Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT 2003): The Ultimate Collection DVD Unboxing

[@gislieinarsson412]

I love this criminally underrated TMNT 2003 cartoon. I grew up watching the famous 1987 series, and I still love it, but TMNT 2003 is by far the best and most important TMNT cartoon (also better than any movie) there is. I wish they's released it on Blu Ray, maybe some day.

[@SpungPob]

Episode 110 “Nightmares Recycled” was an unfinished episode that was never completed because the plot was too dark for the network.

[@fayewitt9881]

Then why did they make it so dark that was their choice to make that episode dark!

[@DaAcorn]

@@fayewitt9881the people who make the episode are not the same people who own the network it ran on, clashes happened and I guess this episode lost the fight.

[@fayewitt9881]

@@DaAcorn I meant the dummies who made the episode not the other dummies that refused to show the episode because of it being so dark who cares if it's so dark. Excuses, Excuses, Everybody has some excuse not for doing something!

[@windsonma8209]

It's strange they never added it as Special Feature of some kind.

[@MrJtathec]

Thank you, I came here for this answer. 🍻

[@bobjeezorham7658]

I'm so happy this collection exists, man. Just ordered mine, excited to get it. Helpful unboxing video, was nice to see how it looks in detail.

[@SamuraiCat999]

This is my favorite TMNT series, and then the 1987, after that, the 2012.

[@fayewitt9881]

With me, the 1987 series was and is my #1 favorite then the 2003 series and the 2012 series is third but we all have our #1 faves the way I see it and that's what makes us all different, can you imagine if we all liked the same things all the time?

[@ExcelHedge]

110 was the Forbidden episode that was never finished.

[@RetroDeathReviews666]

I was a bit worried it would come in that cheap modern plastic case, and not really a fan of the plain grey discs... But can't complain *too* much, I'm glad we fiiiinally got this collection at all! Preordered mine a week ago, hoping it'll come in soon.

[@theanimeguy13ify]

Besides CW4Kids, then known as Foxbox and 4Kids TV, I remember watching the reruns of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003) on Cartoon Network from it's then Miguzi block when the series had a stint from 2004-2005 just almost a decade before the adult swim era of Toonami.

[@SolitaryWolf]

They kept the numbering in place but episode 110 never got off the drawing table. It does not exist.

[@ComicBooksandVideoGameNerd96]

Episode 110 is the Episode nightmares recycled that never got made it supposed to be about Hun and Garbage Man being conjoined twins at birth but got separated by back alley surgeon. But the reason why the episode never got made was because the network Executives at Fox told 4kids that it was too dark the Garbage Man was supposed to die at the end of the episode inside of a Vat of Acid that would have been a interesting episode to see it peaks my interest because I am a twin myself

[@hiddentape2911]

Your unboxing of the TMNT original series in the party van was what originally brought me to your channel so its nice to see them back!

[@geektacularX]

Woww, that was a long time ago - you're a real one, HiddenTape! 😄

[@diegocarrillo472]

List of seasons with a number of episodes: Season 1 - 26 Season 2 - 26 Season 3 - 26 Season 4 - 26 Season 5 - 13 Season 6: Fast Forward - 26 Season 7: Back to the Sewer - 13

[@tylercamp8808]

Already got the digital version for the series and Turtles Forever, but still nice for anyone who wants the DVDs.

[@geektacularX]

Yeah - This release is more about availability than anything, I'd say. It's not the "amazing super premium" version some people were hoping for - but the fact that someone who wants to own it can just go buy it off the shelf now is awesome.

[@tylercamp8808]

​@@geektacularX Definitely, now that the complete series is available in both physical and digital, this is a time to be really happy that the 2003 series is getting the respect from Nickelodeon it deserves. On the side though the 1987 series is now owned by Nickelodeon, it is currently unavailable digitally I pray for the day that it will be again for people who want all the TMNT series, though I already own most of the episodes from the previous Lionsgate digital release.

[@ANewEra05]

Turtles Forever was produced/aired in Widescreen, however the whole series run prior was full screen 4:3 format.

