How would you have done TMNT III?
 

It goes without saying that TMNT III is the worst of the original Turtles film trilogy as well as the worst Turtles film ever, and for good reason. The writing is inane, the puppetry is laughable, none of the villains from the OT or even the original comic make an appearance, and the tone became so dumbed down and so childish to the point where it got downright embarrassing. However, let's say that in an alternate reality, that wasn't the case. If you were the ones put in charge, just how differently would you have done things in order to make a worthy follow-up to the original film and SOTO? Be sure to leave your thoughts and ideas below.

I'd have kept the story mostly the same, but used Renet instead of April, and have Norinaga be teamed with Savante Romero. Used an actual time scepter-like plot the way it should have been done. Oh, and brought back the Jim Henson puppets.

Definitely agree on the last one. I'm honestly not sure what was going through New Line's head, but there was literally NO reason for them to replace what the Creature Shop had already perfected.

The use of the samurai armor to cover the bodies was smart, you'd think the money saved on the body portion could have gone into the head portion but apparently not.

I liked the concept in the manga version where April had be loading the turtle's lair up with "presents" from the thrift store that were mostly junk, and when they time traveled some of those things came with them, and they used them in the past to make stuff. This is a solid concept, I think. The movie has the part where she pretends to be a witch but that's about it. So yeah, expand on that by having them build something in the past to gain the advantage.

The whole ancestors? maybe? stuff should probably have been made clear in some way, perhaps not until they got back home at the end but having it be very vague and unconfirmed is kind of lame. Have them save Yoshi from a certain death, figure out they were always going to have been there to save him to lead on to Hamato Yoshi existing, etc.

They could probably have done some kind of sword vs sword showdown with Leonardo and Norinaga and a similar modern (past) tech vs modern (present) tech one for Donatello and Walker. Something approaching deep about the march of progress and tried and true methods co-existing.

Sorry Sam, but that's wrong.

http://nerdbastards.com/wp-content/u.../04/TMNT-2.jpg

*Use the Jim Henson suits/animatronics.
*Use the voice cast from the second film for the Turtles.
*Pick which tone that you're going with...the third film wanted to be serious, but it wanted to be goofy/jokey as well. Personally, I'd go with the more serious route.
*Push it at least to PG-13 levels (or, if you know this is going to be the last one? Go for broke and go nuts on it with an R-rating).
*Perhaps, alone with the rating going up...also have the storyline deal with the characters having to grow up a little bit from kids (in the first two) to grown ups aka entering Adult Hood.
*I would treat it in the vein of action films of the time (mid 1990s) ala Speed, Broken Arrow, True Lies, etc. They had bits of humor throughout but also action sequences that were supplied with the help of a good/big budget. Explosions, pacing, etc. of those kind of action movies.
*Perhaps go with a story inspired by City of War (the final Death of the Shredder in SOTO causes all of the gangs to go haywire on New York, and it's up to the Turtles to clean it up.
*Maybe even go in the vein of The Warriors from back in the day, or what they're doing now with The Purge Anarchy & The Purge Election Year, and the Turtles have to navigate throughout the city while also trying to stay in the shadows.
*Create some actual/specific Brotherly Friendships between the Turtles. For example, actually show Mikey pulling a prank on Raph and then Raph wanting to get back at him. Raph helping Donnie fix something. Stuff that shows specific dynamics between Raph & Mikey, Don & Leo, Raph & Donnie, etc. to build the characters.

I'd make the turtles lumpy and they'd dance to polka

I'd do like the first TMNT but with CGI and more pizzas.

And no, I think the worst TMNT is Secret of the Ooze. At least TMNT3 had real fighting with weapons.

Straight up adaptation of "Masks" Issues 1 and 2. Might have to work in some Renet/Savanti backstory from TMNT Vol 1 #8 and Tales of the TMNT #7...

TMNT III isn't a bad movie at all.

Incorrect.

Yeah, I'd have just done a more faithful adaptation of the Mirage story.

Secret of the Ooze, costume quality aside, is hand over fist sh*tier than TMNT 2. TMNT 2 was completely vapid and devoid of any of the heart or grit of the first movie, they don't even use their weapons, and Shredder doesn't shred. TMNT 3 wasn't like a tour de force or a return to form with the first film, but it did bring back a lot of the heart (and weapon usage) that was absent from 2.

Still terrible, of course. But way better garbage than 2.

But TMNT3 had terrible terrible antagonists. Just a couple of guys. Lord Noringa and Whittaker or whatever.

Good or bad, at least SotO had Shredder, Tatsu, Tokka, and Rahzar.

Actually, to take the conversation on a tangent...

What was the inspiration for TMNT II: Secret of the Ooze?

The first TMNT was obviously off the original Mirage run, with Issues #1, #10, #11, and the Leonardo and Raphael micro-issues.

TMNT III was a weak watered-down version of "Masks" (#47 and 47).

But TMNT II... no resemblance at all to the TCRI storyline from the comics, and Tokka and Rahzar are clearly "we won't let you use Bebop and Rocksteady but go ahead and use some new stupid hench mutants" mutants.

But there's zero actual story that can tie back to anything. Maybe if they'd actually had Professor Perry reveal himself as a Utrom...

I'd introduce Krang and the Utroms in 3, and go full blown Turtles In Time with Renet, Savanti, in 4.

That would have been mind blowingly amazing.

Don't shittalk polka. Jerk.

It was talked about, but Kevin and Pete agreed that all of the kids would think "Hey it's Krang!" ... "waitaminute, why is Krang a good guy?"

So it makes sense they dropped that angle.

Ugh, the OT is why we can't have nice things.