ve got the team that gave TMNT fans what they’ve been waiting years for.

The first issue of the new comic dropped on August 24^th 2011.  Right away we’re treated to a familiar scene; the Turtles are cornered in an alley by some thugs, just like in the first issue of the original comic.  But unlike the comic, one of the Turtles, Raphael, is missing from the battle, and one of the thugs is a mutant alley cat named Old Hob, who seems to have some unknown history with the Turtles and Splinter.  We’re thrown right into the middle of a much larger story, with only teases of what came before, saving them for future reveals.  Sounds confusing, but it’s far from it.  Everything here is familiar to longtime fans, all while giving them a taste of all the new twists and turns ahead.  In the first issue alone we’re introduced to most of the major players, a mixture of old and new characters; The Turtles, Master Splinter, Casey Jones, April O’Neil, Old Hob, Baxter Stockman, and even Krang (yes, THAT Krang), all remaining for the most part intact but with updates, some minor and some extreme.  The first four deal with the Turtles searching for their missing brother Raphael, all while set up the new universe and building character dynamics.  Issue five finally reveals the radical new origin, which up until then we had only seen bits and pieces of through flashback…

Let me tell you a story…

Stop me if you’ve heard this one…Hamato Yoshi, master ninja and former member of the Foot Clan, is murdered, alongside his wife Tang Shen, by Oroku Saki, a.k.a The Shredder, in revenge for the accidental death of his brother.  His pet rat Splinter is left to wander the streets until he happens upon a startling event.  A truck carrying radioactive ooze swerves to avoid a blind man crossing the street, and the process a canister of the ooze flies off the truck and knocks a glass bowl of four baby turtles out of the hand of a young boy and washes alongside them down the sewers.  Splinter follows and sees the canister has shattered and the baby turtles are covered in the strange mutagen.  Splinter cleans them off, getting covered in the mutagen himself, and over a period of time, the five begin to mutate to become more human like in size and intelligence.  Teaching them the secrets of ninjitsu he learned from mimicking Yoshi in his cage, Splinter names his new sons after great Renaissance artists and raises them to become the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!

That’s the original origin from the Mirage comics we’re all familiar with in some form or another.  In order for this reboot to really stand on its own and be a fresh new start, the origin had to be revamped. Waltz and Eastman gave us a new origin that was even crazier than the last, but at the same time made a lot more sense and helped fill those gaps in logic the original glossed over.

WARNING: THIS IS WHERE I GET INTO SOME HEAVY SPOILERS, SO IF YOU HAVEN’T READ THE COMICS, STOP READING THIS NOW AND GO PICK THEM UP YOU NUT!

In the new story, we begin in Feudal era Japan with a man named Hamato Yoshi, elite ninja of the Foot Clan, one of the strongest and most feared ninja clans in Japan, led by Oroku Saki.  Saki sought to establish the Foot Clan as a dominate super power by killing an entire village of people.  Disgusted, Yoshi publically called out Saki and stormed off, cutting his ties with the Foot Clan.  Enraged by Yoshi’s disrespect, Saki put a hit out on him and his entire family.  That night, Foot ninjas attacked Yoshi’s home.  Yoshi fought and slayed them, but not before they had killed his wife, Tang Shen.  With her dying breath, Shen begged Yoshi to take their four young sons and flee, to which Yoshi complied.  For years they had lived in relative secrecy and peace, but Saki, now going by The Shredder, hunted them down, and had them all executed, with Yoshi with his last breath vowing revenge, against Shredder.

New character – Old Hob

Over a century later, a young college student named April O’Neil is in the midst of an internship at the Stockgen Research Facility, run by Baxter Stockman.  Unbeknownst to April, Stockgen’s experiments in bio-engineering meat are really a front for developing genetic and neurological weaponry for the mysterious General Kraang, reveled to be the last of a race of alien brain-like creatures called Utroms, who is waging a war in Dimension X.  One night, while alone in the lab, April is attacked by two unknown, but familiar looking ninjas, who were there to steal the experimental mutagen, as well as the four experimental test turtles.  April is saved, when the lab rat Splinter, sensing an aura of goodness around her, triggers the fire alarm which alerts security and forces the ninjas to flee, with Splinter in pursuit of the captive turtles, to whom he feels a strong, almost fatherly, connection to.  Splinter manages to free the Turtles from the ninjas, and they, along with the canister of stolen mutagen, fall into the alleyway below, and are exposed to the radioactive ooze.  It’s then that they are attacked by an alley cat.  Splinter fights it off, even scratching out one of its eyes, but it runs off with one of the Turtles in tow.  In a short period of time, the mutagen takes effect and Splinter and the Turtles are mutated to human-like form, and it becomes evident to Splinter that he is the reincarnation of Hamato Yoshi and the turtles are that of his sons. 

Uh guys, he’s behind you

Like I said, crazier, but makes more sense.  This new origin ties in many of the major characters and helps to make sense of some of the more head scratching bits of the Turtles mythology, like how Splinter knows so much about ninjitsu, and how the Turtles were able to learn in so quickly and seamlessly given their physiology.  When I first read it I was blown away by how effective it is and how deeply it’s rooted in past Turtles lore.  There are elements of both the comic and cartoons, but it’s not forced, rather the long hoped for hybrid of both incarnations.

Who’s Who

Like I said before, the characters are all familiar.  Leonardo is still the stoic leader, but this time is a more spiritual and a lot more commanding.  He’s still the most disciplined and remains close to Splinter, and having him be the only one of the Turtles with memories, albeit faint, of their past life was a great way to reinforce that.  Donatello, like always is the brains of the bunch, with an added twist of having his more logical and rational thinking frequently coming into conflict with Splinter and Leo’s spirituality, but nonetheless he remains close to both.  Michelangelo isn’t quite the hyperactive slacker he was in the cartoons, rather this time serving as the peacekeeper of the team, his youthful innocence helping to calm tensions between his brothers.  As of the time of this writing, he’s been the Turtle that hasn’t received much development, but that will no doubt change soon.  Raphael is still the hot-tempered loner, but this time his justified seeing as how prior to the start of the series, he had been separated from his family for over a year, giving him the feeling of an outsider.  He’s also the Turtle with the strongest sense of justice, often rushing in head first to right any wrong doings he happens upon, a trait he shares with his best friend Casey Jones, who in this series is the Turtles first human friend (post-mutation).  Casey in this new universe is younger, and is way more mellow than he’s been in the past, at times even being the voice of reason amongst the group.  He’s in college thanks to hockey scholarship that’s in jeopardy due to his suffering academics.  He’s the constant victim of physical abuse from his alcoholic father, and vents his frustration through his vigilante activity at night.  And yes, he still wears the hockey mask.  Master Splinter has seen some new elements to his history, his comic and cartoon origins being blended into one.  This Splinter is less frail and more defensive of his family, having lost them before.  We also learn of his past issues with controlling his anger, something that he feels indirectly caused the death of Tang Shen and his sons.  This change really makes his character more three-dimensional, transforming him from a Yoda-like all knowing mentor, to a character who’s made mistakes and has learned from them, and imparts those morals onto his sons so they don’t suffer like he has.  April O’Neil has pretty much remained the same as she was in the original comics and 2003 cartoon; she’s intelligent, compassionate, resourceful, and loyal.  Having her be the one to name the Turtles was a nice little touch, too.

But where would are heroes be without the villains?  Shredder is back, and more threating than ever.  He’s ruthless, conniving, and vindictive.  He still retains the blood feud with Yoshi, but here it feels a lot more personal.  There’s still a lot more left to be reveled with the character, so let’s look at the other main villain of the comic…Krang.  Save for his appearance in the 2009 movie “Turtles Forever’, hadn’t been used since the 80’s/90’s cartoon.  For the new series he’s been given a more menacing and deadly update, even combining his backstory with that of longtime TMNT characters The Utroms, and like them were indirectly responsible for the Turtles mutations.   Old Hob is a new character to TMNT mythology.  A mutant alley cat with a thug’s attitude, he serves as more a recurring nuisance to the Turtles rather than a looming threat like Shredder and Krang.  Another new character is Allopex, a mutant artic fox that serves Shredder and the Foot Clan, and has a rivalry with Raphael.  Her origin remains largely unrevealed as of yet.

Other characters from past TMNT incarnations have made appearance in both major in minor roles.  Karai and The Fugitoid from the original Mirage comics, Slash and General Tragg, from the original cartoon and Archie Comics, Angel and Silver Sentry from the 2003 series, and even beloved fan favorites Bebop and Rocksteady (unmutated…so far).  This new series doesn’t seem to be shying away from any piece of the TMNT franchise, (except for Next Mutation of course), and that opens it up to endless possibilities and chances to see more past characters used like Leatherhead, the Triceratons, Hun, Lord Dregg, Agent Bishop, Tokka and Rahzar, Renet, Mondo Geko, the list goes on.  Of course, they shouldn’t be discouraged from coming up with more new characters.  They can only live of nostalgia for so long.  Though, I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a new crossover with Usagi Yojimbo.

Like the prior comic series, there’s a spin-off series of micro issues that serve to flesh out individual characters as well as set up new story elements.  So far, each of the Turtles, Splinter, Casey, April, and the Fugioid have received focus, and each serves as a both great stand-alone read and essential for understanding things to come.  Each one gives us a unique look on the perspective of the respective character in focus and takes care of the necessary character development so the main book can flow more smoothly.

Duncan and Pattison’s combined excellence in full display

The art in the first twelve issues was handled by Dan Duncan and Ronda Pattison and it was gorgeous.  Duncan’s were striking and fluid, like the Turtles themselves.  Every panel had a strong sense of movement and he really knew how to stage a scene with the strongest angles possible.  No exaggerated musculature here, the character designs were all simple and geometric.  The look of the environments had a great grittiness to them and Pattison’s colors really highlighted that.  I don’t know if they were done digitally, but I doubt it.  The issues looked hand painted to me and added to the fluidity of the action.  They characters were bright and stood out from the dark shadowy backgrounds.  As of issue 13, Andy Kuhn has taken over at duties, and while not as dynamic as Duncan, he offers a unique and delightfully odd look that fits the tone of the TMNT.

Pencils from Issue #8

This new series is like an “Ultimate TMNT”.  It takes what came before and molds it into a fresh new modern take we haven’t seen before.  It uses nearly the entire franchise as building blocks, and as a result it’s hard to see where each storyline will lead.  People know that TMNT has a comic series going again, and this is a great one to present them with.  It satisfies older fans, intrigues newer fans, and has become one of IDW’s highest selling comic series.

When everyone was up-in-arms about the Michael Bay TMNT movie, I was content in the knowledge that as long as I had this comic, I didn’t care what they did to the Turtles in the movie (then I read the script and thought otherwise, I’ll cover that later).  This, to me, is the perfect TMNT…anything.  It’s got everything I ever wanted out of the franchise and for a long time after it came out, I thought it couldn’t get any better.

Then on September 29^th, 2012…it got better…

Next Time: The New Cartoon!

2012: the Year of the Turtle (of the Teenage Mutant Ninja variety)

Part 1

What Went Wrong

Yo.

It’s been a while but the one and only BallsMonkey has made his long awaited return to the Website of Doom.  And this time I’m gonna be tackling a subject that’s more near and dear to me then friends, family, and my own personal well-being.

I’m speaking of course, of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Yes, the Green Machines, the Heroes in a Half Shell, the Fab Four (sorry Beatles, your time has passed), are set to once again return in a big away to mainstream pop culture, and like a true ninja their coming at you from all sides.  With a new comic, a new cartoon, a new toy line, a new movie in development, and Nickelodeon at the helm, Raphael, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Leonardo are well rested and ready to take the world by storm.

But before we tackle the new, we have to look at back at what led us to this point.  A lot of people may not remember, but the Turtles already made a similar comeback not too long ago;  New toys, new comic, new cartoon, new movie, all the works…and it went nowhere.  So what went wrong and how’s this time going to be any different.  Let’s start at the beginning shall we.

