''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is a 2014 American

superhero film A superhero film (or superhero movie) is a film that focuses on the actions of superheroes. Superheroes are individuals who possess superhuman abilities and are dedicated to protecting the public. These films typically feature action, advent ...

directed by Jonathan Liebesman, written by

Josh Appelbaum Josh Appelbaum is an American television writer, screenwriter, showrunner and producer. Biography Appelbaum is from a Jewish family.André Nemec, and Evan Daugherty. It is a

reboot In computing, rebooting is the process by which a running computer system is restarted, either intentionally or unintentionally. Reboots can be either a cold reboot (alternatively known as a hard reboot) in which the power to the system is physi ...

of the ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' film series, which is based on the comic book characters created by

Kevin Eastman Kevin Brooks Eastman (born May 30, 1962) is an American comic book artist and writer best known for co-creating the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with Peter Laird. Eastman was also formerly the editor and publisher of the magazine '' Heavy Meta ...

and

Peter Laird Peter Alan Laird (born January 27, 1954) is an American comic book writer and artist best known for co-creating the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles with writer and artist Kevin Eastman. Early life and career Laird was born on January 27, 1954, in ...

. The film stars

Megan Fox Megan Denise Fox (born May 16, 1986) is an American actress. She made her acting debut in the family film '' Holiday in the Sun'' (2001), which was followed by numerous supporting roles in film and television, such as the teen musical comedy ...

Will Arnett William Emerson Arnett (; born May 4, 1970) is a Canadian actor, comedian and producer. He is best known for his roles as Gob Bluth in the Fox/Netflix series '' Arrested Development'' (2003–2006, 2013, 2018–2019) and as the titular char ...

William Fichtner William Edward Fichtner (born November 27, 1956) is an American actor. He is known for his television roles as Sheriff Tom Underlay on ''Invasion'', Alexander Mahone on ''Prison Break'', Carl Hickman on '' Crossing Lines'', and Adam Janikowski o ...

, Danny Woodburn,

Abby Elliott Abby Elliott is an American actress and comedian who was a cast member on '' Saturday Night Live'' from 2008 to 2012 and has since starred on the Bravo comedy ''Odd Mom Out'' and the NBC sitcom ''Indebted''. She is the daughter of actor/comedia ...

Noel Fisher Noel Roeim Fisher (born March 13, 1984) is a Canadian actor. He is known for his portrayal of Mickey Milkovich on the Showtime series '' Shameless'', as well as his portrayal of Cael Malloy on the FX series '' The Riches''. He played Ellison " ...

, Jeremy Howard, Pete Ploszek, and Alan Ritchson, with the voices of

Johnny Knoxville Philip John Clapp (born March 11, 1971), best known professionally as Johnny Knoxville, is an American stunt performer, actor, writer, producer, and professional wrestler. He is best known as a co-creator and star of the MTV reality stunt show ...

and

Tony Shalhoub Anthony Marc Shalhoub ( ; born October 9, 1953), is an American actor. His accolades include five Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, six Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Tony Award, and a Grammy Award nomination. He played Adrian Monk in the USA N ...

. The film was announced shortly before Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles co-creator Peter Laird sold the rights to the characters to

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

in October 2009. It was released on August 8, 2014, by Paramount Pictures. The film received negative reviews from critics for its inconsistent tone and poor characterization, although it became a box office success and earned $493.3 million on a $125–150 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing film of the series and the highest-grossing film from

Nickelodeon Movies Nickelodeon Movies is the film production arm of American children's network Nickelodeon and the family film distribution label of Paramount Pictures launched on February 25, 1995 and based in Los Angeles, California. The division has earned n ...

. A sequel, '' Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows'', was released in June 2016.

Plot

April O'Neil April O'Neil is a fictional character from the ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' comics. She is the first human ally of the Ninja Turtles. Her main love interest in the series is Casey Jones. April made her first appearance in the Mirage comi ...

, a local reporter for Channel 6 Eyewitness News in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

, investigates a crime wave by a group of criminals called the

Foot Clan The Foot Clan is a fictional ninja clan in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics and all related media and are the main antagonist faction. It is led by the devious Shredder and his second in command Karai. The Foot Clan was originally a parod ...

