Ninja Turtles Movies
Jarrell Campbell
The 2D animated movies have seen way more success with critics, like the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and their crossover with Batman.
In 2023, Seth Rogen creatively steered the series into its first Certified Fresh film: Mutant Mayhem, emphasizing the teenage in TMNT with a Spider-Verse-inspired art style and brash, loud energy.
#1 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) 95% #1 Adjusted Score: 109264% Critics Consensus: With its unique visual style and a story that captures the essence of the franchise's appeal, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is an animated treat for the whole family. Synopsis: After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtle brothers set out to win the hearts of New... [More] Starring: Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Hannibal Buress, Rose Byrne Directed By: Jeff Rowe
#2 Batman Vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2019) 100% #2 Adjusted Score: 77919% Critics Consensus: No consensus yet. Synopsis: Batman and his allies team up with the turtles to battle Shredder, Ra's Al Ghul, and The League of Assassins.... [More] Starring: Darren Criss, Tara Strong, Rachel Bloom, Tom Kenny Directed By: Jake Castorena
#3 Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (2022) 79% #3 Adjusted Score: 64726% Critics Consensus: No consensus yet. Synopsis: Continuing the tale from the hit Nickelodeon series, Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Donatello are back in action and up to... [More] Starring: Ben Schwartz, Omar Miller, Brandon Smith, Josh Brener Directed By: Ant Ward, Andy Suriano
#4 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) 42% #4 Adjusted Score: 46163% Critics Consensus: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is exactly as advertised: one-liners, brawls, and general silliness. Good for the young at heart, irritating for everyone else. Synopsis: In New York, mysterious radioactive ooze has mutated four sewer turtles into talking, upright-walking, crime-fighting ninjas. The intrepid heroes --... [More] Starring: Judith Hoag, Elias Koteas, Josh Pais, Michelan Sisti Directed By: Steve Barron
#5 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016) 38% #5 Adjusted Score: 45859% Critics Consensus: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows is a slight improvement over its predecessor, but still lacks the wit or anarchic energy of the comics that birthed the franchise. Synopsis: The turtles face a new challenge when Shredder escapes from custody and joins forces with Baxter Stockman, a mad scientist... [More] Starring: Megan Fox, Will Arnett, Laura Linney, Stephen Amell Directed By: Dave Green
#6 TMNT (2007) 36% #6 Adjusted Score: 40382% Critics Consensus: TMNT's art direction is splendid, but the plot is non-existent and the dialogue lacks the irony and goofy wit of the earlier Ninja Turtles movies. Synopsis: Splinter, the rat sensei, senses something amiss in New York City. His disciples, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo have grown... [More] Starring: Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Mako, Kevin Smith Directed By: Kevin Munroe
#7 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991) 36% #7 Adjusted Score: 39182% Critics Consensus: Not only is the movie's juvenile dialogue unbearable for adults, but the turtles' dopey and casual attitude towards physical violence makes them poor kids' role models. Synopsis: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Mark Caso, Michelan Sisti, Leif Tilden, Kenn Troum) again battle their archenemy, the rogue ninja... [More] Starring: Paige Turco, David Warner, Michelan Sisti, Leif Tilden Directed By: Michael Pressman
#8 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) 21% #8 Adjusted Score: 28475% Critics Consensus: Neither entertaining enough to recommend nor remarkably awful, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles may bear the distinction of being the dullest movie ever made about talking bipedal reptiles. Synopsis: Spawned from a lab experiment gone awry, teenage terrapins Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael live in the sewers beneath New... [More] Starring: Megan Fox, Will Arnett, William Fichtner, Danny Woodburn Directed By: Jonathan Liebesman
#9 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993) 19% #9 Adjusted Score: 21466% Critics Consensus: It's a case of one sequel too many for the heroes in a half shell, with a tired time-travel plot gimmick failing to save the franchise from rapidly diminishing returns. Synopsis: Reporter April O'Neil (Paige Turco) purchases an ancient Japanese scepter that can cause those simultaneously holding it in different centuries... [More] Starring: Elias Koteas, Paige Turco, Stuart Wilson, Vivian Wu Directed By: Stuart Gillard
As a big fan of the animated series during my childhood, this really irked me about the movies. Now I'm grown up and my kids are watching the new 2012 animated series, of which I've seen a few, and we recently watched the new movie together.
