‘Tales Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Season 1 Review – Turtle Power Has Never Been Stronger

Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles expounds on the recently introduced turtle universe that first saw the light of day in last year’s Mutant Mayhem. Just as that film was arguably the best the turtles have been on the big screen to date, Tales makes the same case on the television side of the situation.

Of course, with a small-screen budget and less ground to cover, the new show isn’t quite as visually flavorful as the film, but it successfully carries that beloved, personalized style into a more simplistic frame. Lines are jagged, humans are funny-looking, and the inky city skyline aesthetics are back in full force.

Tales does well in haplessly throwing the viewer right back into this world, too. You get a little background here and there, but for the most part, this is an assumptive adventure in a world you’re expected to at least rock with, even if you don’t fully understand it.

But again, that couldn’t be easier. The show is a visual stunner all the same, and there’s very little in the same market working on the same scale of stylized visuals and exaggerated details. When the stories, or tales, aren’t all that grabbing, you can still rely on the basic entertainment factor that comes with your eyes being set with stuff to look at.

For kids, especially, this is great news. But just as they did with the film, fans of the TMNT franchise of all ages should find plenty to love here as well. This new adaptation, from accurately young, scrappy voice acting to extraordinarily well-understood character writing, does more than the trick. This is the trick. This is the standard.

As suggested in name, Tales is a serialized take on the franchise so far, episodically breaking the turtles down to their most essential parts and molding their characters into finer versions of their already well-realized selves. You can pretty much jump in anywhere, like any good cartoon of the same sort, but there’s always something to take away from the main characters, and it’s stuff that should reflect positively on them going forward, too.

It almost feels like a second test of the temperature. The first one went well, but with the now well-known Shredder tease at the end of the first film and an entire series dedicated to getting to know these guys better, you get the sense that the team behind these turtles is taking their time with the bigger stories. That’s a nice change of pace from franchises full-on footing it to try and catch up to the giants that have paved the way for connected universe storytelling. TMNT is doing that on a much smaller scale, sure, but it’s the same process nonetheless, and It says a lot that the green guys are straight smashing the competition.

The big thing with Tales is just going to be how much you liked the film before it. Even if it’s hard to outright dislike, there’s no denying that some people came out underwhelmed, and in that case, this show may only drive some further from the source.

But for the already initiated, it really is a delightful time. You get multiple fun journeys through oozing green cityscapes and awkward teenage social situations. It’s the perfect cocktail of light drama, solid comedy, and unmatched vibes. Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a slick continuation that realizes more of the potential that Mutant Mayhem introduced to the world. More of this, alongside a more narratively focused sequel, could mean these turtles specifically become the quintessential versions of the source material on any screen moving forward, and why shouldn’t they? Cowabunga, we say.

Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is currently available to stream on Paramount+.