With the rather sudden and unannounced demise of this incarnation of the love franchise, it feels a flake like I'm writing an obituary. Rising of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was certainly no masterpiece (more on that in a bit), only this truncated second and sadly last season seems to exist signs that it was washed muddy by Nickelodeon. Y'all need only point to how, prior to the official premiere, the serial was given 2 seasons of 20 six episodes, merely to have the second season unceremoniously cut in half and dumped on Nick'south side network, Nicktoons to air occasionally until information technology had run its grade. Thankfully, the bear witness was able to put together a serviceable finale for its versions of the cast, but it'south clear that this probably wasn't the fashion they intended to tell that story. Nevertheless, knowing that this was the curtain call for this series actually gave me reason to go dorsum and lookout the first flavour, which I hadn't really felt compelled to see when information technology was coming out.

Produced by Andy Suriano, known for beingness a character designer for Samurai Jack, and Pismire Ward, who produced the well-acclaimed 2012 iteration, Ascent aired pretty quickly after TMNT 2012 concluded, so naturally comparisons to information technology were going to arise. Ascension also introduced a lot of different takes on what were originally expected to exist established norms for the franchise. For one, all of the turtles are different ages, species, and Raphael is now the leader instead of Leonardo, who is now the "cool guy" classic instead of just "the leader". There were many other changes, some which took a piffling longer to be accepted than others, such as mentor Splinter being a bit lazy in early episodes, and the highly frantic and comedic tone, likewise equally a heavy focus on fantasy and mysticism as opposed to sci-fi, were direct contrasts to TMNT 2012, which was a lot more than counterbalanced on those fronts, likewise equally beingness CG where Rise is 2D. But these differences, by and large, helped Rise to prove that it was its own take on the material and not merely being dissimilar to be different. Fifty-fifty the numerous original characters added for this series ended up being at least tolerable by the end.

This season's story follows immediately from the finish of Season 1, with the Shredder (who in this version is an ancient demon sealed in armor) has only been resurrected…just to have him defeated and so taken out of the testify until near the terminate where he becomes the principal focus all the way until the end. In between those points, we also run across the redemption of Businesswoman Draxum, the original creator of the turtles in this version, who now is more than probable to get skilful without John Cena voicing him I approximate. And while plenty of this flavor has decent follow ups to plots and subplots in Flavour 1, the bodily plot for this flavour seems to exist a victim of it being cut brusk. Not that y'all could tell that equally easily past the sheer spectacle of the evidence itself.

Probably the biggest highlight for Rise was simply how detailed its animation could exist, specially during fights. Every boxing, even minor ones, are imbued with hitting personality and energy that it'south difficult not to become pumped upwards whenever it'south happening. The comedy is hit or miss at times, only every graphic symbol design and interaction feels so individual and personal that yous tin feel the work and love that was put into each frame. It'southward no wonder, then that animation fans have latched onto this series, every bit so many of these fights and character models show how much of the artists are in this art.

Just where this series buckles is probably its tone, or rather how it never seems to turn off the comedy, even when information technology is pretty inappropriate. I empathize that this is ultimately a kids testify, but I don't think that ways that literally every second has to have some sort of joke shoved into dialogue or art. Information technology makes it difficult to tell when I'm supposed to be emotionally invested in the story happening in front of me or when I should be laughing. And the answer is obviously, both, all the fourth dimension. Except y'all very clearly can simply option 1 or the other and when every moment is comedic, it makes any moment of sincerity difficult to take at face value, just similar a joke would commencement to feel out of identify the longer a serious story goes without levity. TMNT 2012 was a lot better at separating those two, though the CG probably helped with that.

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is the second shortest run for these characters on Goggle box, only above the much-despised live action "Next Mutation" serial from the 90's. And unlike with the end of TMNT 2012, where the time to come for the franchise on Tv set and film looked bright, now things await much more unsure. I take no doubt we'll get another Turtles cartoon series soon enough, since it's one of those indelible decades old concepts that volition always have an audience across multiple generations, but I do promise that Ascent isn't lost in the shuffle when talking about the versions that came earlier. It may not have risen for long, just it showed admirable levels of dedication, innovation, and reverence for its predecessors that make its sudden ending (obviously due to depression toy sales, similar to Young Justice's initial counterfoil) that much more tragic. And while we do still take the Netflix movie to look forward to (assuming that also doesn't go cancelled out of nowhere), Rising has risen to the occasion.