Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) FINALLY Coming To DVD!

[FlawedCoil82]

I am so excited to hear this news! After “X-Men: TAS”, the 4Kids! produced “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” series from 2003 was my most requested DVD set that I kept hoping for, as it had only had some shoddy DVD releases previously (especially for Seasons 3, 4 and 7). I was beginning to fear that it would never be collected onto DVD in full, but apparently to capitalize off of the upcoming “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” film (plus it being the 20th Anniversary for the series), this long-awaited, under-appreciated series will see a complete DVD release on July 25th! Details are still limited at the moment but I hope we can get more information soon.

https://comicbookmovie.com/teenage-m...3837#gs.1hzoz5

Pre-Order now on Amazon!
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C8PQQ8G8...f_=as_li_ss_tl

[K7P5V]

Totally Awesome! Always liked the animation for this 2003 version

[Frontier]

That's great to hear !

[FlawedCoil82]

Totally Awesome! Always liked the animation for this 2003 version

I did too (especially through the first 5 seasons). I never understood why this series has been largely forgotten. But I am definitely getting it when it comes out!

[WebLurker]

this long-awaited, under-appreciated series will see a complete DVD release on July 25th! Details are still limited at the moment but I hope we can get more information soon.

Cool and all, but "under-appreciated?" From what I've seen, it gets the heck praised out of it, even in comparison to the other shows. (Course, the 2012 show is "my" TMNT and I did try 2K3 and found it a bit stiff and the humor not landing, so I'm kinda in the "overrated" camp on it, so take my biases with that.)

Never saw it through, but I did like the Jack Kirby tribute episode and would like to see the whole four-part "lost in time" arc (years ago someone edited all the episodes into a single movie, interspacing stuff in "real time." Saw a bit of that and it was cool, but it seems to be gone now). Are they counting the re-branded seasons as part of the set, too?

Hope the movie is the full cut; it's never gotten a home media release before.

[FlawedCoil82]

Cool and all, but "under-appreciated?" From what I've seen, it gets the heck praised out of it, even in comparison to the other shows. (Course, the 2012 show is "my" TMNT and I did try 2K3 and found it a bit stiff and the humor not landing, so I'm kinda in the "overrated" camp on it, so take my biases with that.)

Never saw it through, but I did like the Jack Kirby tribute episode and would like to see the whole four-part "lost in time" arc (years ago someone edited all the episodes into a single movie, interspacing stuff in "real time." Saw a bit of that and it was cool, but it seems to be gone now). Are they counting the re-branded seasons as part of the set, too?

Hope the movie is the full cut; it's never gotten a home media release before.

Well when I say “under-appreciated”, a big part of that is because of the treatment it has gotten from 4Kids, Funimation and their crappy releases and then Nickelodeon/Paramount who have not had any releases whatsoever except for the edited “Turtles Forever”. Fans of the show were all but forgotten and ignored. To me, it’s crazy that an American produced cartoon has gotten less complete releases here than other countries (various countries in Europe and Australia are the only places where the final season and “Turtles Forever” was released uncut).

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed much of the 2012 series, but I just felt like something about the 2003 series was more consistent and had more of a serious tone to it (at least the first 5 seasons….when it became “Fast Forward”, that’s when it lost a lot of its magic that it never regained on “Back To The Sewer”).

[Immortal Weapon]

Cool and all, but "under-appreciated?" From what I've seen, it gets the heck praised out of it, even in comparison to the other shows. (Course, the 2012 show is "my" TMNT and I did try 2K3 and found it a bit stiff and the humor not landing, so I'm kinda in the "overrated" camp on it, so take my biases with that.)

Never saw it through, but I did like the Jack Kirby tribute episode and would like to see the whole four-part "lost in time" arc (years ago someone edited all the episodes into a single movie, interspacing stuff in "real time." Saw a bit of that and it was cool, but it seems to be gone now). Are they counting the re-branded seasons as part of the set, too?

Hope the movie is the full cut; it's never gotten a home media release before.

I feel it to be under appreciated because of how often it gets passed over for the 87 turtles. I get that's the version of the TMNT that started it all but the license holders like to treat it like its the only one that matters. I don't want to wait until 2000s nostalgia to get trendy for my turtles to matter.

[Frontier]

2K3 is still my Turtles so they always have a special place in my heart .

[WebLurker]

Well when I say “under-appreciated”, a big part of that is because of the treatment it has gotten from 4Kids, Funimation and their crappy releases and then Nickelodeon/Paramount who have not had any releases whatsoever except for the edited “Turtles Forever”. Fans of the show were all but forgotten and ignored.

Nick did release a couple of episode collections on DVD, The Search For Splinter and Cowabunga Christmas, but my understanding was that the discs were a random collection of episodes from different parts of the series, so not very useful for viewing a show that had a serialized element (wasn't even like a set collecting a specific arc or anything). I do recall the show ran on Nick as reruns, it was occasionally the subject of Tweets on the official Twitter account, and the 2012 series did use it alongside the other franchise installments as source material (Hun and Agent Bishop were reimagined for it and they remade Turtles Forever in "Trans-Dimensional Turtles"). Fair enough, though, that the original show is still the "main" version and 2012 seems to have stayed in the public's eye more than the other shows in some ways.

