DVD Review - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rise of the Turtles

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Rise of the Turtles
Starring: Jason Biggs, Sean Astin, Rob Paulsen, and Greg Cipes
Studio: Nickelodeon/Paramount
Release Date: February 26, 2013
ASIN: B00AEVXGFG
DVD SRP: $14.99
Running Time: 145 minutes
Rating: Not Rated

Review:

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crawled their way out of the sewers and back onto the small screen with a brand new series that debuted last fall on Nickelodeon with the talented voice cast of Jason Biggs as Leonardo, Sean Astin as Raphael, Rob Paulsen as Donatello, and Greg Cipes as Michelangelo. Rise of the Turtles will be released February 25, 2013 on DVD featuring the first six episodes, including the double-length series premiere and the special features, 6 "Making of Animatics" and the Theme Song Karaoke Music Video.

The new series finds the four turtles venturing out of the New York City sewers for the first time where they run into the Kraang (brain-shaped aliens piloting robots) who have kidnapped a young April O'Neil and her scientist father, Kirby. The turtles are only able to save April, who becomes their most trusted ally. To make things worse, Oroku Saki (Shredder) learns that his old enemy, Hamato Yoshi (the turtles' mentor, Splinter), is living in New York and he dispatches his highly trained Foot Clan to go to New York and find Yoshi.

Throughout these six episodes, the turtles encounter a giant mutant plant Snakeweed, the spider-like mutant Spider Bytez, and the mad-scientist Baxter Stockman.

I grew up watching the original 80s cartoon and the live-action movies. As an adult, I started watching the short-lived 1997 live-action series and the 2003 cartoon on DVDs. I was a little skeptical about Nickelodeon's version when I first saw the promo as I'm not the biggest fan of CGI animation. After watching Rise of the Turtles, my thoughts have changed as the CGI looks great. All the turtles have their own unique look, like with Donnie's missing tooth. Bits and pieces of the original cartoons have found its way into the new incarnation with Splinter being Hamato Yoshi, the Kraang resembles Krang, the turtles like pizza, and the theme's lyrics are similar. I wasn't expecting the humor to actually be funny, but the dialogue is cleverly written. The voice actors do a great job, especially with Rob Paulsen as the voice of Donatello (he was the voice of Raphael in the 80s cartoon).

Overall, I enjoyed watching the turtles back in action. Rise of the Turtles is packed with six action-packed episodes that fans of all ages will enjoy watching.