Turtles Forever (2009)

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles meet their match -- Literally! The modern, gritty Ninja Turtles must team up with their classic cartoon counterparts to stop two Shredders and their plans of multi-dimensional scale.

Directors:

Roy Burdine, Lloyd Goldfine (co-director)

Writers:

Kevin Eastman (character), Peter Laird (character)

Stars:

Michael Sinterniklaas, Wayne Grayson, Sam Riegel

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Michael Sinterniklaas	...	Leonardo (voice)
Wayne Grayson	...	Michelangelo (voice)
Sam Riegel	...	Donatello (voice) (as Sam Regal)
Gregory Abbey	...	Raphael (voice) (as Greg Abbey)
Darren Dunstan	...	Splinter (voice)
Marc Thompson	...	Casey Jones (voice)
Veronica Taylor	...	April O'Neil (voice)
Scott Rayow	...	The Shredder / Ch'rell (voice) (as Scottie Ray)
Greg Carey	...	Hun (voice)
Karen Neil	...	Karai (voice) (as Karen Neill)
Dan Green	...	Leonardo 1987 (voice)
Johnny Castro	...	Michelangelo 1987 / Rocksteady (voice)
Tony Salerno	...	Donatello 1987 (voice) (as Anthony Haden Salerno)
Sebastian Arcelus	...	Raphael 1987 (voice)
David Wills	...	Splinter 1987 / Mirage Shredder (voice)

Storyline

An out of the ordinary encounter with strange alien ooze mutates four ordinary pet turtles Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo, and Donatello into talking, walking, fighting green machines! Together, these brothers train with the legendary sensei rat, Splinter, to master the martial art of Ninjitsu. In this truly turtle powered tale, the turtles from one dimension meet the turtles from another dimension when a teleporting mishap occurs. What the shell is going on? Together, the turtles must locate the Technodrome to fix this mess! Meanwhile, Shredder tracks down his counterpart, Ch'rell, who devises a master plan to travel back to the Prime Universe to get rid of the turtles once and for all! As worlds collide, the turtles come face to face with classic characters like Casey and April, and a slew of enemies including Krang, Hun, the Foot Soldiers, the Purple Dragons, Bebop and Rocksteady!

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Plot Keywords:

martial arts | teenage mutant ninja turtles | crossover | based on comic | based on comic book | 

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Taglines:

Sometimes four ninjas just aren't enough!

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Genres:

Animation | Action | Adventure | Comedy | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 November 2009 (USA)

Also Known As:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Forever

Company Credits

Production Co:

4 Kids Entertainment, Dong Woo Animation Co., Mirage Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mirage Leonardo's dialogue and inner monologue features several lines borrowed directly from the very first issue of Eastman and Laird's 1984 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic:

• "I cut two on the way down. Donatello takes out a third with his staff."
• "Shredder, we are here, Shredder face us! Shredder do you fear us?"
• "The Shredder...has been shredded."
• "We are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We strike hard and fade away into the night."

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Quotes

The Shredder: Let us finish this, once and for all. I cam to this dimension to destroy turtles. The more... the merrier! Now come! Come and face your doom!

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Alternate Versions

For several months, 4kids' website featured a "Director's Cut" of the movie which contained eight minutes of footage that were cut from the TV broadcast, and eventually Paramount's 2010 DVD as well. Among the scenes restored:

• The Turtles using sonar to search for the Technodrome underground
• Karai explaining that she found the Technodrome when her monitoring systems revealed that Ch'rell had changed location
• Karai claiming the Technodrome for the Foot Clan
• Splinter settling an argument between the 1988 and 2003 Turtles
• Casey and April fighting robotic Foot Ninjas
• Leonardo detailing Shredder's scheme to the Mirage Turtles
• Shredder nearly disintegrating himself and Karai (among others) while strangling the Mirage Turtles
• Various gags and one-liners

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Connections

Referenced in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: Animated Trailer Extravaganza 2018 (2018)

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Soundtracks

Fast Forward
Written by Jake Siegler, Alex Walker & Alex Charpentier

User Reviews

Homage, bordering on parody

The 2003 Turtles discover that their '87 counterparts have been captured by Hun and his men, and after learning that it was because of the inter-dimensional portal in the Technodrome, they attempt to stop their Shredder, who goes searching for his new counterpart, not realizing what he is about to unleash. This is a bit of a love letter to the two series, and one can debate which it favors, or if it indeed chooses one. As for the old one, it certainly does make those Ninjas seem goofy, stupid and honestly, at times, downright cowardly(with that said, they do save the day on several occasions, and their ways prove to be efficient *because* of what they do, not in spite of them). They're constantly joking around and some audiences will find them obnoxious. I did love that they implemented their vehicles(if even those were mocked some), and that we visit their universe, as well. The personalities fit pretty well, albeit Leonardo is too similar to Michaelangelo, and not much of a leader(his voice is off, as well, though most of them are spot-on). Their villains are also overly useless and comical. Then again, the point could be made that they are the more fun version, and the new millennium ones are too serious(...they're man-sized, green mutant animals, after all... and *teenagers*, lest we forget), and while they are the competent martial artists, they wouldn't be as interesting to watch(and I'm with The Nostalgia Critic, why do they keep saying "what the shell" and variants on that? It's not that good a line) for the 80 or so minute duration(based on the Director's Cut). The humor isn't all silly, there are clever nods at stuff, references and just how they react to each other. This is rather action-packed, and nearly everyone you might want to see fight, do so. There may even be a tiny bit of the good guys going up against each other, and that's all I'll say. Anyway, yeah, Purple Dragons, Foot Soldiers(and a suped-up counterpart) and goo-affected monsters on the one side, and both incarnations of the four titular characters and the newer Casey Jones and April on the other, and we've got close-quarter weapons, lasers, machines and even improvisation. The pace is great, you're never bored, the well-written story(that really smartly brings all of these together, and takes the consequence of what it introduces, leading to a truly epic, badass and memorable climax) is constantly moving forward and with cool developments, building in tension and scope towards aforementioned conclusion. This is beautifully animated, with the distinct visual styles not clashing which must have been a feat, and the two are quite accurately reproduced, and the sometimes massive scenes are rendered very nicely. There is some disturbing and/or violent content in this. I recommend this to any fan of the TMNT cartoons, whether it's based on the recent one or the original one. 8/10