Turtles Forever is a 2009 American animatedsuperherotelevision film directed by Roy Burdine and Lloyd Goldfine and written by Goldfine, Rob David, and Matthew Drdek. A crossover film featuring two different incarnations of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fighting together, it was produced in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the characters and serves as the finale to the 2003 TV series. The film aired on The CW4Kids on November 21, 2009.
Plot
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their master Splinter are startled to watch a video broadcast of the Turtles fighting the Purple Dragons on TV. The Turtles break into the Purple Dragons' HQ and discover that their "imposters" are actually alternate versions of themselves. The teams escape together, but the 2003 Turtles find the 1987 team too difficult to control, until they summon Splinter.
The 1987 Turtles explain that they landed here after fighting their Shredder and Krang over mutagen in the Technodrome. During the battle, the dimensional teleporter malfunctioned, sending them all to the 2003 dimension. Checking recent tremor reports, the Turtles find the Technodrome, only to have to battle an army of Foot Soldiers led by Bebop and Rocksteady.
When 1987 Shredder sees the two Turtle teams, he theorizes that another Shredder might exist in this dimension. After escaping the Turtles and finding no counterpart of Krang in this reality, Shredder locates Ch'rell the Utrom Shredder on an icy asteroid where he is banished. They beam Ch'rell to the Technodrome and revive him from the block of ice he was frozen in, but find him too insane for an alliance and try to vivisect him. However, his adopted daughter Karai, who had been monitoring his exile, breaks into the Technodrome and frees him, declaring the weapon's technology property of the Foot Clan.
While tracking the Technodrome, the Turtles and Splinter are attacked by Hun and the Purple Dragons, who want their mutagen as they see that Mohawk had been mutated into a mutant dog due to him having been in contact with the fighting dog whose leash he was holding at the time. In the course of the fight, Hun is accidentally exposed to it and turns into a mutant turtle. He wanders until coming upon the Technodrome, now under the control of the Utrom Shredder, who takes Hun back into his service.
Ch'rell and Karai begin rebuilding the Technodrome with help from the Cyber Foot much to the dismay of Shredder and Krang. Karai noted to Ch'rell that the technology from Dimension X is ridiculous and are using Utrom science to revise the Technodrome with the combined technology having been used to make Ch'rell's new Shredder body and create new Foot-Bots which are stronger than the 80s Foot Soldiers that Karai considers cartoonish, clumsy, and weak. Analyzing the mutagen that affected Hun, they reverse-engineered the mutagen where a select number of Cyber Foot have been mutated into Mutant Foot Soldiers with two of them resembling Tokka and Rahzar. Using the trans-dimensional portal, Ch'rell learns there are many parallel universes filled with Ninja Turtles. Hun, Bebop and Rocksteady are dispatched alongside an army of Utrom Foot-Bots to capture the Turtles by breaking into their lair. The lair begins crumbling, forcing the Turtles to use their dimensional portal projector to escape into the 1987 universe while Splinter is captured by Hun. During that time, they meet the 80s versions of April and Splinter.
While the Turtles are preparing for their fight, they discover that Shredder has started attacking the 2003 universe with the upgraded Technodrome and the Mutant Foot Soldiers. Casey Jones and April O'Neil try to hold the enemy off before the Turtle teams arrive. After entering the Technodrome to find Splinter, they are captured by Ch'rell, who reveals his plan to wipe out every version of the Ninja Turtles across the multiverse by destroying them in their source dimension, "Turtle Prime". By scanning the eight turtles' DNA, he finds the dimension, but the Turtles themselves are saved by Karai, who has started to question her father's goals. The turtles are joined by April and Casey and explain the situation to them, but realize that Ch'rell has started his plans and their dimension is being erased.
After a brief fight with the Dragons and Hun which results in their erasure, the Turtles escape to Turtle Prime, where they quickly encounter their prime counterparts. After some explanation, the twelve Turtles team up and are joined by Splinter, Karai, 1987 Shredder, and Krang against Ch'rell. During the battle, Ch'rell's exo-suit grows giant, but proves to be vulnerable to the Technodrome's laser beam. Utrom Shredder seizes the Prime Turtles and attempts to destroy them and the entire multiverse, but the 1987 Turtles break his balance and save the Prime Turtles. Bebop unknowingly reactivates the Technodrome's laser beam, which vaporizes Ch'rell. With their foe defeated and their worlds restored, the two turtle teams and their allies return to their respective worlds, while the Prime Turtles decide to go get some pizza.
