Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie

*"If this isn't the poster shot, someone's getting fired."*

- Leonardo

***Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie*** is a 2022 animated superhero comedy film based on the series with the same name. It was released exclusively on Netflix August 5th, 2022.

## Synopsis

When a mysterious stranger arrives from the future with a dire warning, Leo is forced to rise and lead his brothers, Raph, Donnie, and Mikey in a fight to save the world from a terrifying alien species...the Krang.

### Netflix title synopsis

The teen turtles and their mystic ninja powers are put to the ultimate test when ruthless creatures from another universe look to unleash extreme chaos.

## Plot

Several months after the defeat of the Shredder, Leonardo became the leader of the Turtles. On the Brooklyn Bridge, he bests Donatello's pizza box stack record and celebrates with him and Michelangelo before being alerted by Raphael that he was looking for them. He told them that they have work to do but Leo is dismissive, commenting on their mystic powers and reminding him how they defeated the Shredder. Donnie then was alerted that Hypno-Potamus and Warren Stone have broken into a museum and stolen a strange artifact. The Turtles pursue them with Leo saying that he does not need a plan. This results in the pursuit and capture being a chaotic failure. While Hypno and Warren are taken down, the Foot clan arrive and claim the key, leaving the Turtles. Back in the lair, Raph and Leo get into an argument due to the latter's self-centeredness. Raph informs Leo that if he's going to be leader, he needs to be ready to protect his brothers and handle anything. However Leo pretends that he doesn't care and ignores Raphael's words.

At Eastlaird University, April O'Neil trespasses into a laboratory and steals powerful herbicides Eastlaird has been engineering as part of her investigative journalism course. Before leaving the college, she realized she is being followed by a stranger and knocks him unconscious. April then realises the stranger is in possession of a photograph of her, Splinter, and the Turtles - a photograph that has not yet been taken.

She takes him to the Turtles lair where the stranger wakes up and voices delight that they are all alive. The family hasn't the slightest clue of his identity, but Leo and Raph demand answers regarding the photograph he carries, while Donatello demands to know where he acquired his highly advanced technology, which he recognises as similar to his own trademarked tech.

The stranger explains that he is from a nightmare future 24 years forward, introducing himself as Casey Jones. As for his advanced gear, it was given to him by Donatello himself. He warns them that an alien species known as the Krang will soon invade the Earth and in the future all resistance will inevitably fall. In one final attempt, his masters, Leonardo and Michelangelo's older selves have sent him back in time to find the key that allows the Krang to enter the universe to do all this. Casey adds that Master Leonardo had gave him a mission to find the key and stop the Krang, but the teens don't believe him. However upon mention of the Krang, Master Splinter explains that they came to Earth long ago to be worshipped by the Foot, but were exiled to another dimension by a band of warriors who created the Mystic Key and over the centuries, the mystic key remained hidden to prevent the return of the Krang. Casey shows that Master Leonardo drew a picture of the Mystic Key on the back of the photo and said that he needed to find the key before it's stolen. The Turtles realise this is the artifact that was stolen earlier from the museum, and Leo's brothers give him an accusing look. However Raphael insists it's not too late - now that they know the Foot Clan has the key, they can potentially retrieve it before it is used.

The Turtles, along with Casey, April and Splinter go after the Foot, who successfully open the portal and release Krang One, Two and Three. Their fight against Krang One causes them to lose their mystic powers when the alien uses a sonic screech attack, draining their magic. After all their magic is taken away from the Turtles, Krang One ordered the two siblings to recieve an alien ship called the Technodrome. As Krang Three opens the portal wider, Krang Two begins to attack. Raph calls for a retreat but Leo insists they fight on, while Casey insists that if they can't get the key now, things will only get worse. Raph orders Donnie to use the escape pods called Donnie Pods which Donnie activates. However, aware that the Krang are trying to free the Technodrome from the dimension as well, Leo disobediently evades his Pod, seizes the Mystic Key and closes the portal. Just before Krang One can strike him down, Raph saves Leo, but the left side of his shell is fractured as a result. To protect Leo, Raph forces him to use his own Donnie Pod to return him and the key to the lair while he is captured.