The Grand Heyday:

In 1984, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird self-published the first issue of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  An oversized, black and white, one-shot comic about four mutated terrapins trained in the art of Ninjitsu by their rat sensei, Splinter and sworn to take vengeance on the evil Foot Clan and their leader, The Shredder quickly grew into the most successful independent comic of all time.  The comic would go on to inspire the 1987 mega-hit cartoon series which would run for ten years, one of the longest running American cartoons of all time.   The series was loosely based off the comics, omitting the grittiness and violence in favor of a more light-hearted and slapstick tone, which turned away some of the fans of the comics, but attracted a legion of kids.  The show spawned numerous imitators and would be accompanied by an equally successful toy line, a new comic series produced by Archie Comics, three live action movies, and even a live music show at the famous Radio City Music Hall.  The Turtles dominated the late eighties and early nineties but stared to decline in popularity around 1997.  They also had live action television series in 1998, but the less said about that vile trash the better.

The comics still continued after this point, granted in relative obscurity, even amongst comic fans, but to public at large, the Turtles had gone.  It’d be another five years before the Turtles would grace the small screen again.

The Long Awaited Return:

From 1999 to 2002 there were nothing but rumors surrounding what would be next for the TMNT franchise.  There were reports that the Turtles would return to the big screen under the direction of John Woo, but they proved unfounded.  There was also test footage for a failed computer animated TMNT series released online, as well as concept art for 2D animated series that was never followed through on by the WB.  For a while it seemed as if Turtle Power had officially died.  But something happened.

In 2000, Kevin Eastman sold his share of the TMNT to Peter Laird so he could focus more on Heavy Metal magazine, leaving Laird in sole control of the franchise.  Laird partnered with producer Llyod Goldfine to develop a brand new animated series for 4Kids who at the time had reformatted the Fox networks Saturday morning block of cartoons from Fox Kids to the FoxBox and later to 4Kids TV (one day I’ll do a write up on that atrocity).  Unlike the previous animated seires, Peter Laird had much more control over the creative direction of this series.  Mostly unhappy about the cartoony tone of the original, Laird made sure this series stuck closely to the tone of the original comics, within the boundaries of the network censors of course.

The series premiered on February 8, 2003.  The show took a more serious tone and featured more action, deeper and complex storylines, and character development, while still maintaining some comedic elements.  As per tradition, Playmates toys developed an accompanying toy line.   Unlike the Turtles cartoon series, the comic book never ceased production.  It continued for another volume under Mirage until Image Comics acquired the rights to do their own TMNT comics in the late nineties.  These comics were far darker more adult than the original Mirage ones and even had a few of the Turtles getting mutilated through the course of the series.  In 2001, Mirage took the series back and relaunched the comic series, ignoring the Image series and setting it in the then present, with the Turtles now in their 30’s, having aged in real time.  Peter Laird served as the writer with long-time TMNT artist Jim Lawson doing pencils.  The new cartoon series even had its own short-lived comic series written by Peter David, famous for runs of titles like Aquaman, Supergirl, and Young Justice.

While the cartoon series was doing its thing, Peter Laird was in collaboration with Warner Bros and IMAGI animation studio to bring the Turtles back to the big screen.  The 2007 TMNT film, aptly named TMNT, directed by first-time director Kevin Munroe, marked a milestone in the franchise history as it was the first time the Turtles successfully transitioned into the realm of CG.  The four Turtles were voiced by veteran voice actors, but the supporting cast featured the likes of Sarah Michelle Gellar, Chris Evans, Patrick Stewart, and even Kevin Smith in a short cameo.

With all of this, it seemed Turtle Power was back and bigger than ever…

…yeah, seemed like.

In truth, 2001 through 2009 is an era of the TMNT franchise remembered by very few outside the hardcore fanbase.  So what as the problem, why didn’t it hook people like before, and why don’t I think the same thing will happen again?  Let’s break it down shall we.

The Cartoon

 The new cartoon series lasted from 2003 through 2009, a very successful feet for any animated series to accomplish.  As I said before it was a lot more serious and complex than the original series; the action was more intense, the characters were more well-rounded, and even the animation was more solid.  So if it had all this why did it never get even close to the popularity of the original?  Well, one of the reasons may in-fact have been the serious tone.

Being a fan of superhero comics, you’re expected to make certain leaps in logic.  A sun god from another planet who becomes Earths greatest hero, fine.  A man bombarded with gamma rays who becomes a rampaging green goliath.  Okay.  Yet even by comic book standards, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have always been kind of far-fetched.  It comes as no surprise considering they were conceived as a parody of popular comics then.  One thing that helped get the cartoon over was of its sense of humor about itself.  It was never afraid to poke fun at itself and the superhero genre.  In addition, each episode was mostly stand alone, so it was an easy show to jump into from any point.  The new series was one of those shows were you had to watch from the beginning, as certain sub-plots in one episode would be expanded upon in future ones, and while that’s good for die-hard fans, younger viewers and newcomers might have found that off-putting.  The new series, while good, really lacked the charm and wit of the original.

Another factor I feel worked against the show was Peter Laird.  Laird was very hands-on in the new series, maybe too much.  He wanted the series to stick as close to the original comics as possible, but the problem with that, aside from the fact that it would have to be toned down considerably to be marketed to children, was that the old comic isn’t that well known.  To the majority of the public, their knowledge of the Turtles comes from the original cartoon, which Laird was looking to get away from.  As a result, aside from in-jokes, familiar characters Bebop, Rocksteady,  and Krang were not present, and Shredder was changed from a human, to an alien being in a robotic exo-suit.

But I don’t blame the show itself entirely, I also blame the network.  The FoxBox was poor idea from the start.  The marketing for it was very weak, unlike Fox Kids it had no standing amongst its competition.  Rather than showcase a variety of shows that ranged in action, comedy, animation, and live action, the block was overstuffed with horrifically butchered anime dubs, and other cartoons from other countries.  TMNT was by far the most superior and most popular show on the line-up, but it was never that breakout hit that shows like Power Rangers, Animaniacs, and Batman: the Animated Series were.  4Kids had no clue what the hell they were doing, and I feel surrounding the Turtles with such un-appealing shows was a major factor holding it back.

The Comic

By 2001 Peter Laird returned to the realm comics in an attempt to revitalize the Turtles for a modern audience.   The series, simply titled TMNT, attempted to pick up where volume two of the comics left off, and continued the series in real time.  In an way to fill the time gap, the comics sister series, Tales of the TMNT, was also relaunched, and showcased stand-alone adventures of the Turtles, while the main book stuck to an ongoing plot line.

I won’t get into the comic itself, but I will say it was a very mixed bag for me.  But you’d think with the original Mirage crew back at the helm this would be top selling comic book.  Well, the thing about Mirage Studios was that it was an independent studio…a VERY independent studio.  Operating out of Northampton,  Massachusetts,  it might as well have been run out of a garage.  There was no marketing, no strong distribution wing , they didn’t even have deal with Diamond Comics like most comic companies do.  You’d think the creator of the most famous independent comic of all time would be a lot bigger, but most comic readers and retailors were surprised to learn there even was a Ninja Turtles book still going.  A few stores would the comics in occasionally, but they never sold well.  It got to the point where the only way to get the book was to fill out an order form and get them directly from Mirage Studios itself.  It was a hassle.

In addition they had zero presence at any of the major conventions, so it was has next to impossible to get any info on it.  Peter basically paid for the comic out of his own pocket, he was actually losing money on it publishing it just for the sake of it.  Noble, but still no way to run a business.  Plus the cartoon series never really promoted the comic any, and even if it did there was such a big difference between the two it be hard to see any real crossover between audiences.  Especially seeing as how it contained a ton of references to stories and characters from over 20 years ago.  Not a strong selling point for the kiddies.

The Movie

TMNT came out in 2007…and went just as quick as it arrived.  It didn’t bomb at the box office, but it wasn’t anywhere near blockbuster.  I can do a whole article on this movie alone and where it went wrong, but I want to get out of the way what it did right first.

For one the animation was really good.  The action scenes naturally flowed very fast and fluid and showcased different fighting styles for each Turtle, but I also have to give praise to the acting.  The characters emotions were all very easy to read through subtle and not-so subtle body movements, a trait missing of most animation today.  In addition, I felt the Turtles themselves came off very strong and true to the characters, plus their voices were spot on and really captured the essence of each of the four brothers.  James Arnold Taylor, Nolan North, Mitchell Whitfeild and Mikey Kelly voiced Leo, Raph, Don, and Mikey respectively and the four played very well off each other.  But I was dismayed during the credit sequence to see them not only get billed under Sarah Michelle Gellar and Chris Evans, but even under Kevin Smith, who voiced an ancillary no-name character with about two lines in the entire movie.

Unfortunately the praise ends there.

The movies biggest flaw was the story was a cluttered mess that didn’t know if it wanted to be original or a sequel.  The main plot centered around army of monsters that was going to destroy the world unless they were sent back through a portal…yeah, lame I know, but it could have worked.  But the stories main focus was on the relationship between Leonardo and Raphael.  After Shredder was defeated (something we don’t see, only hear about in the intro), Leonardo traveld to South America to train…for some reason not explained, leaving his brothers at home to do nothing.  While Mikey and Don take up odd jobs to earn money (why they need money, also never explained), Raph has been patrolling the streets and fighting crime as the masked, motorcycle-riding vigilante known as the Nightwatcher.  When Leo returns he must try to re-unite his brothers and him and Raph come to blows over his absence which leads to a cool and well animated though ultimately unnecessary fight scene.

If how I stated it above didn’t make sense, don’t worry, it didn’t make sense when I watched it three different times.  The story supposedly takes place sometime after Ninja Turtles 3, but in truth it’s hard to tell when it takes place or if it’s supposed to be based in any particular universe.  But regardless of that, if you’re new to Ninja Turtles franchise, you’ll be completely lost by this movie.  It expects you to have a good knowledge of Turtles lore going into it, and that’s a problem seeing as how the last Turtles movie came out thirteen years prior.  It’s most recognizable villain wasn’t featured in any way, the Turtles were all separated for reasons never fully established, and the monster plotline was completely underutilized and came off as lazy and thrown in haphazardly.  This was supposed to be the Turtles re-introduction to moviegoers, but it instead threw them head first in the middle of this sea of confusing plot elements and clunky dialogue, and didn’t even throw them a life preserver.

I don’t want to blame Kevin Munroe, he was nice guy who had a good connection with the fans, even talking with them on The Technodrome message boards, command central for all of TMNT fandom.  Still, he and Peter Laird never had a clear direction of where the movie should go and it failed to live up to expectations.  I also gotta blame the marketing, specifically the lack of it.  Seriously, unless you were a die-hard TMNT fan, you had no clue this movie was being made.  I live in LA, not that far from the Warner bros studios, and not once did I see any kind of marketing for this movie.  No billboards, no commercials, not even a damn bus ad.  It was mainly the fans doing the marketing for it.  I remember being on the message boards hering about fans going to see the movie eleven times over just help it out.  It was a sad thing, really.  TMNT was terrible, but it wasn’t exactly a good movie either, and failed to make any impact outside the core fanbase.  Some might blame it on the fact that it was animated and not live-action, but I gotta think it had more to do with what was listed above.

The Future

The second cartoon series ended 2009, the 25^th anniversary of the Ninja Turtles, culminating in the animated TV movie Turtles Forever, which served as a crossover between it and the previous Turtles cartoon and wrapped up both franchise nicely.  It was around this time that the news came…Peter Laird sold the rights to the Ninja Turtle franchise to Nickelodeon for six million dollars.

Fans of the series, for the most part, reacted in the natural geek way which I will sum up like this…

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

And, I am ashamed to admit I was one of them.  My exact words were, “The Ninja Turtles are dead to me”.

Yeah, I’m eating my words right now.  They taste a little salty.

