Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

PG

1993

1h 35m

Kids & Family

Fantasy

Adventure

Action

Comedy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

19%

Tomatometer

32 Reviews

33%

Popcornmeter

50,000+ Ratings

Reporter April O'Neil (Paige Turco) purchases an ancient Japanese scepter that can cause those simultaneously holding it in different centuries to switch places in time. When she is transported to 16th-century Japan, her crime-fighting pals, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, pursue her. After landing in the past, the Turtles learn April has been captured by the villainous Lord Norinaga (Sab Shimono). To rescue her, they must team up with rebel leader Misu (Vivian Wu).

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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.

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Mick LaSalle

San Francisco Chronicle

This installation fails to capitalize on the charm of these characters, the plot is unintelligible and there are no jokes.

Rated: 1/4

Jan 11, 2023

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John Hartl

Seattle Times

Less amateurish than the 1990 original, less embarrassing than the 1991 sequel (with its mind-boggling Vanilla Ice ninja-rap number), this may be the easiest installment in the series for parents to sit through.

Rated: 2/4

Aug 6, 2014

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Steven Rea

Philadelphia Inquirer

The oversized terrapins are characteristically flip as they backflip through an unnecessarily muddled plot.

Rated: 2/4

Aug 6, 2014

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Rene Rodriguez

Miami Herald

The movie takes an excessively long time to cover short narrative ground, and the plot is muddled enough to confuse the target audience.

Rated: 2/4

Aug 17, 2021

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Barbara Shulgasser

Common Sense Media

Ninja turtles travel to ancient Japan; some mild peril.

Rated: 2/5

Apr 16, 2019

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Malcolm Johnson

Hartford Courant

A little surprisingly, director-writer Stuart Gillard rises to the occasion with an often elegant film.

Jun 4, 2018

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Mourning K

This movie is ahead of its time and didn't work in the 90's because of that. If this movie came out today I think people would love it. However it's extremely goofy and has bad effects, but it's a good time.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

07/03/25

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Alexander T

This series of movies is great, but this is the worst one. The other ones I gave 4.5-5 stars, but this one is not as good. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a good movie but not as good as the others. The plot is really weird, and I like the New York City setting better. If there were a few more fighting scenes I think it’d be better.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

05/25/25

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Liam D

The bottom of the barrel of the TMNT franchise that has; an terrible script, cringy jokes, wooden acting and awful effects

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

05/17/25

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Cameron L

The second sequel to the highly successful turtles franchise is a step backwards from its screenplay and puppetry as well, but would it comes to guilty pleasures, this is the Saturday morning cartoon on crack and cocaine that I think it’s funny

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

03/24/25

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Jelisije J

Such an underrated turtles movie that gets too much hate due to the costumes ( i dont like them either), but the story is engaging and for once the turtles are out of america and into feudal japan.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/21/25

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Anderson O

Silly and lousy Dialog. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles had lost its luster at the peak of its success at this point. I thought I really enjoyed it, when it was over. The Japanese scepter was a unique artifact to expand lore on the Ninja Turtles going to a Samurai status, but wasn’t enough to keep fans laughing and entertained at this point, it was really stupid when plot was overall excuted.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/06/25

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Stuart Gillard

Director

Elias Koteas

Casey Jones

Paige Turco

April O'Neil

Stuart Wilson

Walker

Vivian Wu

Mitsu

Sab Shimono

Lord Norinaga

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Synopsis

Reporter April O'Neil (Paige Turco) purchases an ancient Japanese scepter that can cause those simultaneously holding it in different centuries to switch places in time. When she is transported to 16th-century Japan, her crime-fighting pals, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, pursue her. After landing in the past, the Turtles learn April has been captured by the villainous Lord Norinaga (Sab Shimono). To rescue her, they must team up with rebel leader Misu (Vivian Wu).

Director: Stuart Gillard
Producer: Thomas Gray, Kim Dawson, David Chan
Screenwriter: Stuart Gillard
Production Co: Golden Harvest Company, Image Comics, Golden Harvest Pictures (China)
Rating: PG
Genre: Kids & Family, Fantasy, Adventure, Action, Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 2, 2008
Box Office (Gross USA): $42.3M
Runtime: 1h 35m
Sound Mix: Surround

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