YMMV / Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation

• Adaptation Displacement: Not the series itself, but many peoples' introduction to this series was the crossover with Power Rangers in Space, since the older Power Rangers shows, including the crossover episode, had more life in reruns than any episode of The Next Mutation ever did.
• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • When reviewing the scene in which Leo tells Venus they aren't related, Phelous posits that Venus was sad when she heard this as she wanted to be part of a family again after her father had just died.
  • The male turtles tend to fluctuate between flirting with Venus and being oddly dismissive and/or passive-aggressive towards her, giving the impression that they are all a bunch of misogynistic Jerkasses who lash out at Venus due to the latter’s refusal to respond to their advances.
• Anvilicious: The show occasionally indulges in overbearingly heavy-handed morals. The most notable instant is the episode "All in the Family", where the Turtles enter an abrupt discussion on how turtles have become endangered due to pollution and being sold as pets to children who end up accidentally killing them due to treating them like playthings.
• Awesome Music: Whatever else can be said about the show, there is no denying that the opening and end credits theme songs are as catchy and fun as one would expect of a Ninja Turtles show produced by the company that gave us "Go Go Power Rangers".
• Badass Decay:
  • Dragon Lord and the Rank. Dragon Lord mostly because in the Five-Episode Pilot he almost kills Splinter and it takes all the turtles the bring him down. A dozen episodes later Dragon Lord is stuck fighting with Wick over a MacGuffin in a laundromat and defeated by itching powder while the Turtles humiliate the Rank by dressing them up like babies…
  • While Shredder is usually the Big Bad in most Turtles series, in this incarnation he gets curbstomped by Venus' mystic powers in the second episode and replaced by the Dragon Lord. The Foot Clan in general has also gone from a legitimate threat to a group of dimwitted goons.
• Base-Breaking Character: Venus. Most fans see her as a Replacement Scrappy for April O'Neil, but some fans think that she is an interesting concept and would like to see her return in one of the current Nickelodeon-helmed adaptations. It's particularly telling that even the franchise's creators have differing opinions on her: While Peter Laird is well-known for outright despising the character, Kevin Eastman has gone on record to say that he likes the character and hopes for her to someday make a comeback.
  • In a bit of irony, depending on your point of view, Venus seems to be set up as annoying Cousin Oliver, but many people wound up feeling sorry for her because she was (usually) the Only Sane Woman in a group of idiotic perverts.
• Broken Base: The quality of the suits and animatronics for the Turtles in this series: an improvement over the ones from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III or far worse than them? Arguments from both sides exist.
• Character Perception Evolution: When the show first aired, Venus de Milo was often singled out as one of the worst aspects of the show. Many fans were put off by her supernatural powers standing in contrast to the martial arts of the other turtles, and her role as a potential love-interest for the group led to the controversial decision to erase their relationship as brothers. TMNT co-creator Peter Laird even banned her from showing up in future instalments in the franchise due to his own dislike for the character. However, fans who have revisited the show since its cancellation have been a lot kinder to Venus, acknowledging how she was one of the few characters who bothered taking things seriously and was often treated rather unfairly by the other turtles when she was trying to help out. Nowadays, most fans agree that while Venus had her flaws, her character was one of the more tolerable ones to watch and was far from the biggest issue with the show. This also led to fans wanting to see her show up in the franchise again in another entry, which eventually happened in the IDW adaptation (albeit significantly overhauled).
• Common Knowledge: A common belief amongst many fans of the franchise is that Peter Laird hates Venus and the idea of a girl Turtle in general. The reality is, as Laird has stated in his blogs, he was against the idea of any fifth ninja turtle (regardless of the gender) and especially the execution of it, if it means clumsily retconning the established origin story to include that character. He called the idea "creatively bankrupt" as over the years a lot of people suggested this idea and most came from a place of thinking that five turtles would be cooler than four turtles. Venus is also not the only reason he hates this show, he also hated the overly cheesy and juvenile tone of the show and in fact, the only positive thing he had to say about the show is that the costumes were well done, considering the budget they had. The fact that the inclusion of Venus and the failure of this show was what ultimately drove Eastman and Laird apart is also a reason he dislikes Venus.
• Critical Backlash: Not towards the show itself, but the character Venus has gotten this. Due to the intense hatred she amassed from sections of the fandom who declared her the biggest detriment of The Next Mutation and one of the worst aspects of the franchise in general with even TMNT co-creator Peter Laird notoriously agreeing with this sentiment, there are naturally fans who feel this reaction to her is overblown. Several have pointed out that the show had many other massive flaws unrelated to her and feel it is unfair to act like she was the worst or only bad part of it. Some would argue she is ironically more likable than this series' incarnation of the titular turtles who are subject to big levels of Adaptational Jerkass and Adaptational Dumbass.
