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Do you also known that 2003 TMNT has 3 Japanese opening song such as 1. Jounetsu No Kaze 2. Permanent Vacation by Under The Counter. 3. Everybody by Turtles4
The revelation that Shedder was an Ultrom was pretty surprising to me. I didn't know it caused a lot of controversy in the TMNT Fandom until years later.
I feel like there are 2 main reasons why it was such a big surprise, personally: 1) To my knowledge, every other previous incarnation of the Shredder had been human, so to find out that he's actually not one is extremely unexpected, it definitely caught me off guard the first time 2) I honestly think that it seems more like something they would have revealed later on in the series rather than towards the beginning of season 2. Usually, these kinds of twists are put into the story later as a way to surprise fans of the series and keep things fresh (although in some cases, it can come off as lazy writing, with the writers not being able to think of a better way to keep things interesting). I also think it would've worked better this way, since they could've played off Shredder being defeated more easily, and if they did have him somehow survive, it could've been justified by showing him survive comparable or possibly even worse injuries earlier to establish how nigh unkillable he is
@@JayRedGear Man I also loved the show but not gonna lie I stopped watching it after they turned shredder into one of those things(not even gonna try to spell their name).To me half the appeal of shredder was he was a badass well trained dude instead of a mystical force.
I used to watch Tmnt 2003 Series when I was a kid when it was still airing at the Time so I been watching until 2009 where The Series is coming to an End. I do miss this Series but I’ll be ready when The new Tmnt Cartoon comes out soon.
@TenseDart and he ends up outliving everyone but bishop. Both baxter and bishop make appearances in the back to the future season, which is set in 2105!
With Utrom Shredder, some thoughts: I actually really like it on paper for a few reasons. One is that, even removed from context, it's kind of a neat story. I mean, a benevolent alien race has crash-landed on Earth and seeks to return home, meanwhile a criminal of their species schemes against them in a war of two ancient conspiracies. This is a cool idea. Heck, you could make a good show just based on that premise alone! Another thing is I think it works well to bridge the street-level plot with rising stakes. Like, the Ninja Turtles aren't just random street vigilantes who happen to be mutated turtles. Rather, they're only a few degrees of separation from, well, an ancient global conspiracy that involves aliens. It makes it easier to buy into the idea that these guys are Earth's Protectors, able to handle problems well outside the scope you expect from a street vigilante.
Also the ooze being of alien origins makes the mutation effect somewhat more plausible-sounding. I mean, I can suspend disbelief, but if the ooze is some byproduct of weird alien tech, it's even easier to do so.
I wish Shredder had more depth in this series though; They never explain why he is evil, he just is. He's actually comically evil to the point of having no other characteristics. The 2012 Shredder has an actual reason for turning evil, which I prefer.
I remember being Hella surprised that Shredder was an alien as a kid. I was cool with it though, it just differentiates the series more from the others. (and then some in season 5). Also, Battle Nexus, one of my most favorite episodes!😁
I remember being really surprised to learn that people didn't like Utrom Shredder. Having been raised on this version of the Turtles, I didn't learn that OG Shredder was a human until I was an adult. To me, Utrom Shredder _was_ the Shredder. I also always loved how bananas this show gets after the first couple arcs. The Fugitoid stuff always really appealed to me as a young sci fi fan.
Why didn’t they just put City at War before Secret Origin? You’d have to change a few plot points but you’d save a lot of face for Shredder and the whole story would flow so much better. As it stands Shredder returns, dies, and returns again in the span of just a few episodes resulting in him rapidly outstaying his welcome and losing a ton of credibility.
The Shredder just returning to life was a freaking bad idea. They could have just showed him (I don't know) escape like Zog did or something like that instead of killing him. Also, I would point out that I don't think Shredder won the Battle Nexus. I mean, yes, his helmet shows in the hall of warriors, but is not a statue AND the design of his armor is actually kinda stolen from a certain group of "Ninjas" appearing in the 5th season. But overall, it's still pretty a good season. The episodes in the Tricerator homeworld are gold to me, and I can't wait to hear what you say about the 3rd and 4th seasons.
