"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Season Eight" DVD Talkback (Spoilers)

[James Harvey]

Lionsgate Home Entertainment released another season of the classic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Complete Eight Season
Studio: Lionsgate Home Entertainment
Release Date: September 1st, 2009

Synopsis: Break out of your shell with the Complete Season 8 in these ninja powered adventures! The Green Machine is back with heart-pounding, pizza-munching, right-outta-the-sewer ninja action! The gang’s all here – Michelangelo™, Leonardo™, Raphael™, and Donatello™ – and their wise sensei, Splinter, as they battle enemies from our time, and beyond, to protect the citizens of the city they call home, even banishing archenemies, Shredder™ and Krang™, to Dimension X™. Discover the intriguing, darker atmosphere and new theme song that defined this groundbreaking season. These eight dynamic adventures will get your pulse pumping with mutant power!

Episodes Included:
Get Shredder!
Wrath of the Rat King
State of Shock
Cry H.A.V.O.C.!
H.A.V.O.C. in the Streets
Enter: Krakus
Cyber-Turtles
Turtle Trek

Discuss This DVD!

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[Storm Eagle]

I plan to get this later, but in the meantime I'm renting a copy from Netflix.

I might have missed something here, but why the hell is the sky always red now?

[Kevin the Geek]

I might have missed something here, but why the hell is the sky always red now?

I believe that, in seasons 8-10, the sky was made red to help give the show a darker, edgier feel.

[ABrown]

I might have missed something here, but why the hell is the sky always red now?

I really liked the darker sky, and the whole darker feel that was used for the final 24 episodes. I think it's been argued that they were trying to make it more like Batman:The Animated Series.

[Shift]

I've never seen the red-sky eps save for the ones included on the 1st season DVD; not bad, but not the turtles I remembered. But I saw this at the store and just gotta say, the box art is u-g-l-y. Mike's face on the front the most so, and on the back they're all wearing identical grimaces. Maybe it's nothing new, but hey, just sayin'.

[JeffBreakdown]

I've never seen the red-sky eps save for the ones included on the 1st season DVD; not bad, but not the turtles I remembered. But I saw this at the store and just gotta say, the box art is u-g-l-y. Mike's face on the front the most so, and on the back they're all wearing identical grimaces. Maybe it's nothing new, but hey, just sayin'.

to me, the box art has generally always been ugly, sans season 1. i think it's lame that they use they recycled cases that have huge holes in them, i hate those, i even have a blu ray like that.

[CyberCubed]

People never question why B:TAS had a red sky, so why do people throw a fit because TMNT did it?

For god sakes, B:TAS had an influence on TMNT at this time, and given Power Rangers was the new "fad" at the time, the writers had to do something different.

[Ioz]

I only gave it 3 stars because it is just a bare bones release. It would have been nice to have some bonus features or those missing episodes on there.

[Juu-kuchi]

Ah, I saw this at Wal-Mart and am kindof curious to check it out given that it's the start of the more serious seasons.

However at the same time, I inch toward it with much trepidation. I could still remember the feeling when I initially watched it for the first time back in the day. When I saw how... serious it was I was honestly perturbed. It's like something shifted with the Turtles and they weren't how I remembered them to be.

But in any case, we'll see what happens from there once I give it a whirl.

[Storm Eagle]

People never question why B:TAS had a red sky, so why do people throw a fit because TMNT did it?

For god sakes, B:TAS had an influence on TMNT at this time, and given Power Rangers was the new "fad" at the time, the writers had to do something different.

First of all, I never really followed B:TAS all that much. So it's not something I put much thought in. It's only natural that I'd wonder about it.

I'm not even throwing a fit about the red sky thing in the final three TMNT seasons, but you have to admit that it does seem weird that they'd start to do that all of a sudden.

[Sketch]

This season may indeed be the last good season of the 80s/90s TMNT run but it sure is weird.