. At a dock at night, she sees the Foot raiding cargo containers. After an unseen

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante (from Spanish, Italian and Portuguese “vigilante”, which means "sentinel" or "watcher") is a person who ...

attacks the thieves, April notices a symbol left behind. April's supervisor Bernadette Thompson and her coworkers are oblivious to her story. Later while covering a charity event thrown by Sacks Industries, April expresses gratitude to the company's CEO Eric Sacks, who was her late father's lab partner. Frustrated by the vigilante, the Foot Clan's leader Shredder has the Foot Soldiers take hostages at subway station in order to draw him out. April, at the scene, becomes a hostage herself. Four mysterious figures arrive, take out the Clan, and free the hostages. April follows them to a rooftop and is shocked to see that the vigilantes are anthropomorphic mutant

turtles Turtles are an order of reptiles known as Testudines, characterized by a special shell developed mainly from their ribs. Modern turtles are divided into two major groups, the Pleurodira (side necked turtles) and Cryptodira (hidden necked tur ...

, causing her to pass out. When she regains consciousness, they advise her not to tell anyone of them. As they leave, April hears

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...

and Leonardo's names. April returns to her apartment and remembers "Project Renaissance", her father's science experiment, which involved four turtles named Leonardo,

Donatello Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi ( – 13 December 1466), better known as Donatello ( ), was a Florentine sculptor of the Renaissance period. Born in Florence, he studied classical sculpture and used this to develop a complete Renaissance s ...

, Michelangelo,

, and a mutated rat called Splinter. Unable to convince Bernadette of the Turtles' existence, April is dismissed. Her coworker Vern Fenwick drives her to Sacks' estate where she confides in him about her discovery. Sacks believes her and reveals that he and April's father had been experimenting on a mutagen created to cure disease, which was thought lost in the fire that killed her dad. At Splinter's behest, the Turtles bring April to their sewer lair. Splinter explains April had saved them all from the fire and free them into the sewer. The mutagen caused the five of them to grow and develop humanoid attributes. Splinter took on the role of their father, using April's father as an example. After finding a book on Ninjutsu in a storm drain, he proceeded to teach himself, then the Turtles, the fighting style. When April reveals she told Sacks about her discovery of the Turtles, Splinter informs her that Sacks was practically raised by the Shredder and works with him. Then, Shredder and the Foot Soldiers attack the lair, defeating Splinter and incapacitating Raphael while the other Turtles are captured. April comes out of hiding and she and Raphael plan to save the others. At Sacks' estate, he has the Turtles' blood drained in order to create an antidote to a deadly virus that Sacks hopes to flood New York with, believing he will become rich from people seeking his cure. Raphael, April, and Vern storm the estate and free the other Turtles. The group then escapes the compound in pursuit of Sacks. On a radio tower in the city, Sacks and Shredder plant a device that will flood the city with the virus while Sacks is preparing to convert the mutagen into a healing serum. Sacks reveals to April that he killed her father. April and Vern subdue Sacks in the lab, while the Turtles are battling Shredder on the roof. During the fight, the tower's support beams collapse. As the turtles try to keep it from falling and infecting the city, April confronts Shredder with the mutagen. In the struggle, the tower collapses and the Turtles pull April onto it with them, while Shredder falls to the street and is captured by the police. Believing they are about to die, the Turtles confess their secrets, while Raphael gives an impassioned speech about his love for his brothers before they land harmlessly on the street. They vanish before the humans find them and return to the sewers, where they give Splinter the mutagen and he begins to recover. Sometime later, April meets with Vern, who tries and fails to ask her on a date. The Turtles appear in a special modified "Turtle Van", and Michelangelo accidentally blows up Vern's new car with a rocket. As the police respond to the explosion, the Turtles leave, but not before Mikey tries to serenade April with " Happy Together" by the band

The Turtles ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, much to his brothers' annoyance and April's amusement.

Cast

Voice actors and Motion-capture

* Pete Ploszek (motion-capture) and

(voice) as Leonardo, the leader of the Ninja Turtles. * Jeremy Howard as

, the scientist of the Ninja Turtles. * Alan Ritchson as

, the aggressive member of the Ninja Turtles. *

as Michelangelo, the childish member of the Ninja Turtles. * Danny Woodburn (motion-capture) and

(voice) as Splinter, a mutant rat who is the adoptive father and sensei of the Ninja Turtles.