Needless to say I had yet to see what was in store, and I like what I see.  Nickelodeon seems to have a clear idea of what they want out of this franchise and how to get it.  With IDW Comics and Playmates Toys they’ve completely rebooted the franchise and with their marketing power they can once again make the Ninja Turtles household names.

2012 has become the year of the Turtle, and that looks to carry on into next year and beyond.  In the coming articles I’ll be breaking down the new comic, toyline, and cartoon, as well as analyzing the leaked TMNT script Michael bay produced…that one’s gonna suck.

Stay tuned kids.

Wow, You’ve Been Gone for Almost a Year and you Come Back with Another Dumb List

or

My Top 5 Favorite Cartoon Characters

Wow, how long has it been?  Wait, don’t answer that, the answer is too long.  Yeah I haven’t been good about making much time for Doom anymore.  Truth is, Extreme Inbetweens has always seemed like a chore for me to write.  With the numerous other animation blogs out there, most run by people with far more knowledge of the medium than I do, it was hard to try to come at it with a unique view point.  Let’s all be honest, this column was never cutting edge and I never tried to make it that, but every time I posted a new article I just felt really down about it, thinking that I have no place writing about animation when my knowledge is nowhere near as vast as guys like Jerry Beck, Michael Barrier, or Amid Amidi.  Plus, I hate writing.  I’d rather do animation thank write columns about it.  Plus, now that I’m trying to get a job in the industry, I have to be careful about what I say.  Can’t risk pissing off potential employers. So, I’m thinking this may be my last Extreme Inbetweens.  I don’t seem to have the heart for it anymore, so I’m gonna bow out gracefully.

But don’t cry, Toonsters.  That doesn’t mean I’m done with Doom.  Far from it.  I have an idea about a new column I want to do.  About something far easier for me to talk on and on about.  And if the Lords of Doom deem it worthy, I’ll be coming out with it pretty soon.  And who knows, maybe this wont be the last for Extreme Inbetweens.  Like Brett Farve it could come out of retirement even though it’s far past it’s prime for one last romp, and then later tweet pictures of it’s penis  The future isn’t set in stone.

But enough of that rambling, let’s get to the point of this column.  Staring with Felix the Cat back in the 1920’s, cartoons have played host to a myriad of larger than life superstars that become just as real to us as any flesh and blood celebrity.  They come in all shapes, sizes, and species.  From mice, to rabbits, to cats, to sailors, to sponges.  They can be wise-cracking like Bugs, dopey like Homer, cowardly like Scooby, or mega-maniacal like The Brain.  The best part about it is there’s a character for everyone.  There’s at least one cartoon character out there that speaks to everyone’s inner or outer self.  Today, I’m gonna list my top five favorite cartoon characters.  The characters that I see a little bit of myself in, and who never fail to entertain the hell out of me.

  5. Huckleberry Hound (Hanna Barbera)

Hanna Barbera had some great characters (they had to, seeing as how there animation quality was less than stellar).  They had great designs, stellar voice acting behind them, and likeable personalities. My favorite of the bunch used to be Yogi bear, I always had a fondness for the slick and scheming character.  But, while I still have a fondness for Yogi, I’ve found new appeal in the character of Huckleberry Hound.  I like Huck because there’s no ego with him whatsoeverHe’s pretty much a simpleton, but not dumb.  Smart enough to at least get the job done, and he had lot of jobs.  Policeman, spy, cowboy, you name it, that was the beauty of his character, he could exist in so many roles.  It wasn’t about what he does, but who he is.  Huck was easy going, polite, and had his own great charm.  The only thing more fun than seeing huck win out at the end, was seeing how far the antagonist of the cartoon could push Huck before he get’s riled up, it was usually pretty far, but Huck was a character that could stay cool under pressure, and I admire that.  Plus, you can’t beat Daws Butler’s stellar vocal performance.  That sweet, southern drawl just made the character that much more loveable.

4. Fall Apart Rabbit (Bonkers – Disney)

Bonkers was such an underrated cartoon.  In the spirit of Roger Rabbit, it had great characters, voice acting, animation, writing, and setting.  It had a multitude of original and creative cartoony characters, and the best out of the bunch was Fall Apart Rabbit.  Fall Apart was the title character, Bonker’s, friend and stun double, preforming the more dangerous stunts in Bonker’s features during his days as a cartoon star.  Fall Apart is aptly names seeing as how he frequently falls apart, being able to detach and re-attach virtually all of his limbs.  Like I said before, I’ve always liked the good natured, simpleton characters, and that was Fall Apart.  He was a scattered brain moron, but he meant no harm, and was helpful in his own way.  In addition, he was really funny, his constant bumbling and stupidity never once got annoying.  Throw in Frank Welker’s voice acting and you’ve got a great character that, like so many other Disney Afternoon stars, have gone criminally unused.

3.Eek the Cat (Eek the Cat – Fox Kids/Savage Studios)

Eek the Cat was one of the seminal cartoons of the 90’s, and best represented that decade in television animation.  It was absurd, edgy, satirical,loud, and appealed just as much to adults as it did to kids, maybe more so.  Thee star of the show was a short, purple cat named Eek who’s motto was, “it never hurts to help”, which for him it often did.  But he didn’t care, Eek, voiced by creator Bill Kopp, was always willing to lend a helping hand to anyone in need, even though it tended to do more harm than good on both sides.  We’ve seen so many cartoon stars motivated by personal gain that Eek was a refresher, he was just a nice guy, but it didn’t make him boring.   On the contrary, we could easily sympathize with Eek and all the chaos he endured just make sure someone else got what they wanted at the end.  I really wissomeone was doing more with Eek.  he’s too good a character to let fade into nostalgic oblivion.

2. Daffy Duck (Looney Tunes – Warner Bros)

In my opinion, Daffy Duck was not only the greatest Looney Tune character, but possibly the most perfect cartoon character of all time.  He’s nutty. he’s chaotic, he’s extravagant, he pretty much embodies the spirit of the Looney Tunes.  Chuck Jones once said “Bugs is who we want to be, Daffy is who we are”; Well, with all due respect to the great master, I’d have to say the opposite.  While Bugs Bunny is great, Daffy represents everything I want to be, an unrepentant, nonsensical, anarchist.  At least early Daffy does, I’m not a fan of the contemporary Jones-version, which turned the character into an egotistical, greedy coward, I much prefer the fearless force of nature he was in the Bob Clampett/Tex Avery years.  Daffy did whatever the hell he  wanted and took glee in making hapless stooges suffer, much like Bugs except Daffy never needed a reason to do it.  Daffy Duck is that little spark in all of us wanting to unleash hell on a cruel unforgiving world, he’s the chaos to Porky Pig’s order, he’s the best damn character to come out of the golden age.

1. Launchpad McQuack (Ducktales/Darkwing Duck – Disney)

If there was ever a character that represented my cartoon upbringing, it’s Launchpad McQuack.  First appearing in as a supporting character in Ducktales then later made the jump to 1991’s Darkwing Duck as the title characters sidekick, Launchpad was a barrel-chested, bone-headed, but otherwise courageous pilot who was proud of his ability to crash anything he flew.   Launchpad was a staple of the Disney Afternoon and pretty much it’s best character.  He worked great as a supporting character to the likes of Scrooge McDuck and Darkwing, and could even carry a few cartoons on his own.  There was so much to his character that was just fun to explore; he was like this daring jack-of-all-trades who brought this great spirit of fun to every episode he appeared in.  The fact that Disney isn’t doing anything with him anymore pisses me off to no end.  He should be on t-shirts, he should be appearing in the parks, he should be staring in his own cartoons (he almost did, as TaleSpin was originally concieved as a staring vehicle for him).  Launchpad is my absolute favorite cartoon character of all time and I wont rest until he’s returned in full force to the Disney universe….okay, maybe I will rest but dammit I want him back!

So there you have it, the last Extreme Inbetweens…for now.  What’s next…something good, trust me.  And it wont be limited to just cartoons.  But I won’t spoil too much.

Don’t touch that dial, Toonsters.  we’ll be right back.

ME BEING PRETENTIOUS AND ARBITRARILY RANKING A BUNCH OF TV CARTOONS

or

THE 100 GREATEST ANIMATED SERIES OF ALL TIME

The Final Chapter

Are you ready?

I don’t think you’re ready.

You’re not ready for what I’m about to drop on you.

The Top 20 Greatest Animated Series of All Time.

The greatest of the great, the best of the best, the cream de la French stuff.  These are the shows that have stood out among hordes of others and have shown a level of quality that no other show can rival.  They earned their stripes.

Lives will be changed.

Minds will be blown.

And the world will never be the same!  AGAIN!

Before we get to it, a quick recap of the previous 80…

100. YoungJustice/Thundercats (2011)

99. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes

98. Mad Jack the Pirate

97. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

96. King of the Hill

95. Beetlejuice

94. Kablam

93. The Smurfs

92. The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

91. Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc

90. Rugrats

89. Doug

88. X-Men

87. Static Shock

86. Aqua Teen Hunger Force

85. Cow and Chicken

84. Moral Orel

83. Filmore

82. X-Men: Evolution

81. The Angry Beavers

80. Space Ghost Coast to Coast

79. Home Movies

78. Kim Possible

77. Pirates of Dark Water

76. Sym-Bionic Titan

75. Peter Pan and the Pirates

74. 2 Stupid Dogs

73. Beast Wars

72. The Tick

71. Batman: the Brave and the Bold

70. Muppet Babies

69. Johnny Bravo

68. Teen Titans

67. The Alvin Show/Alvin and the Chipmunks

66. Mighty Max

65. Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures

64. Courage the Cowardly Dog

63. Roger Ramjet

62. The Critic

61. Goof Troop

60. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo

59. Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers

58. Batman Beyond

57. Aaahh!!! Real Monsters

56. Recess

55. Liquid Television/What-a-Cartoon Show/Oh Yeah Cartoons

54. Bobby’s World

53. The Fairly Oddparents

52. Aladdin: the Series

51. Daria

50. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

49. TaleSpin

48. Spectacular Spider-Man

47. Hey Arnold!

46. Aeon Flux

45. Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat

44. Tiny Toon Adventures

43. Futurama

42. Underdog

41. Freakazoid

40. Superman: the Animated Series

39. Invader Zim

38. Adventures of the Gummi Bears

37. The Schnookums and Meat funny Cartoon Show

36. The Jetsons

35. Garfield and Friends

34. Duckman

33. Ed, Edd, n Eddy

32. Bonkers

31. Pixie, Dixie, and Mr. Jinx

30. Beany and Cecil/The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil

29. Scooby-Doo: Where Are You

28. South Park

27. Jonny Quest

26. Gargoyles

25. Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends

24. Justice League/Justice League Unlimited

23. The Flintstones

22. Quick Draw McGraw

21. The Powerpuff Girls

And now, without further a-choo!  (AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA)

Let’s get it on!

20. Top Cat: Top Cat was one of the coolest cartoons ever.  It was one of the first primetime animated series debuting just a year after The Flintstones.  The title character, Top Cat (T.C. to his friends), was a street-wise, crafty, greedy, but still noble con man and leader of a gang of alley cats whose get-rich-quick schemes often faced opposition by beat cop Officer Dibble.  Like Yogi Bear before him, Top Cat was crafty and defiant of authority, though where Yogi tended to be a bit on the dim side, Top Cat was smart and a lot more cunning.  Top Cat had very strong writing and great voice acting, especially by Arnold Strong, who played the title character, but this series ranks so high up on the list based on the strength of the characters alone.

19. Yogi Bear: One of the most iconic cartoon characters of all time, Yogi Bear was the breakout star of The Huckleberry Hound Show, and is arguably Hanna Barbera’s most popular character.  The series of shorts featured the escapades of the crafty, impulsive, and always-hungry Yogi Bear and his soft spoken and level headed sidekick Boo-Boo as they tried to steal picnic baskets under the nose of Ranger Smith in Jellystone National Park.  Yogi and Boo-Boo were such great characters and their dynamic was absolutely perfect; Yogi’s appeal came from his persistence and defiant nature, and Boo-Boo’s laid back attitude and willingness to let Yogi make an ass out of himself made him the perfect sidekick.  The background designs and color palette of the show was absolutely gorgeous, a perfect blend of earth tones that really helped bring Jellystone to life.  A beautiful looking show with great characters and stories, Yogi Bear was truly one of the best of the best, and the less said about that crappy live action movie, the better.

