2. Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation
Turtlemania had taken the world by storm in the late 80s and early 90s, but by 1996, it was on life-support. The third live-action film was poorly received and the classic animated series ended with its tenth season. But in 1997, Saban Entertainment decided that this dead horse could still use some more flogging. For all the worries about Michael Bays upcoming reboot of the Turtles, I sincerely doubt it could ever be as bad as this was. Loosely a continuation of the three live-action films, Saban decided to stick to the live-action format and attempted what was basically a rip-off of the Power Rangers. They even guest-starred in an episode of Power Rangers in Space. The costumes were cheaply-made and looked awful. The Turtles all received slight tweaks to their classic looks, with larger headbands and some different weapons for Leonardo and Michelangelo. The show was infamous for introducing Venus de Milo, a female turtle who Turtles co-creator Peter Laird hates with a passion. He hated her so much that when discussing the 2007 CGI film TMNT with director Kevin Munroe, Laird told Munroe that there is absolutely to be no mention of Venus de Milo. Munroe said Laird hated the character so much, even joking about her was enough to anger him. The show had Shredder and the Foot Clan in the beginning, but they were quickly replaced by a new villain, Dragon Lord and his army of humanoid dragons, called the Rank. They were trapped in an enchanted glass years ago and recently escaped (sound familiar?). With the exception of the Shredder and the Foot, all of the villains were poor characters created for the show. There was also no mention of longtime Turtle allies April ONeil or Casey Jones. And for some reason, perhaps with the intention of introducing a romantic subplot between Venus and one or all of the other Turtles, the characters are no longer blood-related, they're brothers in name only. The show was heavy on the cheese and extremely low on production values. For all the camp of the original animated series, it really pales in comparison to this. The show only lasted one season before being cancelled for reasons that have never been made quite clear. Some sources say the production budget was too large, others say it suffered from poor ratings. Fortunately, this show has become a footnote and in 2003, we got the far-superior rebooted animated series that was much closer to the comics.