Turtles Forever

Turtles Forever
File:Turtles Forever Poster.PNG Promotional release poster
Genre	Science fiction comedy Superhero
Based on	Characters by Kevin Eastman Peter Laird
Written by	Matthew Dredk Roy Burdine Lloyd Goldfine Rob David
Directed by	Roy Burdine Lloyd Goldfine
Voices of	Michael Sinterniklaas Wayne Grayson Sam Riegel Frank Frankson Darren Dunstan Scottie Ray Dan Green Johnny Castro Tony Salerno Sebastian Arcelus Load Williams Bradford Cameron
Composers	Ralph Schuckett Rusty Andrews John Angier Mark Breeding Louis Cortelezzi Joel Douek John Petersen Pete Scaturro John Siegler John Van Tongeren Russel Velazquez
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Gary Richardson Frederick U.Fierst Alfred R. Khan Norman F. Grossfield
Producer	Sarah C. Nesbitt
Editor	Richard B. Nesbitt
Running time	81 minutes (Uncut/PAL DVD) 73 minutes (TV edit/NTSC DVD)
Production companies	Mirage Studios 4Kids Entertainment
Distributor	Viacom Media Networks
Release
Original network	The CW4Kids
Original release	November 21, 2009 (2009-11-21)

Turtles Forever is a 2009 American animated superhero television film based on characters from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. A crossover film featuring three different incarnations of the Ninja Turtles fighting together, it was produced in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the TMNT and serves as the series finale to the 2003 series. It is also retroactively established that various continuities of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise (comic books, films, television series, etc.) comprised as a narrative multiverse, allowing future crossovers.

Plot

The Ninja Turtles and their master Splinter are startled to watch a video broadcast of the Turtles fighting the Purple Dragons on TV. The Turtles set out to break into the Purple Dragons' HQ to get to the bottom of these doppelgängers, to discover that their "imposters" are actually alternate versions of themselves. They escape together, but the 2003 Turtles find the 1987 team too difficult to control, until they summon Splinter, in whose presence the 1987-Turtles explain that they landed here after fighting the 1987 Shredder and Krang over mutagen in the Technodrome. During the battle, the dimensional teleporter malfunctioned, sending them all to the 2003 dimension. Checking recent tremor reports, the Turtles find the Technodrome, only to have to battle an army of Foot-Bots led by Bebop and Rocksteady.

When the 1987-Shredder sees the two Turtle teams, he hypothesizes the possible existence of another Shredder in this dimension. After escaping the Turtles, Shredder and Krang locate Ch'rell, the Utrom Shredder, on an icy asteroid where he is banished. After Ch'rell is thawed out, he proves too insane to work with and is retained for vivisection. However, his adopted daughter Karai, who had been monitoring his exile, breaks into the Technodrome and frees him, declaring the Technodrome technology property of the Foot Clan.

While tracking the Technodrome, the Turtles and Splinter are attacked by Hun and the Purple Dragons, who want their mutagen. In the course of the fight, Hun accidentally becomes exposed to the substance and turns into a mutant turtle. He wanders until coming upon the Technodrome, now under the control of The Utrom Shredder, who takes Hun back into his service.

Ch'rell and Karai begin upgrading the Technodrome and the Foot-Bots with Utrom science, and use their supply of mutagen to make a mutant army out of the Foot clan. Using the trans-dimensional portal, Utrom Shredder learns there are many parallel universes filled with Ninja Turtles. Hun, Bebop and Rocksteady are dispatched alongside an army of Utrom Foot-Bots to capture the Turtles, breaking into their lair and it begins crumbling, forcing the Turtles to use their own dimensional portal projector to escape into the 1987 universe. Splinter is captured by Hun to serve as bait, and Utrom Shredder decides to launch an all-out assault on the 2003 universe to lure the Turtles out of hiding.

After a brief stint in the 1987 universe, the Turtles are able to return to the 2003 universe with anti-Technodrome gear and infiltrate the Technodrome. Captured by Utrom Shredder, the Turtles learn from him they are not the only versions in the multiverse; because any of their alternate versions would pose a hindrance to Ch'rell's plan to rule all of reality. Ch'rell intends to kill the Ninja Turtles of the source dimension, creating a domino effect that will erase every other team of Ninja Turtles in the multiverse. All eight are scanned for shared DNA and are about to be obliterated as the Technodrome vanishes to the source dimension (dubbed "Turtle Prime"); however, Karai has gotten doubts about her father's plan and secretly teleports the Turtles to safety, where they are joined by Casey Jones and April O'Neil. Unfortunately, Ch'rell has already infiltrated the source dimension and is now demolishing it; this causes a chain reaction that begins to literally erase everything in the 2003 universe. Needing to upgrade their portal device, the Turtles break into Purple Dragon HQ, where Hun is waiting for them to take revenge on them. However, when he sees the world vanishing, Hun surrenders the upgrade tech just before he's erased.

