Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – Karai’s Vendetta


Until recently I've stayed away from the newest cartoon version of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles due to its awful hip-hop version of the classic TMNT theme song and the CGI design of the series which is a far cry from both the original comic and popular 80's cartoon. After a couple of episodes I've gotten used to the look of the new show (but not the theme), and although the series seems aimed at a younger audience than even the original there is still some fun to be had.

In "Karai's Vendetta" April O'Neil's (Mae Whitman) life is put in danger when her importance to both Kraang (Nolan North) and the Turtles, causes the Shredder (Kevin Michael Richardson) sends his daughter Karai (Kelly Hu) to kidnap the young woman while the Turtles are busy trying to stop Kraang from further infecting the city's water supply with mutagen creating "Kraang water" which is dangerous to all forms of matter except April.


To scope out Kraang's underwater operation, Donatello (Rob Paulsen) busts out his latest invention (a turtle-shaped submarine powered by bicycles). As Turtles fight off the various Kraang androids and a sea monster in the middle of an underground base about the explode, above ground April runs from Karai before having to stand her ground and use Splinter's (Hoon Lee) training to escape her attacker.

April and Karai (who so far is my favorite character of this series) carry much of the episode. The turtle sub is goofy, but fun, and there's quite a bit of action (including Karai beating the snot out of April for 30 seconds or so). The fight between the pair reveals the death of April's mother while strongly suggesting Karai's similar tragedy. The episode ends with April forced to abandon her life above ground and move permanently into the sewers with the Turtles until the Shredder and Kraang have been stopped.

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