Nickelodeon UK To Premiere More Brand New Episodes Of The Hit Nickelodeon Show "SpongeBob SquarePants" As Part Of Nickelodeon UK's Autumn/Winter 2012 Highlights!

Nickelodeon UK has announced the Nickelodeon UK News that Nickelodeon UK is planning to premiere and show more brand new episodes of Nickelodeon's hugely popular original animated series ("NickToon") "SpongeBob SquarePants", including the brand new "SpongeBob SquarePants" episodes "Bubble Troubles", "Bubble Buddy Returns", "The Way of the Sponge", "The Krabby Patty That Ate Bikini Bottom", and "Fiasco!" on Nickelodeon UK and Ireland and Nickelodeon HD UK between October 2012 and December 2012, as part of Nickelodeon UK's Autumn/Winter 2012 highlights!

Nickelodeon's "SpongeBob SquarePants" (often referred to simply as "SpongeBob") is an North American animated television series, created by animator Stephen Hillenburg ("Rocko's Modern Life"). Much of the series centers on the exploits and adventures of the title character, SpongeBob SquarePants (voiced by Tom Kenny), and his various friends, including Gary the Snail (voiced by Tom Kenny), Patrick Star (voiced by Bill Fagerbakke), Mr. Krabs (voiced by Clancy Brown), Sandy Cheeks (voiced by Carolyn Lawrence), Squidward Tentacles (voiced by Rodger Bumpass), and Plankton (voiced by Mr. Lawrence), who live in Bikini Bottom, a underwater city located at the bottom of the sea, below its signature island, Bikini Atoll.

In the brand new episode of "SpongeBob SquarePants" called "Bubble Trouble", after making bubbles with hot sauce, SpongeBob and Patrick destroy Sandy's air supply and have to help her find more oxygen.

In the all-new episode of "SpongeBob SquarePants" titled "Bubble Buddy Returns", Bubble Buddy's son, Shiny, is visiting and SpongeBob tries desperately to keep him out of trouble and away from sharp edges!

In the brand new episode of "SpongeBob SquarePants" called "The Way of the Sponge", SpongeBob wants to earn his belt from karate master Fuzzy Acorns with Sandy's help. Nickelodeon Fact: Footage from this episode was used in a Nickelodeon network ID [ident] featuring SpongeBob and Master Po from "Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness".

In the all-new episode of "SpongeBob SquarePants" titled "The Krabby Patty That Ate Bikini Bottom", Mr. Krabs uses Sandy's experimental growth formula on a Krabby Patty with disastrous results.

In the brand new episode of "SpongeBob SquarePants" called "Fiasco!", Plankton thinks he's stolen a Krabby Patty from the Krusty Krab, but he's really stolen an art piece by the famous artist Fiasco. Nickelodeon UK is also expected to air the brand new "SpongeBob SquarePants" episode segment that goes along with the above new "SpongeBob SquarePants" episode titled "Restraining SpongeBob", where a fed-up Squidward resorts to legal action to keep SpongeBob away. Note: In this episode, it is revealed that Squidward is allergic to seaberries.

Nickelodeon UK has also announced the Nickelodeon UK News that Nickelodeon UK is planning to premiere and show Nickelodeon's first full-length stop-motion animated special "It's A SpongeBob Christmas!" on Nickelodeon UK and Ireland and Nickelodeon HD UK in December 2012, as part of Nickelodeon UK's Autumn/Winter 2012 line-up and "Christmas on Nickelodeon UK 2012"!

Reviews About Nickelodeon's Brand New "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Animated Television Series

Below is a selection of reviews about Nickelodeon's brand new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" animated television series, which premiered on Nickelodeon USA and YTV in Canada on Saturday 29th September 2012 and will premiere on Nickelodeon UK and Ireland and Nickelodeon HD UK on Monday 1st October 2012 at 5pm. I'll be posting more reviews as I find them. Feel free to let NickALive! know what you think of Nickelodeon's brand new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" series on Twitter at @DailyNickNews!

