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Now comes Nickelodeon’s back-to-basics remake. The theme song is still there (albeit slightly more urban sounding). A plan to have Splinter die was scrapped. April, the Turtles’ human friend, will not suddenly be African-American, as envisioned at one point. Early on, Nickelodeon nixed a drastic proposal to send the Turtles to a Hogwarts-type school.

The same DNA may still be there, but the franchise has been reworked — “updated” — in ways large and small. For starters, the Turtles spend a lot more time above ground. Cowabunga? No longer cool. The new catch phrase is “booyakasha,” described by the show’s creator, Ciro Nieli, as Jamaican patois meaning “to give praise.” (The term, popularized on “Da Ali G Show,” has a darker alternative meaning as the verbal approximation of a gunshot, according to UrbanDictionary.com.) April is no longer a busty 20-something in distress; now, she’s a feisty teenager, an attempt to deepen the show’s appeal to girls.

Quirky humor remains a hallmark of the franchise, but some of the silliness is gone. For instance, the Turtles eat pizza, but at least in early episodes it is plain old pepperoni — not pepperoni and ice cream or anchovy and peanut butter as in the old days. Mr. Nieli’s lavishly animated, cinematic series is aggressive, action-packed and dark. The Turtles can look menacing and the villains are creepier; one episode features a mutant cockroach with explosive egg sacs. (City dwellers everywhere shudder.)

“It reflects the time we’re living in — paranoid, polluted, overcrowded and overstimulated,” Mr. Nieli said, adding that the story lines are constructed to be relevant to modern children. One episode, for instance, hinges on a bad guy who uses his phone to make a Web video of the Turtles. The production design reflects the influence of graffiti artists like Banksy and Shepard Fairey. Actors like Sean Astin and Jason Biggs voice characters.