NickToons TMMNT Episode 28- Invasion of the Squirrelanoids

by Mark Rodriguez

Just in time for Halloween, the Turtles find themselves digging deep into horror movie lore as they face mutated squirrels with heavy Aliens references. Let's check out this episode.

The episode opens with the Turtles driving around in the Shell Raiser trying to find the missing Mutagen cannisters from the previous episode with the help of Donnie's Mutagen Tracker. Mikey is distracting everyone since he's reading old horror comics. Don gets a signal coming from a Monster Matinee and find a random bum being afraid of a squirrel. Raph is confused as to why he's afraid of the little guy, until the rodent reveals its sharp teeth and long tongue. It then drawls into the guy's mouth.

The Turtles take the bum to their lair to study the mutant squirrel while trying to keep it from Splinter. Splinter finds out and asks why they brought a total stranger to their lair. They explain and he leaves angrily. Mikey keeps comparing the situation to what happened to his horror comics. Don finds out that the guy now has two squirrels inside him since it seemed they multiplied in his stomach. The bum throws up the two squirrels and now the turtles have to capture them. Raph escorts the bum outside while they do so.

One of them crawls into Splinter's room while he's mediating so Leo and Don try to catch it without waking him up. Raph and Mikey go into Mikey's room to find the other one (where they find Mikey's underwear, but that's a story for another day). Back in Splinter's room, he wakes up and quickly captures the squirrel under a plastic crate. Raph and Mike totally zone out in Mikey's room until they find the squirrel. During the attempts to capture it, it manages to crawl into Raph's mouth.

The Turtles strap Raph down to a table and pretend to get ready to operate on him. Once he freaks out, the Turtles laugh it up. Before Raph can get some payback, he suddenly throws up two squirrels, since the one he swallowed managed to multiply. Everyone split up to find the squirrels, even though Mikey objects due to what happens in his horror comic. To make matters worse, the squirrels give off some kind of energy that causes a blackout. Now in the dark, the turtles and Splinter try to find the little critters, but they have now turned into giant red Alien-inspired monsters, complete with the second mouths coming out of their mouths. As they jump throughout the shadows and attack the Turtles, Splinter leaps in and kicks some ass. The squirrels escape into the dark and creepy sewer tunnels.

The Turtles have to find and stop the Squirrelanoids, as Mikey calls them, before they can escape to the surface to attack humanity. However, noone wants to go after them. Splinter reminds them that they are trained ninja warriors, asks which one of them will be the bravest to go. It seems noone wanted to go as we see that Don sent Metalhead in their place. However our favorite Robot Turtle didn't make it far as one of the Squirrelanoids yanks its head off. Splinter told them 'I told you so' so now they have to go in person.

The Turtles head off and decide to split up, again against Mikey's suggestions. Leo says this time they will split up in teams, and he goes off with Don. Raph complains that Leo went off with the Turtle with the tracking device. Raph finally asks Mikey more about the horror comic. Mikey says in his story there is one lone survivor as the monster was picking off the team one by one. The Turtles find the monsters and are beaten up. Surrounded by all three of them, the Turtles decide to go down fighting. Raph asks Mike how the lone survivor defeated the monster in his story. As Mikey starts to explain, he gets an idea and runs off. Raph is surprised and asks if Mikey actually bailed out on them, but Don thinks he has a plan.

The Squirrelanoids defeat the turtles and are ready to finish them off. Mikey returns with some popcorn and lures them towards him. The Squirrelanoids give chase and Mikey leads them into a pool. He flushes them down the sewers where they would be stuck in a septic tank. It's not over yet as one of them whips out its tongue and pulls Mikey down with them. Just as he's about to be sucked down the pipe with them, the other Turtles grab his hand and yank him out. One of the Squirrelanoids makes one final leap at them but Raph knocks him back with some shuriken.

Back at the lair the Turtles thank Mikey since his horror comics saved the day. Splinter worries if they really are defeated. Don is convinced they're trapped in the septic tanks and it will give him time to create a retro-mutagen to turn them back to normal. Mikey however reminds them that in his comics, there are sequels and the monsters do come back, which freaks them out. In the sewers, and innocent sewer worker gets attacked by one of the Squirrelanoids...