Please Note - This NickALive! blog post featuring reviews about Nickelodeon's brand new "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" animated TV show contains spoilers which some NickALive! readers may wish to avoid. Please scroll down the page if you wish to continue.



NickALive!'s "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Reviews" blogpost starts with a review from the animation news website Toonzone:

Review: “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”: Back Again To Raise Some Shell

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a property I have definite nostalgia for. In nursery and into my formative years of school I have strong memories of watching the original animated series on afternoon kids TV, Christmases where my mother had tracked down such treasures as the Turtle Blimp and Party Wagon toys, and even sampling oddities such as the cylinder shaped Turtle Shell bread loaves. This of course means that I’ll view newer incarnations of the brand more intently then some. It’s been a mixed ride, with the likes of the live action movies and their comedic ‘Next Mutation’ TV spin off, and most recently a series by 4Kids that stuck closer to the original Mirage comic books. We’re now on the eve of a brand new revival of the four brothers, helmed by Nickelodeon.

At its core, this is the Turtle story that many will be familiar with. In the sewers of New York a mysterious mutagen transforms four baby turtles into anthropomorphised mutants and likewise turns their human care-giver into a mutant rat. Hiding under the city streets, the rat (who assumes the name Splinter) trains his adopted sons in the ninja tradition of his homeland of Japan. On their fifteenth birthday the brothers request to be allowed to finally visit the surface at night, which Splinter begrudgingly allows. Once there, it doesn’t take long for trouble to find them.

One of the most striking factors of this new series is the focus on character and humour. We’re first introduced to the Turtles as they engage in one-on-one sparring matches, each showing clear personality and quirks. It’d be a lie to say different personalities hadn’t existed in previous incarnations, but I feel they've never been this intentionally pronounced. A perfect example of this is the conflict between Leonardo and Raphael, something that has played out in many past Turtles stories. Many of these opted to make Leo clearly superior, with Raph blinded by his anger and ego. Here, although they still butt heads, they seem to be on more equal footing, and it suggests we might get some interesting exploration of who is truly fit to lead. Indeed, Leo nurses some bad ideas himself about the role of a leader.

The comedy is equally distinctive. The patron saint of this element is Michelangelo. It's pretty common to depict Mikey as the most light hearted of the brothers, but here he’s really carrying a lot of the gags due to having a boundless energy. Although sometimes this makes him come off as an idiot (he needs certain things explained to him that are obvious to the other three), it’s usually the result of his sheer enthusiasm or a well-timed comment that had me laughing. For instance when Raph complains he’s tired of them sitting around 'with our thumbs up our noses', Mikey's response is to compare digit to nostril and comment “I don’t think they’ll fit”.
 Most uniquely, the comedy duties are not left solely to Mikey. The producers have commented they were inspired by the sight gags of the Teen Titans animated series, and this means everyone gets in on the action to some degree. One memorable sequence involves the brothers' first tasting of 'pizah' [pizza] after decades of sewer algae.
I can also see this version of Splinter going memetic enough to compete with the My Little Pony fan’s 'Trollestia'.

One plotline that crosses both characterisation and comedic is Donatello's smitten affection for April. Falling for her instantly, he becomes desperate to protect and impress her as her family becomes a target for the forces of darkness. April herself doesn't really get much to do in this opener. The decision to make her a teenage girl instead of a 20-something has raised a few eyebrows, and admittedly we don’t see too much here to make her a unique character. Independent young girls in 'boys' action shows seem to be on the rise, and hopefully April will go on to be vindicated as a strong and enjoyable character rather then an executive misstep (I'm looking at you, Miko Nakadai).
 It's fun to see Donny swoon over her (we’ve all done it to someone) but it’s the story opportunities offered that most intrigue me.