Live-action

, a reporter for Channel 6 News. *

as Vern Fenwick, April's co-worker. *

as Eric Sacks, the CEO of Sacks Industries with ties to the Foot Clan. * Tohoru Masamune as

The Shredder ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

, the leader of the Foot Clan. *

Whoopi Goldberg Caryn Elaine Johnson (born November 13, 1955), known professionally as Whoopi Goldberg (), is an American actor, comedian, author, and television personality.Kuchwara, Michael (AP Drama Writer)"Whoopi Goldberg: A One-Woman Character Parade". ' ...

as Bernadette Thompson *

Minae Noji Minae Noji is an American actress. She is known for her roles as Karai in the 2014 ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' film and Dr. Kelly Lee on ''General Hospital''. Life and career Noji's father is an engineer and her mother is an accountant. ...

as Karai, a member of the Foot Clan. *

as Taylor, April's roommate. *

Taran Killam Taran Hourie Killam (born April 1, 1982) is an American actor, comedian, and writer. He is known for his television work on ''The Amanda Show'', ''How I Met Your Mother'', ''MADtv'', ''New Girl'', ''Saturday Night Live'', and ''Single Parents''. ...

as Jim McNaughton * K. Todd Freeman as Dr. Baxter Stockman, a scientist that works at Sacks Industries who is briefly seen in flashbacks. * Paul Fitzgerald as Dr. O'Neil, the late father of April O'Neil *

Chance Kelly Chance Kelly is an American film and television actor who portrayed NFL Coach Mike Martz in the film American Underdog (2021). He also played Detective Ed Cutler on the NBC series ''Aquarius''. He is also known for starring as Lt. Col. "Godfathe ...

as Mr. Rivetti *

Derek Mears Derek Mears (born April 29, 1972) is an American actor and stuntman. Often appearing in horror and science-fiction titles, he came to prominence for portraying Jason Voorhees in the 2009 reboot of ''Friday the 13th''. His film roles also include ...

as Dojo Ninja *

as Himself (credited as "Doctor")

Production

Development

In October 2009, following the news of

purchasing all of

Mirage Studios Mirage Studios was an American comic book company founded in 1983 by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird in Dover, New Hampshire. The company was best known for the ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' (''TMNT'') comic book series and the subsequent franc ...

' rights to the ''

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is an American media franchise created by the comic book artists Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird. It follows Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael, four anthropomorphic turtle brothers (named after It ...

'' property, Nickelodeon was also involved to produce a new film through corporate sibling Paramount Pictures with an expected release date sometime in 2012. In late May 2010, Paramount and Nickelodeon had brought Michael Bay and his Platinum Dunes partners Andrew Form and Brad Fuller on to produce the next film that would

the film series. For the script, the studio originally hired

Art Marcum and Matt Holloway Art Marcum and Matt Holloway are an American screenwriting duo, best known for writing the scripts of ''Iron Man'' and '' Punisher: War Zone''. Career In 2008, Marcum and Holloway wrote the script of Marvel Studios' superhero film ''Iron Man'' ...

to write the film. A year later, the studio turned to writers

Josh Appelbaum Josh Appelbaum is an American television writer, screenwriter, showrunner and producer. Biography Appelbaum is from a Jewish family.André Nemec to rewrite the script. In February 2012, Jonathan Liebesman began negotiations to direct the film, beating out

Brett Ratner Brett Ratner (born March 28, 1969) is an American film director and producer. He directed the ''Rush Hour'' film series, '' The Family Man'', '' Red Dragon'', '' X-Men: The Last Stand'', and ''Tower Heist''. He is also a producer of several film ...

. Later in March, Paramount pushed back the film's release date to Christmas Day 2013. In early March 2012, Bay revealed at Nickelodeon's 2012 upfront presentation that the film will be simply titled ''Ninja Turtles'' and that the turtles would be "from an alien race". News of Bay's creative change was met with criticism from within the fan community. In response to the announcement, actor Robbie Rist, who voiced Michelangelo in the first three films, wrote to Bay accusing him of "sodomizing" the franchise. Rist later remarked that he could have been out of line since Bay makes more money than he does. In response to the feedback, Bay issued a statement asking fans to calm down since a script had not been revealed, his team was working closely with the creators, and would include all the elements that made them fans to begin with. Both

Brian Tochi Brian Tochi (born Brian Keith Tochihara; May 2, 1959) is an American actor. During the late 1960s through much of the 1970s, he was one of the most widely seen East Asian child actors working in U.S. television, appearing in various TV series a ...

