TMNT

The original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie trilogy is coming to 4K Blu-ray for the first time this holiday season. All three early ’90s action films have been digitally restored by Arrow Films and will be bundled in two limited-edition box sets, both of which are available to preorder ahead of their December 16 release. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy 4K Limited Edition is available for $100, while the standard Blu-ray version is going for $95.

Like most Arrow Video releases, these prices are likely to drop before release day. If you preorder now, you’ll be eligible for any future discounts until Amazon ships your order. Keep in mind that Arrow Video Limited Editions are actually limited. The British distributor often reissues sold-out Blu-rays, but subsequent printings don’t have the fancy packaging and collectible inserts. At the time of writing, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy is the No. 1 best seller on Amazon’s movie and TV charts, so it wouldn’t be surprising if the 4K set sold out.

$100 | Releases December 16

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993)

The 4K Blu-ray edition of the original 1990 movie has been restored from the original 35mm camera negative. The second and third films in the trilogy were restored from the original 35mm interpositives.

Along with native 4K (2160p) resolution, each film supports Dolby Vision and HDR10. For enhanced audio, the original movie has Dolby Atmos surround sound support. The sequels don’t support Atmos, but surround sound is still offered with DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1. Original lossless stereo audio is also available for all three movies.

The Limited Edition includes multiple collectibles and premium packaging. Inside the limited-edition display box, you’ll find a collector’s booklet with retrospectives by Simon Ward, John Torrani, and John Walsh. Each film is packaged individually in a case with a reversible sleeve. The sleeves have original artwork by Florey.

In terms of on-disc bonus content, so far we know there will be new director’s audio commentaries for all three films as well as interviews with at least 15 actors and seven crew members.

Arrow Video said the full list of extras will be unveiled on September 26, so the box set will have additional bonus features and possibly more collectibles.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy Features:

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990)
- 4K restoration from original 35mm negative
- Dolby Vision / HDR10
- Dolby Atmos / Lossless Stereo
TMNT II (1991) & TMNT III (1993)
- 4K restorations from original 35mm interpositives
- Dolby Vision / HDR10
- DTS-HD MA 5.1 / Lossless Stereo
Bound Collector’s Booklet with retrospectives
Reversible sleeves with original artwork
Limited Edition display box
New director’s audio commentaries for each film
New cast and crew interviews for each film

$95 | Releases December 16

The 1080p version is made from the 4K restorations, so the films will almost certainly look and sound better than current Blu-ray editions. You’ll get all of the same extras and on-disc bonus content with the standard Blu-ray Limited Edition. You will be missing out on Dolby Vision and HDR10, though. With the price difference currently only five bucks, it doesn’t make much sense to buy this edition unless you don’t have a dedicated media player or game console capable of playing 4K Blu-rays.

35 years later, nothing quite compares to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The original movie is still an impressive showcase of practical effects, martial arts action, and it’s surprisingly dark in its execution of the source material. In fact, depending on who you ask, it might have been too dark, as its sequels were much more family-friendly in comparison. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze was more slapstick in nature, while Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Turtles in Time might have jumped the shark with its time-travel story that saw the gang transported to feudal Japan.

In the decades since, the Turtles have starred in a handful of feature films and several long-running animated TV series. TMNT continues to be popular with fans of all ages. If you want to spend some time with Raphael, Leonardo, Donatello, and Michelangelo, check out our roundups outlining all of the TMNT TV series and movies you can watch today on Blu-ray and DVD.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series

The original 1987 animated series along with the wildly popular action figures turned Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles into a worldwide phenomenon. The series amassed 193 episodes across its 10-season run that finally came to a close in 1996. The complete series released on DVD last October, and it’s an absolute steal even at its full $34 price. Right now, you can grab the 23-disc TMNT: Complete Classic Series Collection for only $26.59.

Impressively, TMNT followed up its original series with another long run from 2003 to 2009. The follow-up show went by several different names throughout its seven-season, 155-episode run. Whereas the original leaned into comedy, the follow-up series skewed more toward the serious, grounded personality of the comics. TMNT: The Ultimate Collection includes every episode and the Turtles Forever TV movie. In Turtles Forever, the Turtles save the multiverse alongside the Turtles from the original 1987 movie.

The franchise simply makes for good TV, and this trend continued with the 2012 Nickelodeon series. It ran for five seasons before ending in 2017 after 124 episodes. Last year, a new series called Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles debuted on Nickelodeon and Paramount+. All 12 episodes are available on Blu-ray and DVD, and Season 2 is expected to air in 2025.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies on Blu-ray

Since the turn of the century, the franchise’s big screen outings have been a tale of two styles. The 2014 and 2016 live-action films were massive disappointments, but returning to its animated roots in 2023’s Mutant Mayhem proved to be a winning formula.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Trilogy (Remastered)
TMNT Trilogy (Blu-ray) — $13 ($20)
TMNT 4-Film Favorites: Trilogy + 2007
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2007)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)
TMNT: Out of the Shadows + TMNT 2014 (Blu-ray) — $15
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Comic Book Collections

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Compendiums

If you’re interested in reading some of the awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comic books while you wait for the TMNT Trilogy to arrive, you’re in luck: There are a bunch of great omnibus editions and compendiums to check out. For a budget-friendly way to read some all-time classics, check out The Ultimate Collection black-and-white paperbacks and the Color Classics Collection.

