Tartarughe Ninja III

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 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)

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 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

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.