My Opinions

This was a good episode mostly due to the comraderie between Mike and Raph. This is probably the only ep where Raph didn't really snap at or try to smack Mikey. I like how they both zoned out in Mikey's room (just layin back and having some pizza, not a care in the world), and I like how he discussed the horror comic with him. I liked the part when they heard the squirrel's screech (or whatever sounds they make) and Mike said it sounded just like the comic he read, which had Raph ask 'you were reading this... how did you hear it?'. They make a pretty good team and I liked the banter between them.

I liked the little scene with Metalhead, even though it was used a joke. I just like seeing that he's still around, and hey, he's in the intro now, which is more than can ever be said for the 80's version. I also liked seeing Timothy in Don's lab too. I liked the scene where Mikey was pointing out a certain scene from his comic to Raph and Timothy was looking at it too.

As for the squirrels, I'd like say I really liked all the Aliens references. Hell this was basically the TMNT version of the first movie. Of course the cartoon couldn't get away with having the rodents burst through the bum's stomach, so instead he threw them up. Mikey would still mention 'In my comic they would bust out of the guy's stomach'. In the end, he also mentioned the hero in his story had the monsters sucked out of an air lock. Of course due to the limited budget and expense of making new character models, the same random bum we've seen in a few episodes became a bit of an actual character, at least in the first part of the story when the Turtles took him home.

I also liked the creepy and dark atmosphere of the creatures running through the darkness, which is scary even to ninjas. They really chose a good episode to air around Halloween.

I do hate to nitpick the episode though, but the main problem is the logic behind the squirrels themselves. How did the Mutagen make them into Alien-wannabes? This is the point of the story where you have to throw your hands up in surrender, say 'sure, why the hell not' and turn your brain off. The Mutagen does whatever the hell it wants in this show on a case for case basis. I really don't see why some mutants can talk and be humanish like the Turtles and Dogpound, and others are just mindless monsters like the Cockroach Terminator and April's father.

Now some cases can be explained, since Falco was directly injecting Mutagen into himself and Timothy wasn't around any other animal to be mutated into, but why the hell was the squirrel mutated into a monster that multiplies by crawling into people's mouths and splitting into two in their stomachs? There's no reason why the squirrels didn't mutate into Squirrel-Men like the Turtles did, just like there's the reason the Turtles didn't also mutate into little creepy turtles that jump into people's mouths to multiply. Remember that this was the shipment that the Shredder originally wanted from the Kraang. So how the hell was he supposed to make an army of mutants out of this goop that basically does whatever the hell it wants?

It looks like we're in for a very unpredictable season of mutant mayhem with the Turtles. Let's see how it goes.

Death of Superman 2 (Justice League of America # 69)

By Mark Rodriguez

If it's one of the things left out in the Superman Doomsday movie that woulda been cool is seeing Doomsday take down several DC superheroes before Superman himself stepped in. Kinda like in DBZ, the Justice League of America, Bloodwynd, Booster Gold, Guy Gardner, Blue Beetle, Maxima, Fire and Ice all took a shot at Doomsday and were ripped apart to showcase just how powerful this new mystery monster was. Let's all see how this plays out.

Last time a mysterious monster broke out of some sort of underground containment unit and started wrecking havoc wherever it went. Superman and Lois Lane dealt with Clawster and some Underworlders, as the monster caused a truck to overrun and explode.

Justice League of America # 69 (heh) opens up with 'Down for the Count', as the JLA show up to rescue the victims of the burning truck and stopping the fire from spreading further. The authorities tells them that the monster escaped into the woods. Booster Gold tells them that ambulances are on their way and Blue Beetle tells them to go to The Bug (his vehicle) to look for it. Ice says it's a shame they had this emergency since she wanted to see the Cat Grant show in which Superman was a guest speaker at Roosevelt High School.

