Western Animation / Turtles Forever

"Two turtle teams from two turtle worlds, different in so many ways... but deep down, there are similarities."

—The Shredder

What do you get when the 2003 Ninja Turtles meet their counterparts from the original cartoon series? This special 80-minute movie released in 2009, which acts as a celebration of the franchise's 25th anniversary, a love letter to the fans, and as the 2003 cartoon's Finale Movie. The film has a strongly obituary/funereal vibe as well (particularly during the last 10-15 minutes), and could serve as a graceful and cathartic end to the franchise as a whole, for viewers who are upset about Eastman and Laird's sale of creative rights.

An accident in the Technodrome sends it and the Turtles from the original cartoon to the 2003 Turtles' universe. As the 2003 Turtles try not to get too annoyed by their counterparts, 1987 Shredder and Krang make the biggest error of their lives when they free the 2003 Utrom Shredder (Ch'rell) from his exile. Utrom Shredder eventually takes over the Technodrome, and decides that if he wants to destroy the turtles, doing so in one universe won't be enough...

See also the main Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles page, the page for the Mirage comic book series, and the pages for the first and second animated series.

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This movie has the following tropes:

• Adaptation Decay: In-Universe: The Mirage Turtles mock the other sets of Turtles appearance-wise and character-wise. Counts as Laser-Guided Karma for '03 Raph after all his ribbing of the '80s turtles.
• Adaptational Wimp: The '87 turtles. The movie ramps up their silly aspects to the maximum and makes it seem like they rarely take anything seriously, only getting by because their universe and subsequent Shredder are just as silly and incompetent as they are (though they are still shown to be competent martial artists as seen in their fights against the '87 universe's Foot clan and the '03 universe's Purple Dragons in the climax). ^note It should be noted the turtles and Shredder in the '80s series were skilled fighters and likewise intelligent, just that the tone of their show was Lighter and Softer compared to the more serious comics during it's airing. The film tries to go for a Fish out of Water aspect when they come into the more serious '03 and later Mirage universes due to this, but if it succeeds in that, it is ultimately up to how one feels about the '87 series.
• Advertised Extra: Tokka and Rahzar appear on the cover but are left unnamed and largely relegated to cameos in the film itself.
• Alien Blood: After Mohawk, the Purple Dragon member with a mohawk mutates into a huge humanoid dog, Master Splinter fires a missile at him, reducing him into a puddle of bright green mutant blood.
• Alliance of Alternates: Two (later three) versions of the Ninja Turtles team up.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Mid-film, the Shredders attack the 2003 Turtles' home and force the eight to emergency teleport to 1987 version New York.
• Alternate Universe: This special establishes that the '87 cartoon is one to the '03 show. It's eventually taken further by revealing that every version of TMNT media exists in one big multiverse.
• Angrish: 2003 Raphael as per usual.
  1987 Donatello: Steeeeeee-RIKE!
  2003 Raphael: I'LL GIVE YA A STRIKE! REKAFRAKKAGAGA!!
  1987 Michaelangelo: Whoa... what a hardcase!
  2003 Michaelangelo: Bro, I could tell you stories...
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: Ch'rell's death is rather appropriately met with this reaction.
  Mirage Leonardo: The Shredder... has been shredded.
• Anti-Climax:
  • Invoked with the 2003 Shredder during his first return battle against the Turtles. Before they enter into the Technodrome, the 2003 Turtles warn their '87 counterparts about how dangerous and lethal Ch'rell was. Once they actually meet the Utrom Shredder, the Turtles are able to defeat him in a short skirmish that doesn't last longer than a few seconds. After which, the '87 Turtles express amazement that their 2003 counterparts even hyped him up as being so dangerous.
  • Mirage Shredder only has about 3 seconds of screentime before he is effortlessly knocked off screen by the '80s and 2000s turtles pelting him with garbage and other debris.
  • When Krang enlarges himself and his robot to take on the Utrom Shredder, only for the Shredder to take him out without even trying:
  Krang: You're not the only one with a molecular amplification bio-suit, y'know!
  (gets his right arm chopped off and knocked down)
  Ch'rell: But mine actually works!
• Animation Bump: The movie features the best animation for the series since the change to the Back to the Sewer style. The old toon designs are also animated much better than they were for most of the actual original cartoon.
• Apocalypse How: 2003 Shredder accidentally starts an Omniversal Annihilation when he tries to erase the turtles from existence by destroying the "prime" team. He's actually breaking apart the whole multiverse due to destroying the genesis point of the franchise itself — the original 1984 Mirage comic book. Of course, by this point he's so obsessed with revenge that he just doesn't care.
• Arbitrary Skepticism:
  Mirage Michelangelo: So you're supposed to be us, from other worlds. *Beat* I don't see it.
• Art Evolution: The 2003-verse gets a minor facelift for the movie, with most characters sporting tweaked versions of their Back to the Sewers character models, and with the turtles themselves sporting similarly modified versions of their Fast Forward looks, complete with a return to pupil-less eyes.
• Art Shift: The 1987 and Mirage Turtles, as well as the worlds they come from are drawn in their original art styles.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: While going down the list of what makes Utrom Shredder (Ch'rell) much more of a threat than 1987 Shredder, Mikey gives us the most damning argument ever.
  2003 Leonardo: You don't understand, the Utrom Shredder isn't anything like your Shredder. He's vicious!
  2003 Donatello: Lethal!
  2003 Michelangelo: COMPETENT!
• Ascended Fanon: A lot of fans of the 1987 series often lamented (and some lament to this day) the absence of more mutant characters in the 2003 series. Some even wished to see Hun mutate into Rocksteady. Not only do Bebop and Rocksteady (along with Krang and the Technodrome) appear in this movie, Shredder gets an entire army of mutants and Hun himself mutates into Slash.
• Ax-Crazy: Utrom Shredder, as well as the Mirage Turtles, who, until 2003 Leonardo mentioned The Shredder, looked like they were set to kill their alternate universe counterparts.
• Badass Boast: 2003 Shredder gets two.
  • The first is when 1987 Shredder revives him:
    "What fools are these, so weary of life, that they take the name of the Shredder, MY NAME, in vain?"^note Right after he knocks 1987 Shredder and Krang against a wall to demonstrate he's not all talk and no show.
  • The second confronting the Mirage Turtles:
    "You speak my name, but you do not know me. I am Ch'rell, Oroku Saki, Duke Acureds, the one true Shredder! I am a destroyer of worlds, and I fear no one!"
  • After giant 2003 Shredder gets damaged by the Technodrome 2.0's beam.