, who voiced Leonardo in the first three films, and Judith Hoag, who played

in the 1990 film, have voiced their support towards the creative change. ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' co-creator

expressed his thoughts on the change asking fans to take Bay's advice and wait until more of Bay's plan is made available. Laird also stated that he felt the "ill-conceived plan" could be a "genius notion", as it would allow fans to have the multitude of bipedal anthropomorphic turtles that they have been asking for. He would point out that while the concept of a turtle-planet backstory made for a great run-of-the-mill science fiction story, it had no real place in the ''Ninja Turtles'' universe. ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' co-creator

stated that he had been invited behind the scenes of the film, and concluded that he was officially on board with the project and that, although he could not say much, he believed it to be "awesome". Via

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, Corey Feldman, who voiced

in the first and third films, voiced his support for the film saying that he loves Bay's remakes and he is eager to reprise his role. In response to the backlash, Liebesman stated that he was glad to hear about the fans' response, since he and Eastman had been locked in a room working on ideas that, from his own perspective as a fan, everybody would love. While he didn't confirm whether or not Bay's comment did represent the film's premise, he did stress on the ooze itself and its background in the original comic, reminding that the ooze was the product of alien technology. In regards to how the Turtles would be rendered, Liebesman would not say exactly what visual direction would be taken, but he did state that he enjoyed Weta Digital's work in ''

Rise of the Planet of the Apes ''Rise of the Planet of the Apes'' is a 2011 American science fiction film directed by Rupert Wyatt from a screenplay by Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. It is a reboot of the ''Planet of the Apes'' film franchise, which is based on the 1963 nov ...

''. He also pointed out that the film wasn't to be exclusively about action but also to focus on brotherhood, friendship, and responsibility. Bay posted on his website explaining the title change and stressing that nothing had changed regarding the Turtles. He also said the reason the title was shortened was a request by Paramount to make the title "simple". He continued that the Turtles were the same as fans remember and regardless of the title change they still act like teenagers. He urged everyone to give everybody who was involved a chance, as they had the fans' interest at top priority and would not let anybody down. Eastman revealed some of the things for the film stating that April would not be 16 years old like in the 2012 cartoon series, he feels Ken Watanabe would make a great Shredder, he would like to bring Reyes back as a Foot lieutenant, and martial arts wise they are looking at ''

Fist of Legend ''Fist of Legend'' ( zh, , t=精武英雄, j=Zing1 Mou2 Jing1 Hung4) is a 1994 Hong Kong martial arts film directed and co-written by Gordon Chan, featuring action choreography by Yuen Woo-ping, and produced by Jet Li, who also stars in the l ...

'' and '' The Raid: Redemption''. Eastman called it "easily the best Turtle movie yet". Kevin Eastman stated that the movie is creating its own story but has to be true to the source material or else they will get "murdered". In August 2012, an early version of the script, dated January 30, titled "''The Blue Door''" and written by Appelbaum and Nemec, was leaked online. It featured major changes to the origins: the Turtles hail from another dimension that consists of turtle warriors, Splinter is an alien from the same dimension as well, Shredder is "Colonel Schrader", a government agent who is secretly an alien who can grow blades from his body, "The Foot Clan" is just "The Foot", an elite Black Ops unit led by Col. Schrader,

Casey Jones John Luther "Casey" Jones (March 14, 1863 – April 30, 1900) was an American railroader who was killed when his passenger train collided with a stalled freight train at Vaughan, Mississippi. Jones was a locomotive engineer for the Illinois C ...

is an 18-year-old security guard/amateur ice hockey player that finds the Turtles and is the focus of the film, April is also 18 and is having relationship troubles with Casey because she is moving to

due to an internship at

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...

, Raphael is the comic relief instead of Michelangelo, and Michelangelo falls in love with a turtle woman from his home planet. A cease and desist order was sent by Paramount Pictures to a website that was hosting the script. Peter Laird read the script and commented on his blog that "all true TMNT fans should be grateful to the new 'powers that be' that they did not allow this wretched thing to go any further". In response to ''The Blue Door'', Bay stated that the draft had been written before he and Platinum Dunes joined the project and was promptly rejected sometime before. The filming started in April 2013 in New York. The studio pushed back the film's release date until June 6, 2014, and a new writer, Evan Daugherty, was brought on board, but Paramount postponed the release date again to August 8, 2014, in order to avoid competition with family-friendly films released in June as well as one of Paramount and Michael Bay's other releases, '' Transformers: Age of Extinction''.

Casting

was cast as April O'Neil in February 2013, marking her first collaboration with Bay since her remark comparing him to

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...

. Bay had confirmed Fox was back on good terms with him as early as April 2011.

Jessica Biel Jessica Claire Timberlake ( née Biel ; born March 3, 1982) is an American actress and model. She has received various accolades, including a Young Artist Award, and nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award and two Golden Globe Awards. Bie ...

had expressed interest in playing the part. In regards to Fox's casting, Laird commented that he felt there were better choices to play April, but that he would prefer not to get too worked up over the issue. Alan Ritchson, Pete Ploszek, Jeremy Howard and

were cast as Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello and Michelangelo respectively the following month. In early April,

was cast in a role that was being kept secret until leaked photos revealed that he had been cast as April's cameraman and rival, Vern Fenwick. Soon after that, actor Danny Woodburn joined the cast as Splinter. In early May,

was cast in the film as "a lead with iconic stature in the Turtles' mythology", marking his third collaboration with Bay following ''

Armageddon According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...

