Turtles Forever

Turtles Forever
Based on	Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by Kevin Eastman Peter Laird
Written by	Matthew Dredk Roy Burdine Lloyd Goldfine Rob David
Directed by	Roy Burdine Lloyd Goldfine
Voices of	Michael Sinterniklaas Wayne Grayson Sam Riegel Frank Frankson Darren Dunstan Scottie Ray Dan Green Johnny Castro Tony Salerno Sebastian Arcelus Load Williams Bradford Cameron
Composers	Ralph Schuckett Rusty Andrews John Angier Mark Breeding Louis Cortelezzi Joel Douek John Petersen Pete Scaturro John Siegler John Van Tongeren Russel Velazquez
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
Production
Executive producers	Gary Richardson Frederick U.Fierst Alfred R. Khan Norman F. Grossfield
Producer	Sarah C. Nesbitt
Editor	Richard B. Nesbitt
Running time	81 minutes (Uncut/PAL DVD) 73 minutes (TV edit/NTSC DVD)
Production companies	Mirage Studios, inc. 4Kids Entertainment
Original release
Network	The CW4Kids
Release	November 21, 2009 (2009-11-21)

Turtles Forever (also known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Forever or TMNT: Turtles Forever) is a 2009 American television film produced by 4Kids Entertainment. A crossover film featuring three different incarnations of the Turtles, it was produced in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

An edited version of the movie was released on July 11, 2009 worldwide on TV. The film was then released on July 29, 2009 in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada. In other countries, the film aired on The CW as part of their Saturday morning The CW4Kids lineup on November 21, 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, 2009 to November 14, 2009 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 November 21, 2009 from Nickelodeon/Paramount Home Entertainment. 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 media. On August 24, 2010, Nickelodeon aired the movie on its channel for the first time, then aired it again on August 29, 2010.

Plot

The Ninja Turtles are alerted by their master Splinter that they have been careless and discovered fighting the Purple Dragons on TV. Denying this, they set out to break into the Purple Dragons' HQ to get to the bottom of these doppelgängers.

Upon doing so, the Turtles discover that their "imposters" are from the 1987 series. They escape together, but the 2003 Turtles find the 1987 team childish as they refuse to talk until they eat lunch. They enter a pizza place scaring humans along the way, who call the police. The 1987 Turtles attempt to sneak out the back, only for the 2003 Turtles to capture them. They have brought Splinter along with them, to which the 1987 Turtles realize that the New York they know has become different.

1987 Leonardo explains his team was fighting the 1987 Shredder 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 bots led by Bebop and Rocksteady. When the '87 Shredder hypothesizes the existence of another Shredder in this dimension, he proceeds to elude them.

In the meantime, '87 Shredder locates Ch'rell, the 2003 Utrom Shredder, on an icy asteroid. After Ch'rell is thawed out, he is contained for vivisection, as he's too insane to work with. However, his adopted daughter Karai, who had been monitoring his exile, breaks into the Technodrome and frees him.

While tracking the Technodrome, the Turtles and Splinter are attacked by Hun and the Purple Dragons, who want their mutagen. Although Hun is in possession of a powerful mutant, Splinter destroys it with the Turtle Truck's missiles. Unfortunately, Hun tackles 2003 Raphael and 1987 Donatello into the sewers for the mutagen. Yet, just as he retrieves the mutagen and declares victory, he apparently becomes exposed to it; due to the last thing he touched being "mutant turtle filth", he becomes the very thing he hates: a mutant turtle. He wanders until coming upon the Technodrome, now under the control of Ch'rell, who has built a new exoskeleton for himself; Hun vows to serve him again.

Utrom Shredder and Karai begin the process of rebuilding the cartoonish fortress and revising it and the Foot bots with Utrom science, making them more worthy of the Utrom Shredder. They have also used mutagen to make a mutant army out of the Foot clan. Utrom Shredder uses the dimensional portal, learning 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, breaking into their lair; it begins crumbling, forcing the Turtles to use their dimensional portal stick to escape into the 1987 universe. Splinter is captured by Hun to serve as bait in a trap. Utrom Shredder decides to launch an all-out assault on the 2003 universe to lure the Turtles out of hiding.

Back in the 1987 universe, the 2003 Turtles meet 1987 April O'Neil when the '87 Turtles rescue her from a group of enemies that are confusing to them, though they feel a kinship with the 1987 Splinter, who welcomes them as sons. After both Donnies apply their expertise, the Turtles are able to return to the 2003 universe with anti-technodrome gear and the '87 Turtles vehicles, the Party Wagon and Turtle Blimp. They find Casey Jones and 2003 April attempting to repel the advancing onslaught, and infiltrate the Technodrome, which now looks like the Death Star. Captured by the 2003 Shredder, the Turtles learn from him they are not the only versions in the multiverse; as they see infinite versions of them and here the '03 Shredder's plan to kill the Ninja Turtles of the source dimension, creating a domino effect that erase every other team of Ninja Turtles in the multiverse. All eight are scanned for shared DNA, seemingly vanishing into oblivion as the Technodrome vanishes to the source dimension (dubbed "Turtle Prime"); however, they are somehow teleported to safety. Unfortunately, Utrom Shredder has already infiltrated the Turtle Prime universe and is now demolishing it; this causes a chain reaction that begins to literally erase everything and everyone in the 2003 universe. Needing to upgrade their portal device, the Turtles break into Purple Dragon HQ; Hun is waiting for them, wanting revenge for his mutation. However, when he sees the world vanishing, Hun surrenders the upgrade tech just before he's erased.