The heroes go into The Bug and Booster jokes about capturing the monster to make big bucks if it's really cool. Beetle sees a bunch of trees that have been plowed and know it's the trail of destruction left behind by the monster. Beetle suggests Bloodwynd use his psychic powers to tap into the enemy's mind. Maxima insists on doing so as well, but Beetle was hoping Bloodwynd  would do it alone so he could get an idea of the scope of his powers. Maxima taps into the monster's head and can only feel hatred, death and bloodlust personified.

On TV, Cat Grant mentions how some heroes like Wonder Woman and Enlongated Man live public lives, but they know nothing about Superman, the leader of the JLA. Superman says he's not the leader, and they all have equal roles and votes in the JLA.

The monster is destroying more trees and killing deer until he sees The Bug flying by. He picks up a stick and throws it at it.  The log smashed right through The Bug and it's quickly going down. The flying heroes rescue the non-flyers (Guy Gardner is happy to get his hands all over Ice) and Maxima lowers The Bug down slowly so it won't crash on innocent people. Booster asks if Weapons Master or Despero is behind this, and Bloodwynd says he senses the true creature responsible is nearby.

On TV Miss Grant asks Superman about his fight with Guy Gardner a while back. Superman says they may not always agree but they're colleagues and Guy always gets the job done. She then lets some of the students ask questions, and a girl asks Superman what they do in their free time. Superman says they're pretty normal when they're not fighting crime, Blue Beetle invents stuff, Maxima is adjusting to Earth life and so forth.

The monster sees a truck driving near him and he destroys it with a massive punch. The JLA hear the explosion and Guy Gardner is the first to fly off to kick some ass.

Another kid asks why Guy Gardner isn't a member of the Green Lanterns anymore (he's currently using a yellow ring), and Superman says they have no say in whatever the Green Lantern Corps decides. Kids watching the TV in Metropolis High Schools find the interview with Superman boring and say they should have had Guy Gardner instead since he 'has his head screwed on straight'.

The monster grabs Guy and slams him head first into the ground. He then stomps on his head and punches him in the head. He then grabs him by the face is suffocating him until Fire tosses green flames on him to make him let go.

Suddenly Guy Gardner becomes Yamcha....

One of the kids ask Superman if Ice is really as hot as she looks, and Superman, of course, pushes the question aside. A girl asks if he ever gets scared facing the things he does.

"Actually son, Wonder Woman has the nicer ass."

Back to the battle, Fire keeps the flames on the monster, but they don't even phase him. Bloodwynd summons the powers of the souls of people that died in the general area and delivers a powerful punch... that doesn't even hurt the monster. It punches back, sending Bloodwynd flying through a smokestack and setting him on fire. The others are amazed by the monster's power and wonder if he could survive such an attack.

Superman tells the girl she asked a good question and mentions he's always scared about hurting others and sometimes himself since there are things out there that can kill him. The girl asks if they ever get tired of fighting all the time, and asks if there's a better way to solving problems without violence.

The monster tosses a rock at Fire to knock her out. Beetle jumps into the fire to save Bloodwynd. Beetle manages to get a good look at Bloodwynd's secret identity and is surprised, but before he can announce who it is, the monster grabs him by the back of the neck. He then slams his face into a wall, then into the ground, and then into another wall. Beetle is now in horrible shape and close to dying.

Superman tells the girl that violence is something they wish to avoid but as heroes they choose to defend the world with their lives.

The monster tosses Beetle into the air, and Maxima and Bloodwynd try to catch him. The monster grabs Bloodwynd by the leg and smacks him into Maxima. The smokestack explodes around them. With noone to save him, Blue Beetle has a hard landing. Ice says he seems very still. Booster mentions taking him to the hospital, but Ice says she's afraid it might be too late. Booster Gold is pissed.

The TV show is interrupted with news of a monster attacking a refinery in Ohio, and giving trouble to the entire JLA. Superman flies off to investigate.

Booster fires off a high-intensity blast but the monster keeps on coming. Booster manages to raise his forcefield fast enough to withstand a powerful punch from the monster that sends him flying. As he knocked back, Booster wonders if the monster is alive or if it's some kind of doomsday device. Superman catches Booster mid-flight and says he hears they're having trouble. Booster says it's more than just trouble, it feels like Doomsday is here.

