DVD Review: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Season Seven

In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- Season Seven, facing facts, Shredder (or any other super villain) has to be completely brain dead to continue attacking the sole city where his arch-enemies live. If the Ninja Turtles live in the sewers of New York, why not attack Los Angeles once in a while? Surely there must be something to power the Technodrome in LA, and stealing it would be far easier without those meddlesome Turtles around.

Of course, it is a bit late to offer that advice since the Shredder stopped his evil schemes in 1996 when this series went off the air. Season seven was the beginning of the end for the Turtles, with Mighty Morphin Power Rangers pushing in on the same territory.

The goal of the seventh season was to mix it up a bit, moving the TMNT out of New York as they take a global vacation. Kids could learn history and about art, plus there's a nifty episode that even teaches kids about the artists who inspired the naming of the Turtles. Edutainment at its worst, but at least it was mildly refreshing.

As expected, Shredder continued his idiotic ways, choosing to invade Paris while the Turtles were in Paris, plus, of course, the same time intrepid reporter, April O’Neil, happened to be doing a story there. Mathematicians could not calculate the coincidence of Shredder unluckily planning an attack in the TMNT’s vacation spot multiple times over. It’s amazing this guy wasn’t regularly struck by lightning too (especially since he wears metal).

Even when season seven does end up back in New York, the show’s urgent focus on merchandising is blatant, bringing back pointless, irritating bit characters like Mondo Gecko and Genghis T. Frog. Mondo Gecko was undoubtedly the result a few too many late night planning sessions, or the weird effect ‘90s culture had on people. We’ll probably never know exactly what spawned that thing, but it was certainly a mistake.

Season eight would radically alter the formula, switching the theme song, dropping Shredder, and taking on a darker tone. Unfortunately, it was too late, the target audience was growing older and the younger set switching the channel to new shows. After watching season seven, who could blame them?

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Article Author: Matt Paprocki

Matt Paprocki is a 12-year movie and game critic. He currently freelances for Blu-ray review site DoBlu.com and video game site MultiPlayerGames.com.

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