The Turtles accomplish their task and, despite 2003 April and Casey being erased as well, just manage to escape the 2003 universe, and are teleported to the black-and-white Turtle Prime. To their surprise, they quickly encounter their source 1984 counterparts, who attack them for no reason until they mention the Shredder. As part of their plan, the other 8 will hide while the 1984 Prime Turtles lure the '03 Shredder out by insulting his pride. Before he comes out, they are challenged by 1984 Prime Shredde, who is comically dispatched by the hiding Turtles. When Utrom Shredder discovers both his Turtles and the 1987 team still alive, Karai reveals that she had teleported them to safety because Ch'rell showed no concern over the consequences of eliminating all Ninja Turtle life. With the aid of Splinter, Karai, and even the 1987 Shredder and Krang, all twelve Turtles then engage Utrom Shredder in battle. Ch'rell's exoskeleton grows thanks to molecular amplification technology from Dimension X, but is knocked into the energy the Technodrome is firing and receives damage. Everyone tries knocking him into the beam before Rocksteady accidentally trips on and unplugs the power cable as he and Bebop attempt to help their master. Utrom Shredder seizes and begins crushing the Prime Turtles, causing Turtle Prime and all his enemies to start being erased. Even though his enemies warn him that all of reality, including Ch'rell himself, will vanish, Utrom Shredder continues to crush the Prime Turtles due to being too insane to care, until 1987 Donatello tosses explosive throwing stars at his leg, causing him to release the Prime Turtles, thus halting Turtle Prime's demise. Bebop plugs the Technodrome's beam back in, thus vaporizing Utrom Shredder into nothingness.

With their foe defeated, the Turtles watch as Turtle Prime and the 2003 reality restore themselves. 2003 Splinter and Karai note that Ch'rell always returns no matter how he is defeated, but the various characters decide they'll be there to stop him whenever he may rise again. The 1987 characters board the Technodrome and return to their homeworld, while the 2003 characters use the portal stick to return to theirs. The Prime Turtles decide to go get some pizza to eat, as somewhere else, across time and space, Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman put the finishing touches on the first issue of Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, expressing the hope that the book will sell.

Production

Casting and music

None of the original voice cast from the 1987 cartoon series reprised their roles nor was the original soundtrack / score from the show used in this special. In the actors' case, since 4Kids Productions reside in New York City while the majority of the original cast reside in California, hiring them would be expensive and time-consuming as most of them either retired, died or refuse to work on projects unsanctioned by SAG-AFTRA, which was not used in most of their properties. For the score, most of the music from the series is owned by Lionsgate 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 that bears a similarity with the original series. The special received negative opinions for the quality of the '87 turtles voices, mostly aimed at Dan Green's portrayal of Leonardo.

Voice cast

Characters	1984 Mirage comics	1987 animated series	2003 animated series
Leonardo "Leo"	Jason Griffith	Dan Green	Michael Sinterniklaas
Raphael "Raph"	Sean Schemmel	Sebastian Arcelus	Greg Abbey
Michelangelo "Mikey"	Bradford Cameron	Johnny Castro	Wayne Grayson
Donatello "Donnie" or "Don"	Clay Adams	Tony Salerno	Sam Riegel
Shredder	David Wills	Load Williams	Scottie Ray
Splinter		David Wills	Darren Dunstan
April O'Neil		Rebecca Soler	Veronica Taylor

• Marc Thompson as (2003) Casey Jones
• Karen Neill as Karai
• Greg Carey as Hun
• Bradford Cameron as Krang and Bebop
• Johnny Castro as Rocksteady

Crew

• Eric Stuart - voice director

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:

• 1987 and 2003 Donatello work together to locate the Technodrome using underground sonar while riding in their van, which they eventually locate.
• 2003 Shredder asks to see the trans-dimensional 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.
• 2003 Raphael calls the 1987 Turtles "clowns", which causes an argument. Splinter yells at them to stop bickering and reminds them that they should be working together, causing 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 Turtles, which causes him to pause briefly before being hit by a barrage of exploding throwing stars.

External links

• Official website from Mirage Studios
• 4Kids TV TMNT site
• Turtles Forever at IMDb
• Turtles Forever review
• Turtles Forever Poster making of