Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been entertaining fans since they debuted in 1984. The crime-fighting foursome found success with their first animated series from 1987 to 1996 and in the early 90s they enjoyed three big screen outings. After a five-year break a new animated series began in 2003 and ran until 2009. Nickelodeon bought the rights to the franchise and has revived the Turtles in a brand new CGI animated series which premiered last year. Following in the footsteps of other Nickelodeon series, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is enjoying DVD releases featuring a selection of episodes.
Kraang Invasion features 7 episodes from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles first season for Nickelodeon. All the characters you know and love from the original series are here; Michelangelo (Greg Cipes), Donatello (Rob Paulsen), Raphael (Sean Astin), Leonardo (Jason Biggs), Splinter (Hoon Lee) and April (Mae Whitman). For this latest animated incarnation, the Turtles are teenagers who are transformed into human-like creatures after being exposed to a Kraang chemical called mutagen. With Splinter as their mentor, the Turtles befriend fellow teenager April and help her to find her father who has been kidnapped by the Kraang.
The disc opens with I, Monster which sees a mad scientist accidentally unleash an army of rats onto New York City and take over Splinter to try and defeat the Turtles. Elsewhere on the disc the Turtles discover an imposter in The Pulveriser when they arrive to take down some criminals and find a man dressed in a Turtle suit, The Alien Agenda sees foot clan leader Shredder’s daughter Karai causes Leonardo to confuse his priorities, and TCRI sees the Kraang restore their dimensional portal after stealing a power cell. The best episode on the disc is Cockroach Terminator which sees the Turtles use a cockroach with a spy cam to spy on the Kraang.
Whilst the new incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is entertaining we do miss the original animated series which had a charm that CGI animation just doesn’t. That having being said, the adventures of the foursome are as enjoyable as ever and we’re glad to see that they are still as popular with kids as ever.
Special features on the disc include parts three and four of Comic Book – Tales From The Turtle Lair. These are static comic book pages that you can scroll through using your DVD remote. It’s quite a neat idea and fans will love it.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Kraang Invasion is a release that is sure to entertain fans old and new. Packed with action, plenty of humour and intriguing storylines Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back in a big way. The news that a new feature film is on the way means that we could be about to see a huge resurgence in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ popularity. Bring it on!