Out of all story-driven cartoons I’ve watched, this one has done filler episodes best. Almost all of them are very entertaining and worth watching on their own. The particular placements of these episodes in each season is also great. A big thing they help with is cushoning between major arcs where some important stuff happens, and then you have the filler episodes to take a breath. And also these episodes help with establishing the inbetween time during major events, because you need some time after the Shredder dies, to have him get revived, or in S3 you need time to slowly establish Saki’s political influence over the city after the Triceraton invasion and before the finale. But mostly they really helped to mix in the different elements of the world well (the Foot, aliens, magic, alternate dimensions, etc.). Something that S5 tried to do with the Nano episode and the banned one, but was a bit too focused on the major arc and didn’t have enough episodes to spare, while Fast Forward and Back to the Sewer didn’t bother doing it at all.
I already have this series, and it's my favorite incarnation of TMNT. I wish they'd Re-Release a Blu-Ray Version of the Entire Series. I'd buy it just to collect it. This Show, ATLA, TCW's, Young Justice, plus many Great Shows before these just bring back some good memories of just watching it.
i grew up with tmnt 2003 series and ive loved it ever since i was a kid...so happy to see other people appreciating it...keep the good work, id love to see part 3
with Shredder's reveal as an Utrom, i initially saw it as a callback to the '87 cartoon. i honestly thought they jumped the shark in making Shredder and Kraang one and the same, since i figured he was of the same race, at least in my headcanon. after the Utroms revealed themselves to the story, i kept expecting to see Kraang turn up at some point, but he was just a memory until the Bay movie
I really love the TMNT 2 Battle Nexus. I played it so many times when I was younger and I even replayed it with my brother last year and it still holds up. Such a great and underrated game
Thank you so much for talking about the handheld versions of these games! Nobody ever talks about the handheld versions and more people need to play them. Battle Nexus and Mutant nightmare on handheld are ok but, the first game based on season 1 aged very well and has an impressive amount of polish for a licensed game in my opinion. And OMG the ost slaps so hard!
Super heroes being in TMNT 2003 does kind of make sense when you realize the turtles can crossover with the DC universe, meaning super heroes and batman exist in their world, though applied retroactively of course
Krang is based on the Utroms who were first introduced in the comics. Professor Jordan Perry in the 2nd TMNT film was even meant to have been revealed as an utrom, but was rejected because he would have been mistaken for Krang. But it is likely that Krang's prominence led to the idea of Shredder being an alien warlord too. Hell, Oroku Saki was a real guy in this universe, so in a way, he's basically this show's version of Krang who just imitates Shredder.
It always amazes me just how entertaining these long videos are. I'm not one for videos over 30 minutes but I can't help but enjoy the ride with J's Reviews' videos. It sounds cheesy, but it's true.
Something I forgot to mention in the last video is the TMNT were also one of the stars for “Fight For The Fox Box” (alongside Sonic, Kirby, and Cubix), a special 4Kids made for the network that reuses footage from shows on that block. It’s pretty insane at the very least.
Greats videos. I loved this show as a kid and it's so cool to see how much everyone else enjoyed it too. I felt like it was forgotten but you break it down really well. It holds up better than I thought
Actually, the weird Shredder-in-a-jar with the worms? That's from the original Mirage storyline and it made about as much sense there as it does here. Yes, there was a colony of worms that became a Shredder clone, and also a shark. Turtles comics are WEIRD. Excellent video all around! Can't wait to see this followed up on!
