Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993)

Director:

Stuart Gillard

Writers (WGA):

Kevin Eastman (characters) &
Peter Laird (characters) ...

Release Date:

17 March 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Comedy | Family | Fantasy | Sci-Fi

Tagline:

The Turtles Are Back....In Time

Plot:

The turtles find themselves transported back in time to ancient Japan.

Plot Keywords:

Turtle | Japan | Magic | Samurai | Sewer

Cast

Elias Koteas	...	Casey Jones / Whit
Paige Turco	...	April O'Neil
Stuart Wilson	...	Walker
Sab Shimono	...	Lord Norinaga
Vivian Wu	...	Mitsu
Mark Caso	...	Leonardo
Matt Hill	...	Raphael
Jim Raposa	...	Donatello
David Fraser	...	Michaelangelo
Henry Hayashi	...	Kenshin
John Aylward	...	Niles
Mak Takano	...	Benkei (Honor Guard #1)
Steve Akahoshi	...	Honor Guard #2 (as Steven Getson Akahoshi)
Kent Kim	...	Honor Guard #3
Ken Kensei	...	Honor Guard #4

Also Known As:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Turtles in Time (USA) (working title) (USA) (DVD box title)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: The Sacred Scroll of Death (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

96 min

Country:

USA | Hong Kong

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby SR

Certification:

Iceland:12 (video rating) | Iceland:L (original rating) | Singapore:PG | UK:PG (original rating) (cut) | UK:PG (video rating) | Finland:K-12/9 | Germany:6 | Norway:11 (video premiere) | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | USA:PG | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Astoria, Oregon, USA

Company:

Clearwater Holdings

Trivia:

The only live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie to not include the Shredder character.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Walker falls into the sea, he disappears before he hits the water.

Quotes:

Lord Norinaga: Secrets leak like a stink from a dead pig!
Walker: You certainly can turn a phrase.

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Blue Hawaii (1961)

Soundtrack:

Can't Stop Rockin'

Tame and sickening kiddie fare

Oh dear, if you're diabetic then I would seriously advise against watching this film. It' so sugary it'll rot the brain right out of your head.

Why on earth Eastman and Laird allowed this to be made is beyond me. It's soooooooo far removed from their black and white comic book. Okay, I know the cartoon series was too but the first movie did have a hard edge to it. I mean, take a look at the cover-the Turtles are smiling and happy. Then look a cover of one of the original comic books. They're almost always gritting their teeth and frowning. THAT'S how it should be. Not like this.

Even the animatronics look fake. The first 2 had a rather believable Splinter but now he's juddering and stiff and obviously operated by a couple of technicians loitering a few feet off camera. His voice is also totally different and he seems a touch more upbeat and lively. HARDLY the way Splinter is supposed to be.

The plot itself defies logic and there are massive holes all over the place. With such a dramatic change in locale from New York to Fuedal Japan you'd think the movie would take advantage of that and go nuts with imagination.

But sadly not. It just...goes nowhere. I mean, what is the deal with the character of Whit. Why does he look like the great, great, great grandfather of Casey Jones.

In fact, the return of Casey is the only reason I am not giving this a 1-star rating. It's a pretty wretched movie but Elias Koteas can make it a tiny bit less unbearable.

Hopefully the new cartoon show and the possibility of another (harder) movie will cancel this one out. It's nothing but dated, mindless fodder for under-fives. At the risk of repeating myself; this is NOT how the Turtles should be.

Extras are almost non-existent but the animated menus are cool. The 1.85:1 anamorphic picture is in pretty good shape but the Dolby 5.1 track isn't up to much I'm afraid. The film was originally recorded in Dolby SR so this is obviously a remastering job. It's just adequate is all I'm saying.