18. Dexter’s Laboratory: Gendy Tartakovsky’s breakout hit series about a young boy genius and his secret lab helped put Cartoon Network on the map.  Dexter’s Laboratory was one of the network’s earliest original cartoons, starting out as a couple of animated shorts on The What-a-Cartoon Show and soon gaining enough popularity to carry a 30 minute series.  The setting of Dexter’s Laboratory gave it a number of directions to go in.  Dexter could travel through time, space, under the sea and inside a computer.  He’s encountered aliens, built giant robots, and even used a giant stone Abe Lincoln to battle his rival and his giant stone George Washington.  But the strength of the series wasn’t just that or the animation, which had that great cinematic level visual storytelling that Gendy is famous for, but was Dexter himself.  He was little kid who despite being a super genius, was still a regular kid.  He had to deal with things like school, getting picked on, crushes, as well as his pesky older sister, Dee-Dee; and Dexter using science to solve his problems almost always backfired on him.  He was smug genius, but also kind of a loveable loser at times.  The writing was brilliant and you can tell the crew really let their imaginations go wild with the show.  Dexter’s Laboratory was one of the most creative, energetic, and fun shows to come out of the 90’s.  It’s been imitated, but never surpassed.

17. Avatar the Last Airbender: The closest thing this generation will have to a Star Wars type epic. Avatar the Last Airbender takes place in a world made up of Benders (people who can manipulate the elements of nature).  The world is divided into four different nations corresponding to a different element and kept in peace by the Avatar, who is the only person who can control all four elements.  12-year-old airbender Aang is the latest incarnation of the Avatar but fears his destiny and runs away, only to get frozen ice, rendering him absent when the Fire Nation seizes control of the world and wipes out the airbenders.  Awakened from his frozen sleep 100 years later by two Water Tribe kids, Aang must fulfill his destiny and master all four elements to save the world.  Nickelodeon took a chance with this series and it paid off big.  The series lasted three seasons and each was better than the last.  Each season had a unique look and feel, as well as its own sub plots, while still being a part of a major overarching storyline.  It built a magical world with creative creatures and deep characters that were never one-note, but instead had their own strengths as well as faults, growing as the series went on.  The environments were gorgeous, the colors had so much feel to them that they took on a life of their own, and perfectly matching the corresponding elements the seasons were centered around.  The animation was insane, taking its cues from real martial arts choreography and assigning different kung fu style to each bending art a to make the fight scenes look like nothing else that’s ever been done in animation.  It had adventure, action, drama, humor, romance, peril, and overall fun.  Avatar the Last Airbender truly earned the right to be called “epic”.

16. The Venture Bros: Who would’ve thought a parody show could turn into such a unique and original experience?  Venture Bros is hard to sum up in a few words.  It’s main characters are the clueless “super sleuth” brothers Hank and Dean Venture; their father, former child adventurer and current hack super scientist Dr. Thaddeus “Rusty” Venture; and their bodyguard the hulking, murder machine Brock Sampson.  Their main foe is the mostly inept, butterfly themed super villain The Monarch who is bent on destroying Dr. Venture for some reason.  The show mixes elements from Jonny Quest, The Hardy Boys, comic books, pulp adventure stories and is jam packed with the best pop culture humor on television.  The show started off very stand alone, but by the second season the writing had improved greatly and has crafted a deep storyline with many unexpected twist and turns.  The show has rich character development and isn’t afraid to make long lasting changes and shake up the status quo.  Plus, for an Adult Swim show the animation is pretty good.  Venture Bros is not only the best Adult Swim show, but one of the best most underappreciated shows on television.

15. Eek! the Cat: I am a major fan of Eek! The Cat.  Bill Kopp’s most successful series yet about a kind-hearted, optimistic purple cat named Eek who attempts to help people often caused him great physical harm was a major staple of Fox Kids and was one of their longest running shows.  Eek had it all; the writing was funny, fast paced, and new how to utilize both pop culture jabs and classic cartoon slapstick to its upmost effect.  Eek as a character is one of my favorites, he’s not cocky, he’s not a jerk, he’s not selfish or cruel, he’s a nice guy.  He goes out of his help anyone, always following his motto “it never hurts to help”, although in his case, it usually does.  Eek also had a great supporting cast including his morbidly obese southern girlfriend Annabelle, his friend Elmo the Elk, and Sharky the Shark Dog who’s usually hell-bent on destroying Eek.  Despite being a show for kids, there was a ton of humor that adults could enjoy as well and would often parody movies that are geared towards adults like Jaws, Apocalypse Now, and Pulp Fiction.  Eek! the Cat was one of the best cartoons of its time and has been a huge influence on me.  I’m proud to have it on the list.

14. Ducktales: Ducktales brought the adventures of Scrooge McDuck from the pages of Carl Barks’ comic book to the silver screen.  The treasure hunting adventures of Scrooge, his nephews Huey, Dewy, and Louie, and air-headed pilot Launchpad McQuack was one of Disney’s biggest television successes.  This was like a kids version of Indiana Jones with its exotic locales, mystery, and daring adventure.  The characters were all fun and the show perfectly conveyed the strong family bond between them.  It could be heartwarming when it wanted to be, but never short changed us on the action.  Almost no scenario was too crazy for Ducktales; time travel, magic, haunted houses, cursed artifacts, and hidden cities were all common place in the universe they set up, but it kept itself grounded with its down-to-Earth characters.  In its last season , the show began to shift more focus to a new character, Scrooge’s accountant Fenton Crackshell and his alter-ego, the cybernetic superhero Gizmoduck.  Fenton/Gizmoduck was a fine character but his stories took away from the excitement we had been used to before.  Still, the good outweighs the bad and there was a lot good with Ducktales.  It built an endless world of colorful characters, exotic locales, and daring adventure; and gave us the most insanely catchy theme song of all time.  I bet it’s in your head right now.  Life is like a hurricane, here in Duckburg…

13. The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show: Jay Ward and Alex Anderson’s classic about a moose and flying squirrel who, unintentionally, fought communism pretty much proved that a quality product could come out of a shoe string budget.  Rocky and Bullwinkle was amazing as both political and social satire comedy, and just a fun cartoon.  Despite its cheap and choppy animation, Rocky and Bullwinkle stands the test of time due to its top notch writing.  The show was serialized and really mastered the cliffhanger ending with its blend of suspense and humor.  The Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons weren’t the shows only offering, as it featured segments such as Dudley Do-Right, an action adventure parody about a heroic Mounty who foiled the plans of the evil Snidely Whiplash; and the time-traveling adventures of Mr. Peabody and Sherman in Peabody’s Impossible History.  Those shows were great, but to me ,the Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes were the highlights.

12. Beavis and Butt-Head: Never has dumb been so brilliant.  Beavis and Butt-Head’s premise is as simple as its main characters: the misadventures of two dim-witted teenagers who when they aren’t watching TV are looking for ways to either cause mayhem or score with chicks.  Beavis and Butt-head were great reflections of everything wrong with teenagers in the 90’s, and today even, but more than that, they were funny characters.  Their stupidity utter lack of common sense led them to make the simplest problems ten-time worse.  The animation was good for its time and Mike Judge’s visual style gave the show a grungy, realistic look to it that really made the cartoony nature of Beavis and Butt-Head much funnier.  A staple of the show was the commentary for music videos airing on MTV that the duo would provide between the episode segments.  It was both scathing and hilarious, and very insightful (well, as insightful as beavis and Butt-Head could get).  The show recently made a comeback after 13 years of being off the air, but aside from slightly improved visuals, you could barely tell it had left at all, it picked up right where it left off and the quality didn’t go down a bit.  It was great back then, and continues to be great today.

11. Darkwing Duck: The Disney Afternoon gave rise to many great cartoons, the majority of them you’ve already seen on this list, but without a shadow of a doubt, the best of the bunch has got to be Darkwing Duck.  Both a parody of the superhero genre, and a solid entry to it in its own right, Darkwing Duck was about a heroic yet sometimes inept superhero who protected the city of St. Canard from the forces of evil.  The show was a radical departure from the Disney shows before it.  The style was more rubber hose in nature and the humor was more focused on fast paced slapstick.  Darkwing Duck was also more action-oriented than the other shows in the line-up, but because of the slapstick could pass under the censor’s radar.  Darkwing was a great character.  He was egotistical, stubborn, and often relied too heavily theatrics, but was balanced out with his intelligence, nobility, heroic nature, an ability to cleverly pull out a last minute victory, and his supporting cast and rogues gallery were varied and energetic, and worked perfectly in tandem with our main hero.  The animation was the best of all the shows in the Disney Afternoon.  It had real emotional to it and made for some great visual humor.  Darkwing Duck had everything a kind could want in the 90’s and still holds up insanely well to this day.  The show experienced a brief revival in the form of a comic book series, and hopefully Disney will utilize this gem’s untapped potential more.

10. The Ren and Stimpy Show: Alongside Doug and Rugrats, The Ren and Stimpy Show was one of the original three Nicktoons.  But while the first two were very low key, Ren and Stimpy hit us all in the face with a sack of Gritty Kitty Litter.  Created by John Krisfaluci in the early 90’s, Ren and Stimpy, about an angry and violent Chihuahua and his dim-witted cat pal, and put the cartooniness back into cartoons.  John K took influence from classic Bob Clampett and Tex Avery cartoons, Hanna Barbera, The Three Stooges, and so much more when crafting the series and it’s very easy to see.  The animation was simply the best of its time, it was the polar opposite of Disney, it was crazy, it was bouncy, and it never held back.  The characters acted, an art which is lost in animation today.  With every move they made there was emotion to it, its timing was perfect it never used the same gag twice, there was life to it.  It was exaggerated as hell but there was also subtlety to the humor, for as much emotion as they actively conveyed, there was a lot more going on underneath it.  The music was jazzy and could tell a story well enough on its own.  After John K was fired from Nickelodeon, the show took a major downturn, but the Spumco produced episodes still hold up as animation gold.

9. Pinky and the Brain: This spin-off of Animaniacs proved to be just as popular on it’s on.  Pinky and the Brain told the escapades of two genetically engineered lab mice plotting to take over the world.  Pinky and the Brain’s dynamic was a classic double act, Brain was intelligent, short-tempered, stern, and ambitious in nature, in contrast to Pinky who was blissfully dim-witted, optimistic, friendly and crazy.  All the great writing from the Pinky and the Brain segments in Animaniacs carried over here.  The simple premise opened the door to many storytelling possibilities.  The Brain’s schemes were grand and original like becoming a country western star and using a hypnotic song to make people his slaves, or luring the people of Earth onto a papier mache copy to take over the real one, and were usually fouled up by Pinky’s stupidity.  The show mainly took place in the modern day but episodes could place them anywhere from the 1930’s to medieval times.  What really mattered was the core dynamic of Brain and Pinky, made all the more excellent by the voice acting of Maurice LaMarche and Rob Paulsen respectively.  This show about two little lab mice was larger than life and hopefully we’ll see the duo return in the future to try to take over the world once more.

8. Animaniacs: C’mon, if Pinky and the Brain showed up on this list, you knew this wouldn’t be far behind.  After the success of Tiny Toons, Steven Spielberg went on to produce another, even bigger animated hit in Animaniacs.  Animaniacs was a cartoon variety show centered around three lost forgotten, at least in the context of the show, animated characters of the golden age: The Warner Bros, Yakko and Wakko, and the Warner Sister, Dot.  The Warners were zany and chaotic in nature and served no other purpose but to drive people crazy.  Their personalities were strong and energetic, their dialogue was funny and unique to each character, and their designs echoed an earlier age of animation.  Other shorts in the show included The Goodfeathers, a Goodfellas/Godfather parody with New York pigeons; Slappy Squirrel, about a cantankerous old retired cartoon star; and of course Pinky and the Brain, who would spin-off into their own series. In addition the show was famous for its musical segments that fulfilled the educational quota of the show, but did it in a way that was entertaining as hell and didn’t make you realize you were learning.  We’ve yet to see another show like Animaniacs, and I doubt we’ll ever see one again.  It was a show perfectly of its time and was great satire of pop culture and entry into the legacy of Warner Bros cartoons.

