TMNT Talkback "Turtles Forever" (Spoilers)

I laughed long and hard at how easily Shredder-Prime got his ass kicked. That was the best injoke ever... because he was such a minor villain in the old comics. Got killed in the first issue.
 
Just finished watching it. I very much enjoyed it, and I'm not even that big of a TMNT fan. The last third with the Mirage turtles was definitely awesome, the Mirage Turtles rocked. Jason Griffith ruled as Leonardo with all his narrating. Makes me want to pick up some original Mirage comics. And the ending with the live-action transition was a nice touch.

Overall, there was about 10 minutes cut from this. There was actually less commercials than usual, if it had been aired like a regular 4Kids show, there would have been about 10 more minutes missing. Guess it's a good thing that 4Kids is airing this again over the next three weeks, since there seem to be quite a few people who missed some of it or the whole movie entirely.



There were also some alternate versions of the 2K3 universe, like that of "Same As It Never Was."



Should be the 21st, actually. Sorry to nitpick. :sweat:
 
Wow. So you honestly think the Channel 6 building will be re-built, April will wear her yellow jumpsuit again, and Shredder/Krang/Bebop/Rocksteady will all team up again, fix up the Technodrome, and go back under NYC again?

Instead of coming to the obvious conclusion that they went to the old toon universe before the Season 8-10 era? Did you even watch the original cartoon? You are the only person I've seen trying to say this takes place after Season 10 of the original cartoon.



And there is was issue #1, instead of being what the current Mirage comics are up to. Hence why the old toon universe wasn't after all its seasons had transpired.



Or we could come to the conclusion the 4kids writers wanted to choose the '88 Turtle era that was the most recognizable with fans, so they chose them somewhere around the Season 3 era which reflects the Turtles designs in this movie and Shredder/Krang being the villains.

There is absolutely no way this would take place after Season 10. The old toon changed permanently, things did NOT go back to status quo.
 
I loved this program. It's chock full of hilarious moments. Like when Hun got mad at retro-Raphael for talking to the audience. And how retro-Shredder kept trying to be buddy-buddy with The Shredder.

I haven't seen the old cartoon in about 3 maybe 3.5 years but they aren't always that silly are they?
 
There was some exaggeration, but it was necessary for the humor and comparison though. The first episode, however, did showcase the Turtles dwelling too much on Pizza.
 
You could play a drinking game with how many times they say that line throughout the series. Wouldn't surprise me if they said it at least once per episode.

You could also play a drinking game with how many times Raphael, who's supposedly the toughest of the turtles, says an uncharacteristically corny line.
 
Well it doesn't make sense that the turtles are actually biological since they were bought at a pet shop, I always saw it as "spiritual" brothers sort of way, same way Splinter is their father. And her introduction is no different than the turtles being nothing but a Daredevil parody or their personalities makeover for the 87 cartoon or going to the future for Fastforward. Anyways as for your issue is not much of an issue, when they first meet venus they all lust after her, that is the only scene in the entire show that that happens, in that same episode there is a Leo/Venus bonding moment, but not necessarily romantically (which it can be taken as) but it can also be taken as "you can join our team". So yeah its one episode out of twenty six that she is hinted as a love interest. And ironically a few episodes in the season deal with her not being "part" of the team/noticing her.
 
Turtles Forever was a very good special, but its treatment of the retro turtles was not a homage so much as a crazy parody. Hopefully this was entirely intentional, because they didn't succeed if they were trying to authentically recall the 1987 series. Now yes, I'm relying on memory and I literally have not seen the original series since the 1990s. However, whatever my nostalgia may do it doesn't lead me to claim that the 1987 series was amazing or equal to the 2003 series. It certainly wasn't, though as 1980s cartoons go it started out very well. For the time, not bad.

From this perspective I say that the series was reliably silly much of the time, especially as it got older. The special's depiction of the retro Turtles' world is pretty much correct, and so is the way it makes fun of the old series' stories and how April literally had to get saved all of the time. But the Turtles themselves, I think, were not absurd.

More to the point, what they certainly weren't in the original series were the semi-cowardly pushovers that Turtles Forever portrayed them as. In the special, they'd fight one moment and get scared out of their wits or utterly stomped in the next. It was incredible how they were literally crying in 4Kids Raphael's arms toward the end. Really? Really?! What *I* remember are the 1987 TMNT charging into goofy fights while shouting "COWABUNGA!" and "Turtles fight with honor!", etc. The retro Turtles in Turtles Forever possessed 10% of that courage at best.

The way it skewered the 1987 villains, however, is pretty much how I remember things. Let's face it, Shredder and Krang became walking pushovers more and more as time passed, ultimately competing with classic Cobra Commander in terms of stunning incompetence. Rocksteady and BeBop, meanwhile, were absolutely their old selves. I thought it was perfect that their idiocy was what did in Utrom Shredder.

Anyhow, count me among those that think that the introduction of the original TMNT from the comics was easily the best moment of the special. The way they took that gritty setting and brought it to life was practically inspired.
 
