BRIEF STORYLINE: The turtles arrive in Lisbon, the capital city of Portugal, enjoying some sightseeing with April and Irma. Krang plans to focus the sun's rays onto a special lens, that will cause the rays to become piping hot, and could cause immense damage to the planet. Shredder kidnaps April and Irma(as usual) and the turtles have to deal with bulls in bullfight arenas, and Vernon gets in a real pickled mess with a raging bull.
Can these heroes in a halfshell put a halt to the sun damaging the Earth? And will they free the entrapped April and Irma, made helpless by Shredder?
TMNT REVIEW HQ COMMENTS: Mediocre episode.It goes off to a bad editing start, where the turtles are inside an empty building with Splinter in Lisbon. In our first sights of Krang and Shredder in the Technodrome, with another scheme in the works, is actually well done. Krang shows a map of Europe, revealing the location of Portugal and Lisbon, he takes a break from his normal stance and notifies the viewing audience(reminders that this is only a cartoon). He says the map is "it's the educational part for them"(pointing towards you).
The episode is at it's best during the action bits. Michaelangelo almost getting rammed by a bull, escaping into the water of the fountain, is reasonably well done. April, after the end of her TV report, starts acting arrogant towards Vernon, critizising the speed of his workrate. In other words, she thinks he is lazy. However April has more sympathy for him after getting a hiding from Bebop and Rocksteady in the cement truck. Another thing is, when Bebop and Rocksteady reach April and Irma, they stop and talk, instead of taking their oppurtunity and grabbing them, and this take the drama and edge out of the scene. However, it makes for that, to an extent, with the way Irma reacts to Rocksteady saying she is "cute". She doesn't know whether to take that as a compliment. When the turtles finally arrive at the hotel construction site, the fight is slow-paced and adequate, which includes Rocksteady using a stamping construction vehicle to crush the turtles.
The turtles wear these strange disguises to merge in with the crowd. They are wearing baseball caps, with a very long front, and baggy white jumpers. Maybe it's Portugese traditional dress. Isn't the whole bull ring theme more affiliated with the country of Spain, rather than Portugal? Just a small complaint.
Vernon's cowardice is amusing, especially getting in the deep end with a bull at the bull ring building. Some decent action here, and Raphael comes close to swearing, using the word "bull" as in "that's stupid" or "thats a load of garbage". Short for "bullsh*t, anyway.
Irma provides this episode with the witty remarks. In the scene both April and Irma are tied to the over-sized mirror, and Shredder has controlled the sun rays to attack them, Irma mentions a whole new meaning to being "the toast of the town". However the exchanges between April and Irma are spoiled by the lame editing.
The ending is pretty bad, but one of the best scenes is here. Donatello breaks the device and the giant mirror by sounding the church bells so loud they crack, which is coolly done.
"RING OF FIRE" GETS A: 2/5 RATING.