Back at the lair, Leo accuses Casey of having secretly known Raph would be kidnapped and Casey assures him that Raph's capture didn't occur in his time, but realises that this proves history CAN be altered and now they have the key, there is still a chance to save the world. Leo prioritizes Raph's return to the family over Casey's mission of saving the world, and demands Mikey, Donnie, and Casey embark on an immediate effort to rescue him. Donnie tells him that they lost their powers and Mikey agrees with his brother that they have no plan, but Leo insists they don't need a plan and tells Donnie to drive the Turtle Tank. April asks Casey what they should do with the key and Casey said that they can't bring it with them or leave it behind. April decides that she and Splinter will remain behind and start looking for ways to destroy it. Casey thanks her and leaves.

In the cargo ship, Raph begins to wake up as krang mass covers his body. The Krang note that he is not human but more powerful than the people of this planet. Krang One informed the alligator snapping turtle that many planets before Earth had fallen to the Krang. Krang One begins to inform Raph that once he brings the Technodrome here, he will witness the true power of the Krang and demanded to know where his key is. Krang Two said that the red masked turtle won't tell him anything, and Raph agrees with her. Krang One began to laugh and tells him that he will look himself and started to read Raph's mind by sticking his tentacles into his ears, nose and into his brain. Since the key is located in the sewers, Krang One orders Krang Two to take the soldiers and Krang Three transforms the Foot Clan into Krang zombies. They are sent after the Mystic Key led by Krang Two while Krang One and Krang Three prepare to reopen the portal on top of Metro Tower, New York City's tallest building.

Meanwhile, Donnie tells the team that he has a tracker on Raph and he is heading to Metro Tower. Leo, aware that Donnie has a bad habit of taking science a bit too far, suspiciously asks him if there are more trackers on them, and Donnie squirms, reluctant to give the answer. However, this was not the time for that argument, and Casey recalls a story so many times from childhood since he was a kid: "And behold, from their perch atop New York City, the Krang ripped open the sky itself. What came out was terror and what rained down upon us was worse than death." Mikey is horrified at the grim story and admits the future really is harsh. Leo insists he will not allow it to happen - they will both save Raph *and* stop the Krang. He decides that going through the subway tunnels will be easy since they won't be spotted by humans.

As they drive through the subway tunnels, Casey regales each of the Turtles with impressive tales of their future selves during their journey to the Metro Tower subway. He speaks of Leo being a famed ninja warrior who rescued many people from Krang labor camps, and Mikey as a powerful sorcerer, responsible for creating the time gateway portal that sent him here, and of Donnie as the most innovative scientific mind who had ever lived. However, Donnie does not notice that he is spoken of in the past tense. Upon arrival, they realize that the subway is already Krang-infested and they decided to explore it. Leo manages to find the stairs, believing that this was the right way, but Casey, Mikey and Donnie realize that they are being watched. The hive-mind of the Krang sees them and they are soon attacked.

Since the Krang vines keep on coming, Mikey and Donnie plead with Leo that there's too many Krang vines and they must go back to form a real plan. Leo angrily declines, saying that they need to get to the tower and save Raph. They are split up as a massive Krang bus started to attack. Donnie protected Mikey but his battle shell had been destroyed in the process. They both retreat to the Turtle Tank to safety with Donnie getting his spare battle shell. Left outside, Leo and Casey are forced to run away from the Krang bus monster until it dove underground, causing the ground to break as Leo and Casey fell in.

Meanwhile, April and Splinter's attempts to destroy the Mystic Key are fruitless, as if the key is indestructible. They are suddenly alerted of Krang Two and her army's intrusion of the lair and flee from them with the Mystic Key. Luckily, April manages to throw the vial and dissolve the right side of Krang Two's face to distract her long enough to escape. After escaping the lair, April and Splinter are notified of Mikey and Donnie's predicament and April had an idea to save them with the blue vials she found at the lab.