This was an interesting read showcasing some lesser heroes, that with the exception of Guy Gardner, and later Maxima, I knew nothing about. Doomsday just tears these guys apart. Beetle never gets back up from that, and from what I hear he goes into a coma a little after this storyline. Guy Gardner is in horrible shape, but still in the fight. I'm surprised when I saw Maxima was a member of this team. For those that watched the Superman Animated Series, Maxima was a powerful woman from the planet Almerac that was looking for a suitable mate. I honestly thought she was made up for the cartoon. Shows how much I know, LOL

I know this is the JLA comic, so of course we'll only see members of the JLA, but I do wonder why with such a threat all over the news taking down superheroes left and right, the big guns like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel didn't step in?

The classroom scene was cool, I guess more of Superman's gosh-darn-goodness before all that ends next issue. It is is ironic when they ask if anything scares him and he says he knows there are things out that can kill him. I do have to laugh at the girl asking if there's a way around violence. I know it's to deliver the message that violence is wrong, and that violence is not the answer.... and Superman admits he wishes there was another way, but c'mon girl... Look at the guys they fight. Do you really think the Joker, Lex Luthor and hell... friggin Darkseid are gonna stop their evil plans because the heroes calmly asked them to stop and talk things out over some tea?

We'll see how it goes for Superman next time as he comes face to face with what Booster Gold is now calling... Doomsday.

And oh, and in case someone is wondering since this won't come up in this particular story arc... I looked it up. Bloodwynd was Martian Manhunter in disguise and since fire is his weakness, Beetle got to see his true form seconds before Doomsday turned him into paste. Apparently he was forced by a villain to impersonate the real Bloodwynd... and they eventually find and rescue the real one.

Deep Dish Pizzas Muffins

Welcome back to my random recipes and this time I'm going to make a pizza recipe. Very delicious and fun to make. These are fun-sized deep dish pizza muffins, perfect for parties, dinners or whenever you're hungry for pizza! lol This recipe doesn't take long to prep and not long to cook.

When I remade these muffins for this post, I had to make them at my dad's (I was babysitting the dogs) So I forgot my rolling pin at my house. >.> So I tried my best without it. lol

What you need:
Muffin Pan
Rolling Pin
Circle cookie cutter
Refrigerated pizza dough
Cheese (Any preference)
Toppings (Any preference)
Pizza sauce
Cooking spray







Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 425 Degrees (I used the instructions on the dough package) and spray the muffin tray with some cooking spray



2. Roll out the pizza dough and cut out rounds with a cookie cutter. Place the dough inside the muffin pans.

3. You know what to do it here. Make your dream deep dish pizza muffins..Place your favorite kind of cheese, sauce and toppings. Place another round of dough on top to form the muffin. If you want, you can leave off the top, make it just a deep dish pizza.

4. Place in oven for 9-12 minutes or until golden brown. (I again followed the instructions on the dough package.

5. Enjoy! It's messy, especially if you filled them up! So have plenty of napkins with you!

NickToons TMMNT Episode 27- The Mutation Situation

By Mark Rodriguez

The Turtles return for a second season of more wild wacky fun and adventure. Unlike the season opener Rise of the Turtles, this was actually a one-part episode, but even so it felt like so much happens in this one. Let's check it out.

They're back for season two, baby!!!!! But wtf with Raph? He looks like he's forced to do the 'high-three' here. I know he's 'the angry one' but he goes along with the 'high-threes' with no problem.

The season opens with the Turtles skateboarding across the nightly skies, patting themselves on the back over their victory at the end of 'Showdown'. Mikey brags about stopping a cheese monster, that never really happened, but the Turtles decide to just go with it. They're happy and are sure to never see the Kraang or Shredder again. Don decides to visit April, but things aren't so happy with her. Even though her dad is safe and sound, he's still suffering horrible nightmares of when he was captured by the Kraang and is paranoid they're still out there, thus not letting April out all that much.

Meanwhile the Shredder is planning to get a shipment from the Kraang, but asks what they will do if the Turtles show up. The Kraang say they are ready for the Turtles and unleash some sort of monster.

