Late last year, Nickelodeon revealed that they would be airing the first two seasons of the 2003 TMNT series in a special holiday event on their Nicktoons channel. At the time, we were hopeful that a high viewership would convince the company to release the series on DVD. After all, previous releases were a mess and some volumes are now next to impossible to find. Unfortunately, although we can now announce that Nick has finally decided to give the 4Kids fans some new DVDs, they won’t be coming without their fair share of issues. In fact, fans who currently own the previous releases from Funimation may just want to hold on to those copies.
In a press release from Nickelodeon, it was revealed the other day that they would be producing two DVDs featuring episodes from the first season of the 2003 series. This confirms that they will not be doing season sets – at least not yet – and with their behavior concerning the home video releases for the current TMNT series, fans may not want to hold out hope for anything more. What’s worse is that the two DVDs they are planning to release appear to be re-releases of previously existing Funimation volumes.
Here is the official press release from Nickelodeon:
“When four pet turtles were bathed in ooze, they began to mutate and became the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Raised in New York City sewers by their foster father and martial-arts Master Splinter, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael wage war against crime. They stop evildoers in all forms, whether barbaric gangs, lowlife crooks, deranged cyborgs, or even the crime syndicate The Foot, led by their archrival, The Shredder.
The search is on in this totally rad value-pack! A Mousers attack has separated the Turtles from their master! But they get more than they bargained for when their search for Splinter leads them to a building connected with their mutation. Also, it’s total Turtles action when Leo, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey return to New York with one goal in mind: to destroy the Shredder once and for all. And this battle promises to be a fight to the finish!
The classic 2003 series of the hot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise returns to DVD with Volume 1 and Volume 2. Each single-disc volume includes 3 first season episodes filled with all the ninja action and comic-book adventure that TMNT fans love…released in time for summer and available at hot, low value pricing!”
The first DVD will be titled NYC Showdown and the second is The Search for Splinter. As TVShowsOnDVD pointed out, the premise and titles for these releases are very similar to volumes 7 and 8 of the original DVD sets. In fact, one of the titles is exactly the same as its previous release. Nickelodeon isn’t even trying to hide the fact that they are essentially just re-releasing the previously mismatched and incomplete DVD sets that fans have been stuck with for over a decade.
To make matters worse, each DVD set is said to come with only three episodes of the series, while previous releases had four episodes. If possible, it appears that Nick might be producing even lazier and cheaper releases than Funimation originally crafted 11 years ago. Fans of the 4Kids series were hoping that they might finally get the whole thing in season sets, but it would appear that Nickelodeon has no interest in doing this any time soon.
If their releases of the current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series are any sign, it could be a few years before we see a Season 1 set, and even then it may just be a compilation of these DVDs. Fans of the 2K12 series are already left wondering where the blu-ray releases are, as it is a television show produced in high definition and has yet to see a high definition home video release. To put it simply, this is yet another sign in a long history of poor home video productions which suggests that Nickelodeon has no idea what they are doing when it comes to the home video market.
Harsh criticisms aside, fans of the 2K3 series may still want to pick these DVDs up, if only to upgrade from their current overplayed copies of the same volumes they previously had. If your current Funimation DVDs are starting to show signs of wear, it might be worth it to take advantage of these re-releases, especially since high sales will definitely inspire Nickelodeon to keep working with the series. Who knows? Maybe they’ll finally give the fans what they really want somewhere down the road, but for now we’re stuck with this. Be on the lookout for these “new” DVD sets in stores on June 9th, 2015.
What do you think? If you’re a fan of the 2003 TMNT series, do these releases come across as a slap in the face or a welcome addition to your library? Are we being too harsh on Nickelodeon? Let us know in the comments below!
15 comments
Just seems a waste of time. I would have bought them again as full seasons. Hopefully Back To The Sewer might actually get released at some point..
Nick is being ridiculous! It’s about as silly as Netflix releasing random episodes of Samurai Jack! What is wrong with these people?? How long do fans have to ask for the box series like they did with the last airbenders to do it??
One giant box set please xD
and then start releasing merchandise, everything please xD I love 2k3
When?
Why don’t they do a series boxed set? I’d buy it. It was worth getting up for as a kid back in the early 2000’s for when I was a kid. Love this series!!
It would be a dream come true if they release them all. I grew up watching the 2K3 version. I agree that they should release a box set!
I would really like the Back to the Sewer season of the 2003 TMNT it’s the only one I’m missing from my collection. An maybe to have season 3 and season 4 to not be mixed and matched with each other over 7 DVD discs because that was a headache to try and find them when I was looking for them on Amazon.
This is the best news I’ve heard so far about the TMNTs thse days! Not just only the 2003 TMNT fans should buy them, watch them, and so on, and so on, but all the 2012 fans too, all the TMNT fans! In my opinion, the 2003 TMNT is the best version so far in the TMNT cartoon releases!
A DEATH IN THE TURTLE FAMILY IN IDW’S TMNT COMIC #44!!
read the comic or look it up,it’s a controversial choice,who dies and who kills them.
it’s part 4 of a their 4 part Technodrome storyline,i recommend it,Shredder,Krang,Bebop,Rocksteady,Baxter,The Mutanimals are all involved and do cool things.
It’s such a fact this website is crap,a MAJOR CHARACTER DIES and they don’t report on it!
IM GONNA BUY THESE!!!!!
I still think it’s good their at least release episodes, some of the original releases are becoming very expensive but even with that said I wish they would just release complete seasons. Answer this Nick, is it real THAT hard???
What’s so hard about taking what you have and making some money? There are plenty of fans! Quite cheating us already and give the fans what they want!
Will these have only the English dub or do they have dubbing for other languages, not just spanish and french, but Scandinavian and other European languages too? And subs that correspond, word for word, with the languages?
It’s a shame. I finally completed the original series collection not realizing that Volumes 3-6 were all season 3! I’d been missing seasons 4-6 without even realizing it. I never really watched the 2003 series but I have a son who loves all things turtles now and I wanted see about these. How disappointing to see that they have been jerking fans around with this like the original series! This seems even worse because of their rarity! Nickelodeon seems to be doing ok with the latest series. I see they have Season 1 and 2 comprised in one set now and the only real annoyance with season 3 to present is that they are naming the sets, like these re-released here, and don’t tell you which season/volume it is. Simple fix though, I just write on the insert which one it is so we aren’t confused later. I think it’s more acceptable with a current running series to release them in small batches, especially cartoons because kids can spend their allowances and slowly collect them but on past shows they should always be released by seasons or series sets! I hope they change their minds on this soon as it has been a couple years since this post.
They need to release the whole boxset and stop playing.
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