Leo regains consciousness and sees that he and Casey are in the control room. He calls on Mikey and Donnie, but there is no response. Casey argued why Leo isn't listening to the input of his teammates, to which the slider said that he was trying to get them to the other side of the tower. Casey scolds Leo for his selfishness and warns him that if not changed, his brothers - and everybody else - will die in the future. He throws down the photo and digs a way out of the rubble. Leo picks up the photo and looks at it, realising that Casey is right. He vows to Casey that he will try to be a better leader, apologizing for his behaviour, and they began to climb to the top of the tower.

Meanwhile, the Turtle Tank is nearly destroyed which soon it would be Donnie and Mikey who will be crushed. Mikey insisted that he should use his mystic hands to save himself and Donnie. As he struggled, he realized that it wasn't working because he lost his mystic power and laments that Casey was wrong about him. Before the tentacles could crush the Tank further, April and Splinter arrive at the subway and save them, but are afterward forced to run from Krang Two's approach. After finding a stairway, Mikey, Donnie, April, and Splinter reunite with Casey and Leo who is elsewhere in Metro Tower. Leo asks Donnie if Raph is still in the building until they notice that Raph is suspended on the ceiling within a peculiar cocoon. Leo slices open the cocoon to free him, and tries to wake him. However, he is only met with hostility as Raph punches Leo and attacks his family. He starts to transform into a monsterous Krang zombie with krang mass spreading over his body, covering his shell, his arms, and the right side of his face. Mikey demands Krang One tearfully of what they did to him, to say that the Krang leader said that he "improved" him. The infected Raph seizes the Mystic Key from them as Krang Two and her zombies arrive to destroy Splinter, Casey, and the Mad Dogs, but they manage to escape. Krang One and Krang Two then leave with Raph for the top of Metro Tower and unseal the prison dimension with the Mystic Key, finally bringing forth the Technodrome. Krang One, Krang Two, and Krang Three each don their Titans and officially commence their assault on Earth.

As the invasion begins, everyone watches hopelessly realizing that they have failed. Mikey suggests that they change the future some other way but Casey has given up, thinking the Krang are too powerful and that they can't change the future. However, a determined Leo realises that they have already changed history because Raph never got kidnapped and turned into a Krang Zombie in Casey's timeline, and they must try to do so again. But he still isn't sure of how to battle the Krang, so together they devise a plan. They think that they can send the Krang back to the dimension and if someone on the ground can get to the key, they can close the portal so the Krang won't be able to destroy Earth. Mikey is scared and asks "What about Raph?". Leo insists again that they will do all they can to save him and not leave him behind. However this time he acknowledges that the fate of the world is also at stake and they can't be selfish about this.

The Turtles board the Technodrome as April, Splinter, and Casey fight Krang Two on the New York City streets. Leo starts to look for Raph, while Mikey and Donnie try to seize control of the ship from Krang Three and sucessfully subdue him. Donatello puzzles over how to operate this spaceship, before realising that he must attempt a full physical bond with it. He and Mikey are disgusted, but he overcomes his fear, removes his battle-shell, and directly plugs his body in, an act implied to be both agonising and revolting for the touch-averse Donnie.

Meanwhile, Leo gets to Krang One and says that he is here for Raph. Raph and Leo become engaged in combat while Donnie takes control of the Technodrome and successfully steers the Technodrome back towards the portal. But before he can finish the job, Mikey and Donnie are captured by Krang One, who rips Donnie out of the console painfully, and uses black vines to start corrupting them. Leo sees his brothers in trouble but Raph continues to fight him. Feeling horrible, Leo admits his mistakes, and that he now understood what he had heard from the start, apologizing for not listening to him. That connection helps Raph break free from his zombie state before Leo is captured as well by the black vines. About to become corrupted, Leo encourages Mikey and Donnie to continue to resist the Krang's corruption and that Raph is struggling for his sake so they will struggle together for his sake in turn. With all of their love and all their strength, they glow and break free from their black vine imprisonment and their subjuction, allowing them all to tap back into their Hamato Ninpō, and recite their true, official famous name: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They unite and initiate an attack on Krang One with their powers, that quickly moves outside of the Technodrome.

