WARNING: SPOILERS! READ AT YOUR OWN RISK!
So after watching the new Michael Bay Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and doing a full review for it on my site (you can read it here SPOILERS), I got into a bit of a TMNT mood, and since I referenced so many different incarnations of the turtles, I decided I'll review what might be the best Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie to date; Turtles Forever, a 2009 cross over made for TV movie.
So what is Turtles Forever? Well this was made specifically to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is a cross over between the 1980s TMNT and the 2003 TMNT. 80s Donatello creates a device that allows the user to cross between dimensions. This causes super silly 80s turtles, Shredder, and Krang to travel to the dimension of serious 2003 turtles, at the time the most recent incarnation. The 80s turtles are captured and 80s Shredder is surprised that there are 2 sets of turtles. He then figures out that "if there is an alternate dimension version of the turtles, there must be an alternate dimension version of The Shredder." This leads him to find 2003 dimension Shredder, who then decides that 1 universe of turtles is to much, let alone all the parallel universe alternate dimension versions. So he decides he's going to destroy the universe with the first incarnation, the 1984 Mirage comic book universe, aka "Turtle Prime." Now 12 turtles from 3 different universes must fight 2003 Shredder.
So what makes this so good? It brings 2 very different universes of turtles together. If you don't know, 80s turtles and their universe is supper silly and no one is serious. Shredder and Krang are incompetent, and the turtles are all crazy and fun loving. However, 2003 turtles serious, only Michelangelo is silly, and not nearly to the extent of the 80s turtles. Then 2003 Shredder is a competent enemy, and so are Hun and Karai. The contrast between the 2 universes is amazing. The 80s turtles keep breaking the 4th wall, as was common for them, but the 2003 universe doesn't understand it since they don't do it. At one point Hun even asks 80s Rafael "who are you talking to, there's no one there." It brings together 2 universes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 3 if you count the time spent in Turtle Prime, together for a fun 73 minute adventure.
But what really ads to it, is that everything keeps true to the animation style of the universe. When the 80s turtles go into the 2003 universe, they don't suddenly become taller, darker, and get angles, they keep their goofy cartoon art style. When the 2003 turtles go to the 80s world, they keep their angles and shading in the very 2 dimensional and colorful world. When 80s and 2003 turtles go to turtle prime, a black and white comic world, they stay color. I know other cross over movies where the cartoon characters take on the art style of the universe they're in, (Jimmy Timmy Power Hour anyone), but in this one they remain true to their original universe. That's a really cool effect.
It's a little annoying that the most amount of time is spent in the 2003 universe and very little is spent in 80s universe, because I do like 80s over 2003. The only reason they go to 80s is because 80s Donatello has to get something from his universe. Oh well.
The only thing really worth complaining about is that the original voices from the 80s cartoon didn't reprise their rolls. This isn't because 4kids didn't want to try to get the original voices, they tried. However, the reason they weren't able to is because the 80s voice actors are all union workers and 4kids wasn't able to secure union permission to hire the original voice actors. They don't really sound like the originals, (except for Rafael), but the energy and silliness is still there.
All in all, Turtles Forever is a great movie, probably the best of all the turtles movies. It's well worth it for any fan of turtles. You can get it through Amazon here. I hope you enjoyed this quick little review. There's not much to say other than, it's awesome. This has been Pokematic signing off and bu-bye.