• Designated Villain: The vampire Vam-Mi and her minions in the "Unchain My Heart" four-parter. They are never seen attacking or harming any humans in the episodes at all and the only reason they come into conflict with the Turtles is because they have Vam-Mi's heart. They don't even kill Bonesteel when given the opportunity. The show expects the audience to assume "vampire = bad" without doing anything to show the vampires as harmful. At least until they plan to kill Venus after they get the heart back.
• Fanon: Due to the toyline depicting Venus using Tessens, fanart of the character have latched onto those as her weapon despite the fact she never uses them in the series itself.
• Fanwork-Only Fans: Venus de Milo is a popular subject of fanart and fanfiction among those who have not watched a single episode of the show. The series may be pretty much unanimously despised by the TMNT fanbase but Venus herself, while divisive, is considered to be at least an interesting concept to explore and play around with in fan works.
• Ham and Cheese: Scott McNeil's scenery-chewing performance as Bonesteel is a noticeable highlight.
• Harsher in Hindsight: "Turtles' Night Out" features a scene of Michelangelo talking to one of his callers, condemning drug use. Mikey's VA, Kirby Morrow, was later revealed to have died due to a history of drug use.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In "Unchain My Heart, Part 2," Raphael remarks that vampires are a human problem, saying vampires don't bite turtles. Several years later, a storyline in Mirage's fourth volume (written by Laird himself, ironically enough) saw Raph bitten by vampire-like creatures and adversely affected.
    • Made even better when the 2012 version of Raphael becomes the first to become a vampire in the fifth season. By Dracula himself, no less.
  • Five examples regarding the Power Rangers in Space crossover.
    • Both shows aired on FOX Kids when it started. 15 years later, both series would once again end up on the same network when Nickelodeon created their own TMNT cartoon after obtaining the rights to the franchise and had Power Rangers Samurai air on their network after Saban regained the rights to the Power Rangers franchise from Disney.
    • The first Power Rangers show fully produced by Disney was Power Rangers Ninja Storm, another series where the heroes were ninjas guided by an anthropomorphic rodent. For bonus points, the token female of both teams wore cyan and was Ship Teased with a male ninja in dark blue.
    • The 2012 TMNT show's version of Karai has many similarities to Astronema to the point one may wonder if the former is a deliberate Expy of the latter. Both are female villains who dress in black and silver, both are siblings to the hero(es) who were taken and adopted by the villain with no knowledge of who their real family was. Both try to pull a Heel–Face Turn upon finding out the truth, only to end up Brainwashed and Crazy before being freed and officially joining the side of the angels. Karai's name even begins with the same three letters as Karone, Astronema's birth name.
    • Another one related to Ninja Storm. Like the Thunder Rangers, Karai is introduced as a villain who forms a bond with a blue member of the team and has been deceived by the main villain into thinking that the heroes' rodent mentor killed their (parent)s.
    • Another crossover between the Turtles and the Rangers would happen in 2019, but now it's between the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and a Truer to the Text version of the Turtles.
  • The 2012 show has April undergoing martial arts training and later is revealed to be a mutant with Psychic Powers. In other words, she has borrowed traits from a character that replaced her in this show as the turtles' sole female ally. Extra points for 2012 April fighting with a Combat Hand Fan which was Venus's weapon in the toyline.
  • The 4Kids show had an arc where the Turtles undergo training to gain supernatural abilities, including the power to transform into dragons.
  • After more than twenty years, the IDW Publishing TMNT comic introduced an official fifth ninja turtle — and she's female, to boot!
  • Fans of Best of the Worst might find it amusing that the executive producer of The Next Mutation is Dan Clark, who went on to write and direct the goofy horror movie The Item.
  • The 17th episode has Raph and Mikey discussing who would win in a fight between Superman and Batman. In 2015, the Turtles had a comic crossover with Batman which was later adapted into an animated movie.
    • Also with that scene, Michelangelo's French voice, Adrien Antoine, would voice both Batman & Superman.
  • In this show, Splinter is friends with a black guy named Andre. As in Andre the Black Nerd, one of the biggest TMNT fans in the internet content creator world.
  • Several elements of the series ended up being reused for the 2007 CGI movie (intentionally or otherwise), like the turtles being close to 18 years old, a turtle with blue bandanna joining the turtles in New York (Venus in the series, Leo in the movie), the main antagonists being ancient evil beings who have returned to Earth, Raph having a motorcycle etc. And both the series and the 2007 movie loosely follow the events of the live-action movies.