In the animated series, Splinter's back story is that he was a human who was enemies with the Shredder. One day he was walking back from a pet shop with 4 turtles, when an accident with the mutagen caused him to be mutated into a rat-human hybrid due to interaction with a nearby rat, while the turtles were mutated into turtle-human hybrids because of their interaction with him. This is quite consistent with the new animated series.
Is there any official explanation for this? The movies seem a little more ludicrous to me because it's far less likely that a rat would master a martial art to the same/similar level as the Shredder, who has been a ninja his whole life, in just 18 years. And from reading books on it, no less (the first movie implies that he learned the martial art as a rat before being mutated, which is even more ludicrous).
Movies often change facts/events due to "artistic license", in that a director/screenplay writer has the authority to tell whatever story they want once they've licensed the characters name/likeness/storyline. An obvious example is the multiple stories of Batman every time it's rebooted, and the major differences between The Joker in all said reboots. Batman's own backstory was slightly changed in that the Burton version indicates that The Joker killed his parents, while the Nolan version indicates that the Mafia had something to do with it.
This character of an overprotective father who wants to keep his children in an insular world is certainly universal, or at least familiar for many immigrant cultures. And a lot of stories with mutant heroes make for excellent parables about prosecuted minorities. Yet both my brother and I agreed that what he really felt like was an old Jewish dad, kvetchy and fearful, paranoid about the dangers of the outside world (we all know there is some truth to the hypochondriac Jewish dad caricature) but also overtly loving, affectionate and dedicated (and full of dad jokes).
When the turtles get in trouble, Splinter discovers the turtles have been sneaking behind his back, and his response is obvious disappointment. While he agrees to help them out (he is, after all, a good caring father) he vows never to let them return to the human world again after the ordeal is through.
The movie outing was meant to be fun, a bonding experience for my son and his uncle, and in a sense, it was. Yet, just like Splinter in the movie, the experience of watching it was also a bit of a parenting fail, and a lesson, for me.
From the moment the movie opened with an armed raid, I realized I might have made a mistake. Like many a 5-year-old, my son does not like scary movies and TV shows, and his definition of scary is a lot more broad than most, including anything remotely violent or rage-filled.
When I found out that the movie was rated PG-13, I became concerned that the film would try and lure in older viewers (like me) with added unnecessary violence and bad language. After seeing the movie, I can report that my fears were only partially relieved. There were a couple of bad words (d**n and a**) and the violence, well, some of it was intense. It is a ninja movie, so there is a lot of fighting. And in this Ninja movies, the Footclan bring their guns to a knife fight.
Four teenage mutant ninja turtles (TMNT), Donatello, Michaelangelo, Raphael and Leonardo (voiced by Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr, Brady Noon and Nicolas Cantu, respectively), all skilled in martial arts, live in the sewers and are raised by their adoptive and single father, Splinter (voiced by Jackie Chan). Despite being a rat, it does not change the fact that Splinter loves his turtle sons very much. He became protective of them after traumatic events involving humans in their shared past. As the brothers start to reach adolescence, they long to explore New York City, which Splinter forbids them from doing.
However, I did not personally watch the show growing up. This was made very clear when in fourth grade, I wanted to buy a TMNT shirt from Forever 21 (for the aesthetic, of course), but my brother told me I needed to correctly name one of the turtles in order to get his blessing for the purchase. After many minutes of brain rattling, I successfully named Michaelangelo, but a true fan would be able to name more than one character from the show. Alas, I did not buy the shirt.
I digress. The film was lovely: the plot had a clear beginning and end, the character development was crystal clear and the watching experience was highly entertaining. This film is certainly feel-good, where you grow to love nearly all of the characters (the best kind of film, in my opinion).
I loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles when I was a kid. When I was six years old, I watched the animated TV series every day, and had to own every action figure and play set, including the Technodrome. I had a favorite turtle (Raph), but I liked them all because they had distinct personalities, a sense of humor, a well-defined world, and in retrospect, the gleeful insanity we've come to expect from kids' TV shows of the era. Shredder's boss, Krang, was an alien from another dimension who looked like talking brain inside of a robot's tummy. Kids went with it.
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