Meanwhile, April, Splinter and Casey have defeated Krang Two, showing that it is possible to beat the Krang. Casey then heads to the Metro Tower while he calls out to his sensei.

Despite all their impressive efforts, the turtles still can't bring down Krang in his battle suit. Mikey and Donnie are thrown from the Technodrome during their battle against Krang One and Raph has to rescue them from their fall. They crash safely in Staten Island even as Casey arrives at the top of Metro Tower and tells Leo that he had made it. The human tells what he has to do when he's home free and pull the key out of the slot. Hearing Casey's words, Leo realizes that the Krang are too strong for him alone, and he makes a decision. He has to sacrifice himself to save the world. He tells Casey that he has to bring Krang into the prison dimension and will give the order on when to close the portal. Casey tearfully pleads with Leo that he can't lose him again and that there has to be another way to stop them, but the red eared slider tells him that he is sure his future self would be proud of him and it's the only way to get the Krang back into the prison dimension.

Leo takes on Krang One solo, tricking him back into the prison realm and orders Casey to close the portal, which results in the Technodrome getting caught in the portal and destroyed. Enraged, Krang One attacks the wounded Leo and begins a savage beating. Almost at the brink of death, Leo gazes at the photo Casey had tossed away and tearfully smiles, ready to accept his fate, which only enrages Krang further, who continues to beat him, his obvious intent a slow and painful death.

From Earth's dimension, Casey finds Leo's sword in the rubble and is devastated, as if he lost his Sensei a second time. On the Island, Mikey tries to use his mystic hands even as Donatello is astonished at his own tears, but Raph tells his little brother that it's over. Mikey insists that Leo never gave up on them so Mikey will not give up on him. On these words, the Mystic Portal starts opening due to Mikey's powerful but mixed emotions, but the power is too much for Mikey, whose body fractures as the Future Mikey's had. However Raph and Donnie rush forwards, backing him up with their own emotional support and giving him the strength to open the portal fully.

The three of them then use their powers to their greatest and most effective abilities, Mikey holding the portal, Raphael fully encased in a giant body-shield and pulling Leo out, while Donnie creates a huge, purely mystical version of his Drill-Bo to directly attack the Krang and drive him back into the Prison Dimension.

They save Leo, leaving Krang One trapped alone in the prison realm and the Technodrome halved and in pieces, thus protecting Earth's future.

Sometime later, the heroes enjoy pizza on top of the Brooklyn Bridge, looking over photographs of the event being shared world-wide with a shocked Casey revealing that former Foot Clan recruit Cassandra Jones will be his mother. They watch the city as it is being rebuilt and make a vow to defend it whenever needed.

## Characters

* April O'Neil (Kat Graham)
* Casey Jones (Haley Joel Osment)
* Donatello (Josh Brener)
* Krang
	+ Krang One (Jim Pirri)
	+ Krang Two (Toks Olagundoye)
	+ Krang Three
* Leonardo (Ben Schwartz)
* Michelangelo (Brandon Mychal Smith)
* Raphael (Omar Miller)
* Splinter (Eric Bauza)
* Cassandra Jones (photos)
* Dr. Boringson (Oliver Vaquer)
* Earth Protection Force (Eric Bauza)
* Foot Brute
* Foot Lieutenant (Rob Paulsen)
* Foot Soldiers (Brandon Mychal Smith, Eric Bauza, Haley Joel Osment)
* Hypno-Potamus (Rhys Darby)
* Julia
* Krang (Future)
* Leonardo (Future) (Ben Schwartz)
* Michelangelo (Future) (Brandon Mychal Smith)
* Todd Capybara (Future)
* Warren Stone (John Michael Higgins)