• Ho Yay: Leo and Raph still bicker and fight like they used to, sometimes for seemingly no reason. Only now they aren't related because someone thought it would be a good idea for possible romance with Venus. Not that familial bonds ever stopped some fans from shipping the four turtles outside this series.
• Replacement Scrappy:
  • Venus is often seen by her detractors as a poor replacement for the Turtles' standard female ally April O'Neil, since the latter never appeared due to Season 2 getting the can.
  • The Dragon Lord has a fair number of people who despise him for replacing the Shredder as the Turtles' main foe and for his rather silly goal of eating the turtles to gain ninja powers.
• The Scrappy: While Venus has some defenders, you won't find any for this series' incarnation of Michelangelo. His stupidity and Jerkass streak have been flanderized, with him often making jokes at inappropriate times, and caring more about hitting on Venus or eating a snack than contributing anything useful to missions.
• So Bad, It's Good: While this incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is particularly infamous for its flaws, it still has its share of fans for precisely this reason.
• Special Effects Failure:
  • The animatronics are an admirable attempt for a TV budget and are slightly better than the ones in the third movie, in part because of them being handled by more experienced people in the Chiodo Brothers this time, but Jim Henson's costumes they ain't. The facial movements are visibly slower than that of the films, resulting in moments of Hong Kong Dub between the voice performances and the on-set puppeteering, the eyes look incredibly wonky at times, and the eyeholes for the performers are visible between the eyes and upper jaw of the heads in many shots. Meanwhile, Dragon Lord can't emote well at all and often ends up in Dull Surprise territory as a result of the more limited animatronics in his face, and Splinter goes wall-eyed more than a few times throughout the series. These flaws are very noticeable during the Power Rangers in Space crossover episodes, where by the end of "Shell-Shocked", the costume for Michelangelo is visibly falling apart at the back.
  • The decision to make Wick a puppet also raises a few issues, with his arms having the rods in the elbows instead of the hands, resulting in unnatural movements. "King Wick" also shows that when he's on his throne, he is unable to sit properly unless he's bow-legged. Furthermore in the same episode, several shots in which Wick is being carried around by Dragon Lord make it obvious that Gerald Wong, Dragon Lord's suit actor, is the one operating Wick thanks to his head bobbing when Wick is moving.
  • Rank Lieutenant's face is nothing more than a cheap, immobile mask and the henchmen are no better, with some of them even collapsing into themselves at the eyes.
  • Anytime a turtle is shown driving, the head of the costume is often pulled up to the face of the suit performer with the mouth hanging open. It is very creepy, yet also hilarious at the same time. The intro ups this by having a clip where the performer of the Michelangelo costume drives into camera view just wearing the head of the suit.
  • "Meet Dr. Quease" has a few obvious suit issues, with the armpits of Venus's costume splitting when she raises her arms in one scene and the animatronics on Mikey's face malfunctioning during the climax at Quease's lab, giving him a lazy left eye and by consequence, a derpy expression for a good chunk of it. And when the Lieutenant informs Dragon Lord that Donatello's escaped, he ends up speaking a line without his mask, clearly showing that his face is woefully inarticulate and just one solid piece.
  • The digital effects aren't a whole lot better, often looking like they were pasted onto the footage at the last minute.
  • The first episode sees Leonardo trying to break a cement block with his head, but the way the block constantly wobbles and moves around with the slightest touch quickly exposes it as just a Styrofoam prop.
• Stock Footage Failure: Due to the Activation Sequence always using the same Stock Footage of the turtles gearing up and driving away, there are several instances of a turtle who was captured appearing with the rest of the gang to rescue themself. One egregious example can be found in "The Good Dragon" Where Raphael's hand is the one flipping the switch to the Turtle's vehicle bay despite being kidnapped by the titular dragon.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Venus de Milo didn't have to be as poorly received as she ended up being. There have been examples throughout the franchise of female mutant characters who were embraced by the fans such as Mona Lisa from the original show, Karai in the 2012 Nickelodeon show and Jennika from the IDW comics. A few changes to the show could have endeared Venus to audiences like removing the hints of a Love Triangle between her, Leo and Raph, and keeping April around which would have negated Venus' Replacement Scrappy status as well as given her another female character to interact with. Her being more in tune with the spiritual side of ninjutsu could've worked if it was played differently, as it's something none of the other turtles have. Even her name is a wasted opportunity as there were notable female artists of the Renaissance.
  • According to Phelous, Bonesteel could have been a more interesting character had they fleshed out his monster-hunting credentials (from the "Unchain My Heart" four-parter), with him being a monster hunter who's motivation for antagonizing the turtles is that he perceives them to be nothing but monsters who must be put down, which could make for a more complex character who could have enmity with other antagonists like the vampires and the Rank, but instead they had him pretend to be a chair.