[@PixelaGames2000]

I am so gonna get this for Christmas it’s gonna be awesome to watch on my tv I’ve only ever seen this series on KZbin and on some pirate websites so to get the opportunity to own it is huge

[@geektacularX]

Yeah, I'm so glad it's finally available for the world - enjoy!

[@PRdude]

There were 26 volumes originally that made up the first six seasons. That's not counting the four volumes that were put out later that covered the first two seasons. In this new set though, the episodes actually are in order unlike with those volumes that were released in the past. One thing though, is that "The Ultimate Ninja" and "Reflections" from the second season are switched around. "The Ultimate Ninja" aired right before "Reflections", and I believe I saw them listed that way on the official Ninja Turtles site when it was active. Anyway, they're on the same disc. "The Christmas Aliens" from the third season originally aired between "The Lesson" and "The Darkness Within", and I always thought it was the correct order. However, "The Christmas Aliens" might have been the first episode listed in the season 3 episode guide on the official Ninja Turtles site. It was actually on Christmas day of 2004 where "The Christmas Aliens" premiered, and that's probably why they did it, whether it's the actual chronological order or not. There are nine episodes per disc, with the exception of the 13th and 18th disc. Disc 13 has eight episodes, but there could have been nine if episode #110 was on it. That was the episode from the 5th season that didn't get completed. On disc 13, it actually says "episodes 109, 111 - 117". Disc 18 just has the latter three episodes on it, and of course Turtles Forever. The discs aren't separated by season. So this is how the breakdown goes. Season 1: Discs 1 - 3 (disc 3 ends with the first episode of season 2) Season 2: Discs 3 - 6 Season 3: Discs 6 - 9 Season 4: Discs 9 - 12 Season 5: Discs 12 & 13 Season 6: Discs 14 - 16 (disc 14 starts with the first season 6 episode) Season 7: Discs 16 - 18 (disc 16 ends with the first episode of season 7) Turtles Forever on this set is in widescreen, but the individual release says fullscreen. I have it, but I just haven't opened it. So I couldn't tell you if it's really fullscreen.

[@geektacularX]

To confirm: All of the episodes are indeed 4:3, and Turtles Forever is indeed 16:9. 👍

[@PRdude]

@@geektacularX I know. I was just wondering what the individual release of "Turtles Forever" really is, as far as aspect ratio goes.

[@geektacularX]

I own the standalone Region 1 release of "Turtles Forever" on DVD - it's non-anamorphic widescreen, which means that it's encoded in 4:3, but the actual image within that square frame is letterboxed widescreen. (AKA: If you watch it on a 4:3 TV, it will have black bars on the top and bottom. If you watch it on a 16:9 TV, it will have black bars on all 4 sides. If you watch it on a 16:9 TV with Zoom enabled on your TV, it will retain the correct aspect ratio & fill the screen without cutting anything off.) The new DVD in the "Ultimate Collection" is anamorphic widescreen, so it's natively encoded in widescreen - it just fills your 16:9 screen with no adjustments necessary. 👍

[@Wardson]

​@@geektacularXMay I ask what's tbe resolution of the episodes? I doubt its 720p. How clear does it look?

[@Novasonic23]

​@@Wardson480p is the max you can get with dvd

[@BrianAwesome]

Is the Turtles Forever movie uncut in this ? Or are both Uncut and edited versions included in this ?

[@geektacularX]

Just the TV Edit - the Uncut version remains unreleased in the US, unfortunately!

[@SamuraiCat999]

No episode 110.

[@markietomzick1402]

Markie Tomzick Jr Its Reycled Nightmares

[@justinmiddleton8818]

This is really exciting to see finally happen, given what a mess the original release timeline was. The original 14 volume run comprising the first and second seasons, then the jumbled up mess of the S3 discs which had episodes from the fourth season thrown in which made for a big convoluted mess. They (4Kids/FUNimation) did get to doing proper season releases but only S1, S2, S5/Ninja Tribunal and S6/Fast Forward. The fourth season set was only the remainder of that season not covered by the out of sequence S3 discs and S7/Back to the Sewers never saw domestic release back then because the license lapsed in 2009 after the series ended. Thankfully, after over a decade we finally have a proper complete collection of the 2003 series. Definitely looking forward to picking this up as i've been wanting it since i finished picking up the rest of the '87-'96 series but there's no way i was gonna spend an ungodly amount of time and money tracking down those bajillion OOP releases.