Okay so, I've only seen the first season of TMNT 2003 on Paramount+, and while I enjoyed the characters and their dynamic, by the time I got to the end of the season, I was feeling both overwhelmed and bored as the story just kept getting stretched out with action. I stopped right after the first ep of s2 and haven't managed to find the motivation to start it again. I'm currently 14mins into this video and honestly just listening to your explanation of the eps that I would have watched had I kept watching just makes it all sound so EXHAUSTING! I get that the writers would want to cram in as much exciting stuff as possible but my god, take a breath! That being said, this very much could be a personal problem of mine - as I have a hard time staying focused on most shonen anime or other types of shows that have a ton of serialization and usually just watch more slice of life or episodic shows. Cause like, I really do enjoy these versions of the characters, and the one off episodes are enjoyable too. But I just CAN'T with all this dense storytelling. I'm gonna keep watching this video/series because I enjoy your content, J's Reviews, but you've pretty much cemented my decision to mostly stick with Rise of the TMNT, the 1987 show, and the various TMNT movies.
These are some fantastic break-down videos! Good work. I grew up on the 2003 TMNT cartoon, but looking over your review, it looks like I only fully experienced the first two seasons as a kid, with maybe a scattered episode or two from later on. It's such a strange feeling to see these episodes, that I thought were far deeper into the series, all playing out in the first two seasons. I'm looking forward to seeing more breakdowns and learning where the story went from when I dropped off. Keep up the great work, it's appreciated!
Great review! There are also a few other "plot-holes" on this season that I noticed when I recently re-watched the show. -The transmat seemed like a complete and working device: it sent the turtles off-world, it brought them back, it sent the federation and triceratons back, and then sent the utroms back to their home world. So, if the transmat was already working fine, why didn't the utroms use it to return home before this whole arc? It feels like they could have gone home days/weeks before those events. Or did the transmat coincidentally get ready right after the Return to New York arc and they were waiting for Splinter to heal? -Was Master Yoshi the last human guardian? Or were there other humans who working as utrom guardians? If there were, did they leave Earth with the utroms (it seemed only utroms were leaving on the transmat)? Because they clearly did not walk out of the TCRI building before it blew up. lol -I always felt like Leatherhead's backstory was not very well developed. I mean, if he was part of the "utrom family", why did they leave him behind? The utroms even invited Honeycutt to go with them, but they left Leatherhead behind and never even bothered looking for him. I understand the writers' intent was to leave Leatherhead on Earth so he could become an ally of the turtles, but then they should have come up with better reasons for him to have stayed on Earth. What do you guys think?
20:24. Is there any actual evidence that the Guardians know Shredder is an Utrom though? We know that Splinter and Hamato Yoshi and probably many of the other Guardians during the time of Hamato Yoshi but who is to say that the new Guardians were not told this information. Not saying you're wrong but there is a world where the Mortu intentionally did not tell the Guardians Shredder was an Utrom.
There was a really nice thing in the 2000s, one of the few things I can genuinely cite as an improvement on the status quo, where shows used basic logic with regards to how characters think of, and address, each other.. An older show would have had the Turtles just refer to Honeycutt as "Fugitoid" just because oh well it's on his toy package! but he's always Professor Honeycutt to them, just as Martian Manhunter is always J'onn to his friends in the Justice League. Of course, that goes hand in hand with it being the era of superheroes seemingly being embarrassed of their codenames in general, and refusing to wear their costumes in live action movies, so it's give and take. oh and they made Saki the Shredder's _family_ name, so that was a screwup. But they did the same in the 80s cartoon so whatever. At least they got Hamato right this time, and had the turtles and Splinter using the name too.
That starting section was excellent, and much needed. I remember wanting to play Mutant Melee so bad but my PC was too underpowered to either play that version or emulate the GC one, and speaking of games my faves come from the '07 movie. PC and GBA port. Not much to add to the season discussion but man. It's just so cool to see stuff like Fugitoid and the Triceratons from the Mirage comics, and done so well at that
I love season 2 because it expanded the turtles universe in a *BIG* way. It really showed that there was much more too it than just the street levels the turtles started off as. I do understand _why_ season one was better, thematically it flowed much better than season two, but season two is my favorite of the two, with just how they were able to expand the lore in a way that made sense, even if a bit garbled from time to time.
This is so much fun to watch. I actually collected the old Mirage comics just to see what similar references were used for the cartoon I grew up watching. The worms that were trying to heal Che’rell was actually an idea from Return to New York Part 3 that healed Oroku Saki’s body after the debut comic issue. I guess Peter Larid wanted to cram in his best story bits in the 2003 cartoon as much as possible.