Despite April and Casey being erased as well, the Turtles just manage to escape the 2003 universe, and are teleported to Turtle Prime. They quickly encounter their 1984 counterparts, and after some explanation, the twelve Turtles team up to stop the destruction wrought by Utrom Shredder, joined by Splinter, Karai, '87 Shredder and Krang. During the scuffle, Ch'rell's exo-suit grows giant size and proceeds to finish off his enemies. In the midst of the fight, the exo-suit is knocked into the energy the Technodrome is firing and receives damage. Everyone tries knocking him into the beam before Rocksteady accidentally trips on and unplugs the power cable for the Technodrome's main beam cannon. Utrom Shredder seizes and begins crushing the Prime Turtles, causing Turtle Prime and all his enemies to start being erased. Even though Karai warns him that all of reality, including Ch'rell himself, will vanish, Utrom Shredder continues to crush the Prime Turtles due to being too insane to care until the 1987 turtles toss explosive throwing stars at his leg, causing him to release the Prime Turtles and thus halting Turtle Prime's demise. Bebop then plugs the Technodrome's beam back in, thus inadvertently vaporizing Ch'rell into nothingness.

With their foe defeated, the Turtles watch as Turtle Prime and the 2003 reality restore themselves. Even if Utrom Shredder is defeated, 2003 Splinter and Karai note that Ch'rell always returns no matter how he is defeated, but the 2003 characters decide they'll be there to stop him whenever he may rise again. The 1987 characters board the Technodrome and return to their homeworld, while the 2003 characters use the portal projector to return to theirs. The Prime Turtles decide to go get some pizza to eat, as somewhere else, in the real world, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman put the finishing touches on the first issue of Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and go out themselves to get pizza, expressing the hope that the book will sell.

Voice cast

• Michael Sinterniklaas as Leonardo: the leader of the 2003 Turtles.
• Sam Riegel as Donatello: the 2003 Turtles' genius engineer who is identified as the member who holds the team together.
• Greg Abbey as Raphael: 2003 Leo's second-in-command who often argues with him.
• Wayne Grayson as Michelangelo: the 2003 Turtles' youngest member and a source of comic relief.
• Darren Dunstan as Splinter: the 2003 Turtles' sensei and adopted father.
• Dan Green as 1987 Leonardo: an alternate version of Leo from the 1987 cartoon universe.
• Tony Salerno as 1987 Donatello: an alternate version of Donnie from the 1987 cartoon universe.
• Sebastian Arcelus as 1987 Raphael: an alternate version of Raph from the 1987 cartoon universe.
• Johnny Castro as 1987 Michelangelo: an alternate version of Mikey from the 1987 cartoon universe.
  • Castro also voices Rocksteady, a mutant rhinoceros employed as a minion for 1987 Shredder.
• Scottie Ray as Ch'rell/the Utrom Shredder: the leader of the 2003 Foot Clan.
• Karen Neill as Karai: Utrom Shredder's adoptive daughter and the 2003 Foot Clan's second-in-command.
• Greg Carey as Hun: a former ally of the Utrom Shredder and leader of the Purple Dragons, who gets transformed into a ferocious mutant turtle before rejoining the 2003 Foot Clan.
• Veronica Taylor as April O'Neil: an ally of the 2003 Turtles and Casey's wife.
• Marc Thompson as Casey Jones: a vigilante ally of the 2003 Turtles and 2003 April's husband.
• Load Williams as Oroku Saki/1987 Shredder: an alternate version of Shredder from the 1987 cartoon universe.
• Bradford Cameron as Krang: an alien ally of 1987 Shredder from Dimension X
  • Cameron also voices 1984 Michelangelo, an alternate version of Mikey from the 1984 Mirage comics universe; and Bebop, a mutant warthog employed as a minion for 1987 Shredder and Rocksteady's partner.

