Turtles Forever (2009) – CB 300

I agree with all of your criticisms, but to a great degree, because I hated this movie. If I had to give this rating, in all honesty, I’d probably just give this one star.

The idea of a crossover between the 87 Turtles and the 2K3 Turtles is a great idea, but that’s not what this is. Those were not the 87 Turtles in this series, this was an over exaggeration of them that was just plain insulting to the 87 cartoon and its fans, and just felt like a waste of time.

It felt like they went out of their way to make the 87 series look bad and the 2K3 series look good by comparison. Even though it was cool seeing the Mirage Turtles, it felt like they were trying too hard to make their dark and serious tone cool. After all, the Mirage comics were supposed to be a parody of comic trends at the time (mostly found in Daredevil), so their dark and serious tone in the comic was supposed to be a joke, while this movie treats it as the coolest thing ever. Then again, even the Mirage comics seems to have forgotten that after a while and became the thing they were parodying.

As for the Bebop and Rocksteady thing at the end, the idea behind it was funny, but after sitting through an entire movie where every aspect of the 87 cartoon was a one note joke of ‘look who goofy and incompetent they are’ I was already frustrated and exhausted at that point. I agree with you guys that it should’ve just left him vulnerable for a moment and all three groups of turtles could’ve finished him off.

It’s interesting to hear you guys say that 2K3 Turtles are your favorites because they’re honestly my least favorite. It feels like Peter Laird hated the 87 Turtles show so much that he tried to hard to make these Turtles the opposite of that and went too far in the other direction, at least in my opinion. Personally, I feel the 2012 show has the perfect balance between both the 87 show and the 2K3 show, but as for the Turtles themselves, I think Rise actually has the best versions.

The two 2012 Turtle crossovers with the 87 Turtles was much better than this. They even took occasional jabs at that show, with the 2012 turtles having to encourage the 87 turtles to be violent or 2012 Rocksteady and Bebop easily beating 87 Shredder, but they never felt disrespectful.

Also, the idea of serious character having to work with sillier ones was done much better in that Batman and Ninja Turtles crossover movie.

One last thing, no, there was never an episode of the 87 show where they fought a mutant banana, or leprechauns, or bowling balls.