This was my childhood after I BARELY catches the older version, I rewarded 2003 so many times I couldn’t tell heads from tails but knew about shredder death before the tournament, fast forward was fun but also let down I barely even remember the plot mostly that the new female lead was my favorite.
2003 series Turtles > 2007 movie Turtles > 80s series Turtles > 80s movies Turtles > 2012 series Turtles > 2012 movies Turtles That being said I genuinely love all iterations of them.
In The Ultimate Ninja, the beginning movie-watching wasn't just to show the character interactions. The movie they watched had the same lesson as Leo's fight with the ultimate ninja. The ice cream part was just to bring the group outside, where they can be accessed by the ultimate ninja (no way he was gonna get through Donnie's security in the lair). Another thing I wanted to add is how I actually LOVED city at war. It shows the lesson of how even actions that seem good (ending shredder) have their own consequences. I also loved the conflict between Raph and Leo, showing how 'good' and 'right' are subjective topics, and it's all about your mindset towards them. Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
I really love the way you did this video. And I can't help agreeing with most of what you said. The only thing that shrutter being an alien alien does that I have a problem with is that it undos all of the real bad a** moments for lack of a better word he had throughout the earlier parts of the series. As I'd like to say when discussing it, he won't he walked through fire hes such a bad a**. Oh wait hes just an alien in a metal suit. I think that combined with the underwhelming way hes displayed throughout season 2 really does seem to hold in on the fact that hymbian alien just attracted from him as a character.
The Shredded surviving the implosion is definitely the biggest plot whole in the show. And like you said he just started to lose a lot. Maybe the utrom physical body isn’t appropriate for the plot.
Continuity wise, it makes sense that they are capable of beating him, but he should've beaten them at least once in this Season, imo. Just to remind everyone that he's their archenemy.
He loses credibility as a villain in season 2. He gets taken out twice in Secret Origins Part 3 and when the turtles fight him they're more on his level than ever before. He gets defeated in Rogue in the House Part 2 and when Karai gets him at the end of the episode his leg or part of it is missing.
I went through some of the channel's previous videos, and it took more time than I'd like to admit for me to realize that it was not a checkmark, but actually a "J" on the thumbnail
I didn't see that comparison with Shredder and "This guy" coming at 36:00. I thought you would compare him to his older cartoon counterpart, but that shit had me rollin...
Too many people see pointing out plot holes, inconsistent writing/animation, and the like as unnecessary critique or "hating on" something. I really appreciate you pointing out these things, J, because I find it interesting, but even more than that, it helps us have standards of greatness in shows like it
in regards of Filler episodes: overall i like them. Of course depends on the quality of the filler itself, but especially in regards of adaptions, fillers allow side characters to get a bit more limelight. Of couse, fillers can also suck, for example due to placement of the episode(s) or just the writing. DBZ has some of my most hated filler Arcs (Fake. Namek.) but also some fillers which i quite enjoy (Goku's driving lessons and the few episodes of quiet before the Cell games) or are atleast relatively interesting (Gohan being trained by Piccolo).
I love your reviews they are very long but it's worth it because your not shoving everything about a whole season of a series into 10 minute video. Your videos have everything from facts most people probably didn't no and what was happening at the time of releasing and how people felt about it to your honest opinion and good reason's for it.👍👏
Back when the 2007 movie was coming out. I watched reruns of season 1 on tv leading up to it. It was my first time ever watching tmnt, it took me about 6 more years to sit down and watch the whole series. So, it holds a very special place in my heart.
I always wished that the Shredder was an enhanced human who was saved by the Utroms back when they cras landed with their advanced technology, which made him not age similar to Bishop, than an utrom and Bishop to be the Utrom and have a bit different dynamic. IDK, the shredder being an utrom, suddenly just removes a lot of his presence and IDK character. Overall season 2 started a bit weaker than season 1, especially with Turtles in Space, that dragged out for too long and the big reveal of the shredder, but it got much better later on. Also they never explained why the Shredder hates his own kind, not just Mortu and his crew.
