Turtles Forever

[firehawk12]

I just heard about this movie on a podcast and couldn't find a thread here - did anyone watch this?

From the talk on the podcast, they did a crossover with the "current" TMNT crew, the 80s TMNT crew and the original comic book TMNT... with a lot of in-jokes about how bad the 80s version of the turtles were.

It sounds like the ultimate fanwank... and I don't know if this could work in any other context. Maybe if Christian Bale Batman had to team up with Adam West Batman or something.

 

[Broccoli]

What are you talking about? Is this a comic, movie, TV Special? Who is "they"?

Can you provide a link for more specific information?

 

[Admiral_Young]

Turtles Forever is a crossover special between the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the 2K3 Turtles as they combine together to face the returning Utrom Shredder. None of the original voice cast was brought back to reprise their roles so the special suffers a bit from that as some of the voices sound riduclous but overall the special was well done, maybe the only poor part was the constant dissing of the 87 Turtles who are caricatures of themselves in this basically. It contains the 87 Turtles, 2K3 Turtles, and the Mirage Turtles. Overall it's awesome. Must watch if you can find it online. No word yet about a DVD release.

 

[Corran Horn]

I agree that the movie suffers from the lack of the original voice cast. I also didn't like the dissing of the 80's turtles the whole time. For those faults, I thought it was just ok.

 

[Kibbin]

Wow didn't know this was out already, will have to star looking for it, we tend to be a bit behind the yanks with most cartoons (though that does seem to be chaning) so I shall keep my eyes peeled.

 

[The Evil Dead]

I agree that the movie suffers from the lack of the original voice cast. I also didn't like the dissing of the 80's turtles the whole time. For those faults, I thought it was just ok.

Yeah, I agree. I don't mind a few jabs at "my" Turtles, but they went a bit over the top I thought. Or maybe I just don't remember the original show being so goofy, I haven't seen it since the early 1990s.

Still, it was fun to see the Turtles, Beebop, Rocksteady, Shredder and Krang in their 1980s forms one last time!

 

[Christopher]

It was okay, but I agree, the lack of the original cartoon's voice cast (and music) did weaken it. They did a fairly good job finding voice doubles for the Turtles and Krang, but a less successful job with Shredder. Anyway, many of the original cartoon's characters went through multiple voices over the series' long run, so it's not that bad, I guess.

I didn't feel they were "dissing" the original show, just poking affectionate fun at it. True, they exaggerated its goofy qualities a bit, but that kind of reflects how the more serious "modern" Turtles would react to that show's world. And they poked just as much fun at the Milleresque tropes of the Mirage comic. "Why is he narrating?!" I liked it how Mikey was initially loving the '80s Turtles and Raph was initially loving the Mirage Turtles, but soon they both got tired of their respective excesses.

One thing that bugged me was that there were a couple of times where the '80s Turtles referred to each other by shortened forms of their names, something they never did in the original show (for instance, it was always Donatello, never Don or Donny).

 

[Gojirob]

I cracked up each time the 80's Turtles talked to the audience, till finally Hun-Tokka screamed and asked who they were talking to. I accepted the mocking, as it wasn't truly vicious, though the 80's could serious up without prodding, and it ignores the early 90's, in which the characters moved towards their 03' counterparts in terms of seriousness. I almost feel like the 2000's encountered *a* set of 80's Turtles, not necessarily the set we knew exactly.

Some nits :

1 - There's still an army of mutants waiting for the 03' Turtles in their world, unless an unstated reset was hit.

2 - The 80's Krang and Shredder are returning with a done-up Technodrome--though as my brother pointed out, their general competence level (especially in this version) will like as not take care of that. That, or perhaps Utrom Shredder set the thing to self-destruct if he wasn't available to run it.

3 - A bit more supporting interaction. Not a crazy amount, but like, when 80's saw 2000's Casey Jones, have them freak at what they see as a psycho. (80's Raph : Hey! This guy has an actual face!). ) 03 Splinter would probably be very intrigued by a Splinter who was Master Yoshi. For that matter, maybe to deal with the mutants back home, 03 Donny cooks up a cure for Splinter/Yoshi .

80's Leo : Master, I never thought this would happen.

80's Mike : Not outside of the first video game, anyway.

