Short Description: The first and shortest season of the whole cartoon. Rather like a 5-parter showcasing the turtles origin and their first run-ins with Krang & Shredder. It had a serious mood compared to a lot other cartoons. The reason for being so short is maybe because it served as a taster or pilot to see if this will stimulate kids and get good ratings on TV. It was such a big success that, another 188 episodes were shown on TV in the years therafter.
Season Quality: The quality is definitely consistent throughout the season. All that can be said is that the season starts on a high and ends on a high, with just a small dip in quality in-between.
Animation: Welcome to you’re first taste of the crazy animation world of TMNT classic. Witness the changes in style of animation from one episodes to the next or very bad bloopers/mistakes. Let's take a brief look at the the animation style. In “Turtle Tracks”, the turtles do look to have a bigger gap between eyes and mouth than usual. Also, their noses are more prominently predominant indicated by a vertical line in the middle. This style was never used in other reasons for some reasons. Shredder’s helmet also has a very shiny look to it. Also Vernon doesn’t have the same type of voice in this season, his coward act is not portrayed at all in this season. In “Enter the Shredder”, the turtles no more have the stroke on their noses. In some scenes, their noses look ridiculously big, and gives an overall more cartoony look. The first scene of Krang shows him looking disgusting with bulging parts of his skin and looks more detailed than you have ever saw him. His tentacles are longer as well. In the following episodes he looks more simplified. Also April’s face seems to distort at times. Burne Thompson looks uglier in this season. Although he always has bags under his eyes, he looks more drained and sombre. His hair seems different too. In “A Thing About Rats”, the turtles look simplified with no nose line. Also, their eyes seem smaller than usual in a lot of scenes. Gone is the shine in Shredder’s helmet. By the “Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X” episode, the turtles once again have their nose lines. “The Shredder Is Splintered” brings the biggest change in animation, where outlines of characters are bolder but this makes the picture more sharper. The turtles look at their best without the nose lines. April’s face definitely has changed over the years. In the first season, her eyes are exceptionally big, and the nose is quite minimal, which reminds me of the way the Japanese usually portray the faces in their animation which is known as “Anime”. Sources tell me that the 87 Season was helped by Japanese animators, maybe in relation that, even though an American cartoon, it featured characters like Splinter who was taught Ninjitsu in Japan, and the origin story goes back to his native Japan which you see in “Turtle Tracks”. There’s some embarrassing bloopers like the mystery of five turtles in one scene in “Turtle Tracks”, Donatello unmistakingly talking in Raphael’s voice to April, The Stone Warriors in one scene firing laser guns but no laser coming out and one Stone Warrior “spontaneously” talks as the other Stone Warrior, General Traag. In general, They just couldn’t keep the animation consistent, and these obvious bloopers to you and I, may have gone unnoticed with the producers drenched in workload or… they couldn’t be bothered.
MUSIC: The first season’s theme and background music is probably the most well-known to general TMNT fans as it lasted for many seasons before an overhaul, but that’s another story. The theme song and video speaks for itself, as even the non-TMNT fans brought up in the 80s and early 90s will remember it. The background music comprises of guitars, flutes, saxophone and electronic instruments. There are some tunes that belong to certain characters or scenes like one for when Channel 6 is involved, dark music for Shredder, a kind of mechanized tune for when the Technodrome makes an appearance, a Neutrino’s theme, a chase theme tune like April running away fron the punks in “Turtle Tracks”. Most of these tunes carry on into the next season, but there are a couple or few that only appear in the 87 Season. The dark music for Shredder in “Turtle Tracks” when they don’t show him completely is one of them. Also, in “Return of Shredder” when the Turtles search for the Technodrome, there’s a sort of fantasy-like tune which I’m sure did not appear in later seasons. And the quality? Some music tunes were very good indeed.
ACTION SCENES: Some of the most physical and best fights can be seen in this season. In “Turtle Tracks” the Foot Soldier fight on the rooftops is quite energetic with Michaelangelo breaking out of his disguise and jumping into the air to unleash havoc on his foes. The most well done is the turtles & April scrambling to exit the flooding skyscraper, and the music emphasises the tension very well. In “Return of the Shredder” sees an imaginative battle between varied Technodrome killer robots and the turtles. Hard-hitting is one word to describe it, with Michaelangelo using his Ninchukas with great gusto, the weapon which hardly got shown in later seasons which is a shame. The short and easy fight with the foot soldiers is well edited when they get introduced to Shredder. One of the best scrums between the turtles and Bebop and Rocksteady is up next, as the newly mutated duo do get some really rough strikes but a bit short. “A Thing About Rats” shows quite a disturbing scene of a mouser catching a mouse in it’s mouth with a “chomp”. Later on, the mousers pose an intimidating force for Splinter, but the offense by him looks quite feeble. It gets much better when the turtles turn up. The turtles saving Baxter Stockman isn’t much of a fight and is rather more an opportunity for the turtle humor. The mouser fight in April’s apartment is good with an exciting entrance by the turtles, and a surprising ending, the apartment collapses. Michaelangelo’s destroying of the mouser controller against Shreddder’s will, isn’t special as you’d think Mike would attack Shredder as well. The ending action isn’t very dramatic. “Hot Rodding Teenagers From Dimension X” has some very exciting action when both the Neutrino’s and Stone Warriors come through the portal. There’s a more dramatic fashion when Leonardo destroy the weather changer gizmo in mid-air. “The Shredder Is Splintered” has another memorable fight between the turtles and Bebop & Rocksteady in the NY streets. Splinter’s showdown between Shredder is more talk than action. However, Krang’s android gets shrunk dramatically, as Donatello smashes the chip inside it’s body while Raphael and Michaelangelo try to maintain control of the turtle blimp. Then, fast moving action when the turtles attack Shredder and Krang to reverse the portal. An original sight of the Technodrome sinks into itself but not destroyed back to Dimension X. Generally, fights were good, some very good, but some of the editing is at it’s worst here, due to the fast moving action, which can be a problem to any type of TV programme or film.
FINAL THOUGHTS: The 1987 season is a compelling story of how the turtles, Splinter, April, Shredder, Krang, Bebop & Rocksteady came to be. The origin story of the turtles and Splinter is much more believable than it's movie counterpart. There's a more serious touch to it than you might see in cartoons at that time. However, it does not tell you how Krang & Shredder allied with each other, and what Krang did and looked like with his old body. Also why Rocksteady doesn't wear a helmet in later seasons. I think that it is a solid season, and despite it's more darkness and seriousness, it did have some classic comedy moments. Also the violence was toned down after this season, no more bullet guns, less karate kicks, less Ninchukas action. The best season of the whole cartoon? Wait and see. But it all can't be downhill after this? I would say "no" to that.
THE 1987 SEASON GETS A: 3/5 RATING.
