TMNT (film)

TMNT is the fourth Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and the first animated one.

A computer graphic TMNT movie was announced in 2000 with John Woo at the helm, but the movie didn't go anywhere under his direction. Eventually, he moved on to new projects.





Plot
After defeating the Shredder, the Turtles have grown apart. Leonardo has gone to Central America to train for a year, Raphael has to the others' knowledge been sleeping all day, but actually has been prowling the night secretly as the vigilante known as the Nightwatcher (Though Casey Jones is the only person to easily figure out Raph's secret identity.), Michelangelo attends children's birthday parties as "Cowabunga Carl", and Donatello works as tech support over the phone. As he struggles to keep his family together, Splinter realizes that something strange is happening in New York City.

Industrialist Max Winters is really an immortal warlord named Yaolt who tried to conquer the world 3000 years ago by opening an portal containing an army of monsters. He became immortal, but at a price; his brotherhood was turned to stone and thirteen monsters ravaged their army and their enemies at the same time. It seems that he's going to try again when he awakens his siblings, the four Stone Generals that April O'Neil unwittingly took to him. Also, Winters has enlisted the help of Karai, the new leader of the Foot Clan, wanting them to be his eyes and ears around the city, stating that he has some "friends" coming that he would like them to greet and bring to him. With the help of the Stone Generals, the Foot Clan roams the city searching for the thirteen monsters that WInters is looking for.

Leonardo returns to New York City and reestablishes himself as the leader of the group. This leads to some tension between him and Raphael, who feels like Leo abandoned them. This tension comes to a head later in the film, when the two duel after Leo finds out that Raph is the Nightwatcher, the vigilante he was planning on stopping. Raphael comes out the winner, with Leo pinned to the ground and Leo's swords broken with Raph's sais. Fearing what he's become, Raph runs away. Suddenly, Leo is hit with a dart and kidnapped by the Stone Generals. Hearing Leo yell, Raph runs back to help, but he's too late.

Much like Leo did when he returned, Raph goes to Splinter for advice. Raph admits to his master he sees why Leo is the leader rather than him. Splinter tells Raph that he may not be the greatest student, but that doesn't make him any less of a son. He goes on to say that Raphael, like Leonardo, is a great warrior, but a leader must have other qualities like patience and humility. Splinter decides that the time to hide is over, and the Turtles must rescue Leonardo. Splinter goes to help as well as April and Casey Jones. They break they're way through the Foot ninja guarding the stronghold and rescue Leonardo. Raphael gives Leonardo a pair of new swords, asks Leo to lead them, and says the team needs him. Leonardo responds by saying he needs Raphael as well. With that, the team is restored.

Though the Turtles believe that Winter is a villain, they later discover his intentions are good. He meant to send the thirteen monsters back from whence they came and restore the mortality of himself and his siblings. General Aquila learn this and rally the others to mutiny, intending to use the portal to bring out a new army of monsters so that they can finish their conquest of the world. They demanded that the Foot swear allegiance to them; Karai states that they are honor-bound to work for Winters and work with April and Casey to find the last monster. Meanwhile, the Turtles fight against the General, which Splinter and Winters throw back any new monsters that come through the portal. Ultimately, the thirteenth monster is returned through the portal, along with the Generals.

Once the battle is over, Karai says that the Foot will return for revenge. She also says that in the near future, they will see a familiar face from their past. With that, the Foot disappear in a puff of smoke. Winters thanks the group for their help and disintegrates into dust, leaving his helmet.

Back in the sewer lair, Splinter puts Winter's helmet on a shelf along with the Shredder's helmet. Raphael asks, "Is there room for one more?" and places the Nightwatcher's helmet on the shelf as well. Michelangelo asks if he can put his Cowabunga Carl mask there too.

The film ends with the Turtles jumping across the rooftops, helping each other get across, for example, Mikey lets Don jump on his shell to get to the next rooftop. In a voice over, Raphael says, "We live together, we train together, we fight together, we stand for good, together. We are ninjas. We strike hard, defend, protect and fade into the night. And there ain't no bad guy or monster gonna ever change that. That's what's important. That's why we'll always be...brothers. Oh, I love bein' a turtle!"

Cast
Additional Voices provided by Dee Bradley Baker, Greg Baldwin, Jeff Bennett, Jim Cummings, Grey DeLisle, Chris Edgerly, Kim Mai Guest, Jennifer Hale, Jess Harnell, Phil LaMarr, Paul Michael Robinson, Tara Strong, and Billy West.

Soundtrack

 * 1) Gym Class Heroes - "Shell Shock"
 * 2) Jet - "Rip It Up"
 * 3) Cute Is What We Aim For - "There's A Class For This"
 * 4) Cobra Starship - "Awww Dip"
 * 5) Meg and Dia - "Roses"
 * 6) Pepper - "Bring Me Along"
 * 7) Amber Pacific - "Fall Back Into My Life"
 * 8) Billy Talent - "Red Flag"
 * 9) This Providence - "Walking on Water
 * 10) Ever We Fall - "Youth Like Tigers"
 * 11) P.O.D. - "Lights Out (Chris Vrenna Remix)"
 * 12) Big City Rock - "Black Betty"
 * 13) Klaus Badelt - "I Love Being A Turtle (Score)"
 * 14) Klaus Badelt - "Nightwatcher (Score)"

Reception
The film received good reception from critics and performed well at the box office making almost three times the production cost.

Trivia

 * The end of the film holds an homage to the other films, which at the same time places this film within the same continuity. The "shrine" in Splinter's room holds the TCRI canister, Shredder's helmet and staff, a Foot Ninja's mask, the Time Scepter, Walker's hat, pieces of armor that the Turtles wore, and finally Lord Norinaga's helmet.
 * The movies continuity and its placement in the TMNT canon is a bit confusing. On the one hand, the shrine can clearly place this movie after the original three live action films...however, the significance of Karai begs the question as to whether or not this film is also in canon with the 2003 series or if she is simply a rehashing of the character.
 * The whole script for the movie can be downloaded in a PDF from NinjaTurtles.com here.
 * This is the second TMNT film to include a dedication, the other being Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze, which was dedicated to Jim Henson.
 * During Raphael's finishing lines, the phrase "We strike hard and fade away into the night" was used. That was also the ending line in the first TMNT comic.
 * While Leonardo, Raphael and Donatello all have brown eyes Michelangelo has blue eyes. According to the film's director, this was done to make Michelangelo seem a bit more innocent and younger than the other turtles.
 * The first entirely animated Ninja Turtles movie.
 * According to Kevin Munroe, he has stated that they are in the 18-19 years old range, which would make sense that the Turtles were only 15-16 years old in the live-action films.
 * Despite appearing to be a sequal to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3, the animated movie Turtles Forever portray it as a completely seperate dimension all together. This can be seen when the Utrom Shredder was showing all the different dimension counterparts of the Turtles.