This first episode clearly acts as the opener for an ongoing story, with situations left unresolved and the clear promise of even more exciting ones to come. I’ve seen plenty of action cartoon pilots which use all their most thrilling ideas in the first episode and then get bogged down in filler until the season finale, but the new TMNT looks to be offering a more structured pacing. There’s enough going on here to draw viewers in but not too much to be daunting.

Most importantly, I think this is a show that kids will love. TMNT has often gone out its way to acknowledge the now twenty- to thirty-year-old fans who remember it from their childhood. While the new series remains aware of this loyalty, it’s primarily and correctly putting a new generation of fans first. In the last decade there have been numerous attempts to reboot 80s animation icons, and I think many of them failed because they targeted too much the imaginations of older fans. Nickelodeon's TMNT is going for an approach that respects the history but is trying to make these characters relevant to kids today. They’re fun and engaging in all the ways a show for the next generation should be.
 One of the most obvious signs of development to come is that the turtles aren’t yet amazing fighters. Many adaptations opt to have their public debut be a showcase for how skilled they are, but here the brothers completely fail to work as a team, colliding with one another as they attempt to rescue April. We do of course get to see some great action later, but the show appears to be making good on the producer’s claims that the initial story arc will be about the Turtles' journey to becoming heroes.

The voice acting is another sai in the show's belt. When I first heard that so many big names had been cast I was doubtful they’d work in the roles but everyone shines. Legend Rob Paulsen will likely receive a lot of attention for having been one of the stars of the original show, switching out Raph for Don. I'm perhaps too male to use the phrase 'adorkable' but if anyone could make the team nerd into this it's Paulsen. Greg Cipes delivers a brilliantly frantic performance as Mikey, a welcome return to the likes of Beast Boy as opposed to Kevin Levin from the melodramatic Ben 10 sequels. After getting used to his Samwise in The Lord of the Rings I was really surprised how well Sean Astin embodied Raph, portraying everyone's favourite hot-headed proud New Yorker with just a bit less of the antisocial rage seen in the movie adaptations. Jason Biggs manages to imbue Leo with the presence of someone who might just be a leader once he resolves his aspirations with reality.

Although I enjoyed this premiere, not everything sat well with me. There are some parts of both the writing and animation that felt poor and sometimes overlapped.
The show’s animation brings to mind two of the network’s other shows: Kung-Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness and Fanboy & Chum Chum, using a mix of CGI and 2D animation for flashbacks. The Turtles themselves are well done and beautifully expressive, both when being comedic and when fighting (in a wonderful touch, their eyes go pure white like the old Playmates toys during their most badass fights). However, human characters come off as noticeably less impressive in a way that crosses into issues I’ve discussed with titles such as Transformers: Prime and Planzet. Maybe this can be excused as intentional for the robo-human bodies of the Kraang, but characters such as April’s father look really dated and awkward. The CGI issues extend to locales. New York is surprisingly empty for such a bustling city and the Kraang’s base has a bold metallic sheen to it that makes it look like an unfinished render. 
The overlap occurs when one locale is suspiciously arranged so that an element is noticeably present in a distracting way and is ultimately only there to allow for one character’s fate. The resulting situation does later allow for some wonderful meta humour at the expense of the audience, but the prior staging seems very uninspired, especially for a professionally made CGI show in 2012.

Along the same lines, this version of the mutagen accident that creates the main cast might be the most awkward I’ve heard, with the writers seemingly settling on ‘It has to happen somehow, doesn’t really matter much’.
 It’s also worth noting that the Kraang’s speech style is a joke that stops being funny after its first use. They have a drawn out and redundant speech pattern which makes Mojo Jojo seem brisk. I’m sure kids will have great fun mimicking it but it’s more annoying then amusing.

An audio treat however is the new theme tune. Much like likewise legacy property Power Rangers Samurai, the show opts to make the theme tune an updating of the original. It's not quite as catchy but it’s great to hear ‘Heroes in a half shell!’ back on the box.