  1987 Donatello: Looks like we've found something that he's vulnerable to!
  Mirage Raphael: (Mirage Turtles drop down) Yeah! TURTLES!
• Badass Creed:
  Mirage Leonardo: We are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. We strike hard, and fade away into the night.
• Badass Family: One of the differences between the '80s and 2000s teams. '80s Leonardo is a little surprised to hear 2003-Leo call Splinter "father".
• Bad Boss:
  • As usual, the '80s Shredder and Krang insult and belittle their minions.
  • The Utrom Shredder proves to be an even worse boss than them; as he goes beyond mere insults and resorts to flat-out physical abuse.
• Barrier Maiden: The death of the Mirage Turtles will trigger the end of The Multiverse.
• Bash Brothers: A Ninja Turtles staple, but what makes this movie interesting is contrasting the more straight-up martial arts of the 2003 Turtles with the slapstick of the 1987 Turtles, and by the end their styles merge together.
• Batman Gambit: Invoked twice and lampshaded. First, the Shredder kidnaps Master Splinter to lure them into the Technodrome because he knows the Turtles would fight to get him back no matter the cost. Later the Mirage Turtles call 2003 Shredder a coward to lure him into an ambush of their own, figuring that all versions of Shredder are pretty egostistical and won't let such an insult slide.
• Beat: Each time 1987 Raphael breaks the Fourth Wall to face the camera, the events of the film stop for a moment.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: In the director's cut, Bebop and Rocksteady say that they serve Ch'rell finds them amusing. He treats them better than he treats the other '87 universe characters.
• Behemoth Battle: Krang attempts to start one by growing gigantic to take on the enlarged Utrom Shredder. It doesn’t end well.
• Beware the Silly Ones; The '87 Turtles may be silly, but they have proven to be skilled fighters, even the advanced version of Foot Soldiers have proven they cannot go down easily, more resourceful and creative by weaponizing their environments, their vehicles called junks were able to fight an entire army of mutants and advanced robots
• Big Bad: 2003 Shredder (Ch'rell), returning from exile and becoming a threat to the entire multiverse.
• Big Damn Heroes: Many examples, with the most prominent (albeit unintentional) one being Bebop saving the TMNT multiverse when he replugs the Technodrome's power supply.
• Big "NO!":
  • 2003 Splinter does one of these when he thinks that Ch'rell has killed both teams of Turtles.
  • 2003 Shredder himself has one when he is seemingly killed.
• Blame Game: In the director's cut, the 1987 Turtles blame the 2003 Turtles for allowing Ch'rell to wreak havoc in the multiverse. 2003 Raphael retaliates by saying 1987 Shredder was dumb enough for freeing him in the first place.
• Blatant Lies:
  • Double subverted with 2003 Raph. In the director's cut after being scolded by 2003 Splinter for his treatment of the 1987 Turtles, he humbly apologizes for calling them clowns. Then in the 1987 verse when the Turtle Van and Turtle Blimp is unveiled, his response: "What, your clown car's in the shop?"
  • Played straight in the end of the movie when 2003 Raph says that he is going to miss the 1987 Turtles, before unconvincingly adding a NOT! His smile, the looks from the other Turtles and moments before 2003 Raph shaking his '87 counterparts hand and bidding them farewell with a very enthusiastic "TURTLE POWER" makes it clear that he really has grown fond of them.
• Bond One-Liner: "The Shredder... has been shredded." Which serves as a nod to the comic.
• Book Ends:
  • The movie ends on a shot of the title page of the original 1984 comic, as well as with same line that ended the Turtles' first battle in the comics: "We strike hard, and fade away... into the night."
  • The three-part intro of the 2003 series had the turtles referring to themselves as "Turtles Forever... or something else we all shout at once".
• Borrowed Catch Phrase: At the end of the movie, each Turtle team uses the other's before bidding each other goodbye.
  1987 Turtles: It's ninja time!
  2003 Turtles: Turtle power!
• Breaking the Fourth Wall:
  • 1987 Raphael addresses the audience a couple of times, much to Hun's confusion.
    Hun: Why do you keep doing that?! Who are you talking to?! THERE'S NO ONE THERE!!!
  • Then there's the 2003 Turtles noticing that Mirage Leonardo is narrating their fight comic book style...
    Mirage Leonardo: I strike two on the way down. Donatello takes out a third with his staff. Already the pudgy ones were beginning to panic. Raph loves this stuff. He’s not alone...
    2003 Donatello: Why is he narrating? Is he crazy!?
    2003 Michaelangelo: Hardcore crazy!
    2003 Raphael: I LOVE THESE GUYS!
• Broad Strokes:
  • The 1987 universe has the Turtles known to the public, 1987 Michelangelo having his nunchaku again rather than a grappling hook, and a Technodrome attack in New York having happened before the plot started, seemingly indicating it's somewhere in the earlier seasons.
  • While the 2003 universe has the Turtles' lair from Back to the Sewers, and the returning castmembers sport their designs from said season, the movie makes little-to-no mention of the events of it, with Serling (who got stranded in the past with the Turtles) being completely absent.
• Bullethole Door: During the original rescue of the '87 Turtles.
• Cast of Snowflakes: Take a look at the pedestrians and see how many variations there are.
• The Cameo: A metric crap-load; as a revival of the original cartoon and a celebration of the Turtles' 25th anniversary, you get a bunch of cameos from all over the franchise's history.
• Canon Discontinuity: Zig-Zagged in regards to the next incarnation; the film's events aren't brought up in "Trans-Dimensional Turtles" in spite of a number of very large plot similarities, seemingly making it come off as this trope, but the episode's writer, Peter DiCicco, when asked about it, simply responded that the episode used alternate versions of the 1987 cartoon Turtles, meaning that this film is just another possibility within the TMNT multiverse.
• Character Exaggeration: While the original cartoon turtles would sometimes act as silly as they do here, the movie takes that aspect of their characterization and plotlines and runs with it (the 2003 Turtles even comment "Geez, it's like having five Mikeys now!"). The Mirage Turtles seem to go the other direction, with nearly all of their personalities subsumed in grim and gritty broodiness.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • The exploding throwing stars from the 1987 universe. While initially thought useless by the 2003 Turtles, it actually saves them from being erased from the universe forever.
  • 2003 Donatello hitting the portal generator with a wrench, which 80's Don used to get the portal stick working the previous time.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Serling of Fast Forward and Back To The Sewers doesn't appear in the film. Presumably, he was sent back to his own timeline in the aftermath of the seventh and final season but isn't given so much as any sort of Hand Wave as to where he's gone. Chaplin is also nowhere to be seen.
