The Ninja Turtles I most remember are those of the movies. I watched the Fred Wolf produced animated series that ran from 1987 to 1996. Revisiting the series recently, it's not good in any traditional sense. Even its best episodes were devoted to selling toys. Most of the time, it was a goofy sitcom. As part of my retrospective, I gave the 2003 cartoon a look. The series has a devoted following. It's beautifully animated and clearly put more thought into its writing than the '87 series. However, it's not my Ninja Turtles. After marathoning a handful of episodes, the series' heavily serialized storytelling burnt me out. Even if I'm not the biggest fan of the millennial Turtles, I couldn't resist the siren call of "Turtles Forever," the feature length series finale that had the more serious iteration teaming up with the goofier one."Turtles Forever" begins in the world of the 2003 series. The Turtles' lives are interrupted when news breaks of humanoid turtles foiling a heist. The Ninjas are confused because it isn't them. Soon, they meet up with their doppelgangers, the cornball Turtles from the '87 series. A trans-dimensional wedgie has landed the old turtles in the new turtles' world, with Shredder, Krang, and the Technodrome close behind. The incompetent '80s Shredder quickly locates his millennial counterpart. However, this new Shredder is a ruthless sociopath and quickly takes over the Technodrome. Aware of the TMNT multi-verse, Nu-Shredder is determined to track down the Prime Universe and wipe out every incarnation of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that have ever existed.Most of the fun of "Turtles Forever" comes from contrasting two wildly divergent variations of the same characters. The millennial Turtles are widely a serious, focused lot. The classic Turtles, meanwhile, crack jokes at every opportunity. Instead of using stealth and ninjitsu to get the drop on their enemies, the original Turtles walk down the street in broad daylight, sauntering into a pizza parlor for a slice. Most of the later Ninjas are baffled by their counterparts. Raphael is especially annoyed by the constant joking. Michaelangelo finds them amusing at first but quickly grows tired of their constant flippantness. Some of the best jokes in the film involve classic Raphael making some of his trademark forth-wall breaking comments, which everyone else in the film find confounding. At first, I thought the newer series was being too hard on the original variations. The Party Wagon and Turtle Blimp both get trashed as useless vehicles. When arriving in the Fred Wolf dimension, the heroes have to rescue April from anthromorphized bananas. I mean, the eighties series was goofy but I don't think it was never that goofy.However, the filmmakers were aware enough to play both sides. A sweet moment has the neo-TMNT find the classic version of Splinter as comforting as their own. The climax of the film has both Turtle teams arriving in the Prime Universe. That is, the universe of the original Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird comics. The gray scale Turtles speak in gritty Frank Miller-style voice-over and are incessantly violent. They decry both newer versions as sell-outs. Even more amusingly, the comic version of Shredder is quickly disposed of, no doubt a reference to the character being an unimportant villain in the source material. The film is enough of a fan service-filled nerd-experience that it gives shout-outs to most every version of the Turtles that have ever existed, even the weird anime ones. (Though "The Next Mutation" and the "Coming Out of Their Shells Tour" are notably absent. Well, maybe not so notably.) Another fun thing "Turtles Forever" does is show that the eighties Shredder and Krang could have been competent villains. '03 Shredder arms himself with Dimension X technology. He remakes the useless robot Foot Soldiers into fearsome cyborgs. The mutagen is used to transform a horde of minions into super-mutants. Reoccurring villain Han more-or-less becomes a new take on Slash. Meanwhile, Tokka and Rahzar get brief cameos. The Technodrome itself is rebuilt as a floating, laser-spewing Death Star. The scene where the re-decoed Technodrome attacks New York, bursting out of ground and causing panic, is one of the best in the film. At the very end, nu-Shredder, who is apparently an Umtron alien or somethin', wears his own version of Krang's growing suit. When the two face off, he proves how superior his technology is. The new version of Shredder is so ruthless, he truly is willing to destroy himself if it means wiping out his arch-enemies. The respective universe vanishing are presented in a clever way. The color fades away and then everyone is rendered as crude pencil drawings before vanishing all-together.The cleverness of the film is best emphasized during its end. After pumping the Shredder up as the baddest dude in the multi-verse, he's taken out accidentally by Bebop and Rocksteady. The final scene has the different Turtle teams returning to their respective universe. The Mirage Turtles rush off, hardboiled monologues playing overhead. During the final minutes, the camera pulls back, showing the characters as comic illustrations. From off-screen, we hear Eastman and Laird discuss the uncertain future of their then-new property. It's a cute, even charming, moment and one that marks the film as a labor of love."Turtles Forever" is probably for die-hard fans of the franchise only. There's not much to the film and it feels more like a midnight snack then a proper cinematic meal. Yet the only real disappointment I have is that it couldn't get the original '87 cast members back because of some union stuff. The sound-alikes they use are fairly convincing. The movie acknowledges the pros and cons of both cartoons while sneaking in plenty of in-jokes. Even as someone who only casually likes both Turtles cartoons, I still had a good time with it.