7. The Simpsons: Many people of my generation can’t even remember a time when The Simpsons weren’t on the air.  This spin-off of The Tracy Ullman Show has managed to last well over 20 years and STILL has no foreseeable end in sight.   This show about a middle-class family of five and the crazy cast of townsfolk that inhabit Springfield, USA has become a major staple of pop culture.  Its dialogue is insanely quotable, terms it’s invented have made their way into our regular vocabulary, its characters both main and secondary are legendary, and the show has had cameos from so many celebrities from Adam West, to Kelsey Grammer, to Liz Taylor, to even Michael Jackson (supposedly).  In addition, its animation is pretty decent, and its voice cast is astoundingly talented.  The adventures of Homer, Marge, Lisa, Maggie, and Bart Simpson have spawned video games, comic books, toys, a movie, and over 400 episodes.  This country would not be the same without The Simpsons.

6. Rocko’s Modern Life: Nickelodeon’s cult favorite cartoon about a wallaby named Rocko dealing with the absurdities of life was an obvious in for this list.  Rocko’s Modern Life debuted in 1993 and launched the career of creator Joe Murray.  Unlike most cartoons of the time, Rocko had much more appeal with adult audiences and the subtle little mature jokes they threw in the show were proof of that.  Rocko had some of the strongest writing, characters, and animation of any cartoon series  The animation, while not as exaggerated as Ren and Stimpy, was still filled with so much personality.  Its striking visual style was very wonky, with everything appearing unbalance, reflecting the off-center nature of the characters of that world.  Rocko’s Modern Life was filled with every kind of un-desirable that you would find in real life, especially in you lived in the city, all played off of fish-out-of-water Rocko, who served as the straight man of the show and our avatar into this crazy world.  The writing team took real situations from their lives and used them as inspiration for episodes; things like getting the trash out on garbage day and or going to the grocery store became major sources for humor in the show.  You can really feel all the fun that the crew was having making this show.  Great writing, great animation, great timing, great visuals, great voice acting, Rocko had it all, and the fact that it never took off more in the eyes of the mainstream is a shame.  Though it would give rise to one of the biggest cartoons of all time.

5. Batman the Animated Series: What can I say about this series that hasn’t already been said?  It’s Batman the Animated Series.  It’s one of the most universally praised shows of all time.  It gave life to the title character like no other series did before.  It did practically everything right.  I don’t think I really need to explain all the pluses of the show, so I won’t.  Here’s a quick rundown of everything the show did right, though: writing, animation, art style, color, backgrounds, staging, action, characters, voice acting, etc.  It’s Batman: the Animated Series, ‘nuff said.

4. The Ruff and Reddy Show: Before Scooby Doo, before Fred Flintstone, before Yogi Bear, before Huckleberry Hound, there was Ruff n’ Reddy.  This was the first of the Hanna Barbera cartoons for television and definitely the most unique.  The series was about the adventures of buddies Ruff, a smart aleck cat, and Reddy, a dimwitted dog; simple, right?  What made this show so unique was that unlike the shows that would follow, Ruff and Reddy was a serialized series with a story taking place over 13-part episodes.  I love shows that aren’t bound to one setting and can have characters in almost any kind of situation and Ruff and Reddy was one of the best of them.  The snappy dialogue, excellent character design, and great lead characters, and brilliant voice acting by Daws Butler and Don Messick made up for the limited animation, which in itself wasn’t bad at all.  It’s rare to see any serialized cartoons anymore and it’s a shame because it’s a great format, and the show utilized it well.  Each episode was around four minutes long and the cliffhangers did leave you wanting more.  Despite being the first, Ruff and Reddy tends to be forgotten among the Hanna Barbera classics, but it’s influence can be seen and felt among the many shows that would follow it.

3. Spongebob Squarepants: For reasons I’m still trying to figure out, SpongeBob Squarepants has become the most popular cartoon in America today.  The character himself has become one of the most beloved, recognizable, and long-lived characters in animation history.  Created by former Rocko’s Modern Life writer Stephen Hillenburg, and has proven in almost every way its successor, Spongebob SquarePants is about the adventures and misadventures of a cheery and energetic yellow sponge who lives undersea with his friends and neighbors.  The show has done what every cartoon aspires to do, appeal to as wide an audience as possible.  Kids can appreciate the bubbly characters and great cartoony animation, while older audiences can find enjoyment in the great writing and subtle adult humor.  SpongeBob has thrived for over 10 years and has succeeded Rugrats as the most popular show Nickelodeon.  It’s unassuming in its brilliance and proven it can go on strong for years to come.  In an era where it’s rare that cartoon character reaches the heights of those of the golden age, SpongeBob has become a staple of pop culture and will be remembered for years to come.

2. Huckleberry Hound: Ruff and Reddy may have been the first, but Huckleberry Hound was the best.  Hanna Barbera gets a lot of flack for its limited animation and essentially creating the big divide between television and feature animation, but it doesn’t get enough praise for the stuff it did right, which was everything else.  Great writing, beautiful color mixes and background designs, strong character designs, top quality voice acting, and fleshed out, likeable characters.  Nowhere else were any of those qualities exemplified more than in Huckleberry Hound.  As I said for Ruff and Reddy, I like shows where characters aren’t bound to one setting, and Huck sure wasn’t.  The great thing about the show was that Huck could be anywhere and anything.  A cowboy, a cop, a knight, or just regular old Huck, what stayed constant was his character.  Huck was laid back, kind-hearted, and a little slow, but had his breaking points, he felt very much like a real person, and the way he broke the fourth wall and talked directly to the audience made us feel like we were a part of the show.  Huck would win some and he would lose some, but maintained his appeal throughout, and Daws Butler’s voice acting was the icing on the cake.  Huckleberry Hound was one of the first and without a doubt the best of the Hanna Barbera cartoons, and even today holds up among the modern offerings.

We’ve gone through 99, but now is the moment of truth.  The number one greatest animated series of all time is…

1. Captain Planet and the Planteers: Proof that the greatest animated series are created by crazy billionaires.  The show was about teens from all across the globe that were given magical rings, each embodying a different classical element, by the spirit of Earth, Gaia to fend off eco-terrorists.  When in trouble the teens would combine their powers to summon earth’s greatest champion, Captain Planet, a blue-skinned, green mullet having superhero whos powers included flight, super strength, and the ability to constantly make the worst puns ever.  Also you could kill him with trash.  Granted the writing sucked, the characters were all bland, the animations were awful, and Captain Planet was one of the worst superheroes ever, but the show had something none of the other 99 shows on this list had…Heart!

Okay I’m just messing you, the real number one is…

1. Samurai Jack:  I’ve gone on and on about how great Gendy Tartakovsky is, but I can’t say it enough.  The man is one of the best animators of our time and this series is proof why.  A time-displaced Samurai trapped in the far future must figure out a way to get back to his own time period to stop and evil demon named Aku from conquering the world as he’s already done.  That was the premise of Samurai Jack.  It was as simple as that, but still brilliant.  It had a set end point, but was in no rush to get there.  It was a ticking-clock show with no ticking-clock.  The show could go in so many directions and explore many different aspects of its world, and it didn’t have to worry about staying on track because it’s ultimate destination was in the past, not the future.  The reason Samurai Jack is at number one is mainly because of one thing, the visuals.  No other cartoon on or off this list has even come close to matching the level of visual storytelling this show achieved.  I feel like calling it cinematic would be an understatement.  This show proved multiple times it did not need dialogue to tell a story, but instead relied on the breathtaking color style, dynamic staging, and some of the most crisp and fluid animation I’ve ever seen.  Jack was like the Batman of samurais.  He was determined, he trained hard, and triumphed over his enemies using his cunning, his bravery, and his sheer will alone.  He was seemingly invincible but most of the time a victim of circumstance.  Aku proved to be a great villain; a looming shadow constantly hanging over jack who was both menacing and humorous.  Each episode was it’s on mini epic, with a color set and musical score tailor made to it.  Samurai Jack could cover a wide range of emotion, it could be adventurous, funny, serious, uplifting, heartbreaking, or unapologetically whimsical, but no matter what, it was always fun.  Ultimately what made the show brilliant led to its undoing.  It’s experimental style of storytelling didn’t catch on well with the mainstream and it was cancelled before we could get a series finale.  Normally that would be a negative but sheer brilliance of the show keeps me from holding that against it.  What it did right and what it did wrong was one in the same, but what it did right it did really right.  Samurai Jack was original, inventive, and absolutely astounding.  I can’t think of another show more deserving of the number one spot.

So there you have it, there’s my list of the 100 Greatest Animated Series of all Time.

I eagerly await your bitching and moaning.

ME BEING PRETENTIOUS AND ARBITRARILY RANKING A BUNCH OF TV CARTOONS

or

THE 100 GREATEST ANIMATED SERIES OF ALL TIME

Part 4

Greetings Toonsters!  We’ve passed the halfway point and are getting ever closer to the coveted Number 1 spot.  But before we get into round 4, let’s do a quick recap of the list so far…

100. YoungJustice/Thundercats (2011)

99. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes

98. Mad Jack the Pirate

97. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

96. King of the Hill

95. Beetlejuice

94. Kablam

93. The Smurfs

92. The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

91. Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc

90. Rugrats

89. Doug

88. X-Men

87. Static Shock

86. Aqua Teen Hunger Force

85. Cow and Chicken

84. Moral Orel

83. Filmore

82. X-Men: Evolution

81. The Angry Beavers

80. Space Ghost Coast to Coast

79. Home Movies

78. Kim Possible

77. Pirates of Dark Water

76. Sym-Bionic Titan

75. Peter Pan and the Pirates

74. 2 Stupid Dogs

73. Beast Wars

72. The Tick

71. Batman: the Brave and the Bold

70. Muppet Babies

69. Johnny Bravo

68. Teen Titans

67. The Alvin Show/Alvin and the Chipmunks

66. Mighty Max

65. Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures

64. Courage the Cowardly Dog

63. Roger Ramjet

62. The Critic

61. Goof Troop

60. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo

59. Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers

58. Batman Beyond

57. Aaahh!!! Real Monsters

56. Recess

55. Liquid Television/What-a-Cartoon Show/Oh Yeah Cartoons

54. Bobby’s World

53. The Fairly Oddparents

52. Aladdin: the Series

51. Daria

50. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

49. TaleSpin

48. Spectacular Spider-Man

47. Hey Arnold!

46. Aeon Flux

45. Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat

44. Tiny Toon Adventures

43. Futurama

42. Underdog

41. Freakazoid

We’re almost there, so let’s quit the lollygagging.

40. Superman: The Animate Series: Four years after revolutionizing Batman, Bruce Timm and crew would apply the same magic to Superman.  Superman: the Animated Series did everything it needed to do with the character and more.  At a time in the comics where Superman was dead, alive, electric, red, blue, and had a mullet, the animated series kept it simple.  It was bright, optimistic, dynamic, and constantly looking ahead, reflecting the central character.  The supporting cast as well represented and could easily hold their own opposite the Man of Steel, especially Lois Lane who’s portrayal here was the best portrayal of the character outside the comic. The show had a booming orchestral score to rival the live-action movie and the acting was strong, passionate, and every actor gave their A-game.  This was one of my first exposures to Superman and the one that continues to hold up today.