Him being an enhanced human would've also made more sense purely on the fact that all other versions of the Shredder (to my knowledge, anyways) had been humans rather than secretly being something else
I loved this incarnation of the Turtles. Remember waking up every Saturday to watch new episodes. The stuff with the fugitoid was awesome. Seeing the Tricaratons, the Sparticus arena. Holding out hope for a complete blu-ray/ dvd release.
Whoa whoa whoa whoa. Whoa. 8:54 Did that man just get animated purposefully skipping a step??? On purpose??? They even animated _the actual weight!_ I'm sold. I'm watching it. And no, I don't care I'm 25-years-old.
just finished watching the whole 2003 series, so this is great timing, and season 2 ive seen hundreds of times as i had the season 2 dvds when i was younger, tis a small world, amazing retrospective and reviews!! :D
Just stumbled on this channel after looking for reviews on my favourite show as a kid, and whilst i love the review itself, the Jak and Daxter music in the background is just *chefs kiss*
I'm not really a fan of TMNT, but this retrospective has still been an enjoyable watch regardless! Also, if you ever do something like this for the classic Ben 10 continuity, I'd more than happy to help you out! :vD
The Leatherhead episode was the first episode of this show that I watched and I geeked out when Baxter mentioned the Shredder and then Leatherhead got mad and explained Shredder was the Utroms archenemy. It made me realise that Shredder in this show was a serious threat not just to the Turtles
I was so young when I watched this. All of the plot twists never hit me. When I went back and rewatched the series not too long ago I realized how shocking it must’ve been when shredder turn out to be an utrom.
The Shredder is obsessed with failing so he becomes his own worst enemy. Splinter tricks him into cutting down the supports for a water tower then it is kicked onto him in The Shredder Strikes Part 2. In Secret Origins Part 3 Hun says "let me finish the turtles" and Shredder replies "No, they are mine! You and the others track down Stockman. He is still of some use to me." He could've gotten Hun and the others to help him take out the turtles. Then he gets taken out by the utrom implosion device he drops. In Rogue in the House Part 1 he tells Hun "the turtles will not be taken in by such an obvious ruse Hun. Destroy them now, while you still have the element of surprise!" The turtles were being taken in by it. Raph is confused as to which Splinter is the real one when Splinter is fighting the Splinter robot. Shredder says "Hun, I am growing impatient. Finish them, now!" Hun orders the Splinter robot to be taken to full force attack and you can tell who the fake Splinter is.
@@darthwalrus4740 In the iconic 1980's cartoon and the movies, Shredder was a human who was an expert martial artist. Making him an alien diminished his character. It's like making the Kingpin an alien.
This series does a really good job with "filler" episodes not really being filler, but spacer episodes showing that time is passing between fights with the main bad guy. Their lives are not a boss rush, it's not a speedrun from fight to fight with no time or plot in between. The Atlantis story gets set up early, and then they go back to it, and then they go back again, and then over time they run into each of the races you see in the Atlantis flashbacks and find out what happened to them as well. Very few of the "one-off" episodes are actually one-and-done. If the show had continued, we'd have seen several smaller characters again, I'm sure.
One of the biggest plot inconsistencies in all of 2k3 is the Guardians, despite being fully aware of who and what the Shredder is, seem perfectly happy to write Ch'rell off as being dead, after Leo chops off his robot body's head. I know you mention this in the video, but it's probably the hardest time I have suspending disbelief with the show as a whole.
Now all those ninja turtle games mentioned on this video are giving me all good child hood memory flash backs right now man , they don’t make shows like this no more I’m so glad I was a 90s baby got to grow up in some good times for real man ✅
You know fun fact. Splinter was also an unlockable character in the first TMNT game once you beat the game as all the turtles and got the "true" final boss and ending. As yes you had to finish the game as all 4 Turtles to unlock the final level plus some cool alternate costumes. Splinter having his own cutscenes and sadly not being able to be selected in co op.
