I just like, for fun, to combine sci fi future timelines that have long since not happened and work it into our human timeline as a joke.. also yes I’m aware the new Star Trek series explained the Khan stuff not happening yet.
Turtle Tracks is the very first episode of the 80s into 90s Ninja Turtles cartoon, man it was everywhere when I was young. The show WAS the big children’s show at the time, Transformers and the other 80s toy shows had come and gone for the most part and the Turtles became the huge mega hit, and continued to be that until Power Rangers came around.
The episode opens up with kind of over the top cartoony city gang scenes that are reminiscent of… well cartoony portrayals of such things, like you see in side scrolling beat-em ups and movies based on said things (of which the Turtles would later get).
We are quickly introduced to April who is reimagined for this series as a reporter and reporting on strange attacks that by some hilariously dumb logic are suspected to be done by Ninjas. It’s a silly cartoon with Mutant Ninja Turtles and the 80s show is exceptionally weird and dumb compared to the later entries so this sets us up for what we’re getting into.
While being threatened by pre mutated Rocksteady and Bebop and their gang, April escapes into the sewer by the kind of drain Pennywise would lure people at… which brings into question how big those are if she can fit her whole body, including her head into. Then we are introduced to the Turtles who beat the gang while hidden in shadows before revealing themselves to April. This is the first time that the more individual look for them is shown as in the comics they were identical bar the weapons.
We then get the backstory of them and Splinter which went a different, somewhat more reasonable origin story where he is a mutated Hamato Yoshi rather than his pet that was mutated… and somehow learned martial arts, as well abut about the Foot Clan and his old enemy Oroku Saki.
We don’t get a big fight against the Shredder in the first episode in fact he and the Turtles only see each other over monitor screens while they break into the building the Foot was using as a base. This means the first episode contains no big battle climax. But then it didn’t need to. The first 5 episodes consist of a mini arc and this is just the first episode of that. We get a decent first introduction of the Turtles and April, and a hint at just how silly this world can be. But it leaves you with a feeling of incompleteness that the rest of the first episodes finish.
It is an interesting and enjoyable first entry. The difference between it and the comics though was quite expansive, but it was this show that gave us Turtle mania. From that we got the first of the live action movies and many many series to come, each which took their own spin on concepts, some drawing from this, some drawing from the comics. Well if you want to watch more of the original 80s show, it’s just going to get more insane from here… until you get to the Red Sky era… just stop when that happens it’s not good.
Rating: 🐢🐢🐢🐢