• Cloudcuckooland: The 1987 universe, as far as the 2003 Turtles are concerned.
  2003 Raphael: Was that a mutant... banana?
  2003 Michelangelo: This dimension is seriously messed up.
• Covers Always Lie: An intentional one. The Nickelodeon DVD release◊ has a cover that has only one set of Turtles on it. The 1980s turtles are on the back cover, but with non-physical copies one would probably never find out given how often they're omitted.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Hun mutates into a giant Turtle with Spikes of Villainy and wears a belt with a backwards S shaped dragon on the buckle making him this universe's Slash, but he is only called by his name Hun. Likewise, Tokka and Rahzar are also never called Tokka or Rahzar.
• Continuity Cameo: Tokka and Rahzar make their TMNT 2003 debut—for all of five seconds—as members of the Shredder's mutant army.
• Continuity Nod:
  • Several, but most notably, the name "Turtles Forever" was used in the third episode of the 2003 series when Splinter finishes telling the origin story to April. The audience is set up to expect a Title Drop, but the four turtles subvert it by yelling "Turtles Forever!". Another would be Krang's and Ch'rell's use of the growing tech and Swiss army knife hands in his suit from way back in his first battle with the Turtles in the '87 show.
  • In Fast Forward, Cody mentioned that the Turtle's second lair was destroyed. We found out it was during the movie and Hun was the one responsible.
• Continuity Porn: Oh dear Lord yes. Especially when the Turtles are being shown the "multiverse stills". It includes the Anime Turtles.
• Cosmic Keystone: TMNT issue 1, and more specifically, its turtles. If they are destroyed, every TMNT-verse ceases to exist.
• Creator Cameo: Turtles creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird show up twice: once as the pair of cops who have been a Recurring Extra from the first episode of the 2003 series, and the second as themselves in live action, as they take a break from putting the finishing touches on the first issue of TMNT.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The 1987 Turtles may be goofy clowns compared to their 2003 counterparts, but they're still helpful when the situation calls for it.
• Crisis Crossover: Between the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. This is technically the first time the Mirage Turtles have been animated.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: When both sets of turtles fight their Mirage counterparts, who would've likely killed them had 2003 Leo not mentioned Shredder's name. Eailer The 87 turtles defeat mutants and save April
• Cursed with Awesome: Arguably a villainous example in Hun, who's mutated into a Turtle monster, how is this awesome? Well, literally none of the Turtles could defeat him, the mutation actually makes his chances at winning against the Turtles better. How is it a curse? Since they whip his ass so often, Hun freaking hates turtles.
• Damsel in Distress: April's role as one in the 1987 series is lampshaded in the movie.
  1987 Don: We save April at least once a day.
• Darker and Edgier:
  • The world of the Mirage Turtles, and the Mirage Turtles themselves. Even the 2003 Raphael calls his Mirage counterpart a hardcase.
  • By extension, the 2003 world is also Darker and Edgier compared with the 1987 world. There's even a moment where, before they all go off to fight him, the 2003 Turtles point out to the 1987 Turtles that their Shredder is much deadlier than the 1987 Shredder.
    2003 Leonardo: The Utrom Shredder isn't anything like your Shredder. He's vicious.
    2003 Donatello: Lethal!
    2003 Michelangelo: COMPETENT!
  • There was also 2003 Leonardo willingly stabbing a foot soldier when he didn't know they're robots.
• Deadly Dodging: Hun moves just in time to avoid being hit by Master Splinter's walking stick, and it struck Rocksteady instead.
• Death Ray: The Technodrome's laser, which gets upgraded by the 2003 Shredder into a weapon capable of destroying entire universes. Hot damn!
• Deconstruction Crossover: The way each group of turtles act towards each other place it firmly in this trope.
• Decon-Recon Switch: The 1987 Turtles, their cast, and their lighter and softer, more-family friendly attitude. Initially they get treated as a joke with the 1987 cast taking things a lot less seriously and facing villains who play much dirtier than what they're used to, but in the end they still play their part in helping to save existence and are shown to be no less valid to the TMNT name than their 2003 counterparts.
• Deliberately Monochrome: The world of the Mirage Turtles. Right down to drawing shadows as tightly clustered black dots on a white background, like an actual black-and-white comic would use. The Mirage Turtles also call out their counterparts' colorfulness.
  Mirage Donatello: What’s up with the multi-colored headbands?
  2003 and 1987 Turtles: Huh?
  Mirage Raphael: Hmph. Sellouts...
• Description Cut: Bebop and Rocksteady re-plug the Death Ray they accidentally cut off. Rocksteady then says: "The master will be pleased". Cut to Shredder 2003 screaming in pain as he's being vaporized.
• Did You Get a New Haircut?: You look different '87 Raphael to '03 Master Splinter. This is coupled with No Sense of Personal Space, 2003 Master Splinter is completely taken aback when 1987 Raphael grabs his face to examine his fur.
• Dynamic Entry:
  (Hun crashes through the door)
  Raphael: Hope you don't mind, but we let ourselves in.
  • Also, the Turtle Van's travel between the two universes, destroying Foot Soldiers in the process. Also the Mirage Turtles making their entrance by nearly killing thier counterparts
• The Earth-Prime Theory: Shredder attempts to destroy the turtles of the original 1984 comic, as no original comic means no Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.
• Elite Mooks: "Robots 2.0" and the Shredder's mutant army.
• Empowered Badass Normal: Hun, after his mutation into a turtle. He always gave the 2003 Turtles a run for their money as a human, but after his mutation, he easily puts the smackdown on both the '03 and '87 Turtles without even trying.
• The End of the World as We Know It: Or The Multiverse. As quoted by the Shredder...
  The Shredder: It seems like branches hanging off a single tree, each of these dimensions sprang from a common source, destroy the source, and you would set off a chain reaction that would destroy Ninja Turtles everywhere, Forevermore!
  • But, for a more specific example, destroying Turtle Prime destroys every other dimension, meaning they become nothing but a completely white wasteland which literally cannot support life.
• Enemy Mine: Long list: Karai, Hun, Krang, and 1987 Shredder.
• Everyone Has Standards: Even 2003 Mikey gets tired of the 1987 Turtles' laid-back attitude and inability to take the 2003 Shredder seriously. Likewise, even 2003 Raph considers the Mirage Turtles to be hardcases.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Just about every key antagonist who is not on 2003 Shredder's side.
  • The 1987 villains Shredder and Krang would eventually had enough of the 2003 Foot Clan's extreme measures and abuse.
