As I said I would do in one of my Usagi Yojimbo reading posts, I have now gotten to do a let's watch thread of the 1987 to 1996 animated series by, what is known today as, Fred Wolf Films that coined taglines like Turtle Power and Heroes in a Half-Shell: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! In memory of Peter Renaday, who voiced Hamato Yoshi and Splinter as one character as well as many other characters in the show, and sadly passed away some time ago this year.
From what I gathered here and there, a good chunk of TMNT fans are more familiar with the 2012 series at most when it comes to writing fanfiction about it, but, while I do find that series a nice watch, as a fan who grew up with the 2003 series, I get kind of annoyed that some people seem to place the former on such a high pedestal despite it having some obvious flaws of its own.
I also believe that it never hurts to look into more than one specific continuity, which led me to the other shows (yes, even Next Mutation), movies, and comics, and I was more than happy to watch through the very first animated series from the first episode to the last on DVD.
Speaking of, I do feel the inspiration to make let's read/watch threads of Mirage, Archie, 2003, and maybe IDW TMNT as well, but I'll save the other animated series until I'm done with this one, and I'll wait until there are more collected volumes/compendiums for the comic before I get into them as well.
You see, I just love being a Turtle fan!
Now, be on your guard, because, as Raphael would say, I feel a flashback coming on!
The premiere begins with a bird's eye view of New York City at night before showing a gang of six punks, including an African American with shades and a purple mohawk (of completely no relevance in the grand scheme of things), tearing a red car apart in the blink of an eye, followed by some younger graffiti artists doing their work in front of a bystander and his newspaper, while the following "Happy Hour News" report by April O'Neil is airing on television, covering three different robberies on three scientific equipment companies.
While one businessman doesn't really offer much input on what some miscellaneous gadgets can do individually or combined (I guess I can't blame him, though, since I'm not really the brilliant scientist I thought I'd become as an adult), April's investigation alongside some professor (who doesn't bother to untie a certain gagged security guard anymore than April herself does) reveals that the perpetrators behind these high-tech robberies are ninjas (simply because the rope has a "made in Japan" tag).
April and a camera crew from Channel Six are than posted at Technology Central in case it becomes the next place to be burglarized, but once she switches to a different reporter named Jeff, Vernon Fenwick, the news director from the van, urges everyone that they should leave the premises on the grounds of "nothing's going to happen" and having state of the art equipment that shouldn't be left in the dead of the night (despite his rude tone, I do see his points, though, especially in the equipment being valued at a million bucks then).
All of them are unaware of a sinister figure watching them from a technologically advanced room, command chair and all, however, followed by the same gang of six from the start of the episode approaching the media crew with harmful weapons and menacing intent.
With Vernon and the other two guys ditching April with flimsy excuses about dentists, roller derbies, and the iron (but not bothering to use the van as a means of escape), she's quickly threatened by the blonde Caucasian holding a bat (who is a separate person from the guy with the blonde mohawk and sword) that the "big boss man" wants April to stop reporting crimes, and is forced to escape into the sewers as the street thugs chase her down.
As they come close to hurting April, though, four shadowed figures show up to knock the gang of six unconscious via their own weapons and martial arts skills. April thanks them for rescuing her, but the sight of their unshadowed appearances as Human-proportioned turtles with ninja attire and weapons drive her to faint, while the helmeted figure with a purple cape watches them on his big screen in befuddled hostility.
The scene then shifts to April rousing herself back to consciousness in a subterranean residence and offered hot tea and sushi (I think that's what that was, anyway) by a kimono-wearing rat of unusual size (that she faints from looking at for a brief bit), followed being bothered by the four turtles eating pizzas that have peanut butter as much as ice cream for toppings (I'm not sure I'm that ambitious myself either).
After April briefly explains what led her to being chased down in the sewers, the rat with a wise tone of voice decides to tell the story of himself and his "four friends" (that's very lacking in familiarity, but I think some Mirage issues had some trouble in describing the relationships among the five, too) by narrating the tale of a man named Hamato Yoshi, who led the Foot Clan of ninja in Japan years ago, while quietly reading about art in his spare time.
One day, when a ninjutsu master of great renown visited the Foot School, Yoshi's ambitious student, Oroku Saki, made it look like Yoshi intended to assassinate their honored guest, who responded to that threat by ordering Yoshi's banishment from the Foot and Japan altogether (despite the facts that his bodyguards did most of the talking and I'm unsure if he has any authority to enforce such a thing).
With no money or home, Yoshi found himself living in the sewers of New York City with only the local rat population as his friends (not as lovable as most cats, but okay) before a kid with a water bowl of turtles accidentally dropped his pets into Yoshi's lap without knowing it. Even away from Japan, though, Yoshi apparently heard that Saki took over the Foot and remade it into a criminal empire to carry out his whims, and eventually, Yoshi found a growing purple ooze filling his underground home with all four turtles touched by it.
