Turtles Forever

Turtles Forever (2009) just made me smile. I'm so happy with this film, I love it. I love this whole thing.

Long story short, there's an inter-dimensional plot that allows all three major adaptations of the TMNT (Original comic, 1987 cartoon, 2003 cartoon) to collide for awkward genius and hilarity.

Especially amusing scenes when the much sillier 1987 Turtles' crack their trademark cheesy jokes and puns... and the more serious 2003 world doesn't welcome it.

2003 Shredder is huge, pure evil, and makes 1987 Shredder look like a bumbling fool when they meet each other. 2003 Shredder remodels the Technodrome ( "What is this? A giant golf ball on wheels?") ripping out 1980s looking monitors and replacing them with 60" flat-screens.

Then BAM they do a perfect rendition of the sinister, original comic turtles. Mesh them all together, then wrap it up with a cameo from when Mirage Studios was merely two guys in a garage, hoping their little hand-made turtles story would sell.

The art was very consistent with source material from all three generations- note the black and white comic world of the first turtles even has a texture to it, like it's been hand drawn on cheap paper.

The writing was appropriate, they really did their best making this movie. The original voice actors from the 1987 series aren't present (4Kids, sigh) but the replacements are close enough to where it doesn't detract.

I've read amateur reviews of this movie, mostly guys my age complaining that the 1987 turtles were portrayed as TOO silly. They aren't. That's exactly how that show was- puns, pizza, cowabunga fun for kids. Having the new (EXTREME!) ninja turtles interact with my kid heroes was perfectly awkward, and at times made me laugh aloud.

If you haven't heard of this until now- don't feel bad. The marketing and release of Turtles Forever was horribly botched. Which is a shame, because this is brilliant work, and is a must-see for any Ninja Turtles fan.