  • Hun, bent on revenge against the Turtles for transforming him into a mutant, gives the Turtles a bag of key items necessary for their quest right before being erased. Yes, even Hun says to stop the 2003 Shredder after seeing everything being erased in front of him.
  • Of all people, Karai. The reason why she secretly freed the 8 turtles was to stop 2003 Shredder from destroying all reality. She tried to reason with him about it, but in the end, 2003 Shredder's ego says so be it.
  • Averted with Bebop and Rocksteady, who continue to serve Ch'rell because he treats them nice.
• Evil Laugh: The 2003 and Mirage Shredders.
• Eviler than Thou: The 2003 Shredder when compared with his 1987 counterpart and Krang. At first, 1987 Shredder hoped they could form a Big Bad Duumvirate with him... then he discovered Ch'rell was murderously violent and Karai's involvement allowed him to take over the Technodrome, and all of 1987 Shredder/Krang's assets, upgrade them to his own means, and use them in a plan the destroy the entire Multiverse. The 2003 Shredder considers the '87 villains incompetent and worthless, and eventually has them imprisoned when he can't stand them any longer (except Bebop and Rocksteady, who he allows to serve him).
• Expy Coexistence: The Ch'rell incarnation of the Shredder for the 2003 series is a Composite Character of both the Shredder and Krang but more often than not brings to mind Krang, on account of him being an evil, tentacled alien in larger Powered Armor. In this movie, both Ch'rell and Krang finally meet each other and interact, with Ch'rell largely dominating the conversations and confrontations.
• Face Palm: In no particular order, Leo, Raph, Don, and April (all the 2003 variants) get this 'privilege'.
• Fake Shemp: The Creator Cameo of Eastman and Laird was filmed using body doubles and with the co-creators recording their dialogues separately, because they were living in completely different parts of the country.
• Family-Unfriendly Death:
  • Almost happens to the Mirage Turtles: the Utrom Shredder, now a giant, starts crushing them in his hand, and judging by the way things were fading to the white void, he really was killing them.
  • The Purple Dragon goon that mutated into a giant dog meets his end when Master Splinter fires some missiles at him, and he explodes onscreen leaving behind a pool of mutant blood.
• Finale Movie: The movie serves to wrap up the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, with the Turtles of that continuity teaming up with their counterparts from the 1987 cartoon and the original Mirage comic book to stop the Utrom Shredder from eradicating the entire Ninja Turtles multiverse. With Nickelodeon's acquisition of the franchise, the movie can calso be seen as concluding the pre-Nickelodeon era of the franchise.
• Flaw Exploitation: During the final showdown, the Turtles all draw the Utrom Shredder out to fight them directly by exploiting his pride, calling him a coward. It works like a charm.
  2003 Leo: If there's one constant in The Multiverse, it's the Shredder's big fat ego!
• Flanderization:
  • Sure, the Turtles from the '80s were sillier than the newer cartoon versions but they weren't that silly. In fact, Leonardo was usually the more serious turtle but here, he was just as goofy as the others.
  • Similarly, '87 Shredder and Krang behaved even more like the bickering married couple that people claimed they had become by the end of the series.
  • The Mirage Turtles are depicted as bloodthirsty warriors, willing to murder the other Turtles simply because they are "trying to steal their act". In the actual comics, while they were trained with the sole purpose of killing the Shredder (and they were portrayed a little bit like that in the very first issue), they started behaving normally from the second issue onwards, leaving Baxter Stockman alive and Raph even preventing Casey Jones from murdering petty criminals.
• The Fool: The '87 Turtles when they're out of their element. But that doesn't stop them from being helpful when the situation calls for it.
• Foreshadowing:
  • As he's being locked up by Bebop and Rocksteady, Krang tells them this:
  Krang: I hope he finds you two as useful as we (1987 Shredder and Krang) did.
  • At the beginning of the movie, after the news about the Turtles tackling the Purple Dragons, there's a report about seismic activity.
• The Fourth Wall Will Not Protect You: 2003 Shredder had probably one of the most Meta villainous plans ever, even if he fully didn't realize what he was doing: destroy the original TMNT comic, in turn preventing the entire franchise from ever existing.
• From Bad to Worse: The lair being invaded by Hun and a sizable robot army is considered bad enough, but then the 2003 Turtles are told that "the one true Shredder" is back.
• Genius Ditz: Epitomized in the technology of the '87 and 2003. The '87 technology is simultaneously more advanced and less efficient than the 2003 tech.
• A Glass in the Hand: How Hun gets mutated: He snatches away the glass vials containing the 1987 universe mutagen from 87 Don and triumphantly declares himself as the winner, without noticing that his grip is so strong that the vial is shattered and he is now in direct contact with the mutagen. Then 03 Raph kicks him twice, and Hun mutates into Slash.
• Godzilla Threshold: Quite a few moments where it gets so bad that the day is only saved through last ditch tactics, and equipment and methods that up to that point had been written off as useless.
• Goldfish Poop Gang: The 1987 villains. Until the final battle.
• Go Mad from the Revelation: 2003 Shredder loses it after learning of the multiverse. Or more specifically, that each alternate universe is home to its own group of Ninja Turtles.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: The 1987 Turtles take this up to eleven, with the worst thing that '87 Donatello can describe to the Mirage Turtles about the 2003 Shredder is that "he's a grade-A meanie!" Remember, he is meant to be describing a vicious murderer and would-be conqueror who is currently attempting to destroy the universe.
• Hands Go Down:
  2003 Leonardo: Any idea what we should do next?
  1987 Turtles: Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know!
  2003 Leonardo: ...other than going out for a slice?
• Harmless Villain: Any villain not from the TMNT 2003 universe.
• Heel–Face Turn: Karai.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The 2003 Shredder is eventually killed by his own Technodrome's laser, care of Bebop and Rocksteady, who he had allowed to serve him only because "they're amusing".
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • 2003 Donatello gets really annoyed with his old-toon counterpart's attempts to make a dimensional transporter out of a flashlight. Especially when he calls a wrench a hammer. Later on, when needing to repair the device in a dire situation, 2003 Don... uses a wrench as though it were a hammer.
  • In a scene cut out of the network broadcast, 1987 Shredder explains to Krang that Ch'rell's upgrades to the Technodrome should be welcomed... until two Foot Soldiers remove '87 Shredder's beloved command chair.
  • 2003 Raphael calls the Mirage Turtles "hard cases", although they are harder than he is.
    2003 Raphael: How lame can a turtle get? Am I right? (Holds up a hand for a high-five. Mirage Raphael slaps 2003 Raphael's hand away before putting him in an armlock and kicking him away) Hey! Ow! Geez, what a hardcase... (sees 1987 Turtles smiling at him) What?
