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:

Continuity: When Raphael is having his heart to heart with Yoshi, one of his wristbands is missing. When he joins Yoshi in flying the kite, his wristband has reappeared.

Quotes:

[landing face first in a shallow pond]
Donatello: Mud wrestling is definitely a spectator sport.

Movie Connections:

References Wayne's World (1992)

Soundtrack:

Tarzan boy (1993 remix)

It's Too Different From The First Two

This movie has so much potential to make-up for the flaws of the second film but failed on a massive scale. Directed this time by Stuart Gillard.

Almost everyone who played the turtles in the previous films has changed except for Mark Caso from the second who returns as Leonardo and the ever loyal Brian Tochi as the voice of Leonardo, Corey Feldman returns as the voice of Donatello. Elias Koteas returns as Casey Jones and plays an addition character called Whit, his acting is good but the new character is not very effective and could of been deleted from the movie and no one would care. To be quite honest the 15 total minutes that Casey Jones is in is more entertaining then the 45 to an hour that Whit is in.

Jim Henson's company was not chosen for the costuming of this movie like it was for the first two and that is made quite obvious because of the massive changes to the costumes. This time they are more ugly, the mouths and the eyes operate better but the costumes are horrible looking compared to the first two movies.

The story is about the turtles going back in time in Japan because April is sent to this period of time by an artifact that she bought. The Turtles use the artifact to send themselves back to look for her. But Lord Norinaga of Japan looks at them as Demons and wants them dead with the help of Walker played very well by Stuart Wilson and is probably the most entertaining new character in the movie.

This movie in the end is good but little changes end up being massive changes in the end. The costumes and the appearances of the turtles went under controversy from fans much to New Line Cinemas surprise. The scripts seems uneven and almost patched together in some places.

Overall, what seemed like a great story is marred by some mediocre directing and uneven script. This was a bad way for the Turtles to go out.