### Additional/incidental cast

*Listed in order of credits*

* Janitor Man - Ben Schwartz
* Office Man 1 - Omar Benson Miller
* Security AI, Tank AI, Dragged Man - Josh Brener
* Café Woman 3 - Kat Graham
* Radio Newscaster - Eric Bauza
* Military Soldier 1 - Jim Pirri
* Window Woman - Toks Olagundoye
* Panicked Man, Military Soldier 2, Van Mover - Rob Paulsen
* Security Guard, Office Man 2, Café Man - Eugene Byrd
* Office Woman 1, Office Woman 2 - Meghan Falcone
* Incidental Girl, Café Woman 1, Café Woman 2 - Nika Futterman
* Helicopter Reporter, Van Mover 1, Male Bystander - Oliver Vaquer

## Locations

* New York City
* Times Square
* Brooklyn Bridge (debut)
* Lair
* Eastlaird University (debut)
* Metro Tower (debut)
* New York City subway
* Staten Island (debut)
* Japan (flashback only)
* Prison Dimension (debut)

## Species

* Altered humans
* Humans
* Krang
* Krang monsters ***(debut)***
* Krang zombies ***(debut)***
* Mutant capybara
* Mutant earthworm
* Mutant hippopotamus
* Rats
	+ Mutant rat
* Mutant turtles
* Yōkai

## Objects and vehicles

* Baseball bat
* Bō
* Chainsaw ice hockey stick ***(debut)***
* Donnie Pods ***(debut)***
* Herbicide ***(debut)***
* Katana
* Mystic Key ***(debut)***
* Nunchaku
* Pizza
* Technodrome ***(debut)***
* Titans ***(debut)***
* Turtle Tank
	+ Shell Hog
* Sai

### Locations

* New York City
	+ Times Square
	+ Brooklyn Bridge ***(debut)***
	+ Lair
	+ Eastlaird University ***(debut)***
	+ Metro Tower ***(debut)***
	+ New York City subway
	+ Staten Island ***(******debut)***
* Japan ***(flashback only)***
* Prison dimension ***(debut)***

## Production

On February 5th, 2019, Nickelodeon announced that it would be producing an original animated film based on *Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* for a Netflix release. The movie was planned separately from the series. Several of the movie's production crew members also worked on the *Rise of the TMNT* series. The movie was written to be accessible to audiences unfamiliar with the *Rise of the TMNT* series.

Andy Suriano and Ant Ward spoke on the movie's production in the November 2022 *Rise of the TMNT: The Movie* TAAFI panel alongside Eric Bauza:

*Ward:* “So we were deep into story on season two. We had a season two and a season three story arc really solidly planned out. We got a nice, solid pick-up on season two.”

*Suriano:* “We had a pick-up on season three, too.”

*Ward:* “Oh, we did, yeah, we did. We *had* [emphasis added]. So we were well into production of season two, telling this overall story and it was a Saturday afternoon and we [Suriano and Ward] each got separately a phone call from our executive at the time saying, ‘Hey, Nickelodeon would love to do a Netflix movie of *Rise*,’ and we’re like, ‘Okay. Okay, cool.’ And there was a pause in there, she was like, ‘There’s one mandatory request.’ [We were] like, ‘Okay, what’s that?’ ‘It’s got to have something, while still being *Rise*, that is instantly recognizable to all previously established elements of the franchise.’ So we were like, ‘Okay. Cool.’ So then we were on the phone with each other back and forth.”

*Suriano:* "I was busy driving my way to Legoland with my family. We crafted it in a weekend . . . ."

─────

*Ward:* “So, yeah, we at the time were really keen on telling a Casey story. Thought it would be really, really fun . . . if we told a story that was quintessentially the traditional Raph on the rooftop venting, seeing Casey whaling, instead of on thugs, but seeing Casey whaling on a mutant . . . and then Raph makes the wrong choice. And little unbeknownst to Raph, Casey was the good guy and the mutant was the bad guy. [Raph] thinks his people are being put down, he’s having none of it, and there’s a twist. And it was gonna be a dimension-traveling Casey and he was gonna be like Kurt Russel and grizzled and like, ‘*Casey Jones…*’ [emphasis added, in a deep, raspy, menacing voice]”

*Suriano:* “It was like herald of Galactus type.”

