TMNT Half Shell Heroes: Blast To The Past DVD review

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Half Shell Heroes: Blast To The Past is a brand new DVD release from Universal Pictures and Nickleodeon. Available from Monday 16th May, it's a bit different from some of the other Turtles DVD's we've reviewed because Half-Shell Heroes aims to capture the interest and imagination of the younger members of your family. Less dark and more about the fun side of crime-fighting and sewer-living pizza-eating.

In Half-Shell Heroes: Blast To The Past, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles accidentally time travel back to the Jurassic Era. During their stay they encounter several friendly dinosaurs, but also rather bizarrely some dangerous aliens from the future. Using their ninja skills the Turtles have to find a way to save the day and possibly just as importantly get back home.

The Animation is good, and very different to previous incarnations. There's interesting use of shadow and highlights, and the Turtles themselves are slimmer, more typically teenage and actually more turtle.

The story is easy to follow, even for younger viewers, with repetition of important phrases in case they missed it, but it's not too intrusive and doesn't spoil the action for more mature TMNT fans. There's definitely enough of a story to interest anyone, and my 7 year old didn't look away from the screen throughout, except to laugh or make sure I had seen an important plot point.

At 42 minutes this animated special is full of action, tongue-in-cheek and slapstick humour, and really will be popular with any fan, especially (in our opinion) those aged around 3-10.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Half Shell Heroes: Blast To The Past is available from Monday 16th May, priced around £8 from all good DVD stockists instore and online.

We were sent our copy to review.