[@geektacularX]

Same! I considered trying to track them all down at one point, but I'm glad I held out for a while longer!

[@justinmiddleton8818]

@geektacularX Yeah, i had attempted to try that too a while but very quickly i realized that wasn't going to work. Especially considering they didn't even have the full series as well, considering some of the episodes weren't even included in those all over the place volume releases, and considering certain ones you can't even find for anything resembling decent prices these days. But yeah. I'm also glad i waited rather than spending an eternity trying to spend a fortune trying to collect all those old DVDs.

[@freshkaiu]

Kinda sad kinda happy I already got a complete collection from Etsy... want this because it’s “official” but happy I had mine since April and all hd with no audio mess ups just yet 🔥🔥🔥🐢 Edit: it’s also a BLU-RAY disk and it also full screen which is so sick because I’m watching my child hood favorite show on a giant screen instead of an old school box tv 😂 Edit 2: and wait until you watch every episode and y’all have that damn theme song suck in your head😂😂😂 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES TURTLESTurtlesturtles turtles.....

[@Subject-639]

Was the etsy set at least good quality?

[@gregnorman2181]

I just got my 2003 TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA 🐢 🐢🐢🐢

[@ajsworld7786]

Where do you buy it at?

[@Subject-639]

Why DVD and not Blu-ray? These corporations really should get with the times.

[@geektacularX]

Agreed! Unfortunately, they probably didn't want to spend the time to actually re-transfer or remaster the series, and SD on Blu-ray doesn't really hold much benefit over SD on DVD (other than maybe some lower compression). Fingers crossed - maybe one day!

[@fayewitt9881]

When I do get this fabulous collection I'm not going to keep the original case that they'll come in when you get it because(1) I can tell by this video that I already don't like the set up of each disc, one being onup of another and (2) I've heard these cases crack easy and besides I have my own cases to put these discs in so I won't need the case that this collection comes in and after I get each disc out and put them in my case I'll just thrown the case away especially if it's cracked.

[@nkhavarin]

Anyone, does it have English subtitles with it?

[@inegozamora168]

Where can I find the tmnt 2003 Complete series dvd boxset.?

[@FactsDawg]

Amazon?

[@ssje1976]

This set has the first ever region 1 release of the final season back to the sewer

[@geektacularX]

Oh yeah, I forgot that they never even made it that far with the volumes, ha! 😄

[@justinmiddleton8818]

@geektacularX Wow, the original release timeline of the 2k3 series was confusing as all hell. They also had stuff happen like for some bizarre reason shoving S4 episodes in with the third season volumes. Thus making for a big mess where episodes were massively out of sequence and in ways that just made no sense. They were getting somewhere with the re releases of the first two seasons and both Season 5/Ninja Tribunal and Season 6/Fast Forward but they lost the rights and the third and fourth seasons didn't get the opportunity to be re released like that. Plus the "Season 4" set wasn't even the complete season. It was all the remaining episodes that weren't part of the jumbled up S3 discs prior to that.

[@dylangeltzeiler946]

It can’t be. Please tell me that this has “Mayhem From Mutant Island”

[@Nicolas.Lattanzi]

Could PLEASE somebody tell me if the TMNT 2003 DVD Boxset will have better image quality? I already have this series: The TMNT Season 1 part 1 & 2, TMNT Season 2 part 1 & 2, Season 3 on individual dvds, Season 4 2 dvd's set, and Ninja Tribunal 2 dvd's set. Image quality is pretty good if I watche it on m CRT TV, but if not, it doesn't look very well because is badly interlaced, so on LCD/LED/OLED tvs any content would look better if it's deinterlaced (progressive scan). I hope somebody could notify me about this because I can't find any information about that detail yet.