So, is it worth a watch? I’d say so. There are some missteps, but I think much like the Turtles themselves are shown here it’s early days and as this incarnation builds up steam it’ll only get better. It’s not taking itself far too seriously and the characters are key. I’m looking forward to this becoming one of the most entertaining and developed incarnations. After all, teenagers mature.

Yahoo! TV UK Interviews Kevin Eastman, Co-Creator Of The "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles", And Rich Magallanes, Senior Vice President Of Nickelodeon Animation, About Nickelodeon's Brand New Animated "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" Television Series

From Yahoo! TV UK:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Exclusive interview

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back in a frantic new animated series on Nickelodeon, starting on Monday 1 October at 5pm.

A new take on the near three-decade old series, it sports some impressive design work and top voice acting talent including film stars Jason Biggs and Sean Astin.

We caught up with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Kevin Eastman ahead of the launch of the new series on Nickelodeon...

Turtle power: The classic series has been rebooted for a new generation (Credit: Nickelodeon)
We sat down with Kevin Eastman (KE), the original co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Rich Magallanes (RM), Senior Vice President at Nickelodeon Animation, to talk about the series.

Why are you bringing the Turtles back?

KE: “Money! It’s all about money. No, it’s erm, well I’ll let Rich answer that one...”

RM: “We’re bringing back the Turtles because it’s a perfect fit for Nickelodeon, it really is."

KE: “What’s amazing is that even after 30 years there’s an opportunity to bring it back at all! When Peter Laird and I made the first comic book in 1984 we didn’t think it would sell copy number one. Then when we worked on the first animated series we thought, ‘Who’s going to watch this?’.

“We had such fun and we loved the process of doing it but we didn’t think it would actually resonate and work. The fact it worked initially and as an animated series, then as a movie, then it came back in the early 2000s as a Fox series and now here we are again developing a whole new series for a whole new audience. It’s a dream come true on many levels.“

How did you come up with the original idea?

KE: “One night I drew a picture of a ninja turtle standing upright with a mask on and nunchucks strapped to his arm, slapped it on the desk of Peter Laird [the other co-creator] and said this is going to be the next big thing. Tomfoolery and one-upmanship led us to making a picture of the four of them with the title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

“So the next day we came up with a story for these characters. We basically wrote it for ourselves, played on a lot of parodies and made one issue with a beginning, middle and end because we never thought there’d be a second issue.”

Did you ever expect the turtles to rocket in popularity like they did?

KE: “Just no. Absolutely, hands-down, no. When we were approached originally the comic was working as a comic book, by issue two we were actually making a living, which was where for both Peter and I the dream came true.

“Agents approached saying ‘We think this could work as toys and other things’ and we couldn’t see anything other than the comic book. As we developed it and worked through the process of making toys or doing animation we never really thought it’d work, but we threw ourselves into it with all our heart and soul.”

Is there anything you’d like to change about how the franchise has been portrayed? Any movies or series you wish weren’t made?

KE: “Of all the things we did it was the Turtles pork rinds that p**sed me off the most.... nah I'm kidding! There was actual licensing though. There was a scene in the first movie where Michelangelo and Donatello are in the kitchen. One of them is eating pork rinds and the other goes, 'Pork rinds?' This guy who worked for a pork rind company came to us saying his daughter was a huge fan of the Turtles and she'd love him forever if he could get the rights for his pork rinds. We actually allowed that to happen.”

Have you ever thought about shaking up the basic premise of the series?

KE: “What’s great about the original inspiration for the Turtles, and this goes back to what we did initially and some guest spots, it keeps changing through the animation and films. The heart and soul is always the humour and the characters though and that’s what’s always there. “

Do you understand the fan backlash about the story that Michael Bay is toying with the concept and turning them into aliens?

