Cinemassacre's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Retrospective (2011) 

I was design coordinator on the 4 kids TMNT including Turtles Forever!! We wanted the OG cast but couldn't afford them with the budget! Thanks for giving our show a shoutout!

The ninja turtle toy line from playmate had such an amazing, unique smell that takes me right back to my childhood.

I'm a grown ass man and I still watch some old 80's TMNT. I drink some cheap budweiser and have pizza and watch some old 80s TMNT to relive my happiest childhood memories!

The artwork and animation in these old 80s/90s cartoons was just so fantastic.

One of my fav videos by James. Glad to see it re-uploaded.

As someone who was a 2000s kid, I was surprised with how much I enjoyed season 1 of the series. I still think it holds up today. It was a lot darker than the later seasons (red sky seasons not withstanding) and I loved the animation done by Toei. I always liked how Shredder’s armor was shiny and how Krang moved and pulsed a lot more.

The late 80's and early 90's were the best time to be a kid. The music, the movies, the cartoons, the toys, the video games, in literally every way. I may be bias, but I'm also right! 🍕🐢🐢🐢🐢

I know it's a rerelease, but the timing on this couldn't be better. My buddy Roger just lost his fight with Leukemia and he loved TMNT more than anything else. He would have loved this retrospective. God, I'm going to miss him.

I lived for this as a kid. Raphael was my favourite, had all the toys. The original movie was awesome too! You know what....I'm.gonna go watch some of this now! Haha

Shredder's Revenge is a culmination of the Konami games, and this cartoon. I highly recommend it, if you ever liked this era of turtles.

The 2010 iteration of the ninja turtles is still my personal favorite show. Sure it had a slow start but damn did the show get better as it progressed. That final shredder battle was incredible.

I definitely need to rewatch this show now as an adult.

Vernon also looks like Don Flamenco from Mike Tyson's Punch Out

I was born in 88 and my god it was absolute favourite growing up watching this!

I Used to watch this after school, great cartoon, Ghostbusters cartoon played after or before a turtles episode, Ghostbusters was still going strong at that time. 🍕 👻

It's funny because Michelangelo talks like a surfer from California even though they all live in the sewers of New York 😆

Thank you, James and Mike, for this one hour of pure turtle love ;)

Loving these older clips.

The Case of the Killer Pizzas is my all time favorite episode. I had it on a VHS tape and remember watching it over and over. What an awesome goofy little episode.

If James thought Turtles Forever was awesome, wait til he sees Trans-Dimensional Turtles from the 2012 series. I think he'll be surprised to hear Fred Fuchs himself, the late Gilbert Gottfried, as Kraang Subprime

I'm glad to see this retrospective TMNT returns to RU-vid!

james avery was an awesome shredder. rip uncle phil

It's cool that they're uploading the old content but most of these videos you can find on here easily anyway.

I just love the TMNT series. It's so...bossanova!

That cartoon alllstars thing was sooo trippy... like an acidy fever dream memory of old cartoons

2003 series is the best , the original is the most fun

the soundtrack for this cartoon is highly under rated

Watching this just makes me appreciate the 2012 series that aired on Nickelodeon. It took me a little while to warm up to the characters but they absolutely nailed it. The characters, the action, the origins. I can't say enough about the show. They pay tribute to everything perfectly

Fun Fact: Cast members Cam Clarke (Leonardo/Rocksteady) and Pat Fraley (Krang/Baxter Stockman) are cousins

If there is anyone in the world who I would want to talk about the Turtles is you James. This is one of my favorite franchises of all time. I have the whole cartoon collection. I'm glad that you are bringing this fond memory of my childhood back. Thank you.

I'm 34 now, and it's good to see you do your take on it. A lot of hard work indeed friend. TURTLE POWER!

Legendary commentary. ❤ This show built an entire nerd culture around it.

Brings back so many memories. Miss those 80s and early 90s cartoons

Thinking back on it, something that hooked me with TMNT was largely in part that I'm the youngest of 4 brothers. I think part of me related to them on that aspect, and the Turtles in Time arcade game was perfect for us to play together. It was when I was older and in junior high when I started to really dig into the franchise between the movies and other renditions.

That's awesome. I just got the whole collection for Christmas, and I'm 45

9:38 - "Give me your Money." "I've got a better idea, give me your knife." "It's yours." That was...easy.

