Turtles III

All in all, this is a fun movie. After the first two TMNT movies, this one breaks with the Shredder theme (fortunately as Shredder seemed about as hard to kill as the first Terminator) and takes the brothers back in time. Warring families in feudal Japan provide the backdrop for teenage Turtle-jinx while Elias Koteas (Casey Jones) displays an enlightening dual role capability. The costumes look more comfortable at the expense of realistic but otherwise, the puns - I mean fun - keeps flowing. If you enjoyed the first two then see this one.

The Turtles still offer great fun in their third outing on the silver screen. More aimed at children than ever, this movie has an interesting story, action, funny jokes and a happy ending. While not as good as the first two, the third movie is very entertaining. Now bring on another sequel.

The only thing I feel this movie lacked was Jim Hensons Studio's help. It shows by the cheapness of the Turtles (and especially Splinters) New look. Which actually looks great, but it's not the same material used in the first two. Splinter actually looks fine, but his outer appearance lacks the spirit of the original Splinter. People at Jim Henson Studios must put effort and life into anything they create because most puppeteers create their actual puppets -such was the case with Splinter in the first two. But this was taken out of the third movie...and thus the only thing to back it up would've been another return of Shredder and a good plot.

Sadly any return of Shredder would probably be a bad plot. :( As he did die in the comic book... And since the second story pushed away from the Comic's original storyline....(TGRI was really TCRI...and was run by aliens from outer-space) There was no way a plot that furthered the story would be any good...

unless....they chose the script they chose for this movie. The whole side story in Feudal Japan is it's own movie and this works excellently for the film. The Turtles show up to save April, who has been transported to Feudal Japan by a magic scepter. And of course adventure and comedy is bound to ensue.

Another thing I digged was the character development...which is sometimes sped up sometimes on Michaelangelo, Raphael, Whit, April and Casey's relationship, and Kenshin. However April (by herself), Lord Norinaga, Mitzu, Walker, and Donetello's character development works... (Don's character changes throughout the entire trilogy....first smart mouth, then joker who is a whiz with computers (or starting to be.) then finally Turtle Nerd..."I can't possibly exist without one single microchip?")

Which brings me to one another issue..... Corey Feldman's return was awesome! The second Donatello always annoyed me. I think it was mostly because Corey Feldman made Don his own character and not just the smart guy, but rather a smart guy with a smart-ass mouth. :D Corey's Return is highlighted in the credits and with good reason. He does an excellent job of following up on the second Don's attempt to be a Computer Wiz..

The rest of the cast is great, with the exception of Splinter's new voice actor. He tries... but he is no Kevin Clash. I must comment on Robbie Rist and Brian Touchi. They are Michaelangelo and Leonardo..they surpassed the cartoon voice overs from the cartoon series in the first movie...and they continued with their roles until the end and never faltered. Tim Kelleher is excellent as Rapheal, tho' it would've been nice to have the original voicer of Raph from the first or the second...he makes the role his own and that's actually good! Paige Turco return is surprising as she doesn't look herself in this movie at all. (I thought it was a third April) and this could be seen as good or bad for the film. (She looks like she's acting more like Judith Hoag) and this could be because of Elias Koteas, who is the only actor to return from the original movie. (Actor..the others did voices) 'Course I may be wrong. But his presence helps connect this film with the previous two. We get to see how Casey has changed (or hasn't) in this film since we didn't get to in the first. His appearance as Casey is short but good. He also gets a chance to play a secondary character named Whit who may be Casey's great great great great grandfather.

All and all... a good Turtle Movie on it's own.

Originally when I saw this movie, it had only just come out in theaters and I was just a kid. At the time, I thought the movie was a steaming pile of crap, no where near in comparison tot he first two. Hell, I overlooked the inclusion of Vanilla Ice for YEARS, insisting that even if he was in the second movie, it was still better than the third. However, now that I am older and a touch wiser, I've gone back and watched all three movies (I've been on a serious TMNT-a-Thon ever since I heard a new movie was in the making). While I admit the third is indeed the worst of the three, it is far from the travesty I originally thought (and thought for years). Aside from the silly story and the poor quality turtle costumes, the dialog is given several moments to shine with some surprisingly funny jokes and one-liners and minor giggles. I'm not saying every TMNT fan should go out and buy this. I don't even own it myself. However, I think you should get a few friends together, grab some snacks, some source of caffeine, order a pizza, and rent TMNT III for a night of absurdity and laughs. That's what my friends and I did <3

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III is a bad movie with good parts, that's really all you need to know.

One of the best things about the film is that the turtles get to use their weapons. The fights are much better than the 2nd's and are actually pretty exciting. The film is more like II than the first, it's more lighthearted, and surprisingly some of the jokes are pretty funny, and the dialog in general isn't terrible, but it's not exactly well-written. The turtles voices are all great, and Cory Feldman makes a welcome return in the role of Donatello, I missed him in the second film.

The film's cinematography is pretty good, the sets and lighting are decent, the scenes in Japan look really great, but the scenes in the sewer look like a set. Outside of the turtles, the acting is pretty sub-par, Casey makes a return, but his character is nowhere near as great as it was in the first. April O'Neil is basically there just to give the turtles the plot, which is disappointing to me because I really enjoyed her character in the first, and to a lesser extent, the second.

The puppetry is bad. Splinter looks horrendous and moves like a robot. The turtles suits look horrible, the lack of Henson's team is very obvious here. When their mouths move it really draws attention to how bad the mechanics are. The spots on their costumes are supposed to be subtle, not draw attention to themselves like in this film. The film is just nowhere near as good as you'd want it to be, but it's also not terrible. It's watchable and enjoyable enough, and I pop it in every once in a while because it has its moments.

5/10