Review: Nickelodeon TMNT "New Friend, Old Enemy

The Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series has went well with the first three episodes giving us the feel of the world and characters.  Though as many has noticed, the Foot has not fought or seen the Turtles face to face.  With only one small look at them, fans have been itching to see them battle.  The fourth episode aired this last Saturday granting that wish from the fans, as the Foot has now started to make their move.  Can the Turtles handle themselves in their first battle with the Foot?  And will Nickelodeon bring the strong Ninja action that fans are hoping to see?  Those were the questions coming into this episode, now we can answer our thoughts and look back to “New Friend, Old Enemy”

This episode starts off with the Shredder getting his New York crew together.  We get to see his best student in training, kicking Foot around.  Shredder shows up with orders to find Hamato Yoshi and destroy them.  Our longest scene with Shredder so far, and a bit more of an idea of how important he seems to feel about this.  Tossing an old photo down, of Hamato and him together, as they looked like were friends in a war together.  Both of which are wearing dog tags.  It would be so cool to hear this story, though it seems his student here knows the story.

The part here that gets me is that the student, calls Yoshi Splinter.  Does this mean that Yoshi had the nickname Splinter before he got with the Turtles?  We’ve already heard from Splinter about the fire and losing Shen, as well as his name.  So I thought this would be something he would not want Saki to know already.  It leaves so many new questions out.  Where the nickname Splinter came from and how long has he had it?

Another fact that I find interesting with this scene is Shredder’s two top men for the job.  One of lighter color skin and one of dark skin.  In the original cartoon we went through this with Bebop and Rocksteady, so in away this is a nice nod to them.  Though these two seem a bit smarter and much more of a threat for the Turtles than Bebop and Rocksteady were.  Will they remain this way?

The Turtles are out for a run on the roofs, where they find a kitten.  Michelangelo is excited about this find, and learns the owner is looking for the kitty.  He decides to do the return personally, even with the warning of his brothers not to do this he goes down happy as things go wrong.  Raph shows his thoughts on Humans, as he explains that “Humans will never understand you” though he follows up with a bit of a smirk joking his rude way “Heck we don’t even understand you” as Mikey takes this a bit personal.  It’s clear he believes his brothers do not understand him as he is hurt.  Though he snaps out of this fast as he thinks he sees someone who would be a friend.

Chris Bradford, who owns a chain of Dojos across the United States and is famous for his skills will be at the St Mark’s Civic Auditorium July 7-July 14 for a Martial Arts Expo.  Michelangelo sees this bill board and gets excited thinking that Chris would be his friend.  Though his brothers are not as impressed.  I personally think that it’s cool they put dates in the show.  This gives us the feel of the weather the Turtles are going through, the length of the day light, and a great way of keeping up with time passing.  I may remember these dates since my father’s birthday is July 14th.  A fun trivia for TMNT fans down the road.

Michelangelo really wants to make friends with Chris.  With high hopes of learning Chris’s secret kata.  While Mike is going on about this, Raph goes in to tell him that Chris will not be his friend, nor will anyone else.  But the talk is cut short as they are ambushed by Foot Ninjas.  This fight scene is amazing!  A real treat for the viewer.  One of my favorite parts is that Leonardo is enjoying that they’re finally fighting humans.  Shredder’s best student shows up, and takes out each of the Turtles.  What I like about him is that he does take a chance in the fight to ask Michelangelo “What are you?”  Though the police shows up and the fight is over.

Now comes one of the most talked about scenes from the show, where Splinter and Leonardo are talking.  Leo goes on about how it was not a fair fight, and Splinter teaches Leonardo that he should not be looking for a fair fight.  But a way to win the fight.  I’ve read people’s comments saying how that’s not something that should be taught.

I do not find this as a bad lesson, I was ganged up on all the time as a child.  Had many fights that were not ‘fair’ and it scared me.  I would curl up in a ball and let these kids beat me up, because I did not feel I stood a chance.  Though when I learned to stand up to me, the same amount of kids would come at me and I was able to walk away without them getting hurt or me.  Fairness is not the answer in a fight, the answer is finding how to win.   For me, it was how to win without hurting people and I found it.