Absolutely incredible! Thank you for for showing so much effort and care to the Turtles

One of my favorite videos about one of my favorite things by my favorite RU-vidrs.

I'm 43 now so just a bit too old for the toys when this came out, but the arcade game was amazing with 4 players.

Soon as i saw Ace Duck i recognized him. Had that toy as a kid. Unfortunately I have no idea what happened to it since I didn't care about it at the time

I've watched the re-upload so many times and now there's this! Yes!

What started as a joke became a giant super hero franchise!

17:55 Looks like just another typical cartoon inconsistency. In the episode Cowabunga Shredhead, you see him with the metal mask hinged open to the side and you see him close it with a clang/thunk.

Thanks. Was always so lost about what the story was really about, you earned yourself a sub.

I completely agree with The Angry Video Game Nerd around 24:37-24:42.

crazy how much of this made it into the games ! pretty much all of it !

1 hour of ninja turtles coming back to me, really hit different.

I miss all my TMNT toys 😭

I could listen to James talk about stuff like this all day. A New Cinamasacre Classic!

Awesome video man. I loved the turtles, watched all the shows and movies as kid, had the action figures and even the micro machines. Brings back a lot of memories from the late 80s, early 90s.

Lol damn I was watching this thinking "Wow this is awesome, finally feels like a classic Cinemassacre vid!" only to realize it actually is 😶

Great review of the turtles chronology! I still have my tapes!

I remember those days when I'd play outside and I'd take my Turtle Blimp with me everywhere.

a reupload? Ive seen this like 3 times. I'll watch again haha

Wow, I didnt realize it went on TEN seasons

17:35 A wimp? Ha, Just wait until you see the 2012 Shredder. He is like the Darth Vader or Thanos of TMNT. 19:11 these Krangs also became the Krangs from the 2012 series. Oh and in that show they're called "Kraang" (with 2 A's)

Ah yes, "turtle power", possibly the least efficient form of renewable energy ever devised.

Here's my ranking for each season 10. Season 5 9. Season 10 8. Season 4 7. Season 6 6. Season 8 5. Season 9 4. Season 3 3. Season 7 2. Season 2 1. Season 1

Crang was also my favorite character. I thought it (he, she?) was funny...and I remember (wrongly?) that Crang loved watching soap operas, which I found weird a for a villain, but i loved it.

Love these old videos.

ah my and friends childhood best cartoon series! Have a Blessing Christmas!

I remember when I stopped watching the Turtles. When their episodes became more cartoony, like Loony Toons. Their references to being in a cartoon, etc. But I will always, ALWAYS, hold them in high place of my heart.

I LOVE THE TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES TOO MY FRIEND AND I USED TO WATCH TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES IN SCHOOL TOO MY FRIEND

Thank you sir. I love being a turtle!

Amazing!! Thank you for all of your hard work! Always appreciate it and download it.

Being from Norway, I do remember that the show was renamed as "Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles" back then. I never really knew that it was supposed to be "Ninja" instead of Hero in the title. Also, I remember all these turtles toys merchandises you used to find a lot in toy stores. Even with the minor characters that only appear in a few seconds in the show, we just accepted it as what it was, and just saw them as one of the main characters in the show.

Looking up some of those episodes' writing credits - and I'm just guessing here, but to me it seems that the writer circles were pretty small or smaller back in the day. That guy David Wise who wrote 20-something episodes for TMNT, including the Donatello-batman "Night of the Dark Turtle" also seems to have done episodes for He-Man, Chip 'n' Dale and Batman Animated for example. So maybe the characters' constant "wrong show, wrong joke" type of dialog came from the writers themselves being confused with all the freelance work and they just incorporated that into their work. The Batman Animated started in 1992 and the Night of the Dark Turtle episode aired in 1993, so maybe there was some overlapping with shows.

Klatu Berata Nikto is also used in the Evil Dead series, at least in Army of Darkness. They're the words Ash has to speak before he can grab the Necronomicon.

ITS SHREDDER! WHERE? WHERE?!

I remember watching random episodes of this show in the 90s,and saw tmnt 3 in theaters, I tried rewatching recently but it is hard to get through.