    1987 Turtles: Nothing.
  • Though initially enjoying their antics, 2003 Michelangelo eventually gets annoyed by the 1987 Turtles' constant joking:
    "Can't you guys be serious about anything?!"
• I Have Many Names:
  • "You speak my name, but you do not know me. I am Ch'rell, Oroku Saki, Duke Acureds, the one true Shredder!"
  • Subverted: the 1987 Turtles have many names for their Shredder. These are: "Old Bucket Breath", "Frying Pan Face", "Chrome Dome", "Metal Mouth", and "Tin Teeth".
• I'm Standing Right Here: Occurs when 1987 Shredder comments on how he hopes that Ch'rell will be a better partner than the usual idiots he works with. Krang is not amused.
• Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy:
  • When the turtles reach the Technodrome for the first time, the 1987 Shredder sends out Bebop, Rocksteady and a large wave of foot soldiers, all armed with laser pistols. Their aim is so terrible that they can't even hit the eight Turtles and Splinter when they're standing together in a group for several seconds. Naturally, when 2003 Shredder sees that they get an upgrade, their aim improves drastically.
    • Although there's a scene where '87 Don and Leo are dodging laser fire.
  • In the initial rescue of the '87 Turtles, Hun's mooks are laying down some heavy fire. Enough to pull down a wall. And if one of their targets were to parkour all over a particular wall, they would shoot the exact spots to make that wall come down on top of Hun and all his men, including said shooters. '03 Leonardo takes his focus off of them, considers the wall, comes up with this plan, and then visibly admires his ingenuity, all while being actively shot at, without taking a single hit, all in the time it took you to read this sentence. Honestly, the eight of them could have just walked out of there.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: 1987 Shredder, Krang, Bebop and Rocksteady were always this, but it's especially highlighted when they're compared to the much more competent 2003 villains. Until the final battle, they're the Goldfish Poop Gang. Even the 2003 Turtles mention this.
  2003 Leonardo: "Listen. Utrom Shredder isn't anything like your Shredder. He's vicious!"
  2003 Donatello: "Lethal!"
  2003 Michelangelo: "COMPETENT!!!"
• Informed Attribute: The 2003 Shredder is hyped up by the 2003 Turtles as being extremely dangerous and lethal but as the '87 Turtles take notice of, he doesn't live up to that reputation and gets defeated swiftly in his first battle against them. However, this is justified in that he was just luring them into a trap.
• I Resemble That Remark!:
  2003 Raphael: I told ya, ya can't brainstorm with these goofballs. They ain't got no brains!
  1987 Raphael: Hey! We resemble that remark!
  (All the 1987 Turtles start laughing, whilst 2003 Raphael and Leonardo facepalm)
• Intra-Franchise Crossover: This movie is a textbook example with the Turtles from the 2003 animated series meeting up with the Turtles from the 1987 animated series, the two versions of the Turtles exist in alternate dimensions and meet each other when messing with interdimensional travel, in the end both versions meet the original Turtles from the 1984 comic books, they're presented as the prime Turtles, and erasing their existence would do the same to all the other versions.
• Ironic Echo:
  • The 1987 Turtles mention getting pizza, later, the Mirage Turtles decide to go out for pizza at the end, something that they've never done in the comics prior. And after that, the creators of the very first comic (Laird and Eastman) are overheard talking about how they hope the comic will sell as they go out for a slice of their own.
  • Let's not forget when 2003 Raphael called his Mirage self a hardcase.
  • There's also the time 2003 Michelangelo berated the '80s Turtles
    2003 Michelangelo: "Stop it, stop it, STOP IT! Can't you guys be serious about ANYTHING!?"
  • Also, this line, uttered first by the '03 Shredder, and later by '03 Leonardo, each after pulling off their respective Batman Gambits:
    If there's one constant in The Multiverse...
• Irony: The 2003 Turtles consider their 1987 counterparts as silly, incompetent, and inferior to them. When they meet the Mirage Turtles, they get much the same treatment and reaction.
• Karmic Transformation: Hun was mutated into the one thing he hates most, a mutant turtle.
• Keystone Army: In the director's cut, once the Technodrome leaves for the Turtle Prime universe, the upgraded robotic Foot Ninjas get deactivated.
  Casey: That giant, armored bowlin' ball just... imploded!
  April: It must've been controlling the robots. No ship, no power!
• Killed Off for Real: Ch'rell finally dies in this movie, courtesy of Bebop and Rocksteady. Bebop. And. Rocksteady. No, seriously. Given his track record, only the fact that this is the end of the 2003 continuity gives it any weight—even Splinter and Karai note that they don't doubt the possibility of him surviving.
• Killer Rabbit: Given the un-intidmidating nature of an Utrom, generally peace-loving little head sized aliens of apparently limited mobility You'd expect Ch'rell the 2003 Shredder would be less dangerous without his humanoid exoskeleton; and you'd be right, after a ferocious effort to at least maim them Krang and 1987 Shredder survive & subdue him with only moderate injury. See Badass Boast.
• Large Ham: All the Shredders.
  2003 Shredder: "The time has come...to RIIIIIIIISSSSEEEE!!!"
  1987 Shredder: Blasted TURTLES!
  Mirage Shredder: I! AM! HERE!
• Lampshade Hanging: When the eight turtles first arrive in the '87 universe, '87 Leonardo is able to know that they have to save April without even looking around.
• Late-Arrival Spoiler:
  • Any Ninja Turtles fan who even just remotely heard of this movie would have already known of its highlights, apart from, y'know, the '87 Turtles: The Multiverse and the Mirage Turtles. Heck, a clip of The Multiverse slideshow used to be the picture of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles main page.
  • Also Ch'rell's true species was a very important twist in the early years of 2003 series.
• Late to the Realization: The 1987 Turtles don't even realize they're not in their own dimension until The 2003 Turtles and Master Splinter kidnap them and demand answers. Then the 1987 Turtles go into a How We Got Here Flashback to explain everything that they know. Donatello then lampshades this by saying: We're not in Kansas anymore, at least not our Kansas anyway,
• Let's You and Him Fight: The first thing that the Mirage TMNT does when they appear is fight the other two sets of turtles. If 2003 Leo hadn't mentioned the Shredder, they'd all most likely be dead.
• Lethal Joke Character: Downplayed, since their silliness can be irritating, they can be more useful since their creativity and resourcefulness can be proven awesome since they can take out a whole army of mutants and foot robots.
• Made of Explodium: Krang's Foot Soldiers. As with many things about the cartoon, it is lampshaded here.
