Turtles Forever

Turtles Forever (also known as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Forever or TMNT: Turtles Forever) is a 2009 animated movie that was produced by the TV company called 4Kids Entertainment. Produced in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. A rough, nearly finished version of the film has its premiere at the San Diego Comic Con on July 24, 2009. The special aired on 4KidsTV in November of the same year. A DVD release is slated for August 24, 2010.

The movie features the Turtles from 4kids' own series meeting up with the light-hearted, campy, child-friendly Murakami Wolf-Swenson Turtles, along with several secondary characters in an adventure that spans multiple parallel universes. It also marks the finale to the 2003 animated series. A rough, nearly finished version of the film premiered at the San Diego Comic Con in July 2009. On July 15, 2009, it was confirmed that completely newly designed versions of Tokka and Rahzar would also make an appearance. Voice actor Wayne Grayson has also hinted that the Mirage characters may appear. This was confirmed during the showing at SDCC 2009.

Turtles Forever was planned for release in theatres on Thursday October 29, 2009 for one night only. , but due to disputes between 4Kids Entertainment and Fathom this was later canceled

The CW4kids debuted the film on November 21, 2009 after the 25th anniversary Top 10 Countdown. An encore showing aired from November 28 to December 12, split into three 23-minute episodes. A third showing of the movie aired on March 20 the following year. A fourth showing aired on May 29. The uncut version of film appeared on the CW4kids's website on December 16 that included 8 minutes of footage cut from the version that aired on TV. The movie was released on non-anamorphic widescreen DVD on August 24th, 2010 from Nickelodeon/Paramount Pictures home entertainment. The DVD release contains the TV edit. On August 29, 2010, Nickelodeon aired the movie on the channel for the first time, then aired again on Thanksgiving Day of 2010.

Plot
When a battle between the Purple Dragons and what appear to be the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is captured on film, the Turtles are quick to refute their master Splinter's accusations of carelessness. Breaking into the Purple Dragons' headquarters to get to the bottom of these mysterious doppelgängers, our Turtles discover that their "impostors" are, in fact, versions of them from another dimension.

The goofy other dimensional "1988 Turtles" prove to be a hassle for the more serious-minded "2003 Turtles", but they are soon able to discern that they were teleported into their world in a dimensional portal accident that has also brought their arch-enemies, Shredder and Krang, and their battle fortress, the Technodrome, along with them. The eight Turtles head below the ground to track down the Technodrome, but their presence together only clues Shredder in to the fact that there may be a version of himself on this world that he can ally with to take the Turtles down. The Technodrome escapes, and the Turtles resolve to create a portal device of their own so they can travel to the "1988 universe" and obtain the gear the 1988 Turtles usually use to take the Technodrome down. While the Turtles are occupied with this task, Shredder uses the Technodrome's technology to locate his dimensional counterpart, the Utrom known as Ch'rell, still in frozen exile on an ice asteroid after his final defeat by the 2003 Turtles. Ch'rell is teleported to the Technodrome, but upon recovering, immediately overthrows his bumbling other-self and seizes control of the fortress with the aid of his adopted daughter, Karai, who had been monitoring his movements and tracked him down after realizing he had escaped his frozen prison. Using Dimension X technology and Utrom science to create a new robotic exoskeleton for himself, Ch'rell dispatches his right-hand man Hun, who has been mutated into a monstrous mutant turtle himself after being doused with mutagen from the 1988 universe in the earlier battle, to track the Turtles down. With the aid of Bebop and Rocksteady, Hun finds and attacks the Turtles lair, but the eight reptiles complete a dimensional portal stick (conceived by the 1988 Donatello) and escape to the 1988 universe. Unfortunately, Splinter is captured by Hun and brought before the Utrom Shredder to serve as bait in a trap. The 2003 Turtles meet the 1988 universe versions of April O'Neil and Splinter, and then return to the 2003 universe with the 1988 Turtles vehicles: the Party Wagon and Turtle Blimp. However, they discover that in their absence, the Utrom Shredder has fused the sciences of the Utroms and Dimension X and rebuilt the Technodrome as a truly terrifying war machine, filled with legions of improved robotic Foot Soldiers and mutated Purple Dragons. Entering the fortress to recover Splinter, the Turtles are defeated, and Utrom Shredder then reveals his master plan: While using 1988 Shredder's equipment to survey the multiverse in his plan to conquer it, he has discovered that there are not just the Turtles of the 1988 world and the 2003 world, but hundreds of them. Knowing that the turtles of those dimensions would stand in his way to conquer those worlds, 2003 Shredder decided to destroy them all by eliminating the original &quot;Prime&quot; universe. The Utrom Shredder scans the eight Turtles to locate the base similarities between them that will pinpoint the location of "Turtle Prime", and the brothers apparently do not survive the process. Once The Utrom Shredder has teleported the Technodrome away across the dimensions to Turtle Prime, however, the Turtles reappear, having been saved from oblivion by Karai, who has realized her father's mad ambition would also spell their own destruction. With their world being erased around them as the Utrom Shredder's plan goes into motion, the Turtles break into Purple Dragon headquarters again to appropriate some of the tech the criminals stole, in order to upgrade their dimensional portal stick and follow the Utrom Shredder to Turtle Prime. With the aid of a repentant Hun, they accomplish their task and are whisked away to the grim, gritty and monochrome world from whence all Turtle realities sprang. They are attacked by the native "Mirage Turtles", but eventually manage to convince their ferocious progenitors that they need their help to save all of creation. The twelve Turtles, with the aid of Splinter, Karai, and even the 1988 Shredder and Krang, engage the Utrom Shredder in battle, but he grows to massive height using molecular amplification technology from Dimension X. When the Utrom Shredder is accidentally clipped by the energy beam from the Technodrome, however, his armor is damaged, and the Turtles all try to force him into the beam ... before it is abruptly cut off when Rocksteady trips over the power cable and unplug it. The Utrom Shredder takes this opportunity to grab the four Mirage Turtles and begins crushing them. At the last minute, the 1988 Turtles throw explosive throwing stars at him, causing him to trip and drop the Mirage Turtles. The Utrom Shredder resumes his attack - until Bebop plugs the beam power cable back in and thus inadvertently obliterate the Utrom Shredder. . With their foe defeated, the Turtles watch as their respective realities restore themselves. The 1988 cast take the Technodrome and return to their homeworld, while the 2003 Turtles use the portal stick to return to theirs. The Mirage 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.