'' and ''

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...

''. His character was revealed to be named "Eric Sacks". At this point in production Sacks was intended to be the film's version of the Shredder, but that idea was subsequently abandoned in favour of casting actor Tohoru Masamune as an authentically Japanese incarnation of the character. The movie underwent reshoots to change this element of the plot, with Sacks being changed to the Shredder's adopted son. Also in May, former ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock (streaming service), Peacock. ...

'' star

was cast in the film. Also,

appeared on set, portraying Bernadette Thompson, a female version of Burne Thompson. William Fichtner revealed that Bebop and Rocksteady would not be appearing in the film, who appeared later in the sequel. Abby Elliott played April O'Neil's roommate, named as Taylor. Other actors

and

joined the film to dub Ploszek and Woodburn as the voices of Leonardo and Splinter respectively.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

commenced on March 22, 2013, in Tupper Lake, New York. Shooting began in April in New York City and at Jones Beach State Park in Wantagh on Long Island, New York under the code words "four squared" (4SQ). On April 20, the film was renamed ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles''. Michael Bay retracted comments that the turtles would be aliens. Early set photos were made public showing the turtles' actors in black and grey motion capture suits, complete with life-sized turtle shells, with each actor wearing armbands and accents of their corresponding turtle's signature color. Brazilian cinematographer Lula Carvalho, who was invited to work in the film during production of the 2014 remake of ''RoboCop'', described the process as "demanding much imagination and participation of the visual effects supervisor", given that despite their presence on the set the actors would effectively be replaced by computer-generated creatures. Production for the film wrapped on August 6, 2013. Additional filming occurred in January and April 2014. According to co-star Alan Ritchson, who played one of the turtles,

, in the movie and its sequel, Alan hated working on the film and its sequel because of the production issues going on. At first, Alan Ritchson was not sure about playing Raphael because he didn't want to play a

motion-capture Motion capture (sometimes referred as mo-cap or mocap, for short) is the process of recording the movement of objects or people. It is used in military, entertainment, sports, medical applications, and for validation of computer vision and robo ...

character, but the promise of being a star-making career move by the producers, Paramount, and pleasing his son, a huge TMNT fan, convinced him to accept the part. The TMNT actors were then not given the same special treatments as their live-action co-stars

and

and often seemed to be mistreated and afterthought by most of the producers (including Michael Bay) and Paramount Pictures during and after filming of both movies, not even allowing many opportunities to do press for the picture and were not invited to the premiere as promised and instructed them to not give press interviews while claiming they (the turtles) were the ones refusing to give interviews but denying saying they wanted interviews. Ritchson personally emailed the late

Brad Grey Brad Alan Grey (December 29, 1957 – May 14, 2017) was an American television and film producer. He co-founded Brillstein-Grey Entertainment (now Brillstein Entertainment Partners), and afterwards became the chairman and CEO of Paramount Pictur ...

many times about the situation, Alan did not want to return as Raphael after having an unhappy experience making the first movie, but was bound by his contract to do so and then was promised it would not happen again on the sequel and then will be giving interviews for the film sequel and even made appearances at the film sequel's premieres, but nothing much changed during filming the sequel either.

Visual effects

The visual effects of ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' were handled by Industrial Light & Magic, who had previously worked with Michael Bay and Nickelodeon before, doing the special effects for '' The Island'', the ''

Transformers ''Transformers'' is a media franchise produced by American toy company Hasbro and Japanese toy company Tomy, Takara Tomy. It primarily follows the Autobots and the Decepticons, two alien robot factions at war that can transform into other forms ...

'' film series, ''

Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events ''Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events'' (also simply known as ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'') is a 2004 American adventure black comedy film directed by Brad Silberling from a screenplay by Robert Gordon, based on the first th ...

'', '' The Spiderwick Chronicles'', '' The Last Airbender'', and also the animation for the 2011 film '' Rango''. To make sure the digital turtles had more nuanced facial expressions, the technicians employed a new motion capture system that captured the actors' faces with two high-definition cameras, which captured roughly 1

terabyte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable uni ...

of data per day. Along with a more realistic design, the effects artists wanted the Ninja Turtles to be "charming, intimidating and individually recognizable". Thus, each had a distinctive body figure resembling their personalities and physicality. According to effects supervisor Pablo Helman, "Donatello is more like a

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

player, Raph is more like a football player and Mikey is a very short Messi and plays soccer".