  • "The Good Dragon" introduces a Token Heroic Orc of the dragon race. This episode also reveals that dragons weren't always evil and were actually persuaded into waging war against humanity by Dragon Lord. The Good Dragon could have either joined the heroes as a Sixth Ranger, remained an Aloof Ally who helped them out from time to time, slowly gaining the trust of the entire team or tried to sway some of the other dragons to the side of good. Instead, he decides to go back into the prison dimension the dragons escaped from, leaving the task of ending Dragon Lord’s reign to the turtles who have shown no interest in convincing the other dragons to become good.
  • Silver. The idea that a yeti would become a mob boss is exactly the kind of narm-y, goofy, but still kind of awesome idea that the franchise thrives on. He'd fit in with plenty of other incarnations if they ever decided to use him again; if nothing else he would have been a perfect fit for the original 1987 toyline.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • In an early episode, Donatello snaps at Venus and Splinter remarks the guys are still having trouble seeing her as part of the group. That was more of an Informed Attribute, as Venus really had little trouble integrating into the group, but it could've been interesting to see her struggle and change up established dynamics in the process.
  • In the second episode, the Dragon Lord draws parallels between the dragons being banished to another dimension and the Turtles having to live underground to avoid persecution from humans. The show could have created some interesting stories out of a more grey conflict between the turtles and the dragons, with the dragons being motivated by humanity's prejudice against them for being different. This would have made the Turtles feel conflicted about opposing them since they would have had a point.
  • Phelous suggested a possible plot of the Turtles and Shredder becoming an Enemy Mine against the Dragon Lord, leading to Saki eventually betraying them and solidifying his status as the undisputed Big Bad of the series.
  • In "Unchain My Heart" it is revealed that Bonesteel is a Proficient Vampire hunter. Despite discovering and capturing one of them easily, he unceremoniously lets them go to focus on capturing the Turtles. Learning that Vampires are in the area and pivoting to taking action against them, especially with a live one that could be used as bait for the rest of the group, could have been an interesting direction for Bonesteel in this special, as it could have meant an Enemy Mine with the Turtles once he finds out they're also against them and possess the heart of their leader, with them agreeing because they're out of their depth with this new supernatural threat and need an expert vampire tracker to find them (which could even lead to him trying to use the situation to lead the Turtles into a more vulnerable position where he could get them both in one fell swoop).
  • "Trusting Dr. Quease" begins with the titular character and Dragon Lord arguing after capturing the turtles over what to do with them, leading to Quease accidentally releasing them, inexplicably convincing Donatello that there's still good in him and to try collaborating with him. Quease could have released them willingly to punish Dragon Lord’s breach of contract, or to keep them alive to try and study/dissect later after discovering Dragon Lord’s plans to eat them, which would make Donatello's conclusion and attempts at reaching out to him a lot more believable. Quease could possibly even go along with it like in the original episode, only to get increasingly conflicted as Donatello proves increasingly more useful to him, leading to either him becoming an Anti-Villain, pulling a full Heel–Face Turn, or even a Cruel Twist Ending where he ultimately decides that Dragon Lord's lab and funding are too crucial to his work, and tries to deliver Donatello to Dragon Lord after he outlives his usefulness.
• Unintentional Period Piece: Dated technology and references aside, one of the establishing shots of New York city shows a billboard advertising the then upcoming movie Batman & Robin revealing this show to be a product of 1997.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: The costumes for the turtles have a particularly grungy, overly detailed look that makes them incredibly off-putting. Not helped by the animatronics, which while overly expressive for a TV series, regularly ends up giving them stupid looks entirely by accident. Naturally, Phelous freezes on or loops these reactions in his reviews quite often, just to really show how dumb they can look.
• Unintentionally Unsympathetic: All four of the male turtles are meant to be flawed but lovable goofballs, but between constantly acting like bumbling, selfish, and callous idiots, cracking jokes and one-liners even at the most inappropriate of times, constantly fighting with each other over the most inane of reasons, along with being disrespectful or indifferent towards their mentor/father figure Splinter, and being pervy and/or dismissive towards token girl Venus, a lot of viewers end up wishing that Dragon Lord just made a meal out of them already.
• Vindicated by History: A downplayed version; it's not considered a good show, but it did poorly in the ratings, and those who did watch it absolutely hated it. Nowadays, while you won't see many go to bat for the series, many consider it enjoyable in a So Bad, It's Good kind of way, and Venus has gained a following to the point of being brought back in the IDW comics in 2022.

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