5 best original TMNT cartoon episodes better than X-Men: The Animated Series

Now in its second season, X-Men ‘97 is every bit the epic, comic-book-accurate, action-fest everybody wanted it to be. Much of its success goes back to the decision Marvel made to make the series a direct continuation of the original X-Men: The Animated Series from the 1990s, rather than “just another X-Men cartoon.” Fortunately, the powers-that-be at Marvel saw what fans have been saying since the 1990s: X-Men: The Animated Series is spectacular. With complex, thoughtful stories ripped straight from the comic books, the show was a cut above most Saturday morning cartoons from the era.

But while these mutants are getting their much-deserved renaissance, I can’t help but feel like another group of mutants from the 1990s (and late 1980s) is getting overlooked. The mutants I’m talking about are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from the original cartoon.

Running from 1987 until 1996,Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles introduced the world to the four mutated turtles known as Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Before that, the TMNT had been a successful indie comic, but hardly a household name. To this day, no matter how many times the TMNT have been rebooted, the Turtles from that original cartoon remain the most recognizable.

Though for some reason, the original cartoon seems widely regarded as kiddie fare and was never considered among other prestige Saturday morning cartoons like Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men: The Animated Series. But while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles could be wildly inconsistent in its quality, it surpassed X-Men when it was at its best. Here are five episodes that can prove it.

5 “Splinter No More”

Image: Paramount

In this season 2 episode, Donatello (Barry Gordon) develops an anti-mutagen to turn the Turtles’ sensei Splinter (Peter Renaday) from a mutant rat back into the human Hamato Yoshi (in this version, Splinter began as a human; in some others, he begins as Hamato Yoshi's pet rat). When reentering the world above after spending years in the sewers as a rat, Splinter is struck by how terribly people treat each other. And, when the transformation begins to wear off, Splinter has to hide away from angry humans terrified of the five-foot-tall rat. Meanwhile, while Splinter is human, the Turtles tackle feelings of insecurity about their master's return, fearing he’ll never want to rejoin them and that he’ll want to remain with his own kind.

X-Men: The Animated Series gets a lot of credit for its depiction of bigotry towards mutants, but this episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles does that just as effectively.

4 The First Season

Image: Paramount

It’s kind of a cheat to put the entire five-episode first season of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as one entry, but I reasoned it would be more of a cheat to list out these five episodes individually, as they’re all excellent and they pretty much tell one complete story (not dissimilar to how X-Men usually covered entire story arcs over multiple episodes).

When Playmates Toys acquired the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles license around late 1986/early 1987, they wanted an animated series to help push the products they were about to make, but no network or production company was interested. So, Playmates paid for the production of a five-episode miniseries made by Fred Wolf Studios. The story arc covers the origins of the TMNT and their Master Splinter, them meeting their reporter friend April (Renae Jacobs), as well as the introduction of their major enemies Shredder (James Avery), Krang (Pat Fraley), Bebop (Gordon), Rocksteady (Cam Clarke), and Baxter Stockman (Fraley).

While the show would take on a more comedic tone as time went on, these first five episodes had more of a balance between the humor and the action, showing the Turtles as a wisecracking force to be reckoned with. This is why the vast majority of TMNT fans consider the first five episodes to be the best of the entire series.

3 “Plan Six from Outer Space”

Image: Paramount

For my money, I liked it best when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles leaned into its more comedic elements. In this respect, comparing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with X-Men: The Animated Series is a bit like comparing a fine spaghetti bolognese and a late night slice of guac and marshmallow pizza, not because of quality level, but because X-Men is generally very serious, whereas Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was often just as much a sitcom as it was an action series. A great example of this is the season 4 episode “Plan Six from Outer Space,” which starred the dim-witted goons Bebop and Rocksteady.

In this episode, the two mutants (using human disguises) get jobs at Channel 6, the news channel April works at. They're supposed to install thrusters in the basement to launch the building into space, but when they mess around with Channel 6’s schedule, they end up getting jobs as the heads of programming.

The idea that Bebop and Rocksteady become network heads at Channel 6 is the exact kind of funny story where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles really shined. While I love the show, I’ll admit that many plots are kind of same-y, with Shredder and Krang trying to conquer Earth in nearly every episode. Yet, the show was very sharp when it came to its joke-writing, particularly the fourth-wall-breaking gags employed by Raphael (Rob Paulsen) and the idiotic exploits of Shredder’s goons.

2 “The Maltese Hamster”

Image: Paramount

Another sharply written episode of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is “The Maltese Hamster” from season 3. This episode is a parody of noir films, complete with private-eye-like narration by Donatello and a plot that mimics The Maltese Falcon. In it, April purchases a hamster statue from an antique shop which, unbeknownst to her, contains a formula for a powerful explosive. That’s why Shredder and a gangster known as Tony "The Butcher" Vivaldi (Renaday) are looking for it. Once again, it's the comedy that sells this episode as it fully embraces the most famous tropes from noir films and fills them with funny mutants.

1 “Turtles on Trial”

Image: Paramount

In another episode from season 3, we again see the mistreatment of mutants at the hands of humans. In “Turtles on Trial,” the Ninja Turtles are the target of a loudmouth talk show host named Clayton Kellerman (Townsend Coleman) who regards the Turtles as freaks and criminals. In a later scene, the Turtles get chased by an angry mob on the streets, despite the fact that they were trying to stop a crime in progress. Eventually, the Turtles agree to appear on Kellerman’s show to clear their names.

The effort mostly seems to work too, as, throughout most of the series after this point, the TMNT are generally seen as heroes and they rarely need to “hide in the shadows” like most versions of the TMNT do.

In other words, for all of Professor X's talk about finding a peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants, the Turtles accomplish Professor X’s dream in just their 20th episode.

Beat that, X-Men.