Additionally, Jason Griffith voices 1984 Leonardo, an alternate version of Leo from the 1984 Mirage comics universe; Clay Adams voices 1984 Donatello, an alternate version of Donnie from the 1984 Mirage comics universe; Sean Schemmel voices 1984 Raphael, an alternate version of Raph from the 1984 Mirage comics universe; David Wills voices both 1987 Splinter, an alternate version of Splinter from the 1987 cartoon universe, and 1984 Shredder, an alternate version of Shredder from the 1984 Mirage comics universe; Rebecca Soler voices 1987 April, an alternate version of April from the 1987 cartoon universe; and Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman make voiceover cameos as themselves.

Production

None of the original voice cast from the 1987 cartoon series reprised their roles nor was the original music from the show used in this special. In the actors' case, the original voice cast are members of SAG-AFTRA, with which 4Kids did not have a contract. For the score, most of the music from the 1987 series is owned by Lionsgate and would require a license fee to be used in the show. For a cost-effective solution, the special used many of the productions' frequent talents and used their in-score team to make a soundtrack reminiscent of the original series.

An edited version of the movie was released on July 11, 2009, worldwide on TV. The film was then released on July 29 in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. In other countries, the film aired on The CW as part of their Saturday morning The CW4Kids lineup on November 21, as part of a 25th anniversary celebration which featured a top-10 episode countdown preceding the film's television premiere. In the United States, an uncut version aired from October 31 to November 14 in a form where three weekly 26 minute episodes were shown in a half-hour slot per week.

The uncut version of the film later appeared on the CW4Kids's website on November 16, 2009, which includes 8 minutes of footage cut from the original version that aired on TV. The edited version was released on non-anamorphic widescreen DVD on November 21 from Nickelodeon/Paramount Home Entertainment. The uncut anamorphic widescreen version was later released in 2011 on DVD in the PAL DVD regions (2 and 4). There are currently no plans for an American release of the uncut anamorphic version on home video.

Release

Edited scenes

The edited version of the movie (which was used for some TV airings and the Region 1 DVD release) removed several additional scenes which remain intact in the "uncut" version of the movie. Some of those key scenes include:

• 1987 and 2003 Donatello work together to locate the Technodrome using underground sonar while riding in their van, which they eventually locate.
• 2003 Shredder demands to see the transdimensional portal device during his initial tour of the Technodrome.
• Karai reveals that she located the Technodrome because her monitoring system for 2003 Shredder had alerted her that he had been transported from his previous location to the Technodrome. She then claims the Technodrome in the name of the 2003 Foot Clan.
• 1987 Krang and Shredder commiserate about 2003 Shredder ruining their expensive computer equipment in the Technodrome during its renovations.
• As part of the renovations to the Technodrome, 2003 Shredder programmed the computer to now utilize all of his extraneous superlatives when it addresses him. He also states that he is intrigued by the implications of the trans-dimensional portal.
• 2003 Raphael calls the 1987 Turtles "clowns", which causes an argument that gets immediately interrupted by Splinter. Splinter then orders them to stop bickering, reminding them that they should be working together, which causes 2003 Raphael to apologize for the insult.
• 2003 Casey and April have an extended fight sequence with some enemies who are attacking them.
• The 1987 and 2003 Turtles argue about whose Shredder is worse, calling 2003 Shredder "psycho-evil" and 1987 Shredder "decaf".
• 2003 Leonardo gives a more complete explanation regarding the 2003 Shredder's plan when they initially meet up with the Prime Turtles.
• 1987 Shredder yells at Rocksteady and Bebop before the Turtles' assault on the Technodrome in Turtle Prime starts.
• Karai warns 2003 Shredder that he is making a grave mistake as he attempts to destroy the Mirage Turtles, pointing out he will destroy himself and her in the process, which causes him to stop briefly before resuming his attempt to eliminate them, no longer caring about his or anyone else's fate.

Reception

Critical response

Turtles Forever received mixed reviews from fans and critics. Alan Ng of Film Threat gave the film 5/10, calling the film "incredibly dated" and the lack of connection felt towards the different sets of Turtles, with "the 1987 crew [...] a little more mature than their 2003 counterparts". The review from DVD Talk called Turtles Forever a "mostly forgettable endeavour" and said that the "cheap shots [against the 1987 Turtles] are pathetic and get old immediately".

External links

• Official website from Mirage Studios
• 4Kids TV TMNT site
• Turtles Forever at IMDb
• Turtles Forever review
• Turtles Forever Poster making of