  2003 Leonardo: Robots?
  2003 Michelangelo: EXPLODING robots! Ha ha!
• Make My Monster Grow: The 2003 version of Shredder grows to an incredible size in order to wipe out the turtles of the Mirage universe; Krang then enlarges himself and his robot as well, in order to fight this Shredder on equal footing, but is cut down in no time.
• Mecha-Mooks: Two types: Krang's original robot Foot Soldiers from the first cartoon, and Ch'rell's upgraded version of the concept.
  • The tougher 2003 Raphael had a great time fighting these robotic mooks - even the tough upgraded ones - getting a chance to really vent for once.
• Meet Your Early-Installment Weirdness
• Motive Decay: Ch'rell/2003 Shredder. In most of his appearances in the 2003 series after The Reveal, including all of Season 3, his goals are to get back to space to rebuild his empire and get revenge on the Utroms who imprisoned him. He considered the turtles little more than an inconvenience and was willing to leave Earth in his space ship without even finishing them off. In this movie he wants nothing more than to kill all Ninja Turtles, even at the cost of his own existence.
  • This might be explained by his seemingly going insane once he learns that there are ninja turtles in every universe. And the entire purpose of his entire existence, is to be foiled by those turtles. That, plus the fact for up to three seasons, the turtles have continuously been a thorn on his side and foiled his plans up to the point where he got marooned on an ice asteroid. After all that, it's not unthinkable that Ch'rell would finally consider it personal with the turtles.
• The Movie
• Multiversal Conqueror: The Shredder's original plan before learning of the Ninja Turtles in each and every universe. Eventually turns him into an Omnicidal Maniac.
• The Multiverse: 2003 Shredder discovers that both the 1987 and 2003 universes are a part of a larger multiverse that branched out from a single origin universe (the Mirage universe, or "Turtle Prime").
• My Master, Right or Wrong: Played straight and then defied. Karai immediately sides with the 2003 Shredder when he comes back... but as soon as she discovers that his plan to destroy The Multiverse, which will kill everyone and everything, including the Shredder and Karai herself, she pulls yet another Heel–Face Turn and helps the three sets of Turtles take him down.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Mirage Shredder gets offed quickly in an anticlimactic fashion not long after popping up, a nod to the fact that he was the shortest lasting of the three Shredders, being killed in the very first issue.
  • A earlier one is that 2003 Splinter is watching Channel 6—the same channel that 1987 April works for.
  • Hun turns into a monstrous turtle, very much resembling Slash from the 1987 continuity.
  • The Mirage Turtles and their Shredder directly quote their original debut.
    Mirage Leonardo: I strike two on the way down. Donatello takes out a third with his staff. Already the pudgy ones were starting to panic. Raph loves this stuff. He's not alone.
    • Even 2003 Shredder gets in on the act. He tells the Turtles to "Come and face your doom!" A (misquoted) line from the first issue.
  • At least two of Krang's plans are used by the 2003 Shredder: Creating a mutant army, and turning into a giant robot.
  • "You were expecting maybe someone else?"
  • "I love being a turtle!"
  • In the extended cut, Karai implores 2003 Shredder to not kill the Turtles as that will destroy the entire multiverse. Shredder ultimately decides to do so anyway and ends his reasoning with "Then so be it!", a line he said in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze after Leonardo desperately tries to convince him to stop destroying the dock as it will kill all of them.
• Near-Villain Victory: The 2003 Shredder almost kills the 1984 Turtles, thereby insuring Universe wide Turtlecide, but he's done in by Exploding Throwing Stars, his ego, and Bebop and Rocksteady.
• Negated Moment of Awesome: Utrom-Shredder increases massively in size to take apart our heroes. Krang does the same however, and gets ready to fight him, one-on-one. He only lasts about three seconds.
• Never My Fault: Hun blames the turtles for his transformation into a mutant turtle despite the fact that he knew what the '80s mutagen purpose was and he took the mutagen vials from '80s Donatello out of his own free will. He even wanted the mutagen. Possibly justified in that he wanted the mutagen, but never wanted to mutate into a turtle.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Bebop and Rocksteady plugging back in the upgraded Technodrome's Death Ray and killing the 2003 Shredder.
• No Ontological Inertia:
  • When Ch'rell is defeated, the universe-destroying laser immediately switches off.
  • Heck, the whole Multiverse runs on this, as damage to the Mirage Ninja Turtles universe destroys the 2003 universe, and when Utrom Shredder has the Mirage Turtles in his clutches he nearly destroys ALL OF EXISTENCE. And then it's all undone when he's defeated and the Mirage world is safe from further damage.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: During the final showdown, the Mirage Turtles are able to lure Ch'rell out into the open by calling him a coward.
• The Nose Knows
• "Not So Different" Remark: At the end of the film, all three groups of Turtles seem to acknowledge a sense of kinship between each other. Despite all the things that were different between them, they were all heroes and even the "more serious" 2003 Turtles had their gimmicks. "It's Ninja Time!" "Turtle Power!" When the '03 Turtles visit the '87 Turtles world they see the '87 Splinter treat them with the same wise compassion their Splinter showed the '87 Turtles when the roles were reversed.
  • Even the 2003 Shredder realized that the differing Turtles had at least something in common as he was preparing to kill both groups.
    The Shredder: Two turtle teams from two turtle worlds, different in so many ways... but deep down, there are similarities.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain:
  • Ch'rell gets his tentacles on 1987 Shredder's toys (robot Foot Soldiers, mutagen, and the Technodrome) and actually turns them into a credible, lethal threat. That's not to say a fast acting mutagen, a robot army, and a giant battle station with laser cannons are nothing to sneeze at, but Ch'rell really had the '87 arsenal upgraded.
  • Would Bebop and Rocksteady count? Sure, they didn't intend to kill Utrom Shredder, but... well, they did.
• Omnicidal Maniac: Utrom Shredder didn't start out this way (he just wanted to see the destruction of the turtles so he could run around unopposed) but when he learned that there was an entire multiverse full of the four turtles he went off the deep end. That destroying the Ninja Turtles of Turtle Prime would also dissolve everyone else doesn't really matter to him, as long as he gets rid of the turtles.
• One-Steve Limit: Averted, of course, with the inevitable lampshade hangings.
• Only Sane Men: Everyone except the '87 characters (not including Splinter). Everyone is confused and surprised by their silly antics.
• Other Me Annoys Me: The 2003 Turtles' reaction to the '87 Turtles. Exaggerated with the Mirage Turtles, who try to kill them both on sight. Utrom Shredder also considers ‘87 Shredder to be incompetent and worthless to be of any use.