Even though I must have watched your TMNT retrospective quite a few times over the years, I somehow always seem to forget half the things you say lol. For example, I totally forgot that this show ran for 9 whole frigin seasons. Like you said, I only remember up to maybe season 3 or 4 and figured it stopped there, because honestly, I have zero recollection of the red sky seasons at all. It's also a shame they just tossed Shredder and Krang aside...but such is the case for a lot of 80's cartoons I loved. Continuity wasn't something they really cared about back then. I especially remember being upset when they never reprised Raphael's love interest (Mona Lisa) lol - I sincerely loved the idea of him having a girlfriend and thought for sure she'd return as a regular character...but no, she was never spoken of again. Oh well, R.I.P. TMNT 80's cartoon, I'll never forget you and all the years of entertainment you brought me.

Michaelangelo with the swords (on the title screens) was always crazy, but cool to me. The bandana was supposed to be blue but nope lol

The crime of the century just may be that we never actually got that Ninja Turtles Licensed Kung Fu Surfers video game.

This is amazing!!

TNMT was my absolute favorite as a kid, i literally wore through several vhs tapes rewatching some episodes... My dude was Rafael!

I remember watching them when I was a kid. I even still have the figures of Series 1, 2, and 3. It's great seeing this video and It's great watching the series too again.

About the European "Hero" title, I'm not sure if things were different compared to the UK, but I can assure you in Italy they were always known as the "Ninja Turtles" (Tartarughe Ninja). The "Ninja" part of the name was sung out loud prominently in the Italian theme song, it's in almost every verse! I do own the Sega Mega Drive game and it is indeed called "Teenage Mutant *Hero* Turtles" but it's also in English, it's not localized specifically for Italy.

As a kid I remember finding some of the bk kids club tapes at a yard sale... Was awesome because that ment if I slept in on Saturday and missed the show, I could watch a couple tapes.

It makes so much more sense that Splinter was a human before becoming a rat. What sense does it make for a rat to mimic martial arts movements from his cage?

Had the blue line video as a kid

TMNT was probably my favorite 80s cartoon. I had the turtle van, some weird sewer lid shooting thing, several figures. A friend had the blimp that could actually float. They were good times. Thank you for giving them a wonderful video. You covered more than I remembered, and graciously left out how terribly Megan Fox ruined the reboot.

Do this for Transformers! This was dope.

I saw these back on the official Cinemassacre website back when they were fresh and new. I thought they were great. I'd like to see Rolfe do these deep analysis vids on old video games.

I just got the entire series at Wal-Mart also just bought the cowabunga collection and I can't stop playing it on my Nintendo Switch lite! Now that's Turtle Power!

Thank You James. How great is to connect with somebody that liked the same stuff during their childhood. I remember not knowing the TMNT schedule and on top of that our local TV stations would just shut the show off progamming due that they did not have the newest episodes or they would change the programming on a whim. I look forward to watch this from start to end. Cowabunga!

41:36 I wonder if James has already checked out the 2012 Ninja Turtles. Because Slash in that version is much better than what was depicted in the 87 series.

Irma is actually kind of cute

35:50 that feeling when you are a Star Trek fan and you hear the number 47

Can't beat a good old suckle on that retrospective teet, tmnt was my life as a kid, that and the real ghostbusters which are both great series and still enjoyable to this day, cheers james for bringing this to light and flying the retro banner for us pop junkies

Thanks, I didn't know I needed this at this time

Well done Champ

I love how they broke the fourth wall

I remember how I wanted those turtle video phones as a kid.. back then I just called them video projectors... Now they are common in mobile smart phones.

Michaelangelo was and will always be my favorite turtle. He was the most relatable and the most fun. My 2nd favorite would have to be Ralph because of the attitude.

This cartoon was my jam

As a kid born in 1989 this is one of those shows i have extremely vague memories of seeing, even though I was a huge turtles fan as a kid.. I remember watching the shows and I can recall bits and pieces .. but I don't ever remember sitting and watching it. Must have been before I could speak.

Pity that James never decided to a review on the 2003 TMNT series. And maybe the 2012 series. I would love to hear what he thought of those versions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I think this show defined 80s kids that were on the verge of becoming teens in the 90s. Pizza, cool talking characters, fun music, etc. I remember how pizza became huge around this time. Everyone was all of a sudden eating it. I still have the intro song memorized.

This just made my night. Thanks

36:33 Fun fact, the animation here, was done by TMS, a Japanese studio who also worked on stuff like Scooby Doo Zombie Island, and the Tiny Toons specials