[@geektacularX]

I unfortunately don't have any of the original volumes to compare it to side-by-side. I can tell you that they're on dual-layer DVDs and are encoded with an average bitrate of around 7Mbps or so, with Dolby Digital 2.0 192Kbps audio. The episodes are indeed Full Screen and the movie is indeed Widescreen. I just tested it on my QLED 4K TV via my PS5 and they look perfectly fine to me...but I'm used to watching a lot of older content that's only available on DVD so my standards aren't that stringent, ha! I didn't notice any distracting interlacing artifacts, but it also still looks like a 20 year old SD cartoon, which is to be expected...but as far as I'm concerned it looks fine!

[@Nicolas.Lattanzi]

@@geektacularX thank you for your quick answer. My Main concern is if they at least deinterlaced the whole show, because in every dvd I got from older released, the animation has a lot of Interlaced frames and ghosting, plus some artifacts. Sure, they were released when standard tvs were CRTs, but now they should at least deinterlaced every episode so its worth getting to me, otherwise its point les since I already own it

[@vec4277]

@@Nicolas.Lattanzi I can't speak for the entirety of the set, but the first two episodes that I watched were of worse quality than the original DVD release - I broke out my original DVDs and did a comparison just to make sure - the worst issue is the blurriness. It isn't blurry the entire time, but the issue is pervasive, and it definitely took me out of the experience. Also, for some panning shots, the movement is jagged instead of smooth like in the original release. Not as much of a big deal, but I thought I would mention it. As much as I was looking forward to this release since I love this series, I was very disappointed, and would almost recommend avoiding this release altogether, especially for its current price point. I hope that helps

[@Nicolas.Lattanzi]

@@vec4277 It helps a LOT. Thats exactly what I Wanted to know. The original release, the dvds were dual layer (8,5 GB) and there are 6-7 episodes per disc. Here, the dvds must be dual layer but they contain 9 episodes, so I think the video is more compressed, they may contain less video bitrate in order to fit 9 episodes in one disc. There is a software called MediaInfo which tells you every spec in video and audio, there you can compare technically everything between the two sources but you need to extract the episodes from the dvds first, I use MkvExtract for this and it works just great. Anyway, my main concern was if the episodes were at least deinterlaced and mantain the same amount of video bitrate at the same time, but it looks like this is a compressed release in terms of quality, so I'll keep my classic season sets. I wasnt expecting a Remastered version because its no the most popular show (unfortunately), but at least I was expecting a deinterlace filter to eliminate ghosting frames and some noise reduction to eliminate those ugly artifacts, that would be a proper and decent release for this era, specially because we are now a few people that still have a CRT TV (I still have my Sony Wega 36 inch TV and I love it). Thank you very much for the information you provided me, now I'll Pass on this release.

[@brianstreng6736]

I know you just got this, but do you know if it's Turtles Forever uncut, or the edited version? I know the artwork saying TV movie probably means it's the edited version, but I figured that could've also meant it was a movie that was only seen on TV.

[@geektacularX]

Good question! I just checked - it's the TV Edit. To be precise, it's the 69 minute version...which is just the TV Edit with the sped-up end credits (identical to the iTunes digital version). The old US DVD had the 73 minute version, which is the exact same TV Edit, but with normal slower speed end credits. We've yet to be blessed by the Turtle Gods with the 81 minute Uncut version - sorry to have to break the bad news, ha! 😆

[@brianstreng6736]

@@geektacularX yeah I kinda figured that was gonna be it, but thought I'd ask still 🤣 not really surprised though since I'm sure they went with the same master used for the stand alone release that came out in 2010. I hope down the line we get the uncut version from Nickelodeon, without having to rely on buying it internationally since that seems to be the only way to own that version. Nickelodeon has released some of their movies on Blu-ray for the first time within the last year or so such as Barnyard, Hey Arnold, Jimmy Neutron, even the 3 Rugrats movies. Maybe they'll eventually put Turtles Forever on Blu-ray and it be the uncut one? 🤔