39. Invader Zim: Possibly the darkest Nicktoon ever.  From the twisted mind of Jhonen Vasquez came Invader Zim, a series about a power man and painfully inept alien named Zim, whose mission is seemingly to conquer the Earth, when in actuality his superiors just sent him there to get him out of the way.  Zim was mind-blowingly dark and hilarious.  And when I say dark, I mean dark, one of the more memorable episodes had Zim harvesting organs from his classmates and replacing them with “stuff” in an attempt to look normal.  The characters were so dynamic and hilarious absurd, you could quote them endlessly.  Also the little emphasis they put on certain words like “horrible” and “filth” were genius.  The show has rightfully gained a huge cult following and the way it handled dark comedy was the stuff of brilliance.  In fact, if I had to sum up what made this series so good in one word it would be this: GIR.

38. The Adventures of the Gummi Bears: Adventures of the Gummi Bears was the first in a string of animated hits that would make up The Disney Afternoon.  Inspired by the candy of the same name, Gummi Bears was set in medieval times and centered around a group of mystical anthropomorphic bears called Gummi Bears.  These Gummis were some of the last of their race and lived in secret of humans and were only known by a select few: their young friends Cavin and Princess Calla, and their arch enemy Duke Igthorn, who wanted the secret of their GummiBerry Juice which gave the Gummis the ability to bounce like rubber and gave super strength to any human who drank it.  This show would go on to set the trend for future Disney shows to follow.  It presented a unique setting, interesting characters, great character design, top-notch voice cast, and solid animation.  Gummi Bears helped to revitalized television animation and remains a timeless animation classic.  Plus, it gets props for reuniting June Foray and Bill Scott (aka Rocky and Bullwinkle), as Grammy Gummi and Gruffi Gummi respectively.

37. The Schnookums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show: After Eek the Cat, Bill Kopp went on to create a number of great and off-beat shows that sadly never became as big, and the funniest of those funny cartoon shows was The Schoonukums and Meat Funny Cartoon Show.  Schnookums and Meat was Disney’s attempt to capitalize on the success of Ren and Stimpy, but sadly was cancelled too early, before it could gain the same audience numbers.  The show was divided into three segments: Schnookums and Meat, about a cat and dog duo with a style reminiscent of golden age Tom and Jerry; Pith Possum, about a Batman-style hero and his sidekick Obadiah, who’s look was invocative of what was done on Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures ; and Tex Tinstar, a parody of western serials, with looked like a better animated Jay Ward cartoon.  Though different, the three cartoons shared truly excellent animation, with each having their own unique look and style to them.  In addition, the humor was top-notch and relied on visual gags even more than dialogue, which is always a plus in my book.  It’s sad it never built a strong enough following, because this show was an absolute gem.  Plus the pasta it inspired was awesome.

36. The Jetsons: The polar opposite of The Flintstones, The Jetsons took the same premise, a typical American family, but this time set it in the future rather than the past.  The show was basically Blondie and Dagwood in the far future (in fact Penny Singleton(Jane Jetson) played Blondie in film and radio), except much more entertaining and creative.  In contrast to Fred Flintstone’s bombastic and oafish personality, George Jetson was bumbling, laid-back, natured and somewhat hapless, a great central character.  The show took full advantage of its setting and was constantly coming up with new and inventive futuristic gadgets.  The animation was solid enough but the writing was where the show excelled.  Like most old cartoons, this show saw a brief revival in the 80’s, but aside from a brighter color scheme and a new character called Orbity, the show wasn’t that much different from the original, keeping the original cast and the same quality storytelling, and as a kid I couldn’t tell the difference.

35. Garfield and Friends: Under the guidance of Mark Evanier, Garfield and Friends brought everything great about the comic strip and added to it.  Garfield and Friends worked so well because Mark understood what Garfield was at its core and never strayed from it.  Plus Lorenzo Music as Garfield was absolute perfect casting.  His mellow and smart allecky tone was a perfect fit for the character.  There was also another show in the mix called U.S. Acres, about a group of animal characters running a farm that was equally as good.  The characters were strong, the designs were great, and the writing was snappy and funny.  Garfield and Friends still remains much more enduring and entertaining than its source material.

34. Duckman: Created by Everett Peck and produced by Klasky Csupo, yes the same people who made Rugrats, Duckman was about the crass, foul-mouth, pornography-obsessed, abrasive, greedy character of Duckman, private dick and family man.  Duckman was certainly the most adult thing to come out of Klasky Csupo.  It’s jokes were more risqué, it’s visual style was very gritty and non-conformist, and it’s characters were more complex and morally gray.  Duckman on its surface looked like another raunchy late-night cartoon, but the show had real heart to it, and the characters, despite being loud and crude, had real vulnerability to them, making them much more relatable.  Duckman had great animation and real layers to it, just a great show all around.

33. Ed, Edd, n Eddy: Coming out of Cartoon Network’s big creator driven animation period of the 90’s, Ed, Edd, n Eddy stood out among the rest with its striking visuals and extremely non-conservative animation.  Ed, Edd, n Eddy stared three boys, all having the roughly the same name, and their various money making schemes.  The core of the show was the dynamic of the three main characters: Eddy was the fast-talking and money-grubbing leader; Edd (or Double D as he’s known) was the whimpy and OCD brainy one; and Ed was the blissfully dim-witted and sci-fi and horror movie obsessed lug.  The trio were distinct, unique, and their personalities were consistent made for great storytelling.  The animation was the high point of the show.  It was fast, fluid, and seemed to be always changing, always re-inventing itself with each new episode.  That can be attributed to the style of creator Danny Antonucci.    It was one of the longest lasting shows on Cartoon Network and never lost what made it good along the way.

32. Bonkers: Of all the shows on the Disney Afternoon, Bonkers was the most underrated.  Originally conceived as an Roger Rabbit series, the new character Bonkers D. Bobcat was used instead.  Bonkers, a former cartoon star turned beat cop was paired with human, Detective Lucky Piquel as they patrolled the streets of Hollywood and tackled toon-related crimes.  It’s easy to see the Roger Rabbit influence in the show, but it may be a little jarring seeing as how the show was fully animated rather than being a live-action/animation mix.  Still, the show worked well.  Bonkers and Lucky were great characters and their classic comedy double act worked well here.  The show was just zany fun and all the toon characters they came up with were inventive and cool to watch.  To date, this show as yet to come out on DVD and that’s a damn shame because this show deserved a wider audience.

31. Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinx: Tom and Jerry may be seen as the definitive cat-and-mouse cartoon, but I would rank Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinx as it’s equal.  Sure the animation wasn’t as great and violence was toned down, but it’s characters had a lot more personality, plus they talked.  Pixie and Dixie were very innocent and wittier and they made perfect counterpoints to Mr. Jinx, ho, while a jerk, was much more dim-witted and hapless.  As with all of Hanna Barbera’s cartoons, Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinx traded in lavish animation for snappy and character specific dialogue.  It’s not the most original premise, but it had a winning approach to it.  I loved those meeces to peeces.  And Mr. Jinx too.

30. Beany and Cecil/The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil: After leaving Warner Bros, legendary animator Bob Clampett went on to create two new characters for television.  Originating as a puppet show called Time for Beany, Beany and Cecil made the jump into animation in 1962.  The show, about a young, bright-eyed, toe-headed buy named Beany and his best friend Cecil, a sea serpent who’s only visible parts are his head and neck, proved to be a major success in both venues.  The show had Clampett’s trademark brand of exaggerated and insane situations and humor and the characters were simplistic, but very likeable.  In 1988, the show was revived as The New Adventures of Beany and Cecil, spearheaded by John Krisfaluci, fresh off Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures.  While the show wasn’t as successful, it kept the spirit of the original alive, had great staging and animation, and proved to be even stranger than its predecessor.

29. Scooby-Doo: Where Are You: Scooby-Doo has been one of the most enduring characters in animation history.  He’s had more shows under his belt than any other character not originating in the golden age.  The New Scooby Doo Movies, Scooby-Doo/DynoMutt Hour, Scooby’s All Star Laff-a-Lympics, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show, Scooby-Doo/Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour, The All New Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show, 13 Ghost of Scooby-Doo, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, What’s New Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue, Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated, not to mention a crap load of movies including four live-action ones and a string of imitators such as Clue Club and Jabberjaw!  But for the absolute best, we have to go back to the one that started it all…Scooby-Doo: Where are You.  The show was about a group of four teens and their talking dog, Scooby-Doo (although the fact the he could talk was never brought to attention),  as they solve various mysteries in their town and flee from ghost and monsters, who always end up being a regular person in a costume.  The stories may seem tired by today’s standards, but back then it was fresh and new.  Scooby-Doo: Where are You was definitely the most grounded of the series, feeling more like an actual mystery.  The characters are worked and made up a solid and interesting group that we could follow from show to show.  The show was also a lot more darker than it’s successors, with villains that actually seemed threatening and scary.  The various other shows in the franchise have ranged from creative and entertaining, to mediocre and repetitive, but this is another case of the original being the best.

28. South Park: What once started as a crudely animated 30 minute fart joke, has grown into an award winning, social commentating, crudely animated, 30 minute fart joke.  South Park originated as the short film, The Spirit of Christmas, and became an animated series in 1997.  South Park was famous for its extremely low-budget animation and infamous for its foul mouth and very crude and adult humor, juxtaposed by the fact that the main characters were four young boys.  As the series progressed, the show began to tackle current events and turned into one of the most looked to and quoted pieces of satirical media.  The show is absolutely ruthless in it’s approach, going after everything and everyone typically without bias.  Even when it’s not tackling what’s going on the news, the show has enough funny and interesting characters to build stories off for a long time to come.  It’s rare to see a show evolve in its approach only to get better and better.  There’s a reason why it’s Comedy Central’s number one show.

27. Jonny Quest: This was the shot in the arm Hanna Barbera needed.  So used to making kid-friendly cartoons, Jonny Quest burst onto the scene as an intense and engaging action cartoon.  The title character, Jonny Quest, was a young adventurer traveling the world with his super scientist father Dr. Benton Quest, bodyguard Race Bannon, adoptive brother and best friend Hadji, and pet dog Bandit.  Jonny Quest was ass-kickingly action packed and filled with all that glorious un-politically correct subject matter missing from today’s entertainment.  The show had the look and feel of a comic book and made up for its limited animation with a gorgeous visual style.  It had everything you need in an action cartoon, strong characters, crazy and creative situations, real peril, high stakes, stereotypical minorities, it was amazing.  The show saw a revival in the 80’s and again in the 90’s as The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, but none could really match the brilliance of the original.  Truly a show of it’s time.

26. Gargoyles: Disney’s answer to Batman: The Animated Series.  Created by Greg Wiseman, Gargoyles was unlike anything Disney had ever done,l and still has yet to do.  The show was about a race of beings known as Gargoyles, once plentiful in numbers, now rendered almost extinct thanks to human betrayl.  A group of six became frozen in stone by a magical spell and are reawakened a thousand years later in Manhattan by a billionaire named David Xanatos.  The six, under their leader Goliath, resolve to protect their new home from everything from organized crime, mystical creatures, mad scientists, and even other Gargoyles.  I’ve talked at length about it before, but this show was way ahead of its time.  Unlike the other Disney cartoons it was serious, the storylines were expansive and complex, the characters were constantly evolving, the way it drew upon folklore, mythology, and Shakespeare for inspiration was masterful.  Gargoyles could deliver morals but do it in a subtle and entertaining way.  It tackled things like illiteracy, gun violence, and even racism, all while being a kick-ass action show.  Like most of Wiseman’s works, it was cancelled well before its time, it was a show that held so much potential and wasn’t afraid to take risks.  Gargoyles was a masterpiece.

25. Foster’s Home for Imaginary Friends: Craig McCracken’s beautifully animated show about a foster home where kids send their imaginary friends after they’ve outgrown them to be adopted by other children was probably the best thing ever done in Flash animation.  This show was the embodiment of joy.  Insanely creative, Foster’s had some of the best character designs ever, really drawing upon the creative minds of children to create the imaginary friends.  The show was rounded out by a great cast of core characters who were very well fleshed out and had real depth to them, especially the lead characters of Mac and his imaginary friend, the outspoken, selfish, manipulating, but otherwise friendly Bloo.  The voice acting was amazing, the writing and stories were hilarious and filled with all the great pop-culture jabs everyone loves.  But the best thing about the series was the look.  The color pallet was gorgeous and vibrant and the staging was truly cinematic.  It was creative, it was visually mind-blowing, it was funny, and it was fun.  You didn’t have to be a kid to see the brilliance in this cartoon.