80's Don : NEVER bring that up. Its dead to us.

03 Mike : Head--hurting from refs impossible to process.

 

[Showdown]

What are you talking about? Is this a comic, movie, TV Special? Who is "they"?

Can you provide a link for more specific information?

Wiki page http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtles_Forever

A fan's review http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQ1nsspxwvw

 

[Holdfast]

This sounds awesome. Is it online anywhere? Or on DVD?

 

[Christopher]

The DVD release date has yet to be announced, according to Wikipedia. It aired on CW4Kids last Saturday morning and is being rebroadcast as three half-hour installments on consecutive Saturdays, but part 1 was this morning. You can still catch the rest of it over the next two Saturdays (10:30 AM Eastern, I believe).

 

[Daneel]

I hadn't heard about this at all, but as luck would have it, while I was flipping through channels last Saturday, I came across it. At first, I actually thought it was the 80s cartoon, but I quickly came to realize that it was something else entirely.

Overall, I got a kick out of it, but I do think they went a little overboard with the mocking of the 80s show. Yes, it was lighter and goofier in tone, but not by that much. I mean, the 80s Turtles hugging 2000s Raph after he saves them? Oh, come on, the 80s Turtles never would have done that. At times, they were made to look rather incompetent compared to the 2000s Turtles.

That said, some of these "jabs" seemed to be done with affection, and I did get a good laugh out of them (like the aforementioned breaking of the fourth wall -- "Why do you keep doing that?! Who are you talking to?!" ). While the movie may not have been terrific, it was generally good fun, and it was quite a blast from the past seeing the Ninja Turtles of the 80s show (as well as their gadgets, settings, etc.) once again. The DVD release hasn't been announced yet, but I think I'll check it out when it's available, as I missed a chunk of the beginning.

 

[Chris3123]

I knew it was coming, but it completely slipped my mind.

It will be on DVD, I know I read that before.

 

[firehawk12]

Yeah, I caught half of it since my post. What I saw was pretty cute - although I don't know anything about the modern Turtles to have any real connection with them, it was kind of wild to see how they went from cute and cartoony "round" heads to the really edgy and rough "square" heads of the modern cartoon.

The 80s cartoon is fairly ridiculous though. The April of the 80s definitely stands out as the biggest anachronism - you can't write a female character like that nowadays without being ironic or openly misogynist.

 

[Christopher]

^Well, my memory of the old show isn't great, but I don't recall yellow-jumpsuit April being quite as much the passive damsel in distress as she was here. I don't know what about her characterization could be construed as misogynistic.

As for the modern show, the first few seasons were pretty good -- more serious than the old cartoon and truer to the comics, incorporating a lot of their storylines and concepts. The past couple of seasons, the one set 100 years in the future and the latest cyberspace-based one, have been more kiddified (and the character designs changed to the version seen here; in particular, they seem to have redone their April to resemble the version from the CGI movie, since she doesn't look much like she did in the first few seasons).

 

[Admiral_Young]

I never saw many episodes of the 2k3 series...mostly because of the fact that it started on Fox Kids then jumped to another network and aired in the morning thus resulting in me missing it. April never was saved on a constant basis like they depicted her in the special...I did like the yellow jumpsuit comment from Leo though. The Mirage Turtles sequence was bad ass and their dialogue was straight from the first issue.

 

[Kelso]

I thought it was great. I hope they put it out on DVD so I can get it for my nephews.

 

[splodenode]

it was the best thing i've seen all year

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Wow. I've never heard of this before. It sounds fun, although a little fanwanky and totally non-canon (similar to the "Forever Red" Power Rangers special they did several years ago). I especially like the idea of seeing Krang, Bebop, & Rocksteady again. I miss those guys.

I don't think 1980s April was a totally helpless damsel in distress. She certainly was not a fighter and she sometimes had a tendency to get herself in trouble by being too eager to get close to the action. However, she always came across way better than Vernon.

As for the original voice of Shredder, wasn't it the guy who played the father on Fresh Prince of Bel-Air?

 

[Admiral_Young]

Uncle Phil...yes he was Shredder. James Avery I believe is his name. April wasn't the damsel in distress, in fact she often aided the Turtles in their adventures and only occasionally got into trouble.