[@geektacularX]

I hope they eventually release it on Blu-ray! I think the next big innovation that physical media collectors will really benefit from is AI-based remastering of older content. AI is getting really good at ingesting SD content, upscaling it to 1080p or 4K, and making it look really nice. One of the main reasons that this older stuff isn't upscaled is because the studio has to hire people to spend months re-scanning stuff, manually adjusting video settings, fixing frames by hand, etc. - all of which can cost more money to do than they'd make off of selling it to us, ha. Using AI to do the bulk of that work (with some human oversight along the way) would greatly decrease the cost of doing that and will hopefully result in more remastered HD/UHD releases down the line!

[@jefferyredd1669]

Thank you so much for sharing the Tmnt community has been waiting so long for the Tmnt 2003 series to be released in one place to enjoy I did a little research on episode 110 and I was super dark I was about hon and the garbage man were once stuck together and separated and birth that’s why we probably never get 110 . Thanks again for sharing I ordered my copy and i have some of the individual release i have season one and season one part two , season two part one, the ninja trybunal(season 5) , Tmnt fast forward (season 6) season 4 never got a full release it’s one that’s in the volume Release and season 7 (tmnt back to the sewer Never saw any kinda release

[@JF6LPE]

Don't get too exited, any bootleg release looks far better than this release, I'm already trying to return mine

[@jefferyredd1669]

@@JF6LPE thanks for the info

[@jefferyredd1669]

@@JF6LPE the few individuals season I have were released by 4kids

[@JF6LPE]

@@jefferyredd1669 You're welcome, happy to help you ti don't waste your money. You can see a comparisson that someone made in one of the latest posts on the TMNT subreddit, you'll see what i mean. I have all of the volumes, they look really bad because of the bad transfer, but they still look far better than this. This one doesn't look bad due to compression, it's because they first upscaled the old transfer to 1080p, deinterlaced it horribly, and applied a DNR that makes it look extremely blurry in a lot of scenes, and some frames go back and forth, and some elements became transparent, etc, and then they downscaled it and interlaced it again for this DVD release🤦‍♂️

[@geektacularX]

Unfortunately, I don't think Nickelodeon is going to respond to this tactic in the way you imagine. Instead of hearing "People aren't buying this because the quality could be better", all they're going to see on the sales breakdown is: "We finally spent the money to release this and it didn't sell well". They'll let it go out of print because not enough people bought it justify the cost of producing it and you'll never see it on physical media ever again - which is the same purgatory we've been in for the last 15 years. There are obviously a million ways that people collect stuff, so it's all subjective whether you'd want this or not. Your approach is more of the: "I want an amazing version of something or it's not worth my money" - which is totally valid. My approach (and many others) is more: "I must own it, in whatever is the best form currently available." To me - Not owning it at all isn't one of the options on the table. I think you can not be 100% happy with the quality and still be fine purchasing it, especially when the other option is - nothing at all.

[@crazemadness6424]

Does it work for 🇬🇧 DVD player

[@geektacularX]

Presumably not - They're labeled as Region 1, so they wouldn't play in a normal UK DVD player. I haven't heard of it being released in other regions yet...but hopefully it will be eventually!

[@Gamefit28]

Please make another video showing how the quality looks

[@marchull1396]

Where can you order this from? If I decide. I mean, I'm going to have to get Paramount+ with all the turtles content they are putting on, but I may just get the DVD collection instead 😃😁🐢💿

[@geektacularX]

The Amazon link for it is in the description! ✌

[@marchull1396]

@@geektacularX Cool thanks. Would you be able to tell me what region code the DVD set is? I'm in the UK see.

[@jamesguinnup3875]

Wall I got my copy of the box set I don't like how it puts it in the Stupid box side bars so I put my tv on wide-screen and it looks just how it should.

[@SilverShine-tr5kr]

Is the TV movie in *anamorphic* widescreen (fits the whole screen)? In comparison, the original Turtles Forever DVD was non-anamorphic which had black bars on all four sides of the screen.