• Overshadowed by Awesome:
  • Happens with the 1987 Turtles who are shown to be inferior fighters compared to the 2003 Turtles. Happens again with the Mirage Turtles overshadowing both. Subverted as the 1987 Turtles are proven to use their silly antics as a combat style which made them useful and compensated for it.
  • Also happens with Shredders; with the 2003 Shredder actually being the Big Bad while both 1987 and Mirage Shredders were, by contrast, both relatively inept bad guys.
• Pass the Popcorn: Shredder (old toon version) and Krang end up doing this as Ch'rell fights the military.
• Percussive Maintenance: Apparently one of 1987 Donatello's stock techniques. 2003 Donatello is more reluctant.
• Pet the Dog:
  • At the end the Mirage Turtles admit their counterparts weren't that bad. Mirage Mikey admits he liked the initialized belt buckles of the 1987 Turtles.
  • And by extension the 2003 Turtles also admit they're gonna miss the 1987 Turtles. As a final sign of respect they even trade each other's catchphrases as a farewell.
  • Take note that the only Turtle to hit 2003 Raphael for hating on the belt buckles was Mirage Raphael, so Mirage Mikey may not have been the only one who liked the belt buckles.
  • Ch'rell thinks Bebop and Rocksteady are amusing and keeps them around (explained in the director's cut).
• Poke the Poodle: At the end of the movie, 1987 Shredder proudly threatens the group with a Giggle Ray before running away laughing. Cue eyes rolling by Master Splinter. Seriously...
• Power Creep, Power Seep: Occurs to the 1987 turtles and Shredder, particularly during the final battle.
• Private Eye Monologue: Mirage Leo gives out one verbally while he and his crew are fighting their '03 and '87 counterparts.
• Pretender Diss: The Mirage Turtles, to the point where their first reaction on seeing the other turtles is Kill-On-Sight.
• Properly Paranoid: Hun misinterprets what the '87 Turtles tell him and assumes Shredder is back in town, deciding to take the mutagen to deal with him. Later, the '87 Shredder decides to summon his '03 counterpart back to Earth, making Hun look justified.
• Recursive Canon: Subtly implied at the end when the Mirage Turtles admit they liked some of the traits of their counterparts.
• Retgone: Happens in real time with the universes fading into white when 2003 Shredder starts trying to kill the Turtles Prime.
• Revenge Before Reason:
  • Ch'rell is so intent on ending the existence of all the Turtles in the multiverse that he doesn't realize (or really care) that it will wipe him out as well. In a scene deleted from the broadcast for time, it's revealed he stops for a moment, but he decides to kill the originals anyway, because, well, it's what he does. Either he can exist to be foiled, or actually do one thing of importance.
  • Furthermore, Hun, blaming the Turtles for his mutation, attacks them and refuses to pay any mind to what they have to say about the Shredder. However, when their world begins to fade because of Ch'rell, he quickly gives up and hands them the tech they need to get to the Mirage universe without any further trouble.
• Robotic Reveal: The 2003 Turtles learn this in their first battle with the 1987 Foot Soldiers, in a scene paralleling a similar moment in the first episode of the original cartoon.
• Running Gag:
  • Lampshading the 1987 toon's medium awareness: when that version of Raphael makes comments at the audience, Hun and/or 2003 Raph try to figure out what he's looking at.
  • Also 2003 Mikey was the '87 Turtles' frequent target of a "noogie".
• Secondary Adaptation: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, which began as a comicbook series, had two western cartoon series based on it; one in 1987 and the other in 2003. This movie, released in 2009, is a Crisis Crossover primarily featuring the two cartoon continuities, celebrating the franchise's 25th anniversary and the Finale Movie for the second cartoon.
• Shout-Out:
  • The scene where Ch'rell has captured both Turtle teams in the virtual chamber and is scanning their DNA in search of Turtle Prime distinctly evokes the final moments of TRON inside the MCP's Tower.
  • Then there's this line:
    Utrom Shredder: Only now, at the end, do you truly understand.
  • Not to mention:
    Utrom Shredder: All too easy.
  • And:
    Utrom Shredder: ...unlimited power!!
  • ...all of which occur during the same scene.
  • The Turtleverse bears striking resemblance to a theoretical snowflake existing in 196,833 dimensional space.
  • This official promotional poster◊ of 1987 and 2003 Leonardo shaking hands pays homage to X-Men vs. Street Fighter, where Cyclops and Ryu do the same thing during said game's intro◊.
• The Smurfette Principle: The Purple Dragons have only one female member.
• Spanner in the Works: Karai. If not for her involvement, the two Turtle teams wouldn't even be alive, and the end of The Multiverse would have been a lot sooner.
• Spotlight-Stealing Crossover: While it's a crossover between three incarnations of the Turtles, most of the setpieces and characters are from the 2003 series, a bulk of the Character Development goes to the 2003 characters, and the main antagonist of the movie is that series' incarnation of the Shredder.
• Status Quo Is God: Karai's implied Heel–Face Turn (following Season 5's season-long Enemy Mine situation, to the point where she was eventually invited to Casey and April's wedding) is conveniently ignored for the purposes of this story. Justified: Shredder came back.
• Stealth Hi/Bye: The Mirage Turtles at the end.
• Stock Footage: Despite being a very well-animated movie, it has several moments where footage from a previous scene is reused, including from a few seconds ago.
• Straw Loser:
  • How people interpret this special's take on the '87 turtles. Most of the time they're doing something silly or stupid and when it comes to battle, they're mostly useless. With the 2003 turtles, though, they do and say everything right.
  • The '87 Shredder and Krang are pretty pathetic, too. They're both powerless to stop the Utrom Shredder and are constantly kicked around by him. There was a moment where Krang almost engaged him in a fight, but he was defeated really quick.
  • Mirage Shredder as well, who is killed in seconds by the other Turtles. None of them use their weapons or martial arts training, they simply hurl garbage at him.
• Suicidal Cosmic Temper Tantrum: What 2003 Shredder's plan boils down to. Even when he finds out that he'll kill himself along with the others if he destroys the Prime universe, he has gone so nuts and revenge-obsessed that he decides he doesn't care if he dies or not.
• Surrounded by Idiots: First noted by the 1987 Shredder. When the 2003 Shredder takes control, he also holds this opinion.
• Take That!:
  • The movie seems to take a number of shots at the 1987 cartoon for its less serious tone compared to the 2003 version.
  • The Mirage Turtles calls the other Turtles (this includes both the 87 Turtles and the 03 Turtles) "sellouts", possibly referencing sentiments of Mirage comics fans in the late 1980's after the debut of the more child-friendly Saturday morning cartoon and the subsequent marketing of the Turtles in nearly every way possible.
