YMMV / Turtles Forever

• Awesome Animation: While the characterization was heavily questioned, most fans do agree the animation for the 80s Turtles and their villains was pretty spot on, duplicating their look perfectly. Likewise were more than happy to see the Mirage turtles finally have full on movement too and representing their gritty aesthetic.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: When the 1987 and 2003 Turtles visit the 1987 universe for the first time, they witness the 1987 Turtles getting into a battle with a giant mutant banana, pizza monsters, evil leprechauns, and monstrous bowling balls, saving 1987 April in the process. After this scene, the Turtles leave, and 1987 April is abducted by the mutant banana, never to be seen or referenced in the movie again.
• Broken Base: The movie's treatment of the 1987-verse is heavily divisive among the fandom. While some saw the '87 turtles exaggerated characterizations as tongue-in-cheek that helped extenuate how out of their element they were when thrown into unfamiliar worlds, as well as the message that every group of turtles is valid regardless of their personality. Others, (particularly fans of the 1987 series) hated how it made the '87 turtles look like fools, feeling like it only served to make the '03 turtles look good and an insult to the old series. Ironically one of the criticisms levied at the movie is that the attitudes of the '03 turtles to said counterparts made them rather unlikeable and sapped some of the enjoyment out of the movie since it seem like they were working with their counterparts in a begrudging manner, with '03 Raph in particular never seeming to ease up on his complaints about them. Ironically, some fans of the 80s cartoon felt this accurately represents how they are in the later pre-Red Sky seasons. It certainly says a lot that many sides use writing from the 80s cartoon to defend their arguments.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Ch'rell being obliterated by his own device, at the hands of Bebop and Rocksteady, of all people, is definitely this for all the horrible things he's done throughout the entire 2003 series. For some fans who weren't a fan of the 80s characters portrayal, that at the least made up for some of the movie.
  • Karai finally realizing Ch'rell is a madman after realizing he'll destroy the entire multi-verse just to gain victory over the turtles. For many fans who were sick of her blind loyalty to him through the 03 series and supposed regression in this movie, it was a major relief to see she finally wised up.
  • 2003 Raph constantly bullying his 80s counterparts comes back to bite him when his Mirage counterpart treats him in the exact same way. Especially when he tries to mock them to endear himself to the Mirage TMNT, only to get kicked by them. The 80s turtles have a good laugh at his expense.
• Character Rerailment: Hun's characterization becomes more in line with his pre-Back To The Sewers version, downplaying the comedy (although not completely removing it) to bring back his ruthlessness and combat-effectiveness. He does lose a lot of the independence he'd developed in the fourth and fifth seasons, though he gets over it after being abandoned by the Shredder again.
• Complete Monster: Ch'rell. See the page for more details.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: If there is one thing that fans of the 1987 and 2003 series can agree on, it's that the Mirage Turtles are the highlight of the entire film.
• Fanon: There's a little bit of fan speculation that due to meeting their more serious 2003 and Mirage counterparts, the 80s Turtles decided to up the ante and become more serious characters. And thus, Turtles Forever was, in a way, responsible for the "Red Sky" seasons of the first Ninja Turtles show. Of course that wouldn’t explain why the technodrome doesn’t have the Utrom tech enhancements it received here.
• Fan-Preferred Cut Content: The director's cut is considered slightly superior in quality. Among other things, it explains Karai's motives, shows how Ch'rell is is willing to kill himself if it means destroying the Turtles once and for all and even contains a scene where the '03 Master Splinter tells '03 Raphael to behave and treat the '87 Turtles better, which gets a Call-Back in a later scene in the TV cut, making it an Orphaned Reference.
• Harsher in Hindsight:
  • "Another fine mess you've gotten us into." Krang, you don't know how accurate you are.
  • A lot of fans of the 1987 animated series hated how the 80's Turtles are Adaptational Wimp goofballs and wished they be portrayed with more respect when they cross over into the next show. While their initial appearance in Trans Dimensional Turtles was mostly well received, their eventual appearance in Wanted Bebop And Rocksteady makes them even more of wimps than this movie, where their fighting style is dismissed as lame by 2012 Turtles as they do not use martial arts at all, instead relying on Rule of Funny. For all its fault, Turtles Forever has the '87 Turtles often using martial arts moves against their enemies, like Raph tossing Bebop and Karate chopping a bunch of spiky boulders to make a cage around him, or the '03 and '87 Turtles teaming up to fight the Purple Dragons before going to the Mirage universe.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight:
  • Raph and Leo's brief conversation with the Splinter from the 80's cartoon has a whole new meaning when you remember that the Splinter of that universe is Hamato Yoshi.
  • While 1987 Leo had to be recast because of union issues for the film, his regular voice actor would get to properly interact with 2003 Leo's voice actor in a few video games down the line. And coincidentally, in both games their respective characters are brothers putting 2003 Leonardo's "We're brothers" line in a new light.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • Mirage Leo's narration works even better as a parody of Frank Miller's work now than in the late 80's.
  • Speaking of Mirage Leo, his voice actor in the special is Jason Griffith, who was the English voice of Sonic the Hedgehog at the time of its release. It wouldn't be the last time a version of Leo got the same voice actor as the blue hedgehog, since Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had Ben Schwartz voice Leo, and he went on to voice Sonic in the live-action movies.
  • In one of the interviews, Peter Laird mentions he had no intention of the Shredder becoming the "Darth Vader" of the franchise.
