The latest version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which debuted with the theatrical release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem in 2023, has been gradually building its lore. It’s been doing so with video games, comic books, and, of course, an animated series. Season 2 of that animated series, titled Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has finally made its way to Paramount+. Let’s take a peek at whether this new season is a welcome addition to this new canon, or if it should have remained in the shadows.

The Good

Like the fantastic first season, the animation is 2D animated as opposed to 3D animated like the movie. Even though the show is animated differently than the movie, it still looks phenomenal. The dingy aesthetic works perfectly for New York sewer mutants. The movements of the characters during the action sequences are fantastic. Everything overall looks great.

Speaking of that action, there’s a lot of it throughout this season and it’s all extremely exciting. Raphael competing in underground fight clubs, Michelangelo taking on killer robots, Donatello battling terrifying lab experiments, Leonardo putting a stop to arms dealers, and the four of them teaming up to fight one of their biggest mutant threats yet are all exhilarating. If you like martial arts action in your cartoons, then this is the perfect one for you.

Something this season does quite well is each of the Turtles (as well as some other characters) learns valuable lessons. Some of them learn something about themselves that helps them grow while others learn important lessons about life itself. This allows the audience to care for these characters as well as gives the series plenty of emotional weight. There’s a lot here for the audience to think about with how these lessons and messages might relate to their own real lives.

Something that was a bit of an issue with the first season was that the story had the four Turtles separated for most of it. That’s not the case here. Sure, they do their own thing from time to time like real people do, but they still work together as a superhero team. Part of what makes any version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles work so well is seeing the brothers interact and play off each other. It was nice to see that element return this season after being away in the previous one.

One of the best elements of each version of TMNT is that there are always unique takes on fan-favorite characters, and that’s absolutely the case here. It’s always exciting to see incredible characters return for new versions, but it’s even better to see new stories told with them. I won’t spoil who, but there are some appearances fans will cheer over. It’s also worth noting that there are plenty of new characters worth loving just as much.

Like with Mutant Mayhem and with Season 1 of this series, the dialogue is fantastic. It all feels like it’s coming from actual teenagers. It makes the stories and the characters feel that much more authentic and lifelike. It’s also really funny at times, with plenty of banter and witty remarks. This take on the Turtles is extremely well-written.

The Bad

One of the biggest problems with Season 1 unfortunately carries over to Season 2. Master Splinter, as well as some of the Mutanimals, use animal noises or grunts instead of talking like they did in the movie. It’s extremely jarring, especially when the character plays an important part in the story of an episode. Sure, the celebrity voice actor wasn’t available for the show, but why not find a soundalike voice actor for TV? Other animated series based on movies have done that. It would feel much better. They make jokes about it in the show, but that only draws more attention to the problem than it does actually fix anything.

The formula is quite interesting and a little less gimmicky this time around. Every three episodes tell a contained story with one of the brothers as the protagonist. It works pretty well and leads to some pretty entertaining tales. That being said, because of this formula, it feels like there’s nothing being built up to. Everything starts anew every three episodes. There’s no main villain or conflict that leads to a satisfying finale. There are four separate finales that are fine, but they’re not tied together in any way.

Conclusion

Whether you’re a long-time fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or a newcomer to the franchise, this latest version of the team continues to be truly fantastic. The animation, action, humor, dialogue, and heart are all extremely strong throughout. There are definitely some awkward elements here that need to be worked on going forward, but it’s still extremely entertaining. It’s hard to see this second season and not feel excited for where everything will go next.

Rating: 9/10

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