• Talking Is a Free Action: Subverted.
• Talk to the Fist
  Shredder: I care nothing for the universe I left behind. I will not stop until-
  Cue drop kick
  Mirage Raphael: Less talk, more action.
• Tanks for Nothing: The U.S. Army sends in a whole bunch of men with guns and tanks, but the Technodrome wipes them out within seconds.
• Taking You with Me: 2003 Shredder attempts to do this after discovering that by killing the Mirage Turtles, he'll destroy EVERYTHING to a white void, including himself. However, he hates the Turtles so much that he considers death by his own hand a small price to pay if it meant the Turtles in every dimension get killed off.
• That Poor Cat: Seen in the extended cut on a ledge of a building, looking at the 2003 Turtles and 1987 Turtles explain their side of the story to the Mirage Turtles. We then hear it squealing after the Mirage Shredder is knocked off the building top by trash cans.
• Title Drop:
  Utrom Shredder: So long as Ninja Turtles exist somewhere in the multiverse, they will interfere in the plans of the Shredder! Our epic battle is never going to end... unless I put an end to Turtles... FOREVER!
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • The Technodrome. What was mainly underground and very limited in power gains an upgrade to destroy cities and dimensions. Not even tanks and missiles can destroy its force field.
  • The newly designed Foot Soldiers. It took a large wave of 1987 Foot Soldiers to combat the Turtles, and the 8 Turtles easily beat them. Come Karai's upgrade the Foot Soldiers even a small batch of them destroy the Turtles headquarters and put the Turtles and Splinter in defensive mode and later on shell-shocked defeat.
  Karai: Their robotic foot soldiers? Clumsy. Weak. Almost... Cartoonish. But now, the proper modifications? Lethal!
• Took a Level in Dumbass: The '87 Turtles are considerably dumber in the special than they were in their cartoon. Instead of maintaining their original traits and being just as competent as the '03 Turtles, they're very childish and have one-track minds. They can barely handle any fighting as well (though that is more because they goof around a lot and their fight against Bebop and Rocksteady in the beginning and the fight against the Purple Dragons in the climax show they are competent fighters when they get serious), especially against the Foot Soldiers, enemies they regularly fought.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: The 2003 Turtles (mostly Raph and Mikey) were quite more rude than in their own show particularly towards almost anything that's was considered silly from the '87 universe.
• Totally Radical: Literally invoked.
• Trailers Always Spoil: The 4Kids trailer, showing scenes from all acts in the movie, including the finale.
• Trapped in Another World: The '87 Turtles at the beginning.
• A Truce While We Gawk: 1987 Raphael's Aside Comment briefly causes the 2003 Raph and Hun to stop fighting and look around in confusion. This gets even more confusing and irritating for Hun when it happens again later.
• Truer to the Text: While still toned down quite a bit from the comics to keep the film appropriate for general audiences, this film features one of the most faithful depictions of the Mirage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (albeit primarily on their Issue 1 incarnations, due to being portrayed more as a unit), down to their presentation, with the characters being completely black and white, having tails, and most of Leonardo's dialogue is taken verbatim from the comic when they first appear.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: The broad daylight appearance of a troupe of mutant bananas and bowling balls in the world of the original cartoon draws no attention from bystanders, as would often happen in the cartoon itself. Likewise, the Mirage Turtles mention the Technodrome had been destroying everything all night without any reaction.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: The 1987 Shredder's desire to have a powerful ally unleashes a villain that nearly destroys all of reality.
• Vanilla Edition: The U.S. DVD release. It does not have the full film or anamorphic widescreen. The U.K. DVD release on the other hand, is both widescreen and contains the full film.
• Villainous Breakdown: The Utrom Shredder suffers one after he discovers that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles exist in all universes, meaning that no matter where he goes, he'll never escape them. This causes him to go from trying to conquer the multiverse to becoming an Omnicidal Maniac and destroy it.
• Villain Team-Up
• Viewers Are Geniuses: This movie seems to assume the viewer knows about the original comic books, people could only guess before this movie came out, many people assumed Turtle Prime was the 1987 world, and not the original comics. Not to mention the fact that the creators of the movie clearly did a lot of research on the franchise.
• Vocal Dissonance: Dan Green voicing '87 Leo. No offense to the guy, but his deep voice does not go well with Leo.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: What happened to 1987 April after she got dragged away by a mutant banana?
• Where It All Began: For the entire TMNT franchise, as the last act takes place in the world of the original Mirage comics.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?:
  • Asked by the 1987 Shredder and Krang as soon as the 2003 Shredder has both sets of Turtles in the Technodrome's sights. For 2003 Shredder, this was one annoyance too many from his counterpart. Of course, he wanted them alive so he could scan them, track down Turtle Prime, and kill all sets by wiping them from existence.
  • As soon as he reaches the Mirage Universe, this seems to be his original intention with the Mirage Turtles (since he doesn't need anything fancy to make sure they stay dead). But then the Mirage Turtles call him a coward and he abandons this plan to confront them himself.
  • And yet also lampshaded:
  2003 Raphael: If you plan on doing us in, there's gotta be an easier way!
• Worf Had the Flu: The Mirage Turtles are introduced by stomping the '03 Turtles to show how capable they are in a fight. However, the '03 Turtles weren't really trying to fight, due to how the reason they even came to the Mirage Universe to begin with was to warn them about Shredder.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: The 1987 Turtles treat everything they go through as if it was like their world. The world of the 2003 series, and the Mirage comics, is darker in tone, more realistic in tone and enemies that aren't the easy jokes they're used to. Brought up by the 2003 Turtles explaining that the Utrom Shredder is nothing like their Shredder. It actually starts to get to them.
• You Are What You Hate: Hun after his mutation:
  Hun: "Now, I look in the mirror, and all I see is you! And I hate you EVEN MORE!!!"
• You Have Failed Me: Averted. 2003 Shredder is at first angry that Hun only brought back Splinter to the Technodrome. However, after hearing his reasoning for why he lost them, and that "so long as you have the rodent, the turtles will come to you," Shredder actually congratulates Hun, and allows him to lead the attack on New York.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!:
  1987 Donatello: Exploding ninja stars. Anti-Technodrome roller skates. SPF 1000 sunblock.
  1987 Raphael: And I got the pizzas! We're good to go!
  [Beat]
  2003 Leonardo: You're joking, right?
  2003 Raphael: We came all the way to Wacky World for THIS JUNK!?
  2003 Michelangelo: No no no no no no no no NO!

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All: "I LOVE BEING A TURTLE!"

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