Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2012)

***Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*** (also known as ***Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*** for its fifth season) is an American action, adventure, comedy, 3D rendered computer animated television series based on the fictional superhero team. It aired on Nickelodeon in the United States from September 29, 2012 to November 12, 2017.  It's the third cartoon series based on the TMNT, after the original series in 1987 and the version in 2003.

## Why It Rocks

1. Great animation, with the character designs being faithful to the original source material, and the new designs aren't too bad.
2. It is a great example of why not all reboots are bad.
3. It's one of the darkest incarnations of TMNT only behind the first five seasons of 2003, with complex storylines and dark moments that can appeal to adults., which is rare for many kid's shows today.
4. The series, while it is fairly dark, doesn't forget to have the cheesy humor the Turtles are known for and it doesn't try to be extremely edgy.
5. As the series goes on, the plotlines get more interesting by the second, with lots of continuity and story arcs.
6. Decent musical score.
7. Awesome and exciting fight scenes.
8. The new villains, such as Dogpound, are still just as good as the older TMNT villains.
9. The updated TMNT theme song is catchy.
10. An epic series finale that is really emotional.
11. The 1987 Turtles make an appearance in two crossovers in the veins of Turtles Forever, and this time are voiced by the original actors.
12. Lots of references not just to the 1987 cartoon, but from all of the Turtles lore to be found throughout.
13. The Turtles are still likable and memorable characters.

## Bad Qualities

1. Similar to some other Nickelodeon shows, it was poorly treated with the series having episodes releasing very slowly, or episodes being met with positive reception, but have been treated badly by critics.
2. For whatever reason, the second crossover was made the official series finale by Nick themselves, despite the Apocalypse Arc being the true finale.
3. The main characters are somewhat flanderized from their previous incarnation such as Michelangelo turned into a childish dimwit and Raphael being a hothead.
4. It has some scary or violent moments that can frighten younger viewers, like Splinter's death, and Tigerclaw losing his right arm by Alopex.
5. Some of the plotlines were never resolved, like the one with Timothy, also known as Mutagen Man, or what happened to Casey's family.
6. The series went downhill in Season 5 when it was moved to Nicktoons. It was considered unnecessary.

## Reception

IGN has given the show positive reviews, with many episodes reviewed being given the "Editor's Choice" title. The season 2 finale. "The Invasion" has received the highest rating of 10/10. The series premiered in the U.S. to 3.9 million viewers.

*Variety* has praised the show, saying "...handsomely produced effort, with a strong vocal cast, considerable humor and scads of high-spirited action. If the goal was to introduce the Turtles to a new generation — amphibious mission accomplished." It has a 7.8/10 on IMDb and a 7.7/10 on TV.com

It received a 94% user score on Google. Translating to a 4.7/5.