Turtles Forever Review

Directors: Roy Burdine and Lloyd Goldfine
Writers: Rob David, Matthew Drdek, and Lloyd Goldfine
Released: November 21, 2009

Turtles Forever. Admit it, this was the ultimate Turtles dream come true. Combining the two successful TV Turtles (and thankfully ignoring that other one) and putting them into one TV movie. It friggin' blew my mind. When this was released, I admittedly had not been not been a fan of the 4Kids show, I ended up watching it later on. Even though I was reading the Turtles comics at the time, the idea of a cartoon was just not appealing to me. But it didn't matter, because Turtles Forever is just that good. I couldn't believe it the morning it aired, it could not feel more nostalgic. I made damn sure I was awake on time in order to watch the Turtles I grew up with on TV on a Saturday morning. All that was missing was waking up in my Ninja Turtles Sheets, with my Ninja Turtles pajamas, and getting a big bowl of Ninja Turtles cereal. Actually, I'm fine with those details not being there.

The story gets going immediately. A big praise that can be said for this movie is that it does not waste any screen time, the pacing is great and if anything, I wish it was longer. I love that the '87 Turtles are not supporting characters or just have some small cameo. They're right there through the whole thing, just being ridiculous and awesome. A big complaint that a lot of people have is that they were too silly. These weren't really the cartoon Turtles, just a mockery of what the Fred Wolf show had been. My question is this: what the fuck are you talking about? What show were you watching as a kid? Because the one I watched had silly characters in over the top, kid friendly situations. The contrast between the Fred Wold and the 4Kids Turtles is what makes this movie work. It's awesome, stop nitpicking every detail and enjoy it for what it is.

Now for the nitpicking! Not really nitpicking, but a what I dislike about the movie. Animation? Phenomenal. Story? Amazing. Perfect Finale? Damn right. Voice Acting? Shit. Anyone who watches this for five minutes can tell that the original voice actors for the '87 Turtles are not used. Why is this? Cheapness, and no real other reason. The short answer is there are a few different voice acting unions, and the one 4Kids uses is not the same one Fred Wolf used. So instead of spending a little more money, 4Kids opted to have sub par actors and cheap imitations of the old music. It's the only thing that pulls me out of this movie, and it's unfortunately consistent. The actors that were hired will get about one out of every four lines to sound like the original actors and it comes across sounding really forced.

The humor in this is one of the best parts. Both shows had their shares of jokes, but I wouldn't call any of them laugh out loud funny. This movie on the other hand, I find hysterical. The 2003 Michelangelo screaming in terror on the glider after it detaches from the blimp is probably my favorite. I also like the constant joking about how the old show was so ridiculous. The Turtles know that before the stop the Technodrome, they have to save April. How do they know? Because they do that at least once a day. And I really like the 2003 Donatello thinking April worked at a car wash because of her yellow jumpsuit. The only part of the humor that I think could have been cut back on was the '87 Turtles laughing so much. Yes, they used to laugh at their jokes, but not every single one of them! The laughing itself probably takes up five minutes of the movie and gets really old.

Going into this, I had no idea how many different versions of the Turtles were going to be referenced. When the Swedish sounding Utrom Shredder shows the Turtles all the different incarnations, it's quite a visual. I couldn't believe how many obscure references were pulled up. The anime Turtles? How many people actually know what that is? I didn't notice the Turtles from their Christmas movie in there though, real shame.

The best part is the end. Holy shit, the Mirage Turtles are in this movie. This will probably be the closest adaptation of them that we will ever see. The animation matched up so well. I don't recall there always being lighting in the sky, but oh well. The only thing missing in this was some sign that said "Chet" on it. A lot of the dialogue is pulled straight from the first issue of Ninja Turtles, and it's a huge treat. I love the appearance of the original Shredder. Does he get taken out from impaling this time? Nope. Trashcans do him in, all in classic cartoon style.

Turtles Forever is next to perfect as far as anything involving Turtles animation. All we need now is a full cut of it released on DVD so I can stop watching it on YouTube. If The Next Mutation can get a real DVD releaseTurtles Forever should be able to. Seriously, if Coming Out of Their Shells gets one first, I'm going to be pissed.

5/5