In the real world, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman put the finishing touches on the first issue of Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, hopeful that the book will sell, before going out for pizza.
Karen Neill as Karai, Utrom Shredder's adoptive daughter and the 2003 Foot Clan's second-in-command.
Greg Carey as Hun, a former ally of the Utrom Shredder and leader of the Purple Dragons, who gets transformed into a ferocious mutant turtle before rejoining the 2003 Foot Clan.
None of the original voice cast from the 1987 cartoon series reprised their roles nor was the original music from the show used in this special. In the actors' case, the original voice cast are members of SAG-AFTRA, with which 4Kids did not have a contract.[3] For the score, most of the music from the 1987 series was owned at the time by that series' producer, Fred Wolf Films, and would require a license fee to be used in the show. For a cost-effective solution, the special used many of the productions' frequent talents and used their in-score team to make a soundtrack reminiscent of the original series.[4]
An edited version of the movie was released on July 11, 2009, worldwide on TV. The film was then released on July 29 in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada.[5] In other countries, the film aired on The CW as part of their Saturday morning The CW4Kids lineup on November 21,[6] as part of a 25th anniversary celebration which featured a top-10 episode countdown preceding the film's television premiere. In the United States, an uncut version aired from October 31 to November 14 in a form where three weekly 26 minute episodes were shown in a half-hour slot per week.
The uncut version of the film later appeared on the CW4Kids's website on November 16, 2009, which includes 8 minutes of footage cut from the original version that aired on TV. The edited version was released on non-anamorphic widescreen DVD on August 24, 2010 in North America from Nickelodeon/Paramount Home Entertainment.[7][8][9] The uncut anamorphic widescreen version was later released in 2011 on DVD in the PAL DVD regions (2 and 4). There are currently no plans for an American release of the uncut anamorphic version on home video.
Release
Edited scenes
The edited version of the movie (which was used for some TV airings and the Region 1 DVD release) removed several additional scenes which remain intact in the "uncut" version of the movie. Some of those key scenes include:[10]
1987 and 2003 Donatello work together to locate the Technodrome using underground sonar while riding in their van, which they eventually locate.
2003 Shredder demands to see the transdimensional portal device during his initial tour of the Technodrome.
Karai reveals that she located the Technodrome because her monitoring system for 2003 Shredder had alerted her that he had been transported from his previous location to the Technodrome. She then claims the Technodrome in the name of the 2003 Foot Clan.
1987 Krang and Shredder commiserate about 2003 Shredder ruining their expensive computer equipment in the Technodrome during its renovations.
As part of the renovations to the Technodrome, 2003 Shredder programmed the computer to now utilize all of his extraneous superlatives when it addresses him. He also states that he is intrigued by the implications of the trans-dimensional portal.
2003 Raphael calls the 1987 Turtles "clowns", which causes an argument that gets immediately interrupted by Splinter. Splinter then orders them to stop bickering, reminding them that they should be working together, which causes 2003 Raphael to apologize for the insult.
2003 Casey and April have an extended fight sequence with some enemies who are attacking them.
The 1987 and 2003 Turtles argue about whose Shredder is worse, calling 2003 Shredder "psycho-evil" and 1987 Shredder "decaf".
2003 Leonardo gives a more complete explanation regarding the 2003 Shredder's plan when they initially meet up with the Prime Turtles.
1987 Shredder yells at Rocksteady and Bebop before the Turtles' assault on the Technodrome in Turtle Prime starts.
Karai warns 2003 Shredder that he is making a grave mistake as he attempts to destroy the Mirage Turtles, pointing out he will destroy himself and her in the process, which causes him to stop briefly before resuming his attempt to eliminate them, no longer caring about his or anyone else's fate.
Reception
Critical response
Turtles Forever received mixed reviews from fans and critics. Alan Ng of Film Threat gave the film 5/10, calling the film "incredibly dated" and the lack of connection felt towards the different sets of Turtles, with "the 1987 crew [...] a little more mature than their 2003 counterparts".[11] The review from DVD Talk called Turtles Forever a "mostly forgettable endeavour" and said that the "cheap shots [against the 1987 Turtles] are pathetic and get old immediately".[12]
