Hello ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another rendition of Hall Of Frame, where we admire the greatest stills that animation has to offer. In this installment we've dedicated to go with the heroes in a half-shell way before they were mangled by the hands of the Bay machine. The original TMNT cartoon was probably one of the most important parts of the Saturday morning for tons of children back in the 80s. It certainly was unique, having amphibians who fight crime while scarfing down pizza and talking like surfer dudes being mentored by a giant rat. They would often face themselves against an enemy from Ninja Gaiden with the voice of a portly lawyer who doesn't take any shit, a gangster rhinocerous and warthog, and a brain inside of a wrestler. And to boot, they would also find themselves crossing paths often with a yellow-coat wearing spunky news reporter with a tremendous...career. It was cheesy, sure, but it was imaginative and marketable. It also has managed to be delightfully amusing due to its dated nature, and no more is this noticeable than through the cels that contain these turtles. Without further ado, here are our picks.
HerrVarden's Pick: An Honorable Offering
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To the common eye, this frame is nothing more than another representation of the what the turtles are about. They enjoy themselves some of the best Italian cuisine that their sewer ways could afford. But upon further inspection, one can tell that Michelangelo is not simply giving you a piece of pizza. Look into his eyes, he sees you in despair. You are facing some sort of deep troubles. They may be financial, social, work-related or personal, but whatever it is, he can see that it is affecting you down to the very core of your soul. This mutant does not let you continue to wallow in your anguish, he tries to help you in your time of need. Just like a good Samaritan does to a homeless man, his saintly gaze catches your attention as you see his offering held in a manner that almost indicates that he will feed you the slice. He just bought the pizza as it is still whole and the box is still relatively intact, and despite him having to give it to his other brothers, he goes along and offers you a piece. You can tell that if that's not enough, he will give you more. It is a frame that tells the viewer that they should not worry. They should not be afraid. For this ninja is incredibly charitable and will stay by your side. He will assist you as if you were an infant, assuring that each and every qualm you have will be washed away.
TheOneManBoxOffice's Pick: WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE!!?
![Posted Image]()
The earlier seasons of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon had their fair share of hilarious and quirky moments, and in many cases, frames that make us want to bust a gut laughing at when we press the pause button. This is really one of those interesting moments rather than a funny one, at least to me. Now I'm sure you've heard the phrase "broke the fourth wall" at some point. If you don't know, it's an idea when a character (or, in this case, characters) is well aware that they are in a cartoon/TV show/movie and they have the ability to directly communicate with the audience. If you look at this frame on its own, to me, its like they are directly looking at us for the first time and having an on-the-spot reaction as to what they think of their audience. Since some of us watch this show for nostalgia reasons today, I can assume Leonardo and Donatello are somewhat surprised, whilst Michelangelo and Raphael are like "This is who we're entertaining!? Eeeewww!" as if they're looking at a past-and-present photo comparison. However, looking at it on the comedic side of things, we can also assume that something awkward happened on the other side of the screen and the turtles are reacting to said action like they were watching a nutshot compilation on AFV. Personally, it can work either way, but I like to look at it more on the comedic end. In any case, no matter what this particular frame means to you, this is one that can have a mixed reaction from the general consensus, mostly a hilarious reaction.
Crazy Luigi's Pick: Leonardo: Lord of the Ice Cream?
![Posted Image]()
Usually, when looking for frames that I find worthwhile for the Hall of Frame, I look for the ones that provide some of the more hilarious, out of context frames that make people wonder how the fuck it even happened in the first place. I remember with the first one that I took a simple frame from Super Mario Bros. 3 (thanks to one of Vinesauce's dubbed videos), and asked myself if it was the first time I ever saw that frame without the actual context, would I still laugh all the same? It turned out the answer was yes, so I decided to put that frame in our first ever article there. When I saw that frame from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog with Scratch and Grounder being squashed by Dr. Robotnik's gigantic ass thinking the duo was somehow transforming into Dr. Robotnik himself (or something like that), that was also something where I decided I had no chance but to choose that frame as my frame. With this third time, however, it was more of a challenge on what I wanted to choose since some of the better frames were already covered in one of James Rolfe's videos displaying the fuck ups the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon from the 1980's had.