First of all they're back to having a loose continuity throughout the season like in season 1 that had individual stories but they had connection. Where as seasons 2-7 had very little continuity asside from common question "where is the Technodrome right now?"

Secondly David Wise tried to make the series a bit more serious and action oriented but that ends up feeling pretty half-shelled if you get my drift. For one thing Cam Clarke's Leonardo in season 1 had a seirous tone you could respect. But having voiced a rather whiney and goofy Leo for so long the attempts to make Leonardo sound more initimidating in this season fail... quite hillariously.

Michelangelo oddly enough seemed more serious in this season with the exception of the episode I like to call "everybody dumps on Michelangelo again for the upteenth time". He made sensible observations when that's usually Donatello's department and he also seemed to take up some of Leonardo's personality in defending their master's teachings. Honestly it seemed awkward. Maybe I just didn't notice it in seasons prior to this one but it seemed like Mikey changed quite a bit in this season.

The turtles almost always had some kind of serious look on their faces whether they were cracking a joke or talking about impending doom. It just doesn't work that way... a good cartoon has expressive characters that are happy when they're happy, sad when they're sad and angry when they're angry. It all felt exceptionally melodramatic when a serious situation occured and half hearted when a some comedy was tossed in to break what little tension there was before.

But most absurd of all was several episodes perhaps even all of them had some kind of life lesson to teach and they usually felt very hammered in. So it almost felt like CBS was trying to make the show more wholesome or something... but again it was half-shelled all around leaving these lessons to feel very cheap and meaningless... because that's generally what they were.

So it would seem the series new direction was a darker, more mature, more educational approach... That's laughable enough on paper but to see it executed is something else entirely.

At least the animation was relatively consistant though I still don't like how the turtles always look like they have been punched in the face or they're on the drugs due to the way the masks are drawn to include space for the green around the eyeballs.

Despite all of those negative comments it's not really a bad season of the old cartoon just nothing to write home about and their attempts to make the show darker just make it all the more laughable because now it's TRYING to take itself seriously and failing at it most of the time.

I'll give it credit for one particular scene in Get Shredder when the Turtles believe their friends are dead and they actually act rather intimidating towards Shredder, Bebop and Rocksteady. That was kind of cool.

[CyberCubed]

Despite all of those negative comments it's not really a bad season of the old cartoon just nothing to write home about and their attempts to make the show darker just make it all the more laughable because now it's TRYING to take itself seriously and failing at it most of the time.

What "negative comments" are you referring to? Season 8 was always a very well-liked season. The darker approach made the show feel similar to B:TAS, which was airing in 1994.

The only problem with the season is its too short. 13 episodes would have been good, but 8 eps feels like we're missing something.

[ABrown]

The only problem with the season is its too short. 13 episodes would have been good, but 8 eps feels like we're missing something.

I gotta agree. Whose idea was it to have just eight episodes in a season???

[Sketch]

What you didn't read my whole post or something CyberCubed? The majority of it I was pointing out everything I felt that they did poorly.

If people generally like this season... I have a hard time understanding why. This doesn't even come close to the feel of Batman: TAS heck it's not even as serious as The Batman could be though it clearly was trying to be. I have no qualms with the red sky mind you but everything felt incredibly mellow dramatic. If I had to compare it to something else I'd say it's most akin to Disney's Mighty Ducks animated series which isn't really a bad TMNT knock-off but when TMNT starts feeling like a knock-off of itself that's not a good thing. Thank heavens for the 4kids show, which as we all know showed a truely edgy animated TMNT at least for several seasons.

Still... I guess in some sense it's a step up from some of the CBS episodes but not much of one.

As for 8 episodes I guess they didn't have a lot of faith in it continuing but it had 2 more seasons each with 8 episodes so maybe they decided they didn't need a full 13 episode season in those final years. Which is probably true given that most episodes were likely pre-empted for sports and such.

Also Shredder's voice sucks in this season but I did like hearing Jim Cummings and Tony Jay in TMNT.