I like this crossover overall, but the execution was wanting. The 80s turtles are reduced to cowardly, incompetent, childish fools, with their individual quirks and personalities stripped away. (As silly as the 87 cartoon was, the green team was certainly not comprised of "four Mikeys" as 2003 Raphael suggests). It's really aggravating. 80s Shredder and Krang are given little to do and what little seriousness they had on the original cartoon is taken away. They serve as idiotic foils for the newer villains and little else. They weren't integrated into the plot that well either. The only 87 characters given the proper treatment at all were Bebop, Rocksteady, and Splinter.It was cool to see the Mirage turtles included (and how they knocked down the 2003 turtles a few pegs). The plot itself was interesting, and the comedy and action generally worked well. It's just hard to praise this one when one half of its crossover is so shamefully treated. Honestly, it felt more like a "hey look at how cool the 2003 turtles are!" most of the time, rather than a celebration of the franchise as a whole. It's unfortunate.

Having grown up watching the old 1988 series, it was great to see the specific characters of the turtles and their villains then, in the universe of the new more serious turtles that kids watch today. The whole thing is animated well and has an interesting enough storyline. The only thing I slightly disliked about this movie, was that the older versions of the characters, both good and bad, are depicted as being somewhat helpless in the 21st century Turtle universe. They mostly get the goofy lines and carefree attitude. However, to be fair the old show was never as serious as the newer one apparently is, and there were excellent tributes to the old show. One running gag in the movie I really enjoyed, was that the older turtles would sometimes direct their attention to the viewer, which would confuse the 21st generation characters. At some point a turtle is actually asked; "Who are you talking to? There is nobody there!"Although there is definite goofiness and corniness present, this movie offers a nice look at the turtles through time, and is a nice way to end this saga of the turtles (as Nickelodeon is apparently planning to make the next show fully CGI).

I was a kid when the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series came out. I was, to put it lightly, a fan, as well as for the first two theatrical movies. It's this young-inner- fanboy that had a "Cowabunga!" at the news that they would be brought back for one time only to the new 21st century show. I thought it would be just one episode, but as it turns out it's really a fond goodbye (for at least now) to the franchise of cartoons. It's premise brings both universes, and then some, together like this: a trans-dimensional portal has opened thanks to 1988 turtles bringing them into the 2003 turtle universe, and with them the Technodrome and Shredder and Krang the brain. But as it turns out, the Shredder from the new 2003 show - not really called Shredder but something like Ch'rell, comes back to life and plans to wreak total havoc on not just the turtles present but ALL of the turtles from the dimensions and incarnations by going to the source: the original Eastman-Laird comic- verse. Yeah, it sounds confusing, and a little too geeky to get into, but somehow it works. It should be interesting to see the reactions from fans of the 2003 animated series, or just younger folks, who aren't as familiar with the 80's animated series let alone the original comics. It's a blast from the past though, and the kind of movie that would probably be interesting to watch with young kids with their parents who may have grown up on the show themselves. We get the wacky (and sometimes just stupid and goofy) antics of the old turtles, but contrasted with the self-serious newer turtles (who do have their own merits as a ninja-style show) it makes a lot more sense and the two even compliment each other. It's like watching an awesome evolution given homage and a new creative story like something out of Roger Rabbit: what happens if the entire dimensions are destroyed by means of cutting off the source? Everything, it would seem, would just disappear. There's plenty of solid action, corny one-liners, and some genuinely funny scenes (my favorite was the old-school April having to be saved by a banana monster, among other creatures), put against a backdrop of cool animation, and some mocking of both young and old. It works, more or less, as its own self-contained movie, and as a lasting tribute to the boys in green.