*Ward:* “Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was really, really fun and, you know, Nickelodeon was like, ‘Let’s age Casey down a bit,’ and things changed, but we were still in season two! And we were deep in season two so at the time, we were in a almost executive producing-consulting capacity where we would be meeting with the then-director and the then-story team and working stuff out. And then, they cut the episodes of season two in half and they said, ‘You got up to here to finish it.’ We’d already done all these episodes up to that point in time, storyboards, animatics ready to go, but we hadn’t told the family story that we wanted to tell: Splinter’s story. *Rise* is so much about Splinter.”

*Suriano:* “We had it from day one, I mean, us meeting at the Thai restaurant, breaking [down] the whole story. I mean, we had a three-season arc specifically Splinter. It was all about a redemption story about a father and his sons.”

*Ward:* “So we halted production on the six episodes that were in the pipe and we had a very limited scope so we grabbed all the team together and we said, ‘Okay, we’re gonna try something crazy. We’re gonna try to, from scratch, finish this story.’ And we did . . . .”

─────

*Ward:* “And then, what was happening as well was fortuitously for Andy and myself, Nickelodeon opted to go in a different creative direction with the movie and dates aligned almost perfectly as we’d wrapped up pre-production on those six episodes so...”

*Suriano:* “Our peripheral involvement [with the movie] sort of became very…”

*Ward:* “Like, ‘Hang on a minute, we need to sit down with Ant and Andy to figure this out.’”

*Suriano:* “Yeah, we sort of steered that ship."

*Ward:* “The same thing happened again. The movie had been in production for a year, production completely stopped, and we went to a page one rewrite in January 2020.”

*Suriano:* “And we did everything over COVID, right? We were staying at home.”

*Ward:* “We had *one* [emphasis added] story break together in the writers' room.”

*Suriano:* “So we finished the series and almost the entirety of the movie over COVID.”

─────

*Suriano:* “We chucked six episodes to do four [episodes] to finish up the series and then we took over this movie where we lost a year and we made it up somehow . . . The reason why was because we had our team. Our team came back, everyone showed up. Usually when you get the call that, ‘Hey, the season’s over or the series is done,’ everyone immediately goes out—they’re all talking on their phones to their agents or wherever being like, ‘Hey, I need a job tomorrow,’ but every single person stayed. Every single person on our team stayed. They wanted to finish this story, it was very personal and important to them and . . . it was very touching . . . ‘cause they really could’ve gone anywhere. They were getting pulled from *Spider-Verse* and—everybody wanted our team . . . we’re very humbled that they all chose to stay.”

*Ward:* “And also as they stayed and we started to reenter production on the movie, they were actually able to roll off the show through to the movie, which wouldn’t have been the case beforehand. It would’ve been a whole different board team and whole different everything.”

*Bauza:* “Can you imagine having to retrain an entire crew for the movie?”

*Ward:* "*Rise* is a weird beast, Eric. You either get it or you don’t and that’s kind of unfortunately where we were at December [2019] where it just wasn’t working. So, thankfully we were able to bring our team in.”

*Suriano:* “Right. And then, we were able to get Flying Bark back for less—it was about 40% of the movie?”

*Ward:* “About 40, yeah, yeah.”

*Bauza:* “And Flying Bark is the overseas animation studio?”

*Suriano:* “Yes. We grew up with them, right? We scaled up our departments both overseas and our local department to compensate. I guess we really balanced each other out. I think that's the most important thing, especially when you’re working for a service studio or wherever, I mean, every single bit is important, every single person, every single—we never treated anyone like pencil pusher or a numbers cruncher or whatever—from every studio to every member of our nucleus team was important and we all fed each other. We created a pipeline, a very specific pipeline like Ant said. Because the show and the series and the movie was so hard, we demanded a lot from each other and everyone we worked with, but we had to really collaborate and communicate with all members of all the studios involved because we had to assemble a pipeline that specifically worked for our production. And having lost a year, specifically we couldn’t waste…”

*Ward:* “We didn’t get the year back.”