Turtles Forever Characters
The following characters appear:

1987 Series Characters
 * April O'Neil (Rebecca Soler)
 * Bebop (Bradford Cameron)
 * Donatello (Anthony Haden Salerno)
 * Foot Soldiers
 * Irma Langinstein (Cameo non-speaking)
 * Krang (Bradford Cameron)
 * Leonardo (Dan Green)
 * Michelangelo (Johnny Castro)
 * Raphael (Sebastian Arcelus)
 * Rocksteady (Johnny Castro)
 * Shredder (Load Williams)
 * Splinter (David Wills)

2003 Series Characters
 * April O'Neil (Veronica Taylor)
 * Casey Jones (Marc Thompson)
 * Cyber Foot Ninjas
 * Donatello (Sam Riegel)
 * Hun (Greg Carey)
 * Karai (Karen Neil)
 * Leonardo (Michael Sinterniklaas)
 * Michelangelo (Wayne Grayson)
 * Police Officers Eastman and Laird
 * Purple Dragons
 * Raphael (John Campbell)
 * Splinter (Darren Dunstan)
 * Utrom Shredder (Scottie Ray)

Mirage Characters  Unknown/Miscellaneous
 * Donatello (Pete Capella)
 * Leonardo (Jason Anthony Griffith)
 * Michelangelo (Bradford Cameron)
 * Raphael (Sean Schemmel)
 * Shredder (David Wills)
 * Kevin Eastman (offscreen, voiced by himself)
 * Peter Laird (offscreen, voiced by himself)
 * Rahzar
 * Tokka

