BRIEF STORYLINE: The inaugural episode of the TMNT cartoon. The episode begins with a group of no-good punks cause trouble in the streets of New York. This includes Bebop & Rocksteady in their human forms. April 'O Neill reports on the carnage and the robbing of hi-tech equipment from various labs. The punks soon target April, under instructions from the "master"(or Shredder). The turtles put a stop to the punk's aggressive advances, and save April. April faints in disbelief that talking turtles have saved her. She is taken to their lair to awake her and calm her down.
The turtles & Splinter tell April about how Splinter, once a human named Yoshi, was expelled from the Foot Clan in his native Japan. A man named Oroku Saki(Shredder) framed him for trying to kill the master of the Foot Clan with a knife. The Foot Clan turned bad under Oroku Saki. Yoshi fleed to the New York sewers with no money and lived with the rats. Pet turtles accidentely fell into the sewersand then a strange glowing mutagen was discovered by Yoshi, drenched over the turtles. The turtles mutated and became more human-like because of Yoshi. Yoshi become more rat-like, because he had most recently been in contact with the rats.The turtles rename Yoshi "Splinter" because of his martial art skills.
Splinter taught the turtles Ninjitsu because he knew the turtles would be seen as freaks, gave them each different weapons, and named them after his favourite renaissance artists, Leonardo, Raphael, Michaelangelo & Donatello.
April is still skeptical of the turles, but the turtles want to prove that they are not guilty of the robberies, and will find the real thieves. The turtles(in disguise) & April leave the sewers to find a place called "Ninja Pizzeria", where they found its name on a matchbox with that on it. Meanwhile, Shredder is furious with his punk gang for their failings against these turtles. The turtles go for a pizza at the "Ninja Pizzeria" to try and find out more about the robberies.
April investigates a builiding called Manhatten Security Services. She sees the Foot Clan as security, and are asked by a secretary to "clean up" a lab. April leaves quickly to alert her newsroom about this. But she is captured by the Foot Clan and is tied up on the rooftop of the building.
So, it is now up to the turtles to intrude the building and fight the robotic Foot Clan at the rooftops, where a disgruntled Shredder is watching from his Technodrome.
TMNT REVIEW HQ COMMENT'S: This is a well-done and nicely-executed episode.There was a real edge to the editing and presentation to it. What this episode does best, is it strongly outlays the characters of the turtles and Splinter himself. That's important for a pilot episode, where you must make a point about what the turtles are all about. It still leaves you wondering what Shredder is all about. His identity isn't revealed until a couple of shots later. Furthermore, we find out he is Oroku Saki, and it intriques you what else Shredder is going to devise for the turtles and Splinter, and what this Technodrome is all about.
The episode starts off with a rather unispired beginning with the punk gang causing havoc in the streets but it gets better with April's report on the robberies. The punks chasing April is quite stylish looking with the music and visuals. The fight scenes are good and have flair and excitement to them. There's amiable humor from the turtles as well. The episodes also clearly defines the turtles love of pizza, and one of the best(and maybe funniest) scenes is at the end, in the sewers, when April tells the turtles if they take anything seriously, and Raphael says "of course we do" and we then see all 4 turtles with big grins eating pizza.
There is very little bad about this episode. The editing ranges from good to very good and sometimes excellent. It's cutting edge television!
"TURTLE TRACKS" GETS A: 3/5 RATING (just missed out on a 4, had to tell you that)