*Suriano:* “Yeah, so we had to approach this feature almost from a TV production standpoint, being like, ‘It’s gotta get out. It’s gotta hit these dates. How are we gonna hit these dates?' and kind of go backwards . . . Very little room for error.”

On January 12th, 2021, the first synopsis of the movie was released in a Deadline Netflix 2021 film slate article.

On March 30th, 2021, the movie's release date was announced by Ward who posted it on Instagram but then quickly deleted it for unknown reasons.

The movie was set to be released summer 2021, but its 2022 release delay was announced on August 27th, 2021. The movie finished production April 7th, 2022, announced by Suriano in an Instagram post, and its August 5th, 2022 release date was announced by Netflix on April 27th, 2022. The release date announcement was teased by Jason McConnell and JJ Conway in a Tweet on April 26th, 2022.

On June 30th, 2022, the first images of the movie were released by Netflix in a Netflix Family Summer 2022 promotion along with a pair of seconds-long movie clips and the movie's official logo.

On July 6th, 2022, the movie trailer was released by the Netflix After School YouTube channel.

On July 20th, 2022, twelve seconds of movie clips were released by the Netflix YouTube channel in a What to Watch August 2022 promotion.

On August 3rd, 2022, the movie's prologue was released by the Netflix After School YouTube channel.

## Trivia

* *Rise of the TMNT* is the eighth Nicktoon to get an animated feature film. The first seven are *Rugrats*, *Hey Arnold!*, *The Wild Thornberrys*, *SpongeBob SquarePants*, *Rocko's Modern Life*, *Invader Zim*, and *The Loud House*.
	+ This also technically makes *Rise of the TMNT* the ninth Nicktoon to get an animated feature film, if one also counts *Doug's 1st Movie*, although it was produced by Walt Disney Television Animation.
	+ This will also be the fourth Nickelodeon animated film to be released on Netflix.
* This will be the fourth animated *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* film. The first three were *TMNT*, *Turtles Forever*, and *Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* and is the first animated film not to be associated with WarnerMedia.
	+ *Turtles Forever*, which was a TV movie, premiered on The CW, which is a joint venture of ViacomCBS and WarnerMedia (it also premiered on Nickelodeon at the same time).
* It was stated in July 2022 by *Rise of the TMNT* writer Ron Corcillo in a Tweet that, "We were always told that the show was "paused" and that it could be brought back if the movie did well. It's pretty rare for a show to come back after this long, but if it happened, it would be because the movie and series do well on Netflix. So keep watching and spread the word!"
	+ It was also revealed in July 2022 by writer Paul Cecchini in an io9 interview that, "if the film does well enough, Suriano and Ward would love an opportunity to continue building the *Rise* world with one of their other film ideas. Word has it they might have some ideas for the Rat King..."
* The first trailer was recorded with a different voice actor than Rob Paulsen for Foot Lieutenant, likely as a placeholder/scratch. Paulsen does feature in the actual film.
	+ Foot Brute has no speaking lines.
* The Turtles *finally* say their real title name.
* In an early storyboard Donnie noticed Casey talking of him in the past tense and questioned him, but the writers decided this detracted from Casey soon after telling Leo that his brothers will die, and shortened it so that he doesn't notice.
* Raph seemed to have a thunderbolt crack on his chest just like the 2012 Raph.
* According to co-director Andy Suriano, Krang-One's throne is inside the skull of a Triceraton.
* The final battle against Krang-One takes places inside the Technodrome over New York City as the Turtles try to return it to its dimension, similar to the climax of *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows*.
* April is shown studying journalism at college and works for the school's newspaper as a reporter, a nod to her 1987 counterpart being a reporter for Channel 6.
	+ The college is called "Eastlaird University", a nod to TMNT creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird.
* An Earth Protection Force agent resembling Agent Bishop can be seen as Krang-Two is taken by the government.
* This is currently the second-highest rated TMNT at Rotten Tomatoes, above the 1990 film and below *Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles*.
* When asked what influenced the more dramatic tone of *Rise of the TMNT: The Movie* compared to its series in the November 2022 *Rise of the TMNT: The Movie* TAAFI panel, Suriano stated, "We finally got to tell a long story. It was so nice and refreshing to be able to tell an actual arc that could last as long as the movie was, like, 80 minutes or so. 'Cause with TV you gotta wrap it up and usually, as sequential as our storytelling was in the series, a lot of it for TV is sort of one and done for advertising and repeatability and stuff like that." Ward stated in the same panel that the tone shift was also due to Netflix's request for the movie to be a cinematic experience.