24. Justice League/Justice League Unlimited: Superfriends used to eb the most well known portrayal of the Justice League of America in the mainstream media, but in 2001, Bruce Timm and crew would once again work their magic with the DC heroes and give us Justice League.  Taking some inspiration from various interpretations of the League in the comics, most notably the Grant Morrison run, Justice League assembled seven of the most recognizable DC heroes and pitted them against the greatest threats known to man.  This series continued the continuity established in the previous Batman and Superman cartoons and brought attention to various other DC heroes like Wonder Woman, Martian Manhunter, and Green Lantern John Stewart.  Each episode was about an hour long and typically split up into two parts, making each episode feel like its own mini-movie.  The characters were all engaging and had real life to them, the various ways the characters would interact with each other, as well as their conflicting styles and ways of operating made the stories that much more gripping to watch. In 2004 the show was relaunched as Justice League Unlimited and featured a greatly expanded cast of heroes and villains, and more stand-alone but still interconnected stories.  JLU proved to be even better than Justice League and the second season story-arc alone rivals anything that had ever been done in the comics and was some of the best writing on television.  Justice League and JLU was the exact thing comic book fans had been waiting for, a smart, serious, and fun animated portrayal of the greatest super team of all time.

23. The Flintstones: A true hallmark of Hanna Barbera, and animation as a whole.  The Flinstones, essentially The Honeymooners in a stone-age setting, was revolutionary as being the first prime-time animated TV show.  Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera wanted to re-capture the adult audience they once had and this was the perfect show for it.  The show was written not like a traditional cartoon, but like sitcoms of the time.  The characters dealt with more down to Earth issues played off this pre-historic backdrop with dinosaurs and saber-toothed tigers and stuff.  The show had some truly larger than life characters, especially Fred and Barney who would go on to outlive the show itself.  At it’s time, The Flintstones was the first cartoon in a long time to have a firm grasp on both younger and older audiences, and being the first animated sitcom it would go on to pave the way for shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy.  It was groundbreaking – or stonebreaking, HAHAHA!  See what I did there, that’s called comedy – for its time, and still holds up today.  The Flintstones is a classic.

22. Quick Draw McGraw: Hanna Barbera’s animated send up of the western genre was a great one.  One of the earliest Hanna Barbera TV cartoons, Quick Draw McGraw was about a good-hearted, semi-competent, but mostly dim-witted anthropomorphic horse sheriff named Quick Draw and his much smarter but laid-back donkey sidekick Baba Looey.  The show one of the original HB stable of toons of the 50’s, long before the quality of their shorts began to drop, so the formula was both fresh and engaging.  Quick Draw, as well as his alter-ego El-Kabong, was a great character.  He wasn’t as passive as Huckleberry Hound or as slick as Yogi Bear, but more a bit-more of a blow hart, which is always fun to watch.  He was always in it to do the right thing, but was just kind of a stubborn moron.  Baba Looey was cool, collected, and the wiser of the duo, so of course he was always ignored.  The show was funny and featured that good, but underrated HB animation.

21. The Powerpuff Girls: Craig McCracken’s breakout show about three super powered little girls still in kindergarten started out life as a short film called The Whoop-Ass Girls, but was toned down and real tooled for Cartoon Network.  The show was one of the absolute best of the creator driven cartoons of the 90’s.  The look was very much of the Hanna Barbera style, but the animation was far better.  The color style of the show was absolutely amazing and could tell a story better than dialogue could.  Not to say the dialogue was bad, far from it, the show was witty as hell and could parody the superhero genre and yet still be a great entry in its own right.  Everything from American comics, to anime, to action movies, was a big influence on this show and the characters very appealing, made all the more better by the top-notch voice acting, Cathy Cavadini, Tara Strong, and E.G. Daily all did amazing jobs as Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup respectively and they played off each other so well.  Powerpuff Girls had the kind of crazy fun missing from superheroes today and still remains a must see for any animation fan.

Well, next week will be the big one, the grand finale of this insane list, the top 20 greatest animated series of all time, including the number 1.  I’ve saved the best for last so get ready to have your feeble minds BLOWN!

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ME BEING PRETENTIOUS AND ARBITRARILY RANKING A BUNCH OF TV CARTOONS

or

THE 100 GREATEST ANIMATED SERIES OF ALL TIME

PART 3

Greetings Toonsters!  Are you ready for round 3 of the list?  Of course you’re not, you feeble minds aren’t ready to be blown, but they will be anyway.  First though, since I neglected to do this last time, a recap of the list so far…

100. YoungJustice/Thundercats (2011)

99. Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes

98. Mad Jack the Pirate

97. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog

96. King of the Hill

95. Beetlejuice

94. Kablam

93. The Smurfs

92. The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy

91. Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc

90. Rugrats

89. Doug

88. X-Men

87. Static Shock

86. Aqua Teen Hunger Force

85. Cow and Chicken

84. Moral Orel

83. Filmore

82. X-Men: Evolution

81. The Angry Beavers

80. Space Ghost Coast to Coast

79. Home Movies

78. Kim Possible

77. Pirates of Dark Water

76. Sym-Bionic Titan

75. Peter Pan and the Pirates

74. 2 Stupid Dogs

73. Beast Wars

72. The Tick

71. Batman: the Brave and the Bold

70. Muppet Babies

69. Johnny Bravo

68. Teen Titans

67. The Alvin Show/Alvin and the Chipmunks

66. Mighty Max

65. Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures

64. Courage the Cowardly Dog

63. Roger Ramjet

62. The Critic

61. Goof Troop

And now, on with the show…

60. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo: The big trend in animation in the 80’s and early 90’s was taking beloved cartoon characters and turning them into kids to appeal to a younger audience.  Muppet Babies, Flintstones Kids, Tom and Jerry Kids, Yo Yogi, etc.  They were all of varying quality, but the unquestioned best of the bunch was A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.  Scooby had a long string of cartoon adaptations prior to this, but this was the most different from them all.  The series still stared Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby, and they still solved mysteries and busted guys dressed like monsters, only this time as kids.  But what really made this show so memorable was that it was equal parts continuation and parody.  The show was very self-aware and frequently made fun of the common tropes of the series, from the chase scenes (now complete with dance sequences), to the “meddling kids” line, to Velma saying “Jinkies” every time she finds a clue.  While Shaggy and Scooby remained the same, the others had their personalities altered.  Freddie is still the leader, but is a outspoken dim-wit who believes aliens, vampires, bigfoots, etc are always behind the case of day.  Daphne, playing into the fact that her family was rich,  was now more snobbish, sarcastic, and skeptical, with her catchphrase being “Please, there are no such things as ghosts/monsters”.  Finally Velma, still the brains of the group, was now more quiet, only really talking when a clue had been found.  A new character, a bully named Red Herring, was added to the cast, who Freddie always accused (incorrectly except in one case) of being the monster.  The show was hilarious and still holds up to this day.  The most entertaining incarnation of Scooby-Doo to date.

59. Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers: A staple of the Disney Afternoon, Chip ‘n Dale: Rescue Rangers took the classic Disney chipmunks, put them in a fedora and bombers jacket and Hawaiian shirt respectively, and turned them into detectives.  They were teamed with new characters Gadget; a female mouse who was a mechanical wizard, Monterey Jack; a burly adventurous mouse with a cheese addiction, and Zipper; a brave and fast little green fly.  Together they solved any crime that went down in the animal world and frequently battled the likes of feline mob boss Fat Cat, and mad scientist Professor Nimnul, their only human enemy.  Rescue Rangers was a lot of fun to watch.  The characters had a great dynamic, especially Chip and Dale, who bickered about practically everything.  The voice acting was also a high point in the show, featuring Tress MacNeille, Jim Cummings, Corey Burton, and Peter Cullen as regulars.  You can’t go wrong with that combination.  Rescue Rangers creative, playful, goofy, and was the best thing they did with Chip and Dale since, well ever.  Plus, it had one of the best theme songs in television history.

58. Batman Beyond: Theoretically, Batman Beyond should not have worked.  A teenage Batman in the future with a techno/rock soundtrack, craziness, but surprise surprise, it not only just worked, but was a brilliant incarnation in it’s own right.  Taking place in a future Gotham improved aesthetically by technological advancements, but still plagued with crime and corruption, Bruce Wayne, now elderly and long past his prime, has passed the mantle of Batman down to former delinquent seeking redemption Terry McGuiness, who in a similar fashion to Bruce, lost his father to criminals.  Batman Beyond took everything that made the previous animated series so good and adapted it here.  Terry was a very deep and fleshed out character, who had his own set of ethics, his own outlook on life, and his own supporting cast.  He was  very different Batman than the one we were used to and the fact that he had the older Bruce Wayne serving as a mentor/father figure made the transition more easier.  The show also succeeded in creating a great rogues gallery for Batman, making them multi-layered and somewhat sympathetic rather than stereotypically evil.  The show didn’t exactly have the same art-deco type design as the pervious one, but a lot the same elements carried over and mixed with elements of Japanese anime and futuristic movies like Blade Runner.  The stories were multi-layered, dark, and didn’t fall into the trap of focusing on stereotypical teen problems.  I could go on and on about this show, but I’ll conclude with saying Batman Beyond is a worthy addition into the Batman mythos.

57. Aaahh!!! Real Monsters: Aaahh!!! Real Monsters did what Monsters Inc would get famous for doing four years after the show was canceled, introducing us to the day to day lives of under-the-bed type monsters.  Created by Gabor Csupo of Klasky Csupo (the same people behind Rugrats), Real Monsters starred three young monsters named Ickis, Krumm, and Oblina who are studying in the Monster Academy, learning to become great monsters.  This was a really creative cartoon.  It succeeded in creating an entertaining universe that these monsters lived in and the rules that applied to them.  Things that were sweet and cute were like poison to them, while ugliness and rot and filth were their normal.  Their assignments were scaring humans and their most common method of transportation was through toilets.  The animation was also top notch, with great use of squash and stretch, especially during the scaring sequences.  It was a great black comedy series with memorable characters and voice acting.  Pixar did it good, but Aaahh!!! Real Monsters did it the best.

56. Recess: Recess was so simply brilliant it was a wonder no one did it before.  It was an entire cartoon set during recess.  The main characters we a diverse group of kids in the fictional 3^rd Street Middle School: TJ; the leader of the group and master schemer and prankster, Vince; the athletic kid, Spinelli; the tough kid, Mikey; the chubby poetic kid, Gretchen; the brainy kid, and Gus; the whimpy new kid.  They were stock types, yes, but entertaining stock types.  The real highlight of the show was the supporting characters who were all basically hyperboles of familiar personalities on school playgrounds like Randall; the tattle-tale, the Ashleys; four snobby rich and popular girls with the same name, Kind Bob; the king of the playground, and the tribal Kindergartners.  There were even characters defined by their niche like Swinger Girl, Guru Kid, and Hustler Kid.  It took all the everyday little things that happen in school and exaggerated them into world shattering issues.  This was one of the last good Saturday morning shows.

55. Liquid Television/What-a-Cartoon/Oh Yeah! Cartoons: Same type of show, three different networks, number 55 for the same reason.  All three were compilation shows, showcasing works from many different animators.  Liquid Television aired on MTV from 1991 through 1994, What-a-Cartoon Show aired on Cartoon Network from 1995 to 2001, and Oh Yeah! Cartoons aired from 1998 through 2001.  It might be strange to add compilation shows to this list, seeing as how they’re hard to judge, but I had to add them due to their importance.  Fact is, these shows are the breeding ground for new talent show what they got and potentially become the future superstars of the animation world.  These three shows combined featured the starts of guys who would go on to revolutionize the animation world and produce most of the shows on this list.  Gendy Tartakovsky, Peter Cheung, Craig McCracken, Mike Judge, Danny Antonucci, Butch Hartman, John R. Dilworth, Rob Renzetti, the list goes on.  It’s a damn shame there aren’t any shows like that on TV anymore, because if the animation world is going to thrive, it needs more imaginative, talented, ballsy creators like these guys, and these shows were the best ways to find them.