(scene break, then return)
The rat narrator explains that the ooze was a mutagen that caused the turtles to adopt Humanoid forms from having been touched by Yoshi, while Yoshi himself was transformed into the very mutant rat telling the story. The transformed Yoshi adds that his wards nicknamed him "Splinter" for his creativity with breaking wooden boards, and that he named the turtles after his favorite renaissance artists as well as teaching them ninjutsu for the sake of their self-defense.
Donatello, in purple, who carries the disarming wooden bo,
Raphael, in red, with the twin sai,
Leonardo, in blue, who wields katana,
and Michelangelo, in orange, master of nunchaku (and whirling pizzas).
Thus, was the origin of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, who have no current clues on who spilled the mutagen in the first place, but intend to find out to return Splinter back to his Human form.
Although intrigued by their story, April initially thinks that they were the ones who committed the robberies she was investigating, but Raphael and Donatello (with the latter speaking with the former's voice for some ridiculous out of universe reason, no doubt) decide to keep April in their lair until they figure things out to keep themselves from getting studied by scientists.
A brief scene shows Vernon reporting to Burne Thompson, the boss of Channel Six, who bemoans losing track of his second to third best reporter (maybe), while the former remarks that it "wasn't like April was irreplaceable or anything." (low blow, Vernon) Back in the lair, Leonardo opts that he and the other Turtles help April find the ninja thieves as a quid pro quo arrangement, even though working with Humans would be a new thing to do for them as Raphael points out.
Meanwhile, the punks report to their furious boss, the Shredder, who is determined to discover the Turtles. At that same time, the Turtles and April find a clue where they encountered the crooks pointing to the "Ninja Pizzeria," prompting the five to head up to investigate and chow down on pizza (despite April's uncomfortability with knowing that the guys mostly have their knowledge of Humans from watching a lot of TV).
As soon as they're up on the street, though, the Turtles unintentionally scare an old lady, who scares them back by pointing a machine gun at them!
Old lady: "One twitch, and you're history, scum. Now back off! Nice and easy."
(Like what?! That's crazy! Funny, but crazy!)
Thankfully, April buys the Turtles trench coats and hats to hide their look, despite the fact she has a hard time telling them apart herself moving forward (Didn't you look at their initialized belt-buckles and familiarize yourself with their voices at all, girlfriend?).
Eventually, they arrive at the ninja pizza parlor that's bordered by "Ninja Dentist" and other businesses with the obvious word in their names (I don't think even the Rise Foot Shack was that on the nose), but the boys quickly get distracted by the pizzas, while April decides to investigate the nearby Manhattan Security Services building on her own, where she finds the receptionist directing Foot Ninja to target another scientific equipment company. April then tries to call Channel Six from a payphone, but the Foot grab her.
(scene break, then return)
After the Turtles are handed the check (in a rather dramatic manner, no less), they start searching for April before finding her tied up on the roof of a wrecked building where they are then entrapped by the Foot and do battle with them. Of course, as soon as the boys in green found out they're fighting robots, they fight crazy and reduce them to scrap, unaware that the Shredder, who recognizes them fighting with the Foot fighting style, is observing them and speculating if Hamato Yoshi is still alive.
After seeing that the Foot Soldiers are fighting them with advanced weaponry (like a remote throwing star for one example), the Turtles drop a wall on the roof over some of them before rescuing April and following the remainder to the Security Services building that is now vacant.
The Shredder, who notes that his foes are "up above him," is briefly confronted by them via a video transceiver before turning off the viewing screen, and unmasks himself to the audience (that's us) to be Oroku Saki as he concludes that the Turtles are the same that were with Hamato Yoshi. He then orders all Foot to return to his hidden Technodrome.
The Turtles and April run down to the basement to find the Technodrome (even though they don't know what a Technodrome is), but the Foot Soldiers proceed to flood the whole building, forcing the five to escape to the roof (With some surfing on office furniture along the way because why not?) and get away the way they came there beforehand.
The Turtles and April then present the Foot uniform to Splinter, who recognizes it and realizes that his old student turned foe is nearby. Although the chase has only begun, the Turtles nonetheless, get back to eating pizza with banana and sausage toppings that April decides to partake in as well (You do you, babe).
Review
It may not have the most action-packed beginning compared to some other animated series, but you cannot deny that Turtle Tracks had some humor from the start. Donatello (who, alongside the others, isn't exactly nicknamed here) even breaks the fourth wall just to point out he told a good line as a drum solo is played. And the scene with the old lady is hilarious.
I admit the presence of robot ninjas makes me wonder what happened to every other flesh and blood member of the Foot aside from the Shredder, but the animators wanted to depict some hack and slash stuff, and robots are easier than doing it to Human saps.