## Notes

* While Mikey is opening the time gateway in the prologue, a chunk of his shell is missing.
* Leo's character animation by *Rise of the TMNT* assistant director and story artist Ashe Jacobson from "Battle Nexus: New York" is reused in Raph and Leo's lair dispute scene.
* After Leo removes his leg wraps in his bedroom and begins arguing with Raph, the wraps reappear and disappear before fully appearing again.
* As Splinter turns away from the Turtles during Raph and Leo's lair dispute scene, there is a frame where instead of grey, Splinter's face is colored white.
* April's leggings are missing in one shot of the Casey interrogation scene before he introduces himself to the family.
* When Leo informs his family of Raph's abduction by the Krang, the cuffs of Splinter's haori are missing their yellow color in one shot.
* When April questions how no attempt to destroy the Mystic Key has worked and she and Splinter turn, the back of Splinter's ears are colored pink instead of grey.
* When April and Splinter hug Mikey and Donnie after freeing them from the Turtle Tank, April's lower lip is missing its color in one shot.
* Post-losing her right eye, Krang Two is depicted with both eyes in one shot as her and her brothers prepare to deploy their Titans.
* Donnie's bo staff is missing from his left hand.
* The writers said that the Turtles' deaths in the alternate future are related to how they almost die in the present. All four turtles potentially sacrifice their lives to stop the Krang, however it is not through luck that they would lose but a degree of inevitability:
	+ Raphael willingly sacrifices himself to help Leo escape with the Key in his Donnie-Pod. He does not know at the time that the Krang can read minds when he is captured and possessed.
	+ Donatello willingly plugs his entire body into the Technodrome to fly it - if he had not been ripped out by Krang One, he would surely be lost inside the Prison Dimension when he flew the Technodrome back through the portal, or even killed when the closing portal destroyed it.
	+ Michelangelo starts to fracture when he attempts to re-open the portal to get Leo back. He only survives because of the support of Raph and Donnie - who have already potentially been lost.
	+ Leonardo is trapped in the Prison Dimension when he tricks Krang One and almost dies during the savage beating.

## Gallery

* Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie Gallery
* Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie Animation

## Transcript

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie Transcript

## Videos

Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- The Movie - Official Trailer - Netflix After SchoolFirst 4 Minutes Movie Clip - Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Netflix After SchoolRaph But Now He's a Mind Controlled Zombie - Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- The MovieWho are The Krang? Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles- The Movie - Netflix After SchoolDonnie's Shell Gets Exposed - Rise of the Teenage Mutant Turtles- The Movie - Netflix
## External Links

* Announcement
* ComicBook.com August 2019 interview w/ Andy Suriano and Ant Ward
* Title reveal by DVE
* DVE sneaks a picture on Twitter
* io9 July 2022 interview w/ Andy Suriano and Ant Ward
* Digital Mafia Talkies July 2022 Movie Review
* Animation Magazine July 2022 interview w/ Andy Suriano and Ant Ward
* Lights Camera Jackson August 2022 interview w/ Andy Suriano and Ant Ward