Music

The film's score was composed by Brian Tyler. The soundtrack was released by Atlantic Records on August 5, 2014. Prior to that on July 21, a single titled " Shell Shocked" by

Juicy J Jordan Michael Houston III (born April 5, 1975), known professionally as Juicy J, is an American rapper and record producer. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, he is a founding member of the Southern hip hop group Three 6 Mafia, established i ...

Wiz Khalifa Cameron Jibril Thomaz (born September 8, 1987), better known by his stage name Wiz Khalifa, is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, and actor. He released his debut album, ''Show and Prove'', in 2006 and signed to Warner Bros. Records in 20 ...

, and

Ty Dolla $ign Tyrone William Griffin Jr. (born April 13, 1982), known professionally as Ty Dolla Sign (stylized as Ty Dolla $ign or Ty$), is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. He first gained major recognition in 2010 for his feature on Ameri ...

featuring Kill the Noise and Tyler (credited as Madsonik) was released, as a part of the movie's soundtrack.

Release

Marketing

teaser trailer A teaser (or more specifically teaser trailer) is a mini- trailer and a form of teaser campaign advertising that focuses on film and television programming. It is a videography pre-release move or television show advertisement. Short in length, te ...

for the film was shown at Cinema Con on March 24, 2014, before its public release on March 27. The trailer reached over 31.4 million views on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video sharing and social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by Google, and is the second mo ...

in its first week. On April 13, the first TV spot for the movie was released. A second version of the teaser trailer was released on April 30. Footage of the film was shown at CineEurope with an introduction from

. Playmates Toys produced a new product line of toys based entirely on the film, including action figures, vehicles and role-play gear. Nickelodeon Consumer Products also announced a complete merchandise lineup of movie-based products that will be available in all major retailers from July 2014 through the holiday season. Paramount released a new trailer which includes the single "Reptile's Theme Song" by Skrillex. On July 7,

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert a ...

announced a new advertising campaign for the film, which included the return of the chain’s Cheesy Bites Pizza, social media contests themed around the film, and a television advertisement featuring the new movie incarnations of the characters. Four motion posters of the turtles were released and new TV spot debuted that day as well. An extended behind-the-scenes featurette was shown after the

2014 Kids' Choice Sports The 1st Annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards#Kids' Choice Sports, Kids' Choice Sports was held on July 17, 2014, at the Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. Hall of Fame Athlete/Talk Show host Michael Strahan hosted the ceremony to celebr ...

. An extended TV spot debuted the following day. Paramount promoted the film on July 24 at 2014

San Diego Comic-Con International San Diego Comic-Con International is a comic book convention and nonprofit multi-genre entertainment event held annually in San Diego, California since 1970. The name, as given on its website, is Comic-Con International: San Diego; but it is c ...

. Five new TV spots were released that day as well. The music video for the song, "Shell Shocked" debuted on July 28. Pentatonix released a new song titled "We Are Ninjas" and a music video as part of the promotion for the film on August 4. In Australia, a poster was released which featured the four turtles jumping from an exploding skyscraper as a promotion for its September 11 release. The poster offended many people since the

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was destroyed in 2001 during the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

.Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Poster Removed From Social Media Amid Backlash for 9/11 Imagery
E! Online, Retrieved July 29, 2014 Paramount apologized and removed the poster.

Theatrical

The release date was moved around several times until it was set for August 8, 2014. The film premiered on July 29 in Mexico City. Premiere events also occurred in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

and

. On September 12, the film was released in IMAX 3D for a one-week limited engagement.

Home media

''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' was released on Digital HD on November 25, 2014, and was released on

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

(2D and 3D) on December 16, 2014. The film topped the home video sales charts in its first week and achieved the highest ratio of disc sales to theatrical tickets sales its first week in stores. It retained the top spot on the home video sales chart in its second weekend.

Reception

Box office

''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' grossed $191.2 million in North America and $302.1 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $493.3 million, against a budget of $125 million. ''

Deadline Hollywood ''Deadline Hollywood'', commonly known as ''Deadline'' and also referred to as ''Deadline.com'', is an online news site founded as the news blog ''Deadline Hollywood Daily'' by Nikki Finke in 2006. The site is updated several times a day, wit ...