[@geektacularX]

It's anamorphic - no zooming required! 😁

[@thebuckrogers22]

I figured 110 was the Baxter ep. That ep is nasty, I saw it on KZbin

[@Flamesof24]

Got it today. It’s great but I kinda wish it came in a box like the stock photos show, kind of false advertising to get it in a clear plastic case with a cover insert. Really hope the 2012 series gets a Blu-ray someday. DVD version looks really bad, 1080p show downgraded to 480p

[@geektacularX]

I kinda agree with you - the stock photo on Amazon, etc. does kind of make it seem like it comes with a slipcover or slipbox. I think this set is more of a "beggars can't be choosers" situation. 🤣

[@jonathanrivera8585]

Hi! I just got my copy of this series from Walmart and it was perfectly shipped but I've noticed that many of the discs have lots of scratches and they were not loosed. Are some of your discs like that? Trying to find out if this is a manufacturing defect from the set.

[@geektacularX]

Hmm, I haven't tested every disc, but I didn't notice any scratches on mine. I did have one disc in the back that was loose, but it didn't look scratched up or anything. It sounds like maybe yours got jostled around excessively during shipping, maybe? Even if the box arrives in perfect condition, just being shaken around too much (or one time really hard) could dislodge some discs.

[@jonathanrivera8585]

@@geektacularX thanks for your reply. Just ordered a replacement, hope this one arrives in great condition.

[@nickakeson3652]

I pre-ordered that dvd set from Amazon. It should show up my house on August 8th.

[@ghostlyjudge]

i hope its amazing

[@jwm804]

Are these released at walmarts?

[@geektacularX]

Yup...well at Walmart.com at least (just search their site for its item ID "2106704029") - not sure if it's in physical stores or not?

[@gridman2142]

So a heads up about this release from a Technodrome Forum member: SaurusX: I've spoken with someone who got this release and the sad news is that it's sub-par. The video 4:3 in a 16:9 space, which is what I feared would happen. Nick did this with their few 2003 releases and you end up with hardcoded black bars on the sides of the image. The DVD authors apparently forgot DVD players can add the bars automatically so there's an automatic resolution hit. The video is poorly deinterlaced with scan lines and blending baked into the video. And I'm not mistaking this for regular interlaced video, this is where someone tried to deinterlace the image and had leftover mess that pops through. And it's edited. Not just the cutdown version of the movie, but the scene at the end of season 5 is cut. The video has a very strange blending and blurring effect. Not good. My suggest is to avoid this release at all cost.

[@vec4277]

I noticed the blurriness issue in several scenes of the two episodes that I have watched so far - it is noticeably distracting, and really does hinder the viewing experience. I haven't viewed all of the episodes in this release yet, but if disc 1 is indicative of the entire set, I would also suggest avoiding purchasing it. I wonder if these visual issues are present in the streaming version on Paramount Plus, if not, that may be the better way to go in terms of watching this series.

[@Biggestcartoonfanever]

Do you have the TMNT 2012 Complete Series DVD?

[@geektacularX]

I do actually! I collected all of the individual volumes of the series from start to finish, but I sold those and picked up the Complete Series set when it came out. I prefer the Complete Series packaging which takes up significantly less space on my already overcrowded shelves, ha! 😁

[@Biggestcartoonfanever]

@@geektacularX can you do a video with the TMNT 2012 Complete Series DVD?

[@geektacularX]

Sure thing - it'll be up soon! 👍

[@khamla616]

Tv movie not uncut movie

[@spookyghost9806]

Is there any region 2 boxset available?

[@thebuckrogers22]

My jimmy neutron DVD case is like this too, I hate it

[@geektacularX]

Yeah - It's not the most elegant solution but it works okay. I've never actually had a tangible problem because of it though. People complain that it scratches their discs, but I've had a lot of releases with this type of stacked-disc disc holder and have never had any of my discs be scratched because of it, to my knowledge.

[@32lilbruce]

Got mine to but really wish they were blue ray