Nods and References

 * When the Turtles arrive in the "1988 dimension", the camera briefly shows "Ninja Pizza". In this restaurant, owned by the Foot, the Turtles and April first go to eat in the pilot of the 1987 animated series.
 * The human forms of Bebop and Rocksteady make a cameo appearance when the 2003 Turtles arrive in the 1988 universe. The other members of their former punk gang also appear, including the ones later mutated into a lizard, bear, and bat in the episode Hot Rodding Teenagers from Dimension X.
 * Mirage Leonardo's narration quotes the comics quite a bit, with ones like "Donatello takes out a third with his staff." and "Raph loves this stuff.", although there is error in the second one, as it was Raphael's full name in the comic.
 * Once the Shredder is defeated, Mirage Leonardo says, "The Shredder has been shredded." This is a direct quote from the comics.
 * Mirage Leonardo's ending narrative for the movie parallels the ending narrative for TMNT Issue #1.
 * When the Turtles are captured by the Shredder, he shows them almost every universe, such as the live action films, anime, 2007 movie, and even ones within the 2003 show, as well as other continuities entirely.
 * When Hun has been mutated, he bears resemblance to Slash, a character from the 1987 incarnation and Archie Comics.
 * In a self-parody, the 1980s Turtles openly walk in public, as they did in the original series, although they scare the humans in the 2003 universe.
 * The Mirage Shredder enters almost exactly the same way he did in the comics, to the same exact taunts.
 * The Mirage Shredder is easily defeated, possibly in reference to the fact that he was killed in the very first issue.
 * There are three instances where 1988 Raphael breaks the fourth wall with a joke as he does in the 1987 series. This prompts 2003 Raphael and Hun to look at the camera and ask who he's talking to.
 * When 2003 Donatello points out the Mirage Turtles when first arriving in "Turtle Prime", they are shown in a similar pose to the cover of TMNT Issue #1.
 * When Mirage Donatello asks, "What's with the multicolored headbands?", this is a reference to the fact that the original Mirage Turtles all wear red bandannas. The other Turtles are called "Sellouts" by the originals as well, possibly referencing sentiments of Mirage comics fans in the late 1980's after the debut of the more child-friendly Saturday morning cartoon and the subsequent marketing of the Turtles in nearly every way possible.
 * When the camera pans on the 1988 dimension street, several characters make brief cameos; Irma, the gang members that chased April into the sewers, and people the Turtles encountered on the street in the first episode.
 * When 2003 Raphael says "Geez, it's like having five Mikeys now!" after hearing 2003 Michelangelo and the 1988 turtles yell "Cowabunga!", it's a reference to the way he kept on stopping 2003 Michelangelo from saying 1988 catchphrases.
 * The fly that was accidentally mutated before the 2003 Turtles rescues their 1988 counterparts was possibly a nod to the 1987 Baxter Stockman.
 * The device Bebop, Rocksteady, and Hun use to track the team was first seen in 1987 series episode Beware the Lotus.
 * When 1988 Leonardo says, "Uh oh, the boys in blue", when the police arrive at the pizza parlor, this is a reference in the 1987 series where the turtles often refer to the police as "the boys in blue" whenever they appear.
 * During the fight scene right before the Technodrome teleports to Turtle Prime, two of the mutated soldiers are modeled after Tokka and Razar from the second live action movie.
 * Whenever Mikey sees the initials on the 80's Turtles' belts, he notes that they are like super heroes. This could be a nod to his run-ins with Super Heroes in both the 80's and 2003 series.'
 * The exploding throwing stars was once used in the 1988 series to blow up the side of the Technodrome in the season 2 finale "Return of the Technodrome".
 * After the 2003 Turtles save the 1988 Turtles from the Purple Dragon, Mikey quotes Dot Warner from Animaniacs by saying, "We can't help it, We were born that way!" Video

Continuity Errors

 * During the search for allies to help defeat the Turtles, 1988 Shredder mentioned that there was no Krang in the 2003 dimension, which is not true as an Utrom named Krang had a short cameo in the Secret Origins 3 part episode. (However it's possible that since the Krang from the 2003 dimension was not very renowned, it may be possible that the computer was unable to locate any information about him since he wasn't well known)
 * Granted, that was done as a throw away gag and the Utrom Krang never did anything of importance in the series.
 * It is also worthy to note how the scanners only picked up evidence of the Utrom Shredder and nothing of the Tengu or Cyber Shredders seeing that this show was set after Back to the Sewer due to the appearance of Hun's outfit and the 2003 Turtle's vehicle.
 * It's easier to assume that the scanners were searching for the 2K3's equivilant to 1987's Shredder, rather than just the Shredders in general. Thus, Ch'rell could be classed as the main Shredder of 2K3.
 * The original turtles seem to have no problems with revealing themselves to the public, but in the original series, they wore disguises to hide their identities (usually with trench coats, fedora hats and masks). They also wore disguises in the first movie.
 * There were actually many episodes that had the Turtles in a pizzeria without any types of disguises, particularly in Season 6.(However it was in the future and they were known well)
 * 1988 Michelangelo using nunchucks. From season 4 of the original series until the end of its run in 1996, Michelangelo uses a grappling hook as his weapon of choice because of censorship issues with nunchucks in Europe. The 1987 Turtles are all saying Cowabunga but in the original classic series, Michalenangelo was the only one who said that and the others Turtles said Go, Green Machine, and Turtle Power
 * The 1987s Turtles are seen giving 2003 Michaelangelo a nuggie but in the old show they didn't do that either.
 * 2K3 Donatello saying a dimensional portal in a stick is "silly" forgetting the fact he and Michelangelo were banished into alternate universes when Ultimate Drako used the Time Sceptre against them in "Reality Check".
 * During the 2K3 Turtles' rescue of the '87 Turtles, 2K3 Leonardo says "Raph, look out!" prompting both Raphaels to dodge the laser, causing them both to reply "Thanks, bro!" However, it is 2K3 Raphael and '87 MICHELANGELO that dodge the laser.