'' calculated the net profit of the film to be $81.3million, when factoring together all expenses and revenues. On its opening day, the film grossed $25.6 million, including $4.6 million from Thursday night showings. In its first weekend, ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' opened in first place with $65.6 million, which exceeded Paramount and box office analysts's predictions of a $40 to $45 million opening, and achieved the fourth highest weekend debut for the month of August. The movie remained at the number one spot in its second weekend by grossing $28.5 million (down 56.5%), but slipped to number two for its third weekend (grossing $16.7 million, down 41.4%), as ''

Guardians of the Galaxy The Guardians of the Galaxy is a fictional superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. It may more specifically refer to: Comic book teams * Guardians of the Galaxy (1969 team), the original 31st-century team fr ...

'' reclaimed the top spot. The film led the foreign box office during the weekend lasting from October 31 through November 2, 2014, by grossing $34.7 million ($26.5 million coming from China).

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has an approval rating of based on reviews from critics, with an average score of . The site's critical consensus reads: "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." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 31 out of 100 based on 33 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B" on a scale of A+ to F. Kyle Smith of the ''

New York Post The ''New York Post'' (''NY Post'') is a conservative daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. The ''Post'' also operates NYPost.com, the celebrity gossip site PageSix.com, and the entertainment site Decider.com. It was established ...

'' gave the film one out of four stars, saying "the comedy-action mash-up is as weird as if the Dark Knight took a break from belting the Joker to plug Pizza Hut and bang out a hiphop beat on his nunchucks". Sandie Angulo Chen of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' gave the film two out of four stars, saying "while this reboot is fun, it's also forgettable and occasionally infuriating". Joe Neumaier of the '' New York Daily News'' gave the film zero stars, saying "even youngsters may wonder why any hint of charm or fun has scurried away. Those new to the franchise may withdraw their head into their neck, turtle-like". Rafer Guzman of '' Newsday'' gave the film two out of four stars: "Rougher and slightly funnier than the 1990 original, but still harmless junk at best". Peter Howell of the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and pa ...

'' gave the film one and half stars out of four: "Not much of an effort is made to differentiate the personalities of the turtles, who all frankly look as grotesque as a

Terry Gilliam Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including '' Time Bandits'' (1981), '' ...

cartoon". Nicolas Rapold of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' said: "Attached to this movie, the title no longer sounds zany; it looks like a series of keywords". Mark Olsen of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the U ...

'' said that "there is something half-hearted about the entire film, as if those behind it were involved not because they wanted to make it, not because they should make it, but just because they could". Kyle Anderson of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...

'' gave the film a C+, saying "too-brief thrills only shine a harsher light on the film's laborious pacing and cringeworthy one-liners spilling from the maws of the ninja teens". Nancy Churnin of ''

The Dallas Morning News ''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the '' Galvest ...

'' gave the film a B, writing: "The turtles (engagingly voiced by Alan Ritchson, Noel Fisher, Johnny Knoxville and Jeremy Howard) look terrific" and "the best part is that the film has heart". Justin Lowe of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'' gave the film a positive review, writing "Liebesman relies on his genre-film resume to keep events moving at a brisk clip and the motion-capture process employed to facilitate live-action integration with cutting-edge VFX looks superior onscreen". Justin Chang of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' said the film is "neither a particularly good movie nor the pop-cultural travesty that some were dreading". A.A. Dowd of ''

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

'' gave the film a C+: "What the new ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' lacks is not fidelity, but a spirit of genuine boyish fun -- the sense that anyone involved saw more than a very specific shade of green in the freshly digital scales of these 30-year-old characters". Soren Anderson of ''

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington ...

'' gave the film one out of four stars: "If ever there was a movie that should not have been made, this is that movie". Drew Hunt of '' Chicago Reader'' wrote that "the light, comedic tone is weighed down by unimaginative pop-culture references and half-witted one-liners". Bill Goodykoontz of ''

The Arizona Republic ''The Arizona Republic'' is an American daily newspaper published in Phoenix. Circulated throughout Arizona, it is the state's largest newspaper. Since 2000, it has been owned by the Gannett newspaper chain. Copies are sold at $2 daily or at $3 ...

'' gave the film two out of five stars, saying: "It's just kind of a mess, as unfocused and immature as the four mutant turtles at its core. Stuff happens, stuff blows up and this is probably a good time to mention that Michael Bay produced the film". Alonso Duralde of ''

The Wrap ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'' gave the film a negative review, writing "''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' is a movie that takes its characters and its premise seriously, until it doesn't, and that operates at two speeds: tortoise (ponderous) and hare (head-spinning)". Adam Graham of ''

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'' gave the film a B−: "There's enough turtle power to please kids and fans of the

original series Original programming (also called originals or original programs, and subcategorized as "original series", "original movies", "original documentaries" and "original specials") is a term used for in-house television, film or web series productions ...