I really do like the following scene, for we get to see the guys hanging out.  Though I have to agree with a member on the TMNT-L forums, in her review she wrote that she disappointed that April was just down in the lair.  I also feel this way.  April is a lead character, it would be nice to see her steps into the Turtles lives.  As pointed out in “Turtle Temper” they could of had how Donatello got information from April, instead of Donatello explaining that he got information.  And now we get to see her sitting around with them in their home.  It just seems the April story was rushed... this is how she first met them and now she is their best friend.

Though back to what I like instead of my one problem, I love that Don is sitting on his computer with an April wallpaper, that Raph is doing push ups with his sais and that Mikey is so excited over his magazine.  Just showing them sitting around in their home.  I like seeing the stuff they got around them like an arcade machine and if you pay attention to it, it seems to have an credit screen and even some play time going on in the back ground like a normal arcade machine.  So it seems really cool.

Mikey is taking this time to fan over the idea of meeting Chris.  As Raph makes a comment, not expecting an answer.  Though April brings up the internet and Mikey’s dreams are answered as Chris takes the friend request.  The weird part for me here is Mike is just going out to meet him now, but it never says how he got the address of where to find Chris.

During this scene I like watching Donatello.  He seems concerned the full time, even sad looking as he watches Mike friend Chris.  It’s clear Don realized that this was going to turn out bad, and even asked if they should go after him when Mikey left the lair.  I like seeing this concern as I’ve always loved the Mikey/Donny team up when it comes to the Turtles friendships.  The first movie was when I first saw this team up really glow and since then it’s what I look for in the Turtles.

Chris is leaving the Rock Bottom Boxing Club when Mike finds him.  Though instead of a warm greeting Chris attacks Michelangelo.  Mikey enjoys this fight as he lets out that they are friends.  Chris is surprised and seems a bit annoyed by this, though he invites Michelangelo inside.  Once again, it seems like the story is rushed a little as we do not get to see their first hang out.  Only hear bits about it in the next scene on a rooftop with the other Turtles.  They really like just showing the guys talking about what happened.

On the rooftop though his brothers just seem annoyed with Mike, saying they would rather not talk about Chris.  There is a fun scene here where Mike is trying to make Raph look bad and says that he was the “R word” and when asked what he meant, he says “Wrong”.  I kind of like that Mikey has spelling issues, it’s another problem that I had growing up.  Not one many understood around me, but my full family had it.  So I got a laugh out of that, but I also enjoyed Don’s comment about the silent W.  His brain in this show is going to get him in trouble.  His personality is a bit different here as he has more wit to what he’s saying.

Once Mikey realizes his brothers won’t talk with him anymore on the subject, he takes off to see Chris.  Here we can see more that Chris is not excited about knowing Michelangelo, he looks just upset by it.  Though at the same time he’s trying to pry information out of Mike about his life.  But Mike is being very smart about how he answers his questions, they’re so short with them so not much about his life is really being given to Chris.  I like that he called his brothers “cool dudes”, I enjoy some of the old terms that Mike is known for like the word ‘dude’.  Though Chris is trying to find out more about him, as Mike is checking out a 400 year old sword he finally tells Chris that there’s just some things he has to keep secret.

This shows that it’s not Mike being dense about not telling Chris about his family.  It’s along the lines of avoid the subjects to keep his family safe.  I really do like this and am glad that they made sure to show this.  Mike wants friends, but he also knows the importance of not giving his life story away to a stranger.  Even with Chris not happy about this, Mike is able to keep his family stuff secret.  So Chris breaks out the big stuff and offers to show Mike his secret kata to show how much he trusts Mike, making Mikey promise not to show anyone else.

Michelangelo goes home and shows the secret kata to his brothers right away.  They are impressed by this kata and right away Mike is called away by Chris on the computer.  I was a bit disappointed with Mike’s good bye to his brothers as he’s picking on them now for not having human friends.  Though what he does not know is that he’s walking in on a trap as the show is now revealing that Chris is Shredder’s student.