KE: “What's fantastic is that we even have fans to give a backlash! It's an honour. Michael Bay said the turtles would be aliens, the point he was working from was that the mutagen that mutated the Turtles going back to issue one is alien nature. Which may be a point being played up in the movie. So when the backlash happened we had to say, ‘Go back and look at the issue, its right there!’”

The new show seems to blend the look of the TMNT CG movie with more classic cartoon design, was it a conscious decision to meld the old and the new?

RM: “Absolutely. We were inspired by the comic books, the series, the movies and everything. We literally studied everything and wanted to blend those while at the same time hitting the reset button and taking it to the next level.

“It needed to be influenced by what had come before but still different and its own thing. I’m sure it’ll look like nothing else on television right now, because of the different mediums that influenced it.”

Was it nice to go back to Ninja Turtles rather than Hero Turtles? How did you feel about that controversy at the time?

KE: “One of the first times I came to the UK was to promote the first Turtles movie and by then the title of the series and movie had been changed and we were like, ‘Why?’. There were issues with the throwing stars, nunchucks etc and we were respectful but it’s certainly cool to able to go back to Ninja Turtles.”

RM: “And we’ve been eager to incorporate a lot of Ninja mythology into the new show as well, into the weapons and mindsets of each character. We had a sensei who we hired to come onto the show as a consultant - so our animation team would get demonstrations of ninja techniques, take notes and try to use that in their work, making it as authentic as possible. We still want to be fantastical but we also want to get the hand holds right, the footing and you'll see that in the show sometimes.”

KE: “When we were first successful we were contacted by gyms around the country who had been overrun with requests for karate and judo lessons. Since then I always tried to read up as much as I can and make things realistic, because the hardcore fans who are clued up need that to be realistic and not just made up on the spot.”

Watch the brand new series of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles', Mondays from 1st October at 5pm on Nickelodeon - turtles.nick.co.uk

Nickelodeon UK Announces The Programming Line-Up For The First Week Of "Make My Monday" On Monday 8th October 2012 - New "iCarly", New "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" And New "SpongeBob SquarePants"!

Nickelodeon UK has announced the line-up for the first week of Nickelodeon UK and Ireland's brand new programming block and stunt "Make My Monday", which Nickelodeon UK will show on Nickelodeon UK and Ireland and Nickelodeon HD UK on Monday 8th October 2012 to Make YOUR Monday as part of "October on Nickelodeon UK"!

According to the "What's On" schedule section on the official Nickelodeon UK and Ireland website, Nick.co.uk, as part of the first week of "Make My Mondays", Nickelodeon UK and Ireland and Nickelodeon HD UK are planning to premiere and show the brand new "SpongeBob SquarePants" episode segments "Bubble Trouble" and "The Way Of The Sponge" at 4.30pm (repeated from 5.30pm on Nick UK's plus one (+1) timeshift channel, Nick Replay UK), the brand new episode of Nickelodeon's brand new action-packed CGI-animated "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" television series "Turtle Temper" at 5.00pm (repeated at 6.00pm on Nick Replay) and the brand new episode of Nickelodeon's hit original comedy show "iCarly" called "iApril Fools" at 5.30pm (repeated at 6.30pm on Niok Replay UK) on on Monday 8th October 2012!

Below is the Nick UK & Eire's full schedule line-up to celebrate the first week of Nickelodeon UK and Ireland's brand new programming block and stunt "Make My Monday" on Monday 8th October 2012:

4:30pm SpongeBob SquarePants: SpongeBob BrandNewPants would be a better description of this, because it's all brand new! Don't miss your first chance to see 'Bubble Trouble' and 'The Way Of The Sponge', right here!

5:00pm Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Turtle Temper: Raphael loses his temper, blowing a mission and getting the team caught on video. Raphael must learn to control his rage and retrieve the video before it falls into the wrong hands.

5:30pm iCarly - iApril Fools: Carly and Spencer are being evicted from their apartment, and the gang reminisces about their time in Bushwell Plaza. Although, their memories may not be quite how we remember them.