Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The early 2000s cartoon was TMNT’s best project
By Mark Lynch
3. Violence without blood
One of the complaints fans had about the 1990s X-Men cartoon is Wolverine rarely uses his claws. If it wasn’t a robot or a door, they were useless. Not here. Leonardo cut Shredder’s head off (granted, it was a robot) and beings get cut and shot, often. The reason it was acceptable was the animation team was incredibly innovative.
Whenever a blade was being used, there was no blood. Instead of bullets, everyone had lasers. The beauty is people still got hit. This proves that you don’t need gore to have entertaining violence. You can get your point across by being creative. Bright lights simulating the slashes or cutting away from the attacks works as well.
2. Getting mystical powers
Season 6 is this writer’s personal favorite. It aptly showed how far the Ninja Turtles have come. The Turtles and four others were selected (and kind of forced) to receive new training and weapons from four elder ninjas. Both their training and gear came with mystical abilities. It may seem a bit off for a TMNT show or movie, but it was a great idea.
It was nice to see them be more than ordinary ninjas. They became a step above and beyond most of the fighters that came before them. They weren’t just using regular tools for battle. They were awarded the Fangs of the Dragon. These weapons allowed them to do things that only legends have even heard of.
If you watch one story of this show, this should be it.