“Turtles Forever” review

click to visit image source, Cincinnati Illustrators Blog

I had a chance to catch the airing of Turtles Forever, a team up between the original and current series. I’ll keep the spoilers to a minimum, since CW/4Kids TV will be re-airing the movie as a “mini-series” (1/2 hour episode format) over the next few weeks, and there is a DVD on the way. While I enjoyed the overall product, there were parts that bothered me, and came off more like a parody of the old cartoon than an homage. I still want to get the DVD.

For the purposes of a smooth review, I’ll use “old” and “new” to describe each character, with “original” for the original comic version cameos. (There have been quite a few comics since, not to mention games, movies, and books.)

In Turtles Forever, the old Turtles, along with their Shredder, Krang, BeBop, and Rocksteady, as well as the Technodrome, are transported to the “new” universe. When old Shredder makes the mistake of bringing the new Shredder back to Earth, things get more interesting. The majority of the action takes place in the “new” universe, with brief visits to the “old” and “original” universe.

"So we agree to share the action figure sales from Playmates."

Artwise, the new show animators did a good job of replicating the look of the old show. Additionally, the voice actors that replaced the classic VAs (I believe there were union issues, because unions are party poopers) did a fair job over all, although Dan Green does a terrible job sounding like Cam Clarke (Leonardo), if he’s even trying. The ones I though were the best match were Anthony Haden Salerno as old Donatello (not a perfect Barry Gordon, but close enough) and David Wills as old Shredder. (He also played the classic Shredder.)

Its in the story itself that the line between homage and parody is crossed. The old Turtles are total goofballs, even more than in the old series pilot mini-series (when the writers were still figuring out their personalities). They take nothing seriously, want to go for pizza when there was still work to do, sometimes don’t seem very bright compared to the New Universe characters (at least the case can be made for the two Shredders) and at times really acted more like what other media writers (PSAs, ads for Turtles merchandise and food stuffs, etc) thought they acted like; in other words, variations of Michelangelo. The new Turtles had to keep reminding them to keep their heads in the game, as it were.

Old Leonardo’s sword skills should be close to new Leonardo’s. Both Donatellos (my favorite of both versions, so I really wanted them to be closer buds) should be around the same level of scientific genius, but (like with the Dimension X technology vs. Utrom technology–old vs. new again) the differences between the more cartoony Old Universe and the more serious New Universe are often too wide. There should be some, as the old Foot Soldier robots are rather fragile compared to robots depicted in the New Universe tales, and the laws of physics do tend to have different variations between these kind of universes, but when you see what the old Turtles consider anti-Technodrome gear, it’s ridiculous even for the Old Universe.

This is why Shredder and Krang get kicked out of movie theaters.

That’s kind of the problem. It’s not a case of what works in one universe not working in another, which I wouldn’t have minded. It’s more a case of some things in the Old Universe depicted in the new show not always matching how it worked in the old show, in favor of parody. While I do like the nod to Raphael’s “fourth wall breaking”, the rest just screams the differences between the old series without finding a lot of common ground. (Speaking of old Raph, he seemed to have traded sarcasm for snappy one-liners. Did not like.) Except for Splinter. Apparently, Splinter is the one constant in the Turtle Multiverse, even if their origins aren’t. Old Michelangelo is the only other one that doesn’t really change among the heroes, or really between the two versions. Krang (the only character without a regularly used counterpart in the new dimension) is more like the mini-series version than later versions, down to the alien belching and the “molecular amplification unit” that I don’t remember being used again outside of the final pilot episode. BeBop and Rocksteady are…BeBop and Rocksteady. Parodying those two is kind of hard, since they really weren’t the brightest bulbs in the chandelier.

Then there’s old April. The old Turtles take time out of getting their “anti-Technodrome” gear to rescue her, which they do “every week”. That was one lampshade too many, with mutant fruit that come out of nowhere and leave the same way–with old April, thus making the whole scene pointless except to make fun of old April’s yellow jumpsuit and show new audiences just how far she was from new April. Sadly, we don’t get to see old Casey Jones. Unlike the new show, original comics, and two out of three live-action movies, Casey wasn’t a central figure in the old cartoon. He only appeared in a handful of episodes, despite being a main character for much of the comics. Still, we don’t to compare the two, which was a disappointment for me. I might have liked to have seen the two Baxter Stockmans, which are probably furthest apart in character even compared to the Shredders, but there was no way to pull that off in a way that would work, so we’re better off in the long run.

"We were here first."

There’s a scene where new Shredder is showing off the Turtle Multiverse that uses scenes from every Turtle media ever done, and a few that I assume have to be fanart to extend the multiverse count. I recognized both the live-action and CGI universes, which really should be the same universe based on what the CGI movie (the recent TMNT) were going for, but like I said, padding. I didn’t pay close enough attention to see if Ninja Turtles: The Next Mutation or the “Coming Out Of Our Shells” versions. TMNTpedia, the Turtles Wiki I’ve been linking too all post says that Mutation (or as I call it, the Next Mutilation) wasn’t in there. Then again, they also think that having the CGI version separate from the live action means they are indeed being treated as separate universes, despite the fact that I saw both animes, which were not only the same universe, but were supposed to be part of the Old Universe in Japan.

Despite these flaws (some of which extends to the Original Universe/Turtle Prime, which makes the Original Turtles look like they’re written by Frank Miller–which come to think of it was the joke in the original comic–but we don’t get enough “face time” to judge them, and they’re based solely on the first issue, and not the later comics), I found myself enjoying the story. It was fun to watch, and I’m looking forward to the DVD. I can’t seem to find out when it’s coming out, but with Nickelodeon now owning the Turtles as an intellectual property, I suppose the future of the whole franchise is uncertain. If you find it, though, go ahead and grab it. It’s flawed, but fun.