Okay, this was good. Really really good. But I dunno, expected to be more, for the lack of a better phrase, epic.

Pros:
  • It was amazing to see the models for the 87 series animated yet again. Even more cooler is seeing the Mirage TMNT animated.
  • Most of the voices were good, my favorites were Mirage Leo & 88 Raph.
  • The scene with 87 Splinter was touching. Thankfully he wasn't Flanderized like the other characters from his universe.
  • Pictures of the various TMNT incarnations. Nice touch.
  • Mirage Shredder easily getting his ass kicked was a fun laugh.
  • The overall feel, honoring the legacy of the franchise. The ending was sweet way to end it as we see the end of an era upon us.
Cons:
  • Dan Green's Leo, sorry but he can't fit the role. I know he was trying but honestly he felt like Yugi as a used car salesman.
  • Okay so 2k3 Shredder crushes the Mirage TMNT and the 87 & 2k3 TMNT feel the pain, I can understand that. But Karai, 2k3 Splinter, Krang, & 87 Shredder? Too much of a plot hole there.
  • Probably the biggest con is just how the 87 cartoon was portrayed. Like I said before, there's lampshading and there's being disrespectful. They barely acted serious, they hardly contributed anything, and how they acted in Turtle Prime was just sad. The entire time it felt the movie was bashing the cartoon. Some of the dialogue doesn't help either. Like Hun telling 87 Raph that he's talking to nobody, Karai adressing the upgrades to the technodrome, and most of 2k3 Raph's dialogue. He was about as annoying to me as the 87 Turtles to him. Yes 4Kids, we get it, you made the superior that is faithful to what the creators imagined. Now quit picking on my childhood! This is a your mileage may very and I'm pretty sure there's some fans who will get a kick out of this but to me it's something that takes me out of the moment.
Still, the good outweighs the bad in terms of quality.

Grade: A-
 
Dude, are you kidding me? That was the funniest thing ever. In the original cartoon, Raphael constantly broke the 4th wall and talked to the audience. The fact that Hun says, "There is nobody there! Who are you talking to?" was absolutely hilarious.

And as for 2k3 Raph, keep in mind he also picks on 2k3 Mike all the time.

Likewise they also had the original Mirage comic Turtles making fun of their 2k3 counterparts. So it was basically each version made fun of another.

I do agree there were some shots at the old toon Turtles, like them crying which was unnecessary, but I'm not offended. The weird thing is the old toon Turtles were always competent in their old universe, and solved problems even the 2k3 Turtles would never be able to. Old toon Don did invent the transporter flashlight after all.
 
Like Antiyonder said above, yes, the '80's Turtles were a little exaggeratedly silly, but for the narrative it was necessary of humor and comparison purposes.

As for the '80's Turtles' alleged 'cowardice', you have to look at it like this: the '87 Turtles came from a world where their fiercest adversaries were annoying porcelain eating imps, gangsters who torture their victims by tickling them with feathers and a silly Shredder who argues with a talking brain like they're an old married couple and invents hyper-gravity rays which stick peoples' feet to the ground and brainwashes businessmen to become crooks in feeble attempts to take over the world. Now they've been suddenly thrust into a situation where the stakes are actually high--as in the end of everything high--and they could actually be killed. Just facing a formidable Shredder who's an actual threat and whose goons weren't easily breakable robots or incompetent birdbrains and perils that they can't joke their way out of would be unnerving enough, and in their defense, the 80's Turtles were pretty brave when the adventure started; they just didn't take it seriously at first because they didn't take anything seriously, and given the nature of their universe's foes, that's not surprising. But as the story went on, things just kept getting worse and more dangerous; the 80's Turtles slowly began coming to the realization that they wouldn't be able to just laugh their way out of this one and this could really be it for them and everyone and everything else, so bearing all that in mind, it's not surprising that the guys were a little rattled toward the end.
 
As someone who has seen the original TMNT toon many times, and owns all 8 seasons, (someone get Lionsgate to release Seasons 9 and 10 already!), I can safely say I liked their portrayals.

The only scene I didn't like was the crying scene, but the rest was fine.
 
Oh sweet, I gotta own it :)
I just saw it, and I've watched it three times already and never gets old.
The comedy and action is awesome, along with the animation.
I mean, they got the animation down with the 80's turtles, I was happy about that. Than how the 2003 Turtles reacted with the 80's turtles was extremlly funny. I loved the fourth wall breaking scenes, those were the best. I do wish both Leo's had interactions with each other, but oh wells I did like 80's Leo ideas on how to do things, dispite him not being serious as old 80's Leo. One scene I really liked, was when the 80's turtles realized that maybe they need start taking things seriously now and Leo says lets do it, the music and every thing was cool at that part. And LOL 2003 Mikey was perfect here, he cracked me up :p

I gotta give this a 5/5.
 
It means we won't be getting the scenes that were cut in the TV airing.
The uncut verison is still on 4Kids' site for the time being, however.
 
Back
Top