In the end, I felt that to me, this picture would have been the one that did it for me. If it was already covered by that same person's video I mentioned earlier, then I apologize for that mishap. With that said, I say "fuck it" and consider it an underrated gold mine that makes for more interesting questions upon itself. One thing that easily makes this stick out is that Leonardo is holding a chocolate and strawberry ice cream cone instead of his usual weapons, but that's only the tip of the iceberg of what's to come here. A noticeable feature that the strawberry ice cream apparently has is that it showcases perfectly sharp blades that look like they're protruding out of them if you aren't looking carefully enough. It almost makes you want to ask "why's the strawberry code so damn special to have that in the first place?! What do you have against chocolate, huh?" In fact, a lot of what this picture portrays will leave you asking quite a lot of questions there once you look at it clearly.
Another noticeable aspect here include the reactions that each turtle have involving Leonardo's ice cream. Instead of everyone being in shock, only Leonardo is understandably shocked beyond all belief about this scenario, while every other turtle has reactions ranging from somewhat surprised to concerned to even not giving a shit one bit. You would think that everyone would be in surprise like that, but it really isn't the case at all. In fact, you start questioning things like 'why are they each reacting the way they are (aside from Leonardo for obvious reasons)' and 'why only chocolate and strawberry instead of chocolate and vanilla?' The funny thing is that there might have been an actual device somewhere that actually made the TMNT's weapons get turned into ice cream, but it only hit Leonardo's weapons instead of everyone's, which might have lead to something like that in the first place. Whatever the case may be, and even if the ice cream was the more common combination of chocolate and vanilla, it still provides enough head-scratching hilarity to make it's place in the Hall of Frame.
Nozdordomu's pick: "Even Splinter Looks Confused"
![Posted Image]()
For a series with so much exposure and popularity, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon is pretty obviously flawed. Most of the time, its animation is hardly better than that of the infamous Mario cartoons, and dozens of layering mistakes, duplicate turtles in frames, and mismatched voices will attest to that. This frame has none of those, but for sheer awkwardness, it can't be beat. Everybody looks like they're made of wax and propped up in the stiffest, most baffling poses an an animator can imagine. I found the picture in James Rolfe's video on Turtle flubs, and he pointed out that Michelangelo's bandanna strangely looked like a scarf. Alright, but what about that weird, pursed-lips expression Mikey's wearing? Or the arched-eyebrow, Retard Luigi-esque gaze on Splinter's face? From what I remember, they weren't in a particularly confusing situation at the time of this scene, so unless Splinter's pointing at death from above, this frame makes no sense at all. (Also, it almost looks like Mikey's flipping the bird.)
Honorable mention: for innappropriate expressions, this frame can't be beat. Why is Splinter so pissed off? Nobody knows. And you gotta love those buttock-esque turtle mouths.
![Posted Image]()
HerrVarden's Pick: An Honorable Offering
To the common eye, this frame is nothing more than another representation of the what the turtles are about. They enjoy themselves some of the best Italian cuisine that their sewer ways could afford. But upon further inspection, one can tell that Michelangelo is not simply giving you a piece of pizza. Look into his eyes, he sees you in despair. You are facing some sort of deep troubles. They may be financial, social, work-related or personal, but whatever it is, he can see that it is affecting you down to the very core of your soul. This mutant does not let you continue to wallow in your anguish, he tries to help you in your time of need. Just like a good Samaritan does to a homeless man, his saintly gaze catches your attention as you see his offering held in a manner that almost indicates that he will feed you the slice. He just bought the pizza as it is still whole and the box is still relatively intact, and despite him having to give it to his other brothers, he goes along and offers you a piece. You can tell that if that's not enough, he will give you more. It is a frame that tells the viewer that they should not worry. They should not be afraid. For this ninja is incredibly charitable and will stay by your side. He will assist you as if you were an infant, assuring that each and every qualm you have will be washed away.
TheOneManBoxOffice's Pick: WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE!!?
