Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III is a 1993 live-action film, the second sequel to the 1990 live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. This is the most cartoon-like of the three movies, but the turtles use their weapons more than in the second movie. A full- and wide-screen DVD version was released on September 3, 2002.

April O'Neil finds a scepter and is sent back in time to feudal Japan, and in her place, a man from feudal Japan comes to present New York City with the same scepter, but from his own time. The turtles take the scepter and travel back in time to save April. When the turtles arrive in feudal Japan, many people in a local village understand English because the village has strong trade relations with England. The turtles fight Lord Norinaga and the English trader Walker to stop a war.

The film was criticized by fans of the first and second films who said that it was too cartoony and that the plot was unrealistic and silly; to make matters worse, it also has the least combat. Notably, the turtles only fight three battles, only one of which features all four turtles. Critic Fred Topel called it a "Terrible conclusion of the trilogy."Some fans state that their only real complaint is the less-realistic costumes and puppetry of the turtles and Splinter.

Peter Laird has gone on to note in interviews that the fourth in the movie series will retcon the third movie out of existence, and base it in the continuity of the first film, and the portions of the second that made sense to him (the TMNT learning their origins and Shredder's death) much like Superman Returns is based on the first Superman movie and aspects of Superman II.

Released in 2,087 theatres, the film proved to be very popular at the box office, taking in $12,419,597 on its opening weekend in the United States. The film would gross $42,273,609 in the domestic market, accumulating more than double its budget of $21 million.

Although Corey Feldman returned to voice Donatello for this film, he did not provide his voice for the 2nd film.
Robbie Rist and Brian Tochi (who did the voices of Michaelangelo and Leonardo, respectively) are the only two voice actors to voice the same character throughout all three TMNT movies.
The scepter is quite possibily a nod to the "Sacred Sands of Time Scepter" from the original Eastman and Laird's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic series, from the crossover story with Dave Sim's Cerebus character.
The Shredder does not appear in this film.
This was the last Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film released by New Line Cinema and also the last live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film. (The fourth film will be released by Warner Bros. Pictures, The Weinstein Company and Imagi Animation Studios and will also be computer-animated. It should be noted that Time Warner owns both Warner Bros. and New Line.)
According to Troma Films creator Lloyd Kaufman in his book "Everything I Learned About Filmmaking I Learned From the Toxic Avenger", Kaufman says that New Line did not live up to their end of the contract and the film was not made. Kaufman has speculated that New Line bought the rights because they were in negotiations to make the sequels to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie and wanted to use the Toxic Crusaders movie as leverage against the owners of the rights to TMNT. Troma sued New Line and was awarded an undisclosed amount in damages.