In the sewers, Leo, Mike and Raph are playing dodgeball with the Kraang-Orb (wtf you idiots), while Don and Metalhead are still working on Timothy's condition from 'The Pulverizer Returns'. Splinter feels the Turtles have gotten lazy and it's time for them to stop celebrating and get back to training. Just then the orb starts glowing and Don realizes that the Kraang are back.

Don determines that the Kraang are bringing in some kind of shipment in their invisible scouter ship from 'Enemy of my Enemy'. Don creates a new tracking device (that looks like a modified classic Game Boy), but needs April's help to locate the Kraangship for them. April decides to bring her dad along, making him think it's some kind of school project. They locate the spaceship and Kirby freaks out upon seeing that the Kraang are back. The Turtles fly into action using a T-Rocket that propels them in the air on their hang-gliders.

I guess all you have to do is plug some eggbeaters into your Game Boy and you can track down alien spacecrafts.

The Turtles fight 3 of the Kraang, who unleash a giant ape-like robot with mini-buzzsaws that can be controlled by one of the Kraang controlling it. As the Turtles fight it, a panel off one of the walls breaks loose and they find out that the shipment was numerous vials of Mutagen. During the fight with the ape monster, the ship loses its balance and all the vials of Mutagen fall out of the ship, raining across the city below. April sees this and sees that one of them is going to fall right on top of her.

Luckily for her, Kirby tackles April out of the way. Unlucky for him, the vial of Mutagen shatters and the contents spill all over him, turning him into a mutant bat. Don, Raph and Mike argue over who's fault it was that the vials fells over the city, while Leo is still busy fighting the monster. Don finds out that the monster even has 'butt cannons' that fires off laser beams at them. Mikey finally gets behind it, yanks the Kraang off it and tosses it against the other two. He then tosses shuriken at them to destroy the controls and send them flying off the ship. Don stabs his Naginata (that's what it's called when the blade sticks out of the staff) into the controls and uses it as a joystick to send the ship upwards into the space.

Butt Cannons??? IT HAS BUTT CANNONS???

The Turtles fly off in their gliders towards April and sees the bat about to attack her. April tells them not to hurt him and it flies away. The Turtles see the broken vial and determine the bat was April's father. Even though there are vials of Mutagen all over the city, the Turtles decide to try go find April's father first.

Poor guy... not only is he a mutant bat, but he also has a real small arm and a normal sized arm. WTF is wrong with the Mutagen in this series, as well as the Nick writer's twisted imaginations?

The Turtles return to their lair and ask Splinter for advice, while not exactly telling him the truth. Splinter says the best way to lure out an animal is with food. Since bats eat insects, they dress Mikey up as a moth. Mikey feels he's being used as bait.. but they tell him he's actually now a superhero. Mikey calls himself the Turflytle and happily goes along with it. They fly across the city on their hang gliders, Raph pulling Mikey along as if he were a worm at the end of a fish pole. Mikey would annoy everyone by using 'buzz buzz' at the end of his every sentence. Elsewhere, April wakes up on a rooftop and sends her father for food to buy her time to escape.

The Kirbybat spots the Mikey-Moth and goes after it. During the arial fight, Mikey calls Kirby 'Wingnut' to which Don snaps at him to not call April's father a 'monster name'. The fight leads them all into a warehouse that was part of Leo's plan. Once inside, they are able to lock Kirby into a steel cage. April finds them and is in a panic as to how to get him back to normal. Mikey carelessly mentions that they were the ones responsible for the Mutagen falling all over the city 'but don't worry, we'll fix it'. Kirby gets enraged and flies out of the cage and escapes. April is also enraged as well and says she never wants to see the Turtles ever again, which is especially hurtful to Donnie.

Later on, Shredder is disappointed that the Kraang failed in getting him the Mutagen he wanted. He tells Karai that the Kraang are useless and will go elsewhere to expand his army.

The Turtles return to the lair, looking sad and not knowing what do about April and her father. Splinter reminds them that right now the most important thing is to go and find every last canister of Mutagen throughout every inch of the city before they have even more mutants to deal with. As they speak, a random squirrel finds some spilled Mutagen and gives the camera that epic zoom-in close-up we've seen before in videos.

