If you were alive at any time between 1987 and now, chances are you've heard of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Even before that, the popular characters starred in their own comic book created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, an oversized black-and-white funnybook that enjoyed its own enormous level of success. Essentially, TMNT was a true kitchen table project; two independent creators simply having fun, unaware that their creations would quickly grow beyond their wildest dreams. Spawning an endless supply of merchandise, a video game series and several feature films, Eastman and Laird's creation proved to be one of the most successful franchises of the late 80s-early 90s. In fact, it's still going fairly strong today.

Of course, the most well-known adaptation of the Ninja Turtles' adventures came in the form of their first animated series. Premiering in December of 1987, the first run of TMNT was quite a success: it eventually became one of the longest-running animated shows in television history, spanning roughly 200 episodes over nearly a decade. The first few years were chock full of classic moments, but each passing season saw the show get a little more ridiculous, eventually collapsing under its own weight. Though I saw and generally enjoyed the latest CGI feature film, other recent "resurrections" like Fast Forward have caused mild constipation.

Long story short: they don't make 'em like they used to.

The original animated series' road to DVD started off slowly, but has gotten better in recent years. The first season was extremely solid in episode content; though it only spanned five episodes, they were probably the Turtle's finest hour overall. The DVD boasted a decent technical presentation, but only a few throwaway bonus episodes were included as extras. Subsequent volumes have crammed a dozen or more shows onto one disc, sacrificing picture quality and season continuity for cost purposes. Still, it was good enough to have these old episodes on DVD in any fashion, so most fans scooped them up quickly. To date, six volumes and three full-season compilations (counting this one) have been released; for your convenience, review links to these have been provided below.

This new two-disc set presents the sixth season in its entirety, albeit in slightly different order than the original broadcast run. 16 episodes are included in all---and they're spread across two discs, so at least they've got room to breathe. Before we move on to the technical portion of the review, let's see what's included...

Complete Episode Listing
(16 full-length episodes on 2 single-sided discs)

Disc One:
"Rock Around the Block"
"Krangenstein Lives!"
"Super Irma"
"Adventures in Turtle-Sitting"
"Sword of Yurikawa"
"Return of the Turtleoid"
"Shreeka's Revenge"
"Too Hot to Handle"

Disc Two:
"Nightmare in the Lair"
"Phantom of the Sewers"
"Donatello Trashes Slash"
"Sleuth on the Loose"
"Polly Wanna Pizza"
"Leonardo is Missing"
"Mr. Nice Guy"
"Snakes Alive!"

The more things change, the more they stay the same: the past few seasons have typically featured one of two episode formats, mainly revolving around Shredder and company as the primary villains...or a colorful throwaway villain who might feel just as comfortable in The Tick's universe. The Technodrome is once again trapped in a remote location; past environments have included Dimension X, The North Pole and others, while this season (and most of Season 7 proper, for that matter) feature the 'Dome at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean. Such locales lead to a few new backdrops for the action and comedy, but they do little to advance the plot forward.

Aside from these changes, Season 6 remains generally the same in tone as the past few years: things aren't nearly as dark as the first few episodes (and Seasons 8-10, of course), leaning heavily towards comedy relief, slightly less action and plenty of fourth-wall breaking. Highlights include "Adventures in Turtle-Sitting" (in which a reverse-aging ray turns three of the four Turtles into tykes), "Krangenstein Lives" (the malfunctioning Krang's body goes on a rampage) and "Nightmare in the Lair" (an ode to Elm Street, in which Michaelangelo messes with Donatello's dream machine). A few clunkers don't work quite as well: "Too Hot to Handle", for example, revolves around a snot-nosed brat's science experiment gone awry. TMNT works best when kids watch it...instead of being in it. Still, this is a compact enough season, so even a few lesser episodes don't slow things down too much.

The DVD treatment by Lionsgate is appropriately slimmed-down as well, presenting all 16 episodes in a practically-packaged set that won't hog shelf space. The lack of bonus features is disappointing (especially after the interesting scraps included with Seasons 4 and 5), but at least the technical presentation is satisfying enough. Let's take a closer look, shall we?

Presented in their original 1.33:1 aspect ratios, these episodes look fairly decent for their age. Colors are generally strong and black levels are usually solid, but a mild amount of digital combing can be seen during certain action sequences. Overall, these season releases represent a step up from some of the earlier "volumes", if only because the episodes are given a bit more space to themselves. For the most part, this is a satisfying effort.

The audio, presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, is roughly on par with the visuals. Dialogue is generally clean and clear, though some of the music and sound effects can't help but feel a bit thin overall. Still, it's about what you'd expect from a 15 year-old animated series. Optional subtitles are not included, but each episode includes Closed Captioning support.

Six seasons down, four more to go...and once again, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sticks to a familiar blend of action, colorful characters and plenty of comedy relief. By now, most casual fans will have gotten their fill with past volume and season collections, though it's good to see that Lionsgate seems to be in this for the long haul. Season 6's DVD presentation is familiar but slightly stripped down, presented this slimmer season in a two-disc package with no extras to speak of. The technical presentation isn't bad and the price is right, making this an attractive purchase for Turtle loyalists seeking to finish their collections. Less die-hard fans will be happy with a rental, but this two-disc set still comes Recommended.