In all of Turtles history, no one has posed a bigger threat than Oroku Saki, the Shredder. Could there be anyone as formidable, as vicious and as cunning as Shredder? This and other questions like can a mechanical pizza chef bear shred on guitar answered in episode three of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
1.Party Captain April
Who would the Ninja Turtles be without April? “War and Pizza” is the first episode to be very April focused. She was side by side with the boys in the debut episode, but this time she literally takes center stage. The episode focuses on April’s job at a Chuck E. Cheese type restaurant called Alberto’s. She is the party captain tasked with trying to finally get a party past the “Happy Birthday” song. The 2012 series had a lot of April focused moments and did a good job folding her into the team. However, in Rise it feels like she has always been a part of the team; she hangs with the boys every step of the way. She can handle her own and is not afraid to fight off haywire whack a vole monsters with a ferocious energy. She brings a lot of extra energy to the series.
2. Pizza Power
Maybe the biggest flaw in the show so far has been the lack of pizza. We finally get some pizza love in “War and Pizza,” oddly enough. When the Alberto robot breaks down April calls Donnie to come help fix him. Leo, Mickey and Raph tag along as well. Not to help however, but to score some free pizza. While Donnie’s attempt to improve Alberto fails, the other brothers are hanging out back in the kitchen enjoying some pizza.
3. Buongiorno Kiddies!
I mentioned last week being really impressed with the originality of each villain so far, and episodes three’s “War and Pizza” and “Newsworthy” continues the trend. After Donnie’s Alberto hack short circuits he goes on a rampage destroying the restaurant and terrorizing the party guests. Voiced by the amazing Tom Kenny, Alberto is a large mechanically Italian pizza chef bear with a mustache. He becomes increasingly more creepy as more of his robot skeleton beings to show. At the same time the character provides some genuine laughs. Then in “Newsworthy,” a hypnotist is mutated along with his pet hippopotamus to become Hypno-Potamus, voiced by Rhys Darby. The design, voice and premise of this villain is too much fun. However they all pair in comparison to Warren Stone.
4.Step Aside Shredder
Going into this new series and not seeing a sliver of the Shredder anywhere, I did think to myself who would challenge the Turtles? Would there be an advisary worthy of taking on the Turtles? Well now we know, there is and his name is Warren Stone. You might be wondering who is this new villain; well, he is a narcissistic local news anchor who is mutated into a small, mutant earthworm. For some reason since his mutation, he has declared himself the Turtles’ greatest foe. This is not explained at all in the episode, and it is so much better off for that fact. John Michael Higgins’s voice is perfect for this arrogant, self obsessed mutant earthworm. The episode presents Warren very seriously, but everyone else in it does not and is often oblivious to the presence of him in the scene. At one point, grossed out by Warren landing on his face, Leo cuts him in half exposing a small cartoon bone. Warren is left in defeat forced to regenerate his small tail which takes several days; days in which he can hatch his next plan.
5.I Had My Fists Set on Bustin’ Up A Magic Hippo
The biggest take away from “War and Pizza” and “Newsworthy” is that this show works; both stories were ridiculously fun. It’s only episode 3, so there is not a huge pool of examples to judge this statement on, but this is the best episode so far. It was the perfect mix of action, humor, absurdity, and Turtles. To summarize “Newsworthy” real quick: Warren Stone is a mutated earthworm looking to defeat the Turtles. While this is going on, the Turtles are looking to track down a mutant hippo hypnotist who has stolen other magician’s animal sidekicks. Warren Stone gets a magic blue stone that when merged with his body makes him into a buff small mutant earthworm. It is just crazy.
It is a little weird to think right now there is no real continuity to the series. The mutant mosquitoes from episode one are turning all these people into these mutant villains, but it is only something that happens in the periphery of the episodes. However, with an episode this good and adventures this wacky, it is easy to forget all about that and just watch a mutant worm catch a metal projectile in his pompadour thrown at him by mutant hippopotamus.