Opinions:

This was an awesome way to start the season, and everything felt so fast paced that it seems like so much happened, even when it wasn't an hour-long premiere. We did like the little cameos of Metalhead and Timothy, showing that they are not forgotten. It's also worth mentioning that they slightly changed the intro, when they mention Donatello, Metalhead can be seen walking around, and the scene that once showed Shredder, Dogpound, Fishface and the Foot, now show a whole lot of other villains including Spider Bytes and Snakeweed.

The guys sure are good at making enemies, aren't they?

Shredder and the Kraang are still up to their evil plans, but it seems at the end of this episode Shredder will end their partnership and look for minions elsewhere.

Not those.....

We both feel bad for April and especially her father (though why the hell did April just stand there like a deer in front of headlights instead of jumping the hell out of the way???). First he was kidnapped for a whole season, had a mind control device on the back of his neck that made him attack his own daughter, then he was suffering nightmares over the whole ordeal and finally he was mutated into a bat. And not a talking bat either... a mindless monster kind of bat, which again brings the question to why some mutants can talk, other can't, and others end up like Timothy. This Mutagen just does whatever the hell it wants to as the plot requires. And as for Mikey calling him Wingnut... no... just no. He's an insane alien bat, and is totally not cool as April's father or a mindless bat monster.

Wingnut... he's got nothing to do with April... at all...

Unfortunately this looks like Kirby's excuse to leave April without a father for another season. That's one of the problems with April being so young in this version. She can't be running around doing as she pleases without parents, but yet being held back by a father making her do chores or homework would also cramp her style. So we must find some excuse to constantly keep Kirby O'Neil out of the picture. I hope they're ready for that huge can of worms they'll open if they ever find a cure, because not only will several mutants be after them to get them, it would also be very dangerous for the Turtles, since the risk exists that it could turn them back into ordinary pet shop turtles if they get exposed to it.

Speaking of which... one thing that bothered us was when Kirby flew off. They know the city is now littered with Mutagen canisters, but 'April's father comes first'. Actually both are just as urgent.... so Paige asked out loud 'why didn't they just split up?' Then in the following scene they're back in the lair stressing out. What the hell? This show seems to have a problem with the Turtles not taking these kinds of situations with the urgency they require. Sure, the scene was important since it led to Splinter giving them advice... but why didn't Leo go home to consult Splinter while the other three Turtles kept looking for the bat while picking up any Mutagen canisters they can find. Or hell, why didn't Don come up with 'bats eat bugs' sooner while they were still outside? There was no reason for the Turtles to just drop everything and go to the lair other than 'this episode is about Kirby, the NEXT episode will be about random mutants'.

Before the preview of the next episode came on, which showcased mutants on the loose, Paige was sure they'd forget about the Mutagen cannisters for another couple of episodes.

Speaking of April and her predicament.... ouch dude. Just ouch. While April in the Red Sky series did kinda stay away for a while, we've never seen her tell the Turtles off and say she never wanted to see them again. This is especially heartbreaking towards Donatello since she snapped when he tried to reach out to her, and even though her rant was towards all of them, it felt more like she was directly yelling at him.

Finally, there were some dumb moments here and there. C'mon Mikey... how can you NOT know you're being used as bait? They led him like a dumb little kid with the whole Turflytle gag. No Mikey, just no.  There's naive innocence, and there's just being stupid... and having the others take advantage of it. He also seemed very insensitive and overly cheerful when he told April they were responsible for the Mutagen rain... Dude, he father is a mutant bat monster and he's in the room with you, geez. Really can't blame her for blowing up at them and walking out for that one. And as for the others... what the hell with you guys playing dodgeball with the Kraang-orb? For all they know, they could have blown up the lair or something.

Overall it was a good episode. Gotta love the part when Splinter freaks out when the Turtles mentioned a cat. See you guys next week for more Turtle fun. In the meantime, what better way to end this article than my own personal run-in with the Turtle Van!

Cowabunga dudes!!! The original lives on to this day!!!