If you look at Kirai’s face at 31:46 you can possibly see uncertainty in her facial expression. Or hesitation due to the promise she made to the turtles, either way really cool look into her character which I absolutely know little about nowadays. Really should get back into our turtle ninjas
6:10 You're right, it wasn't always that way. I remember the circular arguments that used to go around the fans back then: "A real fan wouldn't say that!" "It's more like the comic so it's automatically good!" Gatekeeping isn't a new phenomenon by any stretch.
I think the battle nexus arc was my favorite out of all the seasons and wish those characters and location was used more. I remember recording these on my vcr so I wouldn’t miss anything.
12:38 I just commented on the previous video about the usage of the 2003 TMNT PS2 game soundtracks and there you go and use the Khura'in theme from AA6, you have really good taste
Ohhh myy god thank you for reminding me that I (atleast) had the Don figurine and the vehicle. Soo hype as a kid it even had projectiles on the sides you were able to shoot out😮
14:06: "Danger Room" would suffice, coming from an X-Men: TAS/Spider-Man: TAS fan. I never understood the hate against the Utrom Shredder, for I always thought that he is the perfect ruthless amalgamation of the human Shredder and his Kraang companion. Then again, this is just me being a bit more acclimatized to the '03 iteration's well placed grit and myth arcs, alongside superhero cartoons like Justice League+Unlimited at the time... however, I sympathize with how you feel on the Shredder twist nitpicks. (And this is coming from me, a guy who was around during the heyday era of the '87 cartoon and the 1990s movies, and thus before the '03 cartoon. Would explain why I have more nostalgia over Beast Wars: Transformers rather than Transformers 1984... oh, and I really have to warn you about TMNT 2012, for there are a lot of things to sorely nitpick from there, regardless if it's still a good show, legit filler eps included.) 21:10 and 30:16: Oh, boy, Spider-Man: TAS will be a piece of work to review. At least Shredder went above and beyond compared to Mega Man X's Sigma, what with attempted Multiversal omnicide later on. Not even the latter did that much damage even with his Elf Wars legacy. Can agree that the second season doesn't have much oomph as the first, but at least it has future staying power due to many things originating from it getting more relevance as the show went on, thus avoiding a "Sophomore Slump" curse. Also, can agree that its "filler eps" were thankfully followed up upon in the later seasons, which then made not not be filler anymore. Eat on that, Dave Filoni's Star Wars works, and be still, fanon discontinuity needs. Addendum: By the way, I LOVED the first TMNT '03 game, which I played on the PC back in the day. Really hope it and Battle Nexus get polished multiplatform rereleases someday.
Perhaps Shredder took Karai in is because she may have secretly been Homato Yoshi’s daughter in this continuity. That’s how it was in the 2012 show, but that was because Shredder loved the mother of Karai and felt responsible for her death. Perhaps in this show it was to smugly get back at Homato for his defiance, turning his daughter into an enemy. Maybe it was an unused plot for future stories? Not too sure on that… The bigger question is, who is Karai’s father in the Mirage continuity?
I grew up with the 80s version and was an avid gamer of the TMNT Role playing game series. The 2003 series was a large improvement in my opinion. Having Shredder be an alien was a smart way of tying the two together if they weren't going to go with Krang and the 10th Dimension angle. Over all I think it was a nice take on the Turtles and I miss having a good Turtle Series I'm excited to see more of.
I don't remember a lot of the '87 Turtles very well but one bit that always sticks with me is the 'Planet of the Turtles' arc, which like Turtles in Space here catapaults our heroes into entirely alien environments and civilizations for the first time (also '87 didn't normally do arcs; this felt almost like a mini-movie). I suppose Shredder being an Utrom would feel too much like they're blending '87 Shredder and Krang together, but later episodes introduce new incarnations of the Shredder, conveying that the name is a title carried on across generations instead of a single villain. You can have an alien Shredder, human Shredder, robot Shredder and even a demon Shredder, all different variations on the eternal nemesis of the turtles.
