Turtles Forever

This movie is for fans and non-fans alike. It starts off with the Turtles in it's latest incarnation (2003 4kids series) viewing a news report of a robbery broken up by four turtles..but not by them..

At a risk of spoiling, I will not go into further detail. As a fan of the shows and the various versions of the Turtles, I really enjoyed this movie.

Funny thing is this movie wasn't promoted well, if not at all (which is sad because this could have been released in the theaters and would have made a lot of money... I happened upon this movie by accident and have a "Kool-Aid smile" for it's humor, story, action, and nostalgia. This made for TV movie did what the previous shows and the theatrical release did not.

It gave the fans a action packed, humor-filled completion to a wonderful franchise... Thank you to all that were involved....And here's hoping that this was not the end to it all.

The 2003 series is my favorite rendition of the famous Ninja Turtles outside the comics, so this was a masterfully satisfying conclusion to a great series.

Filled with fan service of all generations, from the Mirage Comics, the 80's TV-show, the then present TV-series on top of a solid plot of stopping the One True Shredder who despite his eternal exile to a lonely asteroid in outer space.

And even though the art style is style of the weaker side of the show, the animators' put in a lot of work to make each generation true to its respective tone and style with some surprised thrown in to finish it off.

This is a must see for every Turtle fan!

I like this crossover overall, but the execution was wanting. The 80s turtles are reduced to cowardly, incompetent, childish fools, with their individual quirks and personalities stripped away. (As silly as the 87 cartoon was, the green team was certainly not comprised of "four Mikeys" as 2003 Raphael suggests). It's really aggravating. 80s Shredder and Krang are given little to do and what little seriousness they had on the original cartoon is taken away. They serve as idiotic foils for the newer villains and little else. They weren't integrated into the plot that well either. The only 87 characters given the proper treatment at all were Bebop, Rocksteady, and Splinter.

It was cool to see the Mirage turtles included (and how they knocked down the 2003 turtles a few pegs). The plot itself was interesting, and the comedy and action generally worked well. It's just hard to praise this one when one half of its crossover is so shamefully treated. Honestly, it felt more like a "hey look at how cool the 2003 turtles are!" most of the time, rather than a celebration of the franchise as a whole. It's unfortunate.

Having grown up watching the old 1988 series, it was great to see the specific characters of the turtles and their villains then, in the universe of the new more serious turtles that kids watch today. The whole thing is animated well and has an interesting enough storyline.

The only thing I slightly disliked about this movie, was that the older versions of the characters, both good and bad, are depicted as being somewhat helpless in the 21st century Turtle universe. They mostly get the goofy lines and carefree attitude. However, to be fair the old show was never as serious as the newer one apparently is, and there were excellent tributes to the old show. One running gag in the movie I really enjoyed, was that the older turtles would sometimes direct their attention to the viewer, which would confuse the 21st generation characters. At some point a turtle is actually asked; "Who are you talking to? There is nobody there!"

Although there is definite goofiness and corniness present, this movie offers a nice look at the turtles through time, and is a nice way to end this saga of the turtles (as Nickelodeon is apparently planning to make the next show fully CGI).

Turtles Forever is a TV movie that serves as both the final adventure for the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but also to celebrate the franchise's 25th anniversary. In this, when the Turtles go to the surface after Master Splinter finds news footage of heroes looking like them foiling a robbery, they arrive at the Purple Dragons' base, only to see the Turtles in question, who were captured, are the 1987 Turtles. Brought to the 2003 dimension after their last battle with their Shredder caused an explosion, now the two sets of Turtles, each with different personalities and logic, must find a way to fix things, especially when 1987 Shredder has brought back the 2003 Shredder, who proceeds to take over the Techodrome and plots to eliminate all turtles and rule the multiverse.

This movie teams the more serious 2003 Turtles with the more goofy 1987 Turtles, and it shows. The 1987 Turtles are always goofy and joking about (one of the main jokes is confusing the 2003 characters with their fourth wall breaks). Also, the movie manages to put some references to the 1987 show in, as well as characters from other series.

However, while it is good, it's not perfect. The 1987 characters all have new voice actors due to 4Kids not wanting to hire the original VAs due to them being a non-union company (and located in New York City, where the VAs in question are in Los Angeles, where some are retired while the rest are even signed with the Screen Actors Guild, which means they would refuse to do this due to not being sanctioned like most of 4Kids' other works. Also, 4Kids uses their own music, making a new soundtrack for the 1987 Turtles' dimension to avoid paying licensing fees to Lionsgate (who owned the rights to the 1987 TMNT cartoon at the time). So instead of Cam Clarke as Leonardo, we get Dan Green (who never sounds like Cam, as his voice is more like his earlier 4Kids role, Yami Yugi, the transformed form of the main character of the original Yu-Gi-Oh anime 4Kids owned at the time), while Sebastin Arcelus takes over 1987 Raphael from Rob Paulson (although unlike Dan, his voice in this is almost accurate to Rob's). In fact, Sebastian and Johnny Castro, the latter voicing 1987 Michelangelo in place of Townsend Coleman, are the only two replacement VAs that sound close to the original VAs.

Despite the voice actor replacements, music issues, and even some continuity errors, this is a good way to end the 2003 series. With a good story spanning different incarnation of the franchise, some neat action, and even some good humor, Turtles Forever may not be perfect, but it's a good end to 4Kids' incarnation of the mean, green fighting machine.