Man... the way the '80s Shredder and Krang were treated....

I always find it funny how internet cultured message board communities get such in a huff about their personal affection towards their childhood items. If only the message board community on the internet could be this passionate about stuff in real life we'd probably have a lot of problems in this world fixed already.

Anyways enough side bar.

I think a lot of people are taking the 'butthurt' attitude towards this movie and not looking at it for what it is. The simple truth is, the 80s cartoon was a simple cash in of the turtles comics, anyone who knows TMNT history can tell you that, but what they also know, but may not admit is, without the 80's cartoon the TMNT franchise as a whole would not be anywhere close to as big as it was.

Americans love a good victim story and love to stand behind one, and someone stealing someone's work (or in this case just cutting someone out of the picture) and cashing in on it, is seen as a huge travesty and something to really get behind and seek revenge (the revenge mentality in this country is borderline fantasy in my opinion), but if that person happens to create something that gets people interested, its simply forgotten until the story of that creation being stolen outshines the creation because the creation is old, outdated or lost its luster. A victim story, especially a cliche such as this, never dies though, just put on hold until its product of the cashin in wanes enough in favoritism.

This cartoon in its purest form was in my opinion gloried fan fiction, and in many ways it was, but it was also a big thank you to the fans.

The fact that the 80s material was thought of so badly was because as a turtles fan you know the truth behind the cartoon, however you still love it because as a child you don't know anything about backroom politics, and as a fan of 80's cartoons in general when you look back at 20+ years later and create something paying homage to it, you take the grand sum of it all and mash it together and what is left is the biggest stereotypes of 80's cartoon culture, which just seems overboard by comparison.

but they were bumbling idiots even in the 80s show especially during the later seasons. i rewatched the entire 80s run just couple months ago before i started the 2003 series, and even the voice actors of original shredder and krang said they played the characters like married couple. the 80s show was more of a sitcom than an action cartoon with krang constantly nagging shredder and their harebrained schemes involving digging out the technodrome from wherever it was stuck at the moment, if you rewatch the 80s show now, you'd probably be disgusted by how ridiculous some of the old plots were.

Look at it this way; 80s Shredder is at least smart enough to realize that destroying the source dimension will destroy everything, unlike his rage-blinded counterpart. He's willing to team up with his enemies to stop that from happening and holds his own in the final fight (since when did he know how to use his cape to glide?).

I loved the 80s series, but no one can deny how funny and silly it was. In terms of brutality between Shredders, there's no comparison at all. The 'Giggle Ray' indeed sounds like something they would try.