• Ho Yay: 1987 Shredder when describing Ch'rell, and later Krang's little comment when they located him...it's in the tone of their voices. They really love to compliment him.
• Moral Event Horizon: 2003 Shredder does it again, as he callously attempts to murder the Turtles by using them to pinpoint Turtle Prime. Granted, he's tried to kill them hundreds of times before...but not while Splinter was watching them die, yes, the other Shredders have attempted this, but there was no real sign of a Deus ex Machina, Chekhov's Gun, or really anything this time that could save them except somebody from the outside, this is what gets Karai to finally switch sides for good. And even if that didn’t cross it, he completely goes beyond even some of the other worst TMNT Moral Event Horizon crossings later on by attempting to outright destroy the entire multiverse by killing the Mirage Turtles so he can destroy their universe and thus, every other version of the turtles and their respective universe, which is even further solidified once he outright rejects his chance at redemption simply to kill the turtles.
• Misblamed: Most assume the writers essentially made a mistake when it come to the 87 turtles explaining why their personalities don't match up with their show. According to J's Reviews, this is partially true, in truth they wanted to look into more of the original show but only had the pilot to go off of and nothing else during the movie's production, because of that they mostly based the '87 personalities more on the tone to help with their characters. Likewise Peter Laird was the one giving the approval of concepts for the movie and waved this idea through. Considering Peter was known for being displeased how Lighter and Softer the original series was, it wouldn't be out of place to say this may have been an intentional move on his part (the praise most of the '03 cast get from their '87 one not exactly helping). Though likely could've been an oversight as well.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • 2003 Shredder's plan. Destroy the entire universe? Watch as the entire world erases itself, everyone in it and any loved ones you may have before being erased yourself? Pretty frightening.
  • There were a few other examples, such as Hun's quote in one scene. Considering the the next series that came after this. One could consider it foreshadowing.
  Hun: Yes. Mutation, it's a real horror show.
  • In-story example: the Mirage Turtles were this to the 1987 Turtles, who were so afraid of their "willing to kill, dismember your body parts and do it with a smile" counterparts that they dropped their weapons and fled. Hell, even Ch'rell was afraid of them when they got up-close and personal.
  • 2003 Shredder's death. Sure he did had it coming but watching him get shredded by his own device while he's screaming in clear pain is a pretty dark way to end him. Though granted, not the first time he suffered a grisly death if you remember "Same as it Never Was" where he got drilled in the face by Donatello.
• One-Scene Wonder: Tokka and Rahzar. Also, The Multiverse slideshow.
• Questionable Casting: While most people know that the original 1987 actors couldn't reprise their roles for legal reasons, some thought the new actors neither sounded close enough nor acted in spirit to the characters with the exception of Sebastian Arcelus as 1987 Raphael. The most jarring casting choice being Dan Green as 1987 Leonardo, not sounding much different than his other roles.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: 4Kids couldn't get the rights to the music from the '87 series, so they came up with replacements.
  • The '87 Turtles get a new leitmotif that sounds vaguely similar to their theme song.
  • The music that briefly plays while '87 Shredder scans for Ch'rell sounds a LOT like the Technodrome music from the '87 series.
• Tear Jerker:
  • 2003 Raphael and Leonardo's conversation with the 1987 Splinter. Especially in the Uncut version, because that scene references a (deleted from the original) scene where the 2003 Splinter voiced similar sentiments. It seems that no matter where in the Multiverse you go, Splinter is always a rock of stability and calm for the turtles.
  • Seeing the supporting cast of the 2003 series being erased, along with their world. Hun is in particular completely terrified once he realizes he's going to be erased after giving the Turtles what they needed to find Turtle Prime, and simply gives it to them and begs for them to stop the Shredder.
  • The movie is a Tear Jerker not because the movie is sad, but probably because it's the very last Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles adventure we'll see before the Nickelodeon era, it's not the fact because of Nickelodeon, it's because this is probably the last time we'll ever see the 1987, 2003, and original comic books have an adventure.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
  • Most didn't have too much problem with the movie, but the treatment of the '87 cast did hamper some enjoyment. A criticism of most is that they don't mind if they want to pay homage to the sillier aspects of their show, but the overcrank just to differentiate the two turtles doesn't really do the crossover justice when one side can't compliment the other and especially when you make the other side too foolish or weak to be helpful (which in turn is just a big no-no for crossovers in general). As such many have cited this makes the movie feel uneven as the writers couldn't seem to balance keeping the '87 characters light-hearted nature up with their competence.
  • While '03 April and Casey get to help out a bit in the movie, many older fans were disappointed the 80s April was regulated to a quick cameo and a joke one at that. Likewise Irma and Vernon only get quick cameos as well, robbing them of any interaction with the '03 cast too.
• Unexpected Character: The Mirage Turtles themselves, due to them not being as ingrained in public knowledge as most of the film or cartoon Turtles and not being targeted to children to begin with.
• Win Back the Crowd: While the movie is divisive for fans of the 80s Turtles, some of the 2003 fans feel that Turtles Forever managed to redeem the 2k3 series after two seasons of serious Seasonal Rot in Fast Forward and Back To The Sewers since some dangling plotlines come full circle in the movie as the Utrom Shredder returns in the film and Karai's loyalty subplot towards him is resolved and the Turtles finally see Ch'rell, their Arch-Enemy since the first season, vanquished at the end.

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