Shredders two lead men talk, showing their true dislike for each other.  While they still work to do what they were told.  Chris has Mikey coming calling him ‘the freak’ while his partner is looking over the 400 year old sword making a comment about making weapons in prison.  Chris bites back how he will ‘keep it in mind’ if he’s ever ‘stupid enough to end up in prison.’

While down in the sewers Leonardo and Donatello are trying the moves they just got shown by Michelangelo.  Splinter walks in having a flashback of Saki doing those moves.  His anger shows through as he asks them where they learned this.  Splinter tells the Turtles the move came from the Shredder, as they put things together.  Raph is relieved believing things all make sense now till he realizes that Mikey’s in trouble now.

Michelangelo shows up at Chris’s place only to find the strong Ninja warrior that kicked their shells in the earlier fight.  He believes that this guy has done something with Chris as the fight takes place.  Once again, great fighting styles shown through the battle.  In this fight Chris reveals that he is the Ninja to Michelangelo as Mikey loses the fight with the shock.  The hardest part for Mike had to be the lines “You actually thought that someone like me could be friends with a freak like you”.  The look animated on his face just shows the pain and heartbreak he was going through.  They leave, with Mike tied up for the trap.

The other Turtles are moving through the night and get to where Mike is being held.  I assume that Mike at least informed them during all of his bragging about this friendship where he hangs out with Chris.  Though the part that gets me is that Don uses a Pencil Compass to cut a hole in glass, did not know those were that sharp.  We get another fight scenes where they take out the Foot Ninja in the room and free Mikey.  I like the pat that Leo does to Mikey’s head.  As they take off, Chris and the Foot is ready to follow.

The Turtles lead the Foot into the sewer for one more big fight scene where each Foot member is taken out besides for the two leaders.  The part that surprised me here is that none of the Foot screamed out that they were under attack, even though their mouths were not all covered.  The four Turtles now go against the two leaders as well as they can.  The art, script and acting here was really well done.  A wonderful fight for anyone who’s looking for fun battle scenes.  Mikey gets to take Chris down in the fight.

Once home the Turtles are enjoying some pizza, at least Don, Leo and Raph are.  They ask Splinter if he’s hungry, though Splinter explains to them why the fight is not over.  It is only just beginning.  Once they realize how bad things are, Raph notices Mike sitting alone at the computer staring at his friendship with Chris on there.  Raph walks over to Mike and sits on the desk.  This is my favorite scene of the episode.

Raphael takes a moment to try and cheer Michelangelo up, even told him that he’s an ‘awesome guy’.  Though Mike’s mind goes back to Chris.  Raph points out to Mike that he deserves better friends than Chris, as Mike thinks about it and says Thanks to Raph.  Raph pats him on the head, saying “Anytime” and walks away as Mike unfriends Chris.

This show was great.  A lot of fun, moving the Foot story forward, and giving us more questions about Splinter’s history.  I can not wait to see where they go with this.  Biggest problems is rushing April right into the group without showing her getting more use to being around the guys.  No mention of them searching for her father in this episode is another thing I find wrong.  Don should have some sort of charts of what they’ve done or something in the background showing that they are really still working on this mission for April.

Best things in this episode for me is that Mikey for the first time has a personal issue with Shredder’s right hand man.  In the 4kids series it was Casey and Raph that had issues with Hun.  I also enjoy that both Don and Raph shows feeling towards Mike at one point or another in this episode.  Showing that they really do still care for each other.  The scene between Mike and Raph is truly amazing.

Credit wise I’ll like to make mention to the new names in the cast.  Chris who is also called the Dark Ninja is Clancy Brown and Xever, the one who has to work with Chris is played by Christian Lanz.  He also voiced the owner of the cat at the beginning of the episode.  While the two skin tones still make me think of Bebop and Rocksteady, I have to say the relationship between Chris and Xever, reminds me of how Hun and Baxter use to treat each other.  I am so interested  to see where these two end up going.

I can not wait to see episode five as I’m hearing we’ll finally get to see Baxter Stockman!  The series is really going over so well already and Baxter is one of my favorite villains.

Did you see this episode?  What is your thoughts about it?  Please share reviews, comments and questions down below!