Turtles Forever (2009)

Tagline: Sometimes four ninja turtles just aren’t enough.

Curiosity: Eh, I had the day off. And the whole thing is streaming for free on YouTube.

Plot: The Purple Dragons (from the 2003 animated series) are in the middle of a robbery when they’re attacked by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Splinter sees this on the news and reprimands his sons for being so careless as to be recorded, but it turns out Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael, and Michelangelo have been home all night. That’s because the turtles the Purple Dragons fought were actually from the 1987 cartoon! ’87 Shredder caused a temporal rift, depositing the ’87 characters in the ’03 remake. ’87 Shredder and Krang get into even more trouble when they revive ’03 Shredder. He takes over their Technodrone and uses to launch a war against all the ninja turtles in the multiverse!

Thoughts: As far as anniversary specials go, Turtles Forever isn’t half bad. The plot makes more sense than Forever Red ever did, and the animators bring back dozens of character designs, ranging from the shows to the comics the movies. Each style is captured perfectly. I was a huge fan of the ’87 series as a kid (Now, not so much, although the ’03 adaptation had its moments), and there was a certain nostalgia in seeing all the old designs come back.

That being said, it’s a shame the producers didn’t bring back the original voice actors. Especially missed is James Avery (Uncle Phil from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), who voiced the original Shredder. That guy has a very specific voice, and while the filmmakers did a decent job recasting, they can’t gloss over the fact that Avery isn’t there. Nuts. By removing the original voice cast, Turtles Forever feels a little empty. It’s an anniversary party missing several key people who made it worth remembering.

Still, the story moves along well enough, occasionally getting mired in sci-fi jabber but delivering action and comedy all the same. The ’87 turtles can be really annoying – the film plays them off as insane – but every so often Raphael gets in a good joke, especially when he talks to the audience, much to the other characters’ confusion. And hey, the original black-and-white turtles from the comics show up and get all Frank Miller-y on bad guys’ asses. That’s cool, right?

Reflection: They should have ended it with the “Ninja Rap.” Also Bebop and Rocksteady are used so effectively in this movie that it's maddening.