To me, it’s crazy that an American produced cartoon has gotten less complete releases here than other countries (various countries in Europe and Australia are the only places where the final season and “Turtles Forever” was released uncut).

Depends on the show or studio; a lot of the DreamWorks animated Netflix shows don't get complete DVD releases and some Disney shows are either not collected or only as Movie Club exclusives. I've heard horror stories of how 2k3 has been out of print for years and how hard it is to get a complete set, so you have my sympathy. (Hope this set is more than just a reissue of the old discs, unlike the 2012 complete set).

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed much of the 2012 series, but I just felt like something about the 2003 series was more consistent and had more of a serious tone to it (at least the first 5 seasons….when it became “Fast Forward”, that’s when it lost a lot of its magic that it never regained on “Back To The Sewer”).

Recall that 2k3 was primarily basing itself on the original comics while 2012 used the '80s cartoon as its main source material. Suppose it's what you want or which material you think did it better (I think that Splinter being Hamato Yoshi worked way better than him just being the guy's pet rat; way more personal drama with him and Shredder). 2012 did skew more humorous, but I think that contrasted better when it did get dark (and it went to some pretty dark places). Also personally thought that 2012 did a better job of making Shredder more intimidating (compare the "first fight" scene of each show) and his vendetta against them being personal due to shared history vs. them just getting in the way of his plans worked better. Something about 2k3 just rang a little flat to me.

Course, I only saw some of the episodes, so maybe seeing the whole thing through would give more perspective.

I feel it to be under appreciated because of how often it gets passed over for the 87 turtles. I get that's the version of the TMNT that started it all but the license holders like to treat it like its the only one that matters. I don't want to wait until 2000s nostalgia to get trendy for my turtles to matter.

Think it's bit like Power Rangers; multiple iterations, but the first is the most famous since it defined what the franchise is. The comic may have come first, but the cartoon defined the show so much that even stuff that skews closer to the comics "has" to borrow certain elements (like the different colored masks, some personality traits, love of pizza, etc.).

[Zauriel]

I remember the TMNT episode where Donatello meets an artist called Kirby. Donatello and the artist visit a strange new world. Then they aid a group of heroes defeat some monsters. Donatello goes safely back to his world but the artist is stranded in the parallel world, leaving him a note behind, saying "Life is bittersweet at best".

It was really the best episode I watched.

[Captain Craig]

I was and had been out of college for some time when this debuted. I don't know when I finally saw some episodes but do recall when I did thinking this was a worthy successor to the OG'87 show.
I've seen more on reruns over the years and still feel it is the second best TMNT animated show. Although from what I've seen of the 2012 show that one has a case to be made, unless I've not seen the ones that wouldn't make it a close race for Second best TMNT animated show.

I'm going to buy this.

[krazijoe]

People still buy DVD's? I mean, it's great it's finally coming out, but it missed a lot of the core audience by about 15 years...When it takes that long, a lot of people that grew up with that show and loved it probably "downloaded" it already...

[Captain Craig]

How many external hard drives does the average person have? How many average joes know how to transfer and backup downloaded content? Few and Fewer based on how often I hear "I lost my phone everything was on there". Were you on the Cloud? Dropbox even? Nonono.

The way the owners of their content via Apps are constantly removing, censoring, editing or not making available content having your own personal hard copy is still the best.

[Thezmage]

Never saw it through, but I did like the Jack Kirby tribute episode and would like to see the whole four-part "lost in time" arc (years ago someone edited all the episodes into a single movie, interspacing stuff in "real time." Saw a bit of that and it was cool, but it seems to be gone now). Are they counting the re-branded seasons as part of the set, too?

The episode count on the website is 155 episodes, which by my count means it includes the Ninja Tribunal, Fast Forward, and Back to the Sewer seasons.

Nick did release a couple of episode collections on DVD, The Search For Splinter and Cowabunga Christmas, but my understanding was that the discs were a random collection of episodes from different parts of the series, so not very useful for viewing a show that had a serialized element (wasn't even like a set collecting a specific arc or anything). I do recall the show ran on Nick as reruns, it was occasionally the subject of Tweets on the official Twitter account, and the 2012 series did use it alongside the other franchise installments as source material (Hun and Agent Bishop were reimagined for it and they remade Turtles Forever in "Trans-Dimensional Turtles"). Fair enough, though, that the original show is still the "main" version and 2012 seems to have stayed in the public's eye more than the other shows in some ways.

There were complete season collections for every season other than the 3rd, and the first three seasons got released 4 episodes at a time

[FlawedCoil82]

How many external hard drives does the average person have? How many average joes know how to transfer and backup downloaded content? Few and Fewer based on how often I hear "I lost my phone everything was on there". Were you on the Cloud? Dropbox even? Nonono.

The way the owners of their content via Apps are constantly removing, censoring, editing or not making available content having your own personal hard copy is still the best.

Exactly! I have never understood why people put all of their faith in services or very expensive devices whenever they break. Streaming is even worse because (like you said), you never know when the platform may go down, censor or remove entire shows. I always try to get the physical copies of all of my favorite movies, music and tv shows so I don’t have to worry about those situations.