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No, you are not dreaming, this is another brand spanking new installment of  Stay Tooned Sundays. For those of you counting, that is two weeks in a row! So what did you do to get so lucky? Actually it has to do with our special Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles event! If you don’t know what I am talking about, check out last week’s review of  TMNT for all the details. Just to clarify, this will be like a supplementary edition of STS and next week’s post will be our regular bi-weekly scheduled episode. So yes, if you are still counting that is three weeks of awesomeness in a row! (I hope you can handle this level of excitement.)

Title: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Forever
Written by: Robert David, Matthew Drdek, Lloyd Goldfine
Director: Roy Burdine, Lloyd Goldfine
Company: 4 Kids Entertainment
Distributed by: Nickelodeon Movies
US Release Date: November 21, 2009
Length: 73 min.
MPAA: Unrated

So as you can see, this week’s Ninja Turtle movie is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles Forever! This amazing 2009 film is actually the finale to the 2003 Ninja Turtle animated series. The story is basically a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles crisis of infinite earths. All the different versions of the Ninja Turtles that we have seen in movies, comics, and on TV are each actually from a different alternate reality, each reality itself is derived from the original 1984 comic book Ninja Turtle’s reality, or the “Prime Reality.” The plot brilliantly connects the 1987 animated series Turtles, the 2003 animated series Turtles, and the 1984 original comic book Turtles together in one great story.

It all begins when an explosion aboard the  Technodrome sends the characters from the 1987 series (which will now be referred to as the “silly” series) into the world of the 2003 series (which will be referred to as the “modern” series). The silly turtles don’t realized that they are on a different Earth and go about their day normally, which causes the modern Earth people to freak out. Eventually the silly turtles are captured by Hun, a former henchmen for the modern Shredder, and end up being rescued by the modern turtles. Once the eight turtles figure out what is going on,  they begin searching for the Technodrome in hopes of sending the silly turtles home.

Meanwhile, silly Shredder also figures out what has happened, and he begins searching for his doppelganger, who is currently frozen in space. Silly Shredder and Krang retrieve and revive modern Shredder, only to find that he is some kind of small, yet vicious creature. Modern Shredder’s men arrive led by his daughter, Karai, and they soon take over the Technodrome and use Dimension X technology to made deadly upgrades to both the foot soldiers and the Technodrome itself. Modern Shredder then creates a robot body for himself and begins learning everything he can about all the different alternate realities. He soon comes to the realization that the only way he can ever truly win is if he destroys all the turtles from all the different alternate realities. To this end, he surmises that there is a “Prime Universe”  from which all other universes are based, and if he can find and destroy the “Prime Turtles,” then all different variations of those turtles will cease to exist.

In order to defeat modern Shredder, both sets of turtles travel to the silly universe and get some equipment they will need to stop the Technodrome, including the Turtle Van and Blimp. The turtles then return back to the other universe, where modern Shredder has captured Splinter and successfully uses him as bait to lure the turtles into a trap. Shredder then uses both sets of turtles in an experiment to find their common link, which will lead him to “Turtle Prime.” The experiment works, but all the turtles are killed, or so Shredder believes. With them out of the way, he travels to “Turtle Prime” to end all the Ninja Turtles in existence, once and for all. Back in the modern universe we find the the turtles did in fact survive thanks to some unexpected assistance. They then, too, travel to Turtle Prime just as they witness the modern turtles’ universe cease to exist. Once they arrive at Turtle Prime, they team up with the Prime Turtles and some unexpected allies to wage war against modern Shredder for the sake of all realities!

To say that Turtles Forever is epic would be an understatement. I can pretty much guarantee that any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle’s fan will find something they will love about this movie. For me, seeing the reactions that the modern turtles have to the behaviors of the silly turtles is priceless! The best examples of this occur whenever silly Raph breaks the fourth wall and talks directly to the audience, or when silly Donatello creates a trans-dimensional portal stick out of a flashlight. I did find that all the silly universe characters were way over the top and more silly than they ever were in the cartoon, but it still works. Over all, though, the real treat of this movie is the kick ass Prime Turtles. These original turtles are just awesome, no nonsense, bad asses. To get a chance to see all three of these very different, yet deep down, very much alike versions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles just goes to show how the turtle franchise can continually reinvent itself with every new generation, and in doing so, live on forever.

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Nick Zamora
Nickz@comicattack.net