[Ioz]

I watched very few of the red sky episodes when I was younger. It is a little different, but I've enjoyed watching this season as much as the others. I like that there was more continuity to it. The H.A.V.O.C. group was pretty cool. I hope they fit in the 3 missing episodes in the last two releases.

[Sketch]

I watched very few of the red sky episodes when I was younger. It is a little different, but I've enjoyed watching this season as much as the others. I like that there was more continuity to it. The H.A.V.O.C. group was pretty cool. I hope they fit in the 3 missing episodes in the last two releases.

They dang well better.

Most of these releases have been the definition of bare bones and the video quality has generally been subpar even with this latest release with episodes from the mid 90s which should have held up at least a bit better. So the least they could do is make sure every episode is released. If they don't manage that... That's just lame.

I wonder how well they'd handle TMNT 2003 if they were to obtain the rights to release that series as well. I suppose they'd go with season sets but would the quality suffer or are these episodes more than new enough to still look good? The 4kids DVDs always looked very sharp even when 7 episodes were crammed onto one disc. So here's hoping... assuming Lionsgate has any interested in TMNT 2003. I would think they'd at least maybe have interest in releasing Turtles Forever and perhaps picking up TMNT 2003 from there.

[veemonjosh]

I wonder how well they'd handle TMNT 2003 if they were to obtain the rights to release that series as well. I suppose they'd go with season sets but would the quality suffer or are these episodes more than new enough to still look good? The 4kids DVDs always looked very sharp even when 7 episodes were crammed onto one disc. So here's hoping... assuming Lionsgate has any interested in TMNT 2003. I would think they'd at least maybe have interest in releasing Turtles Forever and perhaps picking up TMNT 2003 from there.

I...actually could seriously see Lionsgate releasing Turtles Forever.

[Sketch]

It makes perfect sense. Given they consider the OG TMNT to be a property worth releasing more or less in it's entirety so far (almost done anyway).

Then they could release Back to the Sewers and then they could start releasing TMNT 2003 hopefully from season 3 onward or even season 1 onward (in full season sets not halfs).

Getting back to THIS set.

One thing I did sort of like was there was less emphasis on Shredder and Krang but they were still around and in the season finale Splinter eve asks the turtles whether catching Shredder or just doing all they can to help others was truely their goal. A little cheesey but it does give a good perspective and in a way makes all those failed attempts at catching Shredder matter a bit more than they felt before.

Though that would have been a rather lackluster series finale so thankfully that wasn't the end.

Too bad most of the new characters introduced in this season have little to no relevance to the next two seasons despite the greater emphasis on continuity.

They took some risks this season. Some worked out and others didn't. I could tell David Wise was trying to make it more like the earlier seasons but he just couldn't make it happen genuinely. A valiant effort none the less but the first season remains timeless to me while this doesn't hold up that well even when this is the first time for me seeing most of these episodes.

Wish I could say they improved in the next two seasons but they did anything but that. Though Tony Jay is always awesome, rest his soul and I look forward to hearing him as Dregg again... but what I'm really dreading is messed up Turtle mutations and sigh... Carter.

[Michael JJ]

Finally got around to watching this.

I've been wanting to see the red sky episodes since the DVD releases began (I avoided the ones on the Volume 1 DVD because I wanted to see the episodes in order). And now that I've finally seen them...they weren't as good as I hoped.

They were enjoyable, yeah, but it wasn't quite what I was expecting. They took everything more seriously, and the villains seemed more compatent, but it fell a little flat to me.

I still liked it, though. The H.A.V.O.C. storyline was interesting, and all in all I liked the season. The eight episode count was annoying, but at 10$ I'm not complaining.

Guess I'll just look forward for the next season.

[Silverstar]

People never question why B:TAS had a red sky, so why do people throw a fit because TMNT did it?

Technically, Batman: the Animated Series didn't use the red sky; that was The New Batman Adventures. Batman didn't switch to the red sky until the series went to Kids' WB!. Just sayin'.