Les tortues ninja III

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.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle III (nowadays given the subtitle Turtles in Time, which is taken from the second TMNT arcade game) is not a memorable movie. Made in a time when the franchise was low on steam (and before the debut of Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, a show that would dethrone the Turtles as the top kids' show at the time), TMNT III sees the Turtles going back to Feudal Japan after a scepter April gets Splinter causes her to switch places with Kenshin, a prince who is helping a village in a war against his evil father, Lord Norinaga. A conflict the Turtles actually get caught in as the villagers, led by Mitsu, as they must stop Norinaga and get back to present day New York.

Yeah, this is not a good film, as if I had to choose this or the Michael Bay Turtles as my poison, this would be my choice. New Line and Golden Harvest hire a new company instead of Jim Henson's Creature Workshop to do the Turtle suits, and while they do look like the Turtles, they are a lot different (but not as different as those ogres in turtle shell Michael Bay passes as the turtles). Also, the movie is geared to be more on the goofy side with some action, as the Turtles would spew one -liners (like Mikey imitating Elvis in Blue Hawaii with a lampshade). However, one major improvement over the last film is that the Turtles are now allowed to use their weapons again (after being banned from using them after parents complained about the first film being too violent), and they brought back Elias Koteas in the role of Casey Jones (after the character was replaced by Keno in the second film, another change done because of parental complaints), although he is in the role of babysitter and not involved in the fighting. Also, Splinter, Raph, and Donnie get new voice actors, and they are not good (Splinter got it worst, as he sounds like a horrible attempt at a stereotypical Asian senior).

However, the series does have some good moments (like Raph bonding with Yoshi, a kid Leonardo saves using CPR, and teaching to control his temper) and some good music. While the movie has been known to be bad, nowadays, it is not considered the worst TMNT film (that dishonor goes to TMNT 2014 and TMNT: Out Of The Shadows), but it is an okay film in my book.

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.

The story of the turtles gets even more far-fetched in this inferior installment, with the turtles going back in time to 1603 Japan. The Jim Henson's Creature Shop obviously didn't provide for the turtles, which is a major blow to the overall production. There are a couple of pros that save the film from being a total disaster, including: the return of Casey Jones (Koteas), who's reprisal may make some fans feel that the second installment had a void with his omission; some fun parallels between 1603 Japan and the turtles' life in 1993 New York; wonderful set production for the Japan scenes; and well-developed new characters. While the omission of any references to the Foot Clan may heavily separate this film from the others in the series, it executes an entertaining and solid story. It's also nice to see the turtles and Splinter are still living in the abandoned underground train station from the second film, as well as Turco NOT suffering a recast of April O'Neal like Hoag did; which shows some attempt at continuity despite its major differences from the first two. However, the flaws are too great for its pros to overcome mediocre status. Right from the get-go the movie seems like a lost cause, with the opening credits being accompanied by a ridiculously, terribly unnecessary, spontaneous turtle-dance. Also, couldn't they have found a way to throw Chief Stern (Serra) in for some extra comedic-relief and continuity?

** (out of four)

I'm only a fan of this movie for the nostalgia. As a kid, I was obsessed with 1993 ninja turtle Saturday morning cartoon. I distinctly remember getting this movie as a reward for getting good grades in every subject on my report card that term. I must've watched this movie at least a dozen times that summer.

sorry for the tangent. corey feldman does the voice of a lifesize puppet. how can that possibly be a good sign? the heroes of the movie are irritating in every scene. the consistently bad puns will make you want to slam your head against a wall. the portrayal of the fictional early 90's new york that exists in this movie is about as funny as rick moranis's career. avoid avoid avoid.