Turtles Forever - The Cowabunga Cut


Updated: 4th June 2024

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Turtles Forever - The Cowabunga Cut

Faneditor: Risinger Productions  
Fanedit Type: FanFix
Fanedit Release Date: 1st June 2024
Fanedit Runtime: 1h:19m:23s
Time Cut: 0h:1m:29s
Time Added: 0h:0m:5s
Franchise: TMNT
Genre: ActionAnimationFamilyMartial ArtsSci-FiSuperheroes
Original Title: Turtles Forever (2009)   
Original Release Date: 21st November 2009
Original Runtime: 1h:20m:52s
Original Links:

Certificate: PG
Source: Digital
Resolution: 1080p
Sound Mix: Stereo
Language: English
Subtitles: No
 

Synopsis:

The 2003-era Ninja Turtles must team up with their classic cartoon counterparts to stop the maniacal Shredder and his quest for multiversal dominion.


Intentions:

In honor of TMNT’s 40th anniversary, this is my re-cut of 2009’s Turtles Forever. I just wanted to open by saying I’m very proud of this edit, and I genuinely think it's my very best. If you despise this movie, this edit probably won’t turn you around on it (although I’d be very delighted if it did). If you enjoy it but can’t stand the more major issues, this is the edit absolutely for you. The purpose of this edit is to remove some of the disrespect toward the 87 Turtles and add the iconic soundtrack of the 87 show, which originally went unused for licensing reasons. I’ve also made a handful of small tweaks for a smoother overall watching experience. First off, I grew up watching this movie, and I love it, but they bag on the 87 turtles a little too much. Yes, they were goofballs, and they probably weren’t as capable as the 03 turtles, but they were always fairly competent crime fighters who took their jobs (somewhat) seriously. I wanted to preserve that feeling, they’re goofballs, but they get the job done and don’t always need to be the butt of the joke. It’s impossible to make this a completely accurate representation of the 87 turtles, but this edit should bring them a big step closer. Secondly, the lack of 87's OST in the official cut is unmistakable. The 87-inspired music doesn’t begin to cut it and often feels like it’s trying to make the turtles sound like mildly pathetic Looney Toons. Now, music from the 87 show is used throughout, not just the main theme, but most music you’d expect from any given episode.



Change List:

Used the uncut 1080p upscale by RemasteringTMNT2003 as a base. Added a Spider-Verse-inspired twist to the 25th Anniversary logo at the opening. Now it passes through the Mirage, 87, and 03 title logos. Changed 25th anniversary logo to 40th Replaced as much 87 coded music as possible with the real Lorre and Brown’s 87 music (Most re-orchestrated by Powder Jones with some from YouTube fan isolations), plus a little Shredder’s Revenge OST. Repitched 87 Leo and Mikey’s voices to better match their proper VAs. Retimed 03 Raphael’s line “So, spill.” Removed the 87 turtles being seen on the street. Now, they’re only seen once they enter the pizza shop. Contrary to popular memory, the 87 turtles were public figures after season 3, and would frequently walk undisguised, so it works any way you slice it. Added 87 Mikey leaving cash on the table after they eat pizza. They run from the cops, but they aren’t thieves. Cropped all scenes in the 87 universe to 4:3 aspect ratio. Replaced 87 Shredder’s communicator sfx with the proper 87 sfx. Cut 87 Mikey not being able to open the manhole. Replaced the “wet willy” gag with “return of the noogie” audio from later in the movie. Cut Karai calling the 87’ Foot Soldiers “almost cartoonish.” Cut “Ninja turtles!” from Chrell Shredder’s line “Turtles Karai! Ninja turtles!” (It’s just a bit too melodramatic for my taste). Cut down on the 87 turtles being obnoxious about getting pizza. Now they silently raise their hands, 03 Leo gets annoyed, 03 Raph says, “They ain’t got no brains,” and 87 Raph gets mad. Added audio of a Channel 6 broadcast on the TV 03 Mikey’s watching Cut the noogie gag in the lair. It’s not funny, just gratuitous. Cut the “SPF 1000 sunblock” gag from 87 Don. Cut some of 03 Raph and Leo ragging on the Party Wagon. Cut 03 Mikey calling the Turtle-Blimp “the lamest vehicle in the history of lame vehicles.” Cut “return of the noogie” after the Turtle-Blimp crashes. Added some 2003 and video game audio to move the scene along. Changed Ch'rell Shredder’s strikes from yellow to red to better match his color coding. Cut a shot of the 87 turtles looking scared after hearing how dangerous 03 Shredder is. Removed the 87 turtles yelling “Turtle power!” and the 03 Turtles getting irritated. Cut the 03 turtles pushing the 87 turtles into the Technodrome. Fixed an animation error giving 03 Leo a blue wristband (it should be brown) Trimmed the 87 turtles laughing about their decaf Shredder joke. Sped up the mutant fly jumpscare for better effect. Cut 87 Raph’s reaction shot at the Hun reveal and joined the two Hun shots. Cut 87 Raph and Mikey saying, “I wanna go home.” Cut 87 Don’s line, “And he’s a grade-a meanie.” Removed the animation error of a green circle briefly appearing on Raphael Prime’s mouth. Cut Leonardo Prime saying, “It’s been doing that all night” about the Technodrome. Why would the other turtles have to explain what's going on when the primes have known about it the whole time? Cut “Then” from Leonardo Prime’s line “Then let's go do something about it” to flow better in relation to the previous cut. Cut Shredder calling himself “Duke Acureds.” It’s a completely unimportant alias, only mentioned two or three times in TMNT history. Its presence is mildly confusing and distracts from an otherwise great moment. Removed Shredder saying “Come” twice for dramatic effect; it just sounds dumb. Now, he only says it once. Deepened Krang’s voice when he goes giant like in the 87 series. Cut the 87 turtles running crying to 03 Raph (Scene slightly restructured to eliminate any odd cuts). Trimmed the 87 turtles making fun of Casey and April Removed “Not” after 03 Raph says, “I’m gonna miss those pudge-balls.” Corrected the credits listing the 1987 characters as “1988.” (Come on, guys, how hard is it to get the year right?) Replaced the second song during the closing credits with the 87 theme Replaced the 25th anniversary logo at the end with a 40th anniversary one. Added a Risinger Productions title card. There are a thousand unmentioned tiny trims and tons of masking for re-timing scenes. Plus, lots of subtle music and sfx removals.


Additional Notes:

It’s important that I note that when beginning this edit, I encountered a problem: they never released the 87 OST! Thankfully, Powder Jones (Also known as “Powder AKA Casey Jones”) on Bandcamp has an expertly re-orchestrated version of nearly everything I needed! His stuff is seriously amazing, absolutely top-tier. Please check him out, I couldn’t have made this edit without his work. Also, I was fortunate to get a well-isolated version of the TMNT battle theme from Silent.Revolution21 on YouTube, just before their video was taken down, as well as some other yt isolations from Grim2. A big thanks to David Hedgehog on YouTube for suggesting vocal re-pitching on the 87 turtles' voices. Of course, I also must thank RemasteringTMNT2003 for providing me with the base of this edit, an uncut 1080p HD upscale of the original film!


Other Sources:

Audio Only: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) Reorchestrated Soundtrack [By Powder Jones] Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge - Official Full Soundtrack Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987) S5E13 The Ice Creature Cometh Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus Royalty Free SFX


Special Thanks:

Special thanks to RemasteringTMNT2003, Powder Jones, Silent.Revolution21, Grim2, David Hedgehog, T-202, and AwesomesocksNM.


Reddit Post



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