Trivia

 * Initially Turtles Forever was going to be a 2-part episode in the BttS season It was going to be episode 167 and 168. Later it was decided to make a stand-alone movie.
 * This seems destined to be the finale to the current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise and the original 1987 TV show, as the rights to the Turtles now belong to Nickelodeon.
 * Among all of the incarnations of the Turtles that appeared in this movie, the 2003 Turtles are the tallest. The Mirage versions are the shortest.
 * None of the voice actors from the 1987 series reprised their roles in the special (there are reports that 4Kids were unable to hire union actors). It turned out to be too expensive based on the logistics of 4Kids being in NYC and those actors residing elsewhere.
 * With Ch'rell out of the picture, the 1988 Shredder and Krang presumably have access to Utrom technology since the former upgraded the Technodrome and the Foot Soldiers.


 * The ending theme is a edited version of a rejected opening theme for the 2003 series


 * This is the first TMNT Movie to belong to Nickelodeon on DVD.


 * Several scenes were cut from the movie before it aired on television.
 * This is the version found on the DVD. Nickelodeon has yet to release any information regarding the complete version of the movie.
 * Although it is considered not to be canon with the main series the first episode of back to the sewers did give the hint that Ch'rell would return from his exile when the turtles were tranported to the timeline with the 3 way Shredder war.

Quotes

 * 2003 Turtles: "It's ninja time!"
 * 1988 Turtles: "Turtle power!"
 * 1988 Turtles: "Go green machine"
 * 1988 Turtles: "Lets Turtlize Em"
 * 1988 Turtles: "Turtles fight with Honor


 * Mutant Hun: (fighting 1987 Michaelangelo) Now I look in the mirror and all I see is you! And I hate you even more!
 * 2003 Donatello: Hun, you don't understand. The Shredder-
 * Mutant Hun: Forget the Shredder. You're gonna pay for what you've done to me!
 * 1988 Raphael: (to the camera) Some people just can't handle change.
 * Mutant Hun: Why do you keep doing that?! Who are you talking to?! THERE'S NO ONE﻿ THERE!
 * Mirage Leonardo: What is this? Eight wanna-be's?
 * Mirage Donatello: On our turf?
 * Mirage Michaelangelo: Trying to steal our act?
 * Mirage Raphael: Yeah!
 * Mirage Leonardo: (narrating) I strike two on my way down. Donatello takes out a third with his staff. (Mirage Donatello strikes down 2003 Michelangelo. The 1988 Turtles pull out their weapons as Mirage Raphael twirls his sai while facing them. They immediately tremble in fear and drop their weapons before attempting to run away, but Mirage Raphael trips them by throwing his sai at their feet.)


 * Mirage Leonardo: (narrating) Already, the pudgy ones are starting to panic. Raph loves this stuff. He's not alone.
 * 2003 Donatello: Why is he narrating? Is he crazy?
 * 2003 Michaelangelo: Hardcore crazy!
 * 2003 Raphael: I love these guys!
 * Mirage Michaelangelo: So you're supposed to be us from other worlds. I don't see it.
 * Mirage Donatello: What's with the multi-colored headbands?
 * Mirage Raphael: Hmph, sellouts.
 * 2003 Raphael: Uh... (grabs 1988 Leonardo by the shell) Well, check out the initialized belt buckles on these yahoos.
 * 1988 Donatello, 1988 Raphael, 1988 Michelangelo: Hey!
 * 2003 Raphael: How lame can a turtle get? Am I right?
 * 2003 Raphael: Hey, ow! Geez, what a hardcase! (He sees the 1988 Turtles smile at him.)
 * 2003 Raphael: What?
 * 1988 Leonardo, 1988 Donatello, 1988 Raphael, 1988 Michelangelo: Nothing.
 * Mirage Donatello: I'm gonna miss those wanna-be's.
 * Mirage Michaelangelo: Yeah, I kinda dug the initials on the belt buckles.
 * Mirage Raphael: Hmph, you would. I could go for a slice, though.
 * Mirage Leonardo: There's that place on Bleecker.
 * Mirage Leonardo: (narrating) We are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We strike hard and fade away into the night.
 * Peter Laird: I think this first issue is coming along rather well. Don't you, Kev?
 * Kevin Eastman: Yeah, sure do, Pete. Hey, let's get back to this after lunch, huh?
 * Peter Laird: Hmmm, sounds good. Pizza?
 * Kevin Eastman: Yeah, pizza.
 * Peter Laird: Oh, I hope this thing sells.
 * Kevin Eastman: Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. (chuckles) '(As Kevin and Peter leave for lunch, the camera pans to the cover of the comics' first issue.)