The earlier seasons of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon had their fair share of hilarious and quirky moments, and in many cases, frames that make us want to bust a gut laughing at when we press the pause button. This is really one of those interesting moments rather than a funny one, at least to me. Now I'm sure you've heard the phrase "broke the fourth wall" at some point. If you don't know, it's an idea when a character (or, in this case, characters) is well aware that they are in a cartoon/TV show/movie and they have the ability to directly communicate with the audience. If you look at this frame on its own, to me, its like they are directly looking at us for the first time and having an on-the-spot reaction as to what they think of their audience. Since some of us watch this show for nostalgia reasons today, I can assume Leonardo and Donatello are somewhat surprised, whilst Michelangelo and Raphael are like "This is who we're entertaining!? Eeeewww!" as if they're looking at a past-and-present photo comparison. However, looking at it on the comedic side of things, we can also assume that something awkward happened on the other side of the screen and the turtles are reacting to said action like they were watching a nutshot compilation on AFV. Personally, it can work either way, but I like to look at it more on the comedic end. In any case, no matter what this particular frame means to you, this is one that can have a mixed reaction from the general consensus, mostly a hilarious reaction.
Crazy Luigi's Pick: Leonardo: Lord of the Ice Cream?
Usually, when looking for frames that I find worthwhile for the Hall of Frame, I look for the ones that provide some of the more hilarious, out of context frames that make people wonder how the fuck it even happened in the first place. I remember with the first one that I took a simple frame from Super Mario Bros. 3 (thanks to one of Vinesauce's dubbed videos), and asked myself if it was the first time I ever saw that frame without the actual context, would I still laugh all the same? It turned out the answer was yes, so I decided to put that frame in our first ever article there. When I saw that frame from the Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog with Scratch and Grounder being squashed by Dr. Robotnik's gigantic ass thinking the duo was somehow transforming into Dr. Robotnik himself (or something like that), that was also something where I decided I had no chance but to choose that frame as my frame. With this third time, however, it was more of a challenge on what I wanted to choose since some of the better frames were already covered in one of James Rolfe's videos displaying the fuck ups the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon from the 1980's had.
In the end, I felt that to me, this picture would have been the one that did it for me. If it was already covered by that same person's video I mentioned earlier, then I apologize for that mishap. With that said, I say "fuck it" and consider it an underrated gold mine that makes for more interesting questions upon itself. One thing that easily makes this stick out is that Leonardo is holding a chocolate and strawberry ice cream cone instead of his usual weapons, but that's only the tip of the iceberg of what's to come here. A noticeable feature that the strawberry ice cream apparently has is that it showcases perfectly sharp blades that look like they're protruding out of them if you aren't looking carefully enough. It almost makes you want to ask "why's the strawberry code so damn special to have that in the first place?! What do you have against chocolate, huh?" In fact, a lot of what this picture portrays will leave you asking quite a lot of questions there once you look at it clearly.
Another noticeable aspect here include the reactions that each turtle have involving Leonardo's ice cream. Instead of everyone being in shock, only Leonardo is understandably shocked beyond all belief about this scenario, while every other turtle has reactions ranging from somewhat surprised to concerned to even not giving a shit one bit. You would think that everyone would be in surprise like that, but it really isn't the case at all. In fact, you start questioning things like 'why are they each reacting the way they are (aside from Leonardo for obvious reasons)' and 'why only chocolate and strawberry instead of chocolate and vanilla?' The funny thing is that there might have been an actual device somewhere that actually made the TMNT's weapons get turned into ice cream, but it only hit Leonardo's weapons instead of everyone's, which might have lead to something like that in the first place. Whatever the case may be, and even if the ice cream was the more common combination of chocolate and vanilla, it still provides enough head-scratching hilarity to make it's place in the Hall of Frame.
Nozdordomu's pick: "Even Splinter Looks Confused"
For a series with so much exposure and popularity, the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon is pretty obviously flawed. Most of the time, its animation is hardly better than that of the infamous Mario cartoons, and dozens of layering mistakes, duplicate turtles in frames, and mismatched voices will attest to that. This frame has none of those, but for sheer awkwardness, it can't be beat. Everybody looks like they're made of wax and propped up in the stiffest, most baffling poses an an animator can imagine. I found the picture in James Rolfe's video on Turtle flubs, and he pointed out that Michelangelo's bandanna strangely looked like a scarf. Alright, but what about that weird, pursed-lips expression Mikey's wearing? Or the arched-eyebrow, Retard Luigi-esque gaze on Splinter's face? From what I remember, they weren't in a particularly confusing situation at the time of this scene, so unless Splinter's pointing at death from above, this frame makes no sense at all. (Also, it almost looks like Mikey's flipping the bird.)
Honorable mention: for innappropriate expressions, this frame can't be beat. Why is Splinter so pissed off? Nobody knows. And you gotta love those buttock-esque turtle mouths.
