DVD Review - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Good, The Bad, And Casey Jones

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Good, The Bad, And Casey Jones
Voice Cast: Jason Biggs, Rob Paulsen, Sean Astin, Greg Cipes, Mae Whitman, Hoon Lee
Studio: Nickelodeon
Release Date: July l, 2014
Retail: $14.98
ASIN: B00J2T18XS
Running Time: 133 minutes
Rating: Not Rated

Review:

Before the Michael Bay produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot hits theaters this August, fans can look forward this Tuesday's DVD release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Good, The Bad, And Casey Jones, featuring six action-packed episodes from Nickelodeon's second season. Special Features include 6 Shorts: "The Mutation of a Scene" and Meet Casey Jones.

The four teenage turtles first appeared thirty-years ago in the comic books created by Kevin Eastman & Peter Laird. It was quickly followed by a popular Playmates toy line, two animated series, one live-action series, three live-action films and one computer-animated film. The franchise seemed to be at a standstill until Nickelodeon purchased the rights and created a third animated series that premiered in 2012.

Despite a mixed-reaction to the early concept-art, Nickelodeon's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles quickly won over old and new fans by providing great characters and an exciting storytelling with a blend of humor.

Episodes on the single-disc DVD are:

Slash and Destroy - Corey Feldman (the voice of Donatello in the 90s live-action trilogy) voices Slash, Raphael's pet turtle (Spike), who was accidentally mutated into a giant, angry turtle.

The Kraang Conspiracy - When the turtles investigate the Kraang's activity at the newly-rebuilt TCRI plant, they will finally discover what the aliens want with April.

The Good, The Bad, And Casey Jones - After appearing along side April in a few episodes, the crime-fighting masked teen, Casey Jones, is introduced to the turtles, when he fights along side Raphael.

Fungus Humungous - When mutated sentient mushrooms spread throughout the sewers, April, Casey and the turtles start hallucinating their worst fears.

Metalhead Rewired - Donatello has rewired his robotic creation Metalhead with several new features that will come in handy when they go out to stop another Kraang invasion.

Of Rats and Men- The Rat King returns, but this time he has an army of mutated rats at his disposal.

While the original cartoon series from the 80s had a different plot and a new Shredder henchman every week, Nickelodeon's version borrows the serial storyline from the 2003 series, while at same time bringing back a few of the characters from the 80s cartoons that only made one or two appearances. The new twist on the Casey Jones character is that he is a teenager that goes to school with April and Irma. Slash's back-story has been altered and is no longer one of Shredder's henchmen, but instead he was Raphael's pet turtle, Spike, who was mutated into a giant-turtle with an attitude problem.

Though most die-hard adult fans will complain that this is just another six-episode release instead of a complete season, it doesn't bother me at all. The new series is targeted at children and not adults, though plenty of adults do watch it. Parents will most likely be able to afford to buy a $15 DVD than a complete series between $30 to $40 dollars. Nickelodeon will probably use the same format as the first season and release the last episodes of the season on a two-disc set sometime this fall around the time third season officially starts.

Overall, the six episodes on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Good, The Bad, And Casey Jones DVD are funny and action-packed.