Half-Shell Heroes: Blast to the Past

Half-Shell Heroes: Blast to the Past poster.

Half-Shell Heroes: Blast to the Past is an hour TMNT TV movie on Nickelodeon, which first aired on November 22, 2015.

Synopsis

Told in the style of Playmates Toys' Half-Shell Heroes action figure line, the storyline finds the Ninja Turtles going back in time to the Cretaceous Period, where they encounter friendly dinosaurs from the past and dangerous aliens from the future who have a nefarious plan of their own. However, things get even more complicated when Triceratons, Bebop and Rocksteady show up!

Characters

• Bebop (J.B. Smoove)
• Donatello (Rob Paulsen)
• Leonardo (Seth Green)
• Michelangelo (Greg Cipes)
• Raphael (Sean Astin)
• Ice Cream Kitty (Kevin Eastman)
• Rocksteady (Fred Tatasciore)
• Tiger Claw (Eric Bauza)
• Triceratons
  • General Zera (Kate Mulgrew)
  • Lieutenant Zorg (Fred Tatasciore)
  • Triceraton Lieutenant (Rob Paulsen)
  • Triceraton Soldier #1 (Fred Tatasciore)
  • Triceraton Soldier #2 (Eric Bauza)
  • Triceraton #3 (Eric Bauza)
  • Triceraton Guard #1 (Eric Bauza)
• Robo-Raptors
• Robo-Spinosaur

Plot

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Notes

• Unlike the 2012 animated TV series, Half-Shell Heroes is 2D and flash-animated.
• Random House also put out a Blast to the Past book September 2015, while Playmates released new dino toys in the fall to coincide with the special.

Trivia

• There are a couple of references to the Donkey Kong franchise:
  • Upon finding the Turtles, Bebop says "it's on like Diddy Kong", a paraphrase of the popular saying "it's on like Donkey Kong". Diddy Kong is Donkey Kong's sidekick in the video game Donkey Kong Country.
  • While escaping from the Triceratons' prison, Bebop and Rocksteady avoid lasers and a rolling boulder. The scene is similar to the gameplay in the first video game in the series, complete with arcade background music.
• Each of the Turtles dino-buddies were chosen based on Playmates Toys' classic "cave-turtles" collection. As matter of fact, the dinos present the same color scheme from their classic toy counterparts.
  • Oddly the classic collection cave-turtle Don wore saber-toothed tiger fur clothes and hat, and in the new Half-Shell Heroes toyline, Michelangelo is the one wearing it.
• Despite the plot line stating the episode is set during the Jurassic period, it is actually set in the Cretaceous period, although some dinosaurs from the Jurassic (Stegosaurus, Brachiosaurus, and Compsognathus) appear as well.
• Zera is based on a Torosaurus, which is distinguished from the contemporary Triceratops by an elongate frill with large openings, long squamosal bones of the frill with a trough on their upper surface, and the presence of five or more pairs of hornlets on the back of the frill.
  • A study of fossil bone histology combined with an investigation of frill shape concluded that Torosaurus probably represented the mature form of Triceratops.
• Zera is the first female Triceraton to ever appear in the franchise.
  • Another female Triceraton was meant to appear in Tale of the TMNT, vol 2 long before Zera came in, but the idea was put aside. Coincidentally, her name was Zura, with an "U" instead of an "E".
• Bebop wears turtle shells as shoulder pads in reference to his original 1987 counterpart.
• Rocksteady wears a green helmet in reference to his original 1987 counterpart.
• When they arrive at the future, Raph has his sai from present time, but the other Turtles still have the weapons they carved back in the past.
• The transforming vehicle "Shellformer" created by Donatello is mostly a reference to the fandom-term for certain Transformers toys known for having alternate modes that are simply hollow shells with robot forms inside.

Gallery

Half-Shell Heroes: Blast to the Past/Gallery