". Steven Rea of ''

The Philadelphia Inquirer ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newspaper's circulation is the largest in both the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the Delaware Valley metropolitan region of Southeastern Pennsy ...

'' gave the film two out of four stars: "The kind of clichéd, misfit crimefighters-versus-demented villains scenario that Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird happily parodied when they came up with the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books way back in the 1980s". Tom Russo of ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' gave the film one and a half stars out of five, describing "the repartee, as ever, is weak. Even with all the extra layers of digital detail, it's still tough to keep these four straight". Cliff Lee of ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

'' gave the film one and a half stars out of four, writing "for having gone to the trouble of making a self-descriptive movie called ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'', its producers seem ultimately unsure about its most basic concept". James Berardinelli of '' ReelViews'' gave the film one and a half stars out of four: "''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' doesn't so much provide brainless enjoyment as it pummels the viewer into submission. "Shell-shocked" is a reasonable description of the experience". Chris Cabin of '' Slant Magazine'' gave the film one out of four stars: ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' only leaves one with the dim afterglow of forced normalcy, of a film so overworked to ensure mass-market appeal that it loses the charming oddness and loose goofiness that has allowed these characters, and their "frothy" appeal, to endure".

Accolades

Video games

Activision Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one ...

released a Nintendo 3DS game developed by Magic Pockets based on the film on August 8, 2014, to coincide with the movie. A mobile game, also based on the film, was released on July 24.

Sequel

Noel Fisher revealed in an interview that all four of the turtle actors have signed on for three films. Liebesman and Fuller have confirmed that Casey Jones as well as Bebop and Rocksteady will appear in the sequels. There were also plans for Krang and Dimension X in the sequels as well. Shortly after the release of the film, Paramount announced that a sequel will be released on June 3, 2016, with Michael Bay returning as producer and Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec coming back as screenwriters and executive producers. Fox and Arnett returned in the sequel along with the character Shredder. Dave Green, director of '' Earth to Echo'', directed the sequel. Several new actors appeared for a sequel:

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's supermodel

Alessandra Ambrosio Alessandra Corine Ambrósio (; born 11 April 1981) is a Brazilian-American model. She is known for her work with Victoria's Secret and was chosen as the first spokesmodel for the company's PINK line. Ambrosio was a Victoria's Secret Angel from 20 ...

was cast as herself and a love interest to Vern, also

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and Charlotte Hornets players

DeAndre Jordan Hyland DeAndre Jordan Jr. (born July 21, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played one season of college basketball for the Texas A&M Aggies. Jordan was se ...

, Matt Barnes, JJ Redick,

Austin Rivers Austin James Rivers (born August 1, 1992) is an American professional basketball player for the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Rivers led Winter Park High School to back-to-back Florida 6A state championship ...

and Spencer Hawes made cameos in the film.

Stephen Amell Stephen Adam Amell (born May 8, 1981) is a Canadian actor. He came to prominence for playing the lead role of Oliver Queen on The CW superhero series ''Arrow'' (2012–2020). Amell also appeared in subsequent Arrowverse franchise media, along wi ...

has been cast as Casey Jones.

Tyler Perry Tyler Perry (born Emmitt Perry Jr., September 13, 1969) is an American actor, comedian, filmmaker, and playwright. He is the creator and performer of the Madea character, a tough elderly woman. Perry's films vary in style from orthodox filmma ...

was cast as

Baxter Stockman The following is a list of characters in the ''Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'' franchise. Overview * This table shows the recurring characters and the actors who have portrayed them throughout the franchise. * A dark grey cell indicates the c ...

and Brian Tee portrayed Shredder in the sequel.

Gary Anthony Williams Gary Anthony Williams (born March 14, 1966) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. He voiced the character of Uncle Ruckus on '' The Boondocks'', and a number of video game characters. He also appeared on the television series '' Weeds'' ...

and Stephen "Sheamus" Farrelly were cast as Bebop and Rocksteady respectively. Brittany Ishibashi also replaced Noji as Karai in the sequel. Johnny Knoxville did not return to voice Leonardo in the sequel as he was not asked to reprise the role. Instead, Pete Ploszek did both motion-capture and voice.

References

External links

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014 film series) Films using motion capture Reboot films Nickelodeon Movies films Platinum Dunes films Films with screenplays by Evan Daugherty Films with screenplays by Josh Appelbaum and André Nemec 2014 martial arts films 2014 action comedy films 2010s teen films Teen superhero films Golden Raspberry Award winning films Films produced by Ian Bryce