54. Bobby’s World: From the mind of comedian Howie Mandel came Bobby’s World, a cartoon series about everyday life told from the perspective of the over-imaginative 4-year-old Bobby Generic, voiced by Mandel himself who also voiced Bobby’s father, Howard.  The show was based around Mandel’s stand-up routines and the writers of the show drew upon their own childhood experiences for story and character inspirations.  Being a little kid during the entire run of the show it was easy to relate to situations Bobby went thrugh and the imagination scenes was always cool.  The show had a great mix of familiar characters and realistic storylines, but not too realistic.  Also, the character designs were done by Mitch Schauer, who would go on to create show number 81 on this list, The Angry Beavers.

53. The Fairly Oddparents: Fairly Oddparents spun-off of a couple of shorts from Oh Yeah! Cartoons and was centered around 10-year-old Timmy Turner and his two fairy godparents, Cosmo and Wanda.  A show where a kid can wish for anything he wants is a hard concept to base a show around, but Fairly Oddparents has been going on strong for over 10 years now.  The show’s animation is fluid and dynamic and the writing is very clever, with great character bits, snappy dialogue, and jabs at pop culture.  Fairly Oddparents continued the legacy of strong Nicktoons and it’s success has allowed creator Butch Hartman to develop two other shows for Nickelodeon, Danny Phantom and TUFF Puppy.  But neither have really reached the heights that Fairly Oddparents has, but that’s a really high bar to pass.

52. Aladdin: the Series: Rarely has the show been better than the movie, but here’s one of those cases.  Aladdin: the Series picks up right where the second movie, Return of Jafar, left off and continues the saga, (yes, I feel secure in calling it a saga), of Aladdin, Jasmine, Abu, Iago, and the Genie.  The style is the same as in the films, but the animation isn’t as strong, though it’s understandable seeing as how this is a 30 minute regular series.  All the original cast members return except, of course, for Robin Williams as Genie, whom they replaced with Dan “Homer Simpson” Castellanetta.  Aladdin’s transition from big to small screen couldn’t have gone better.  All the humor and action that made the movie so good was done better here and they even gave Aladdin a wide and colorful rogues gallery.  It was a show that was way better than it should have been.  Great cast, great adventure, one of Disney’s best.

51. Daria: Daria began life as a minor character in Mike Judge’s Beavis and Butt-Head who, right before the series cancellation, got her own series.  Daria Morgendorffer is a cynical, intelligent, and underwhelmed high school teenager who uses sarcasm and general apathy to deal with the craziness and stupidity that plagues her everyday life.  While having some of the worst and laziest animation I’ve ever seen, the show excels solely due to its writing and characters which are both phenomenal.  The dialogue was fast, scathing, and hilarious.  The show had some of the best cast of characters I’ve ever seen.  They were basically all the same people you know in real life exaggerated to the max but never one note.  Daria was a smart show with a message to get out and it got its point across every episode.

50. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Anyone who knows me isn’t surprised this is on the list, though they may be surprised it’s not higher.  I had to knock it down for the cheap 80’s animation.  Still, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the stand-out show of its era.  The series, based off the comics by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird about a quartet of turtles (Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo), mutated by radioactive ooze and trained in the art of ninjutsu by their rat sensei Master Splinter, took it’s own approach to the action cartoon genre.  When other shows like G.I. Joe and Transformers took themselves seriously, TMNT had fun with itself.  The Turtles were laid back, made jokes, and even broke the fourth wall on more than one occasion, and that worked to show’s benefit seeing as how at the time the most violent you could get away with showing was one character tickling another, TMNT, unlike others, had its witty humor to fall back on.  Rather than a huge cast of interchangeable characters, the four Turtles were core of the show and diverse enough in personality that everyone had their own favorite.  Plus, the soundtrack to the show was killer, and it’s theme song will be forever ingrained in the minds of every kid who grew up in the late 80’s and early 90’s.  The turtles have had a couple more animated outings since then with another on the way, but none have yet to capture the charm and heart of this one.  Turtle Power will never die.

49. TaleSpin: TaleSpin was the first original show for the Disney Afternoon.  Taking the characters from the Jungle Book and recasting them in an adventure series set in the 1930’s.  Baloo the Bear was now an ace pilot working for the Higher for Hire cargo delivery company.  Shere Khan and King Louie were the only other two characters from the original book to be used, the series had it’s own cast of original characters, most notably air pirate Don Carnage.  The show felt like one of those old timey adventure serials, complete with exotic locals, thrilling danger, and stereotyped minorities (though they used animals instead of people, so it’s ok).  It had great characters, great voice acting, and the animation was solid.  The art style had real feeling to it, from the rustic seaside city of Cape Suzette to the exotic locals the show ventured to, the art was simply beautiful.  TaleSpin was just all around great, shame it never got a movie.

48. Spectacular Spider-Man: Marvel’s best cartoon ever.  Ever.  Simple as that.  Not a single cartoon they ever put out before was better than Spectacular Spider-Man.  Instead of following the movie, or sticking painfully close to the comics, the show, chronicling the early super heroics of Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man, took its inspiration from the early Stan Lee and Steve Ditko Spider-Man stories and created a fun, dramatic, and engaging series that captured everything great about Spider-Man.  The title character himself was sympathetic, funny, relatable, and heroic, all the things missing from Tobey McGuire’s Spidey.  He was surrounded by great supporting characters and a truly menacing rogues gallery.  The animation was fast, fluid, and breathtaking in some moments.  Spectacular Spider-Man ended way too soon, long before it reached its peak.  The next Spider-Man cartoon has a lot to live up to.

47. Hey Arnold!: Hey Arnold was similar to shows like Doug and Recess, except it felt like more of what those shows should have been.  Hey Arnold centered around the life of 9-year-old Arnold, a boy with and active imagination, wisdom beyond his years and a football-shaped head who lived in New York City.   Hey Arnold’s urban setting is what made this show so cool.  It’s supporting cast was diverse and eccentric, very fitting of New York, with their own unique voices and personalities.  The early episodes of the series were very stylized, complete with colored penciled backgrounds, and were focused solely on Arnold and his trippy day-dream sequences.  In later episodes of the show the animation became more on model and the day-dream sequences were done away with as the supporting characters began carrying their own episodes.  Thankfully the stories remained solid.  Hey Arnold was entertaining, clever, and never pandering.

46. Aeon Flux: Aeon Flux was created by Peter Cheung, who, after coming off Rugrats, wanted to push the limit of what could be done in television animation, and man did he succeed.  The sci-fi series was about master assassin Aeon Flux working to bring down the technologically advanced yet dystopian country of Bregna led by Trevor Goodchild.  The series is famous for its avant-garde visual style and animation, drawing inspiration from Asian and European art.  The way the series played with perspective, color, and character construction were like nothing else on TV at the time, or anything on TV now.  The series also had a very non-linear story structure with continuity rarely ever coming into play.  As a result, it was a very easy show to get into, each episode feeling like its own little production.  Aeon Flux was a show way ahead of its time, yet it fit perfectly with the alternative and innovative mindset of the 90’s animation world.

45. Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat: Until recently I had forgotten this show existed, and I’m glad I found it because it was really cool.  The show is a somewhat modern take on the classic cartoon character of the 20’s created by Otto Messmer and Patrick Sullivan.  Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat took a page out the Fleischer bros. book and substituted snappy dialogue and strong story structure for great, off-the-wall, cartoony animation, and it was great.  It was a pure, unabashed cartoon, not trying to be anything more.  The visual gags, the timing, the squash and stretch, it all worked perfectly.  It felt exactly like a cartoon of the golden era, and this was in 1995.  This show didn’t know the meaning of the word “on-model”.  Maybe that’s why it isn’t so well remembered, but it doesn’t make it any less awesome.  Find it if you can if you’re an animation fan.

44. Tiny Toon Adventures: While so many classic characters were being aged down, Tiny Toon Adventures took a different approach.  Rather than turn the Looney Tunes into kids, we instead got whole new characters, inspired by the classic characters, who were now their teachers at Acme Looniversity, as school where young toons learn to be next cartoon superstars.  The stars were the cool, wisecracking, and unpredictable Buster and Babs Bunny (no relation), the greedy and egotistical Plucky Duck, and his frequent sidekick, the soft-spoken and gluttonous Hampton Pig.  The show had a wide cast of characters each representing as different Looney Tune.  The show helped revive interest in classic cartoony animation, but it always did it with a slight wink to the audience.  The show was mostly made up of multiple shorts with the characters, mainly Buster and Babs, talking directly to the audience inbetween.  The writing was great and found humorous ways to get morals across to children, so we barely noticed it.  The music was also phenomenal, thanks to a number of different composers, including Richard Stone, would go on to use his talents on other Warner Bros cartoons.  Tiny Toons was the first in a long line of animation classics.

43. Futurama: Created by Matt Groeining and David X. Cohen, Futurama is consistently well written but sadly nowhere as popular as its “older brother” The Simpsons.  Philip J. Fry, a dim-witted pizza delivery boy in 1999 New York get’s accidentally frozen on New Years Eve and wakes up in the year 3000.  He then joins the Planet Express delivery crew alongside new friends Leela, a level-headed and bossy female cyclops, and Bender a foul-mouth and hard drinking robot, thus the premise for the show.  Futurama offers us a more realistic version of the future, giving us all the fantastic stuff we’ve always wanted like flying cars and spaceships, yet showing we’re still plagued with the same problems like crime, corruption and general debauchery.  Futurama’s writing has remained consistently hilarious and at times heartfelt over six seasons.  The show indulges in various jabs and homage’s of sci-fi movies, serials, and TV shows of the past and feels very much like a spiritual successor to them, a very sarcastic and raunchy successor but a successor nonetheless.  The show aired on Fox but was cancelled after four seasons, but a strong fanbase kept it alive to the point where the series was renewed on Comedy Central, and unlike another resurrected Fox show, Futurama came back just as strong as ever.

42. Underdog: “There’s no need to fear, Underdog is here”!  Those words were heard every episode of this Superman-inspired cartoon series.  Mild mannered Shoeshine Boy would spring into action every time Sweet Polly Purebred was in trouble by popping his Super Energy Pill (another pill popping hero), to become the mighty Underdog.  Just like Roger Ramjet, Underdog made up for it’s limited animation with strong character designs and fun writing.  Each episode was divided into parts, which made the series very suspenseful for kids.  The dialogue was fine, and the fact that Underdog always talked in rhyme never got old.  While his rogues gallery was limited to only two recurring villains, it was fine for the show.  It remained fun and energetic.  A movie was made in 2006 but the less said about that the better.  Just watch the cartoon.

41. Freakazoid: Another in a string of great Warner Bros cartoons, Freakazoid was a parody of the super hero genre, but offered much more than that.  The plot of the show was summed up in the theme song; Nerdy Dexter Douglas gets sucked into the internet, gains superpowers and turns into Freakazoid, a super strong, super fast, and super insane blue-skin, red long-john wearing hero.  Freakazoid, for a kids cartoon, was very hilarious.  The writing was both goof and intelligent, and you can tell it was a fun show to work on.  The characters were just all just as absurd as the show itself and didn’t so much balance out Freakazoid, as they did give him something to bounce off of.  As superheroes became more serious, it was nice to see the seriousness get thrown back in their face in such a loving way.  It was wonderfully cartoony and high energy and continues to hold-up for younger and older audiences.

Come back later for the next 20, when we, and by “we” I mean I, talk about superheroes, bouncing bears, and undersea sponges.