In addition to classic TMNT comics, there’s the ongoing IDW series, which has been running for nearly 15 years and has eclipsed 300 issues. So far, the series has been collected into 17 hardcover books, with Volume 18 slated to release in September.

All of the books below are hardcover unless otherwise noted.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin Series

The biggest modern TMNT hit in the comic book space is undoubtedly The Last Ronin. It’s genuinely one of the best graphic novels released over the past five years. The Last Ronin II was published in July, so now’s a great time to check out this must-read series from the co-creator of the franchise.

Lastly, we’d highly recommend checking out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Ultimate Visual History. This beautiful book takes fans on a tour through the franchise’s storied history. Insight Editions published a revised and expanded edition in 2024. You can get the 328-page hardcover book for $41 (was $75).

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The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are in the midst of, pardon the pun, a video game renaissance. In the last few years alone we’ve received the excellent retro compilation Cowabunga Collection, the retro-style brawler Shredder’s Revenge, and the Hades-inspired roguelike Splintered Fate. Not since their breakout success on Saturday morning cartoons have the turtles been so ubiquitous in games, but this time around, developers are more emboldened to experiment with different game styles. Enter TMNT: Tactical Takedown, a grid-based tactics game that feels both authentically nostalgic and like creative new ground for the heroes. While it suffers slightly from a limited scope, the short adventure is a great time while it lasts.

Tactical Takedown is presented with a clean, bright visual style reminiscent of the old Saturday morning cartoon. The turtles’ beaks are rounded just like you drew on your Trapper Keeper during geometry class. But this story takes place well after the original series–Splinter and Shredder are both dead, and the boys’ relationship has grown contentious as they’ve all gone in different directions and coped with the loss. The combination of Saturday morning aesthetics with this new story premise make this feel like a progression of that continuity and an opportunity to show us something new.

It’s also the conceit for the game’s core mechanic, which limits you to one turtle at a time as you fight your way through legions of Foot Clan goons. Objectives are usually to survive a certain number of turns or to defeat certain starred enemies. The stages are isometric grids like you’ve seen in lots of tactics games, but limiting you to one character at a time means a lot of focus on prioritization and crowd control. You’re always outnumbered, but they’re always outmatched. The stages are designed with a particular turtle in mind, which is explained by the story: Donatello is investigating happenings underground, so each of his stages take place in the sewer, while Raphael’s take place across the rooftops, and so on. These differences are mostly cosmetic, but some are more substantial. Hopping along rooftops of a Raphael stage requires you to reach the edge of one roof to clear another, for example, and Donatello’s sewer stages are rife with toxic waste which is, thankfully, purple.

Like the stages, the power sets of the turtles are neatly differentiated according to their personalities, which is a heck of a trick considering they all need to be capable of handling waves of enemies on their own. Michelangelo is particularly acrobatic, as his abilities focus mostly on leaping over enemies to do damage and juggle them. Raph, meanwhile, is super aggressive, gaining an extra action point every time he KOs an enemy. Leonardo has very limited range but he’s a powerhouse, since each enemy he KOs gives him a stack of “Radical” energy to make his next attack stronger. My personal favorite, in the cartoon and this game, was Donatello, who has extended reach thanks to his bo staff, along with a stun bomb that electrifies a section of floor and makes it deadly ground against enemies. Paired with his kunai, which can stun an enemy into staying in place, he’s the most defensive fighter, able to turn the battlefield hazardous and then force enemies to stay put.

And while the battlefields would seem to be similar to any other tactics game, this TMNT iteration gives them a kinetic twist. The stages themselves “mutate” over time, as new areas of the battlefield open up and others fall away. Anyone (including you) stuck in a red zone when it cycles out is instantly killed, and this clever twist encourages you to keep moving. Other times, hazards like cars will drive across the field, damaging anything in their path. You can even sometimes knock enemies off the edges of stages.

It’s a tactics game that feels infused with the spirit of the classic arcade brawlers, even down to a giant “GO!” appearing on-screen when a piece of the level is about to cycle out. Leonardo’s stages, which largely take place across subway tunnels, are the best example of the concept. You’ll be fighting among benches at the station, and then see a subway car pull up, move into it, and then sense the train “speed” away when the station disappears.

The story focuses on the turtles’ frustration with each other, and it’s relatable without ever feeling too self-serious. The writing gets at the heart of their relationships, showing that they have real affection for each other even if they tend to get on each others’ nerves. And it captures the characters themselves very well, like how underneath the gruff exterior Raph is a big soft-shell for his brothers.

The story of bickering brothers reconciling to take on a threat to the city is predictable, but well done. However, the gameplay application of it felt somewhat underwhelming. When the turtles do join forces, you’re still just playing as a single character. Tactical Takedown finds a clever and heartfelt way to illustrate the idea, but it still felt like a head-fake from what the game had been building up to. This may just be a product of its limited scope, but I had been envisioning coming up with complex strategies that would reward my familiarity with all four turtles’ abilities. Instead, what I got was essentially a single super-powered combo character.

TMNT Tactical Takedown

Gallery

Similarly, the ability to swap loadouts feels half-baked. You can purchase extra abilities for the turtles in the shop, using points accrued from your campaign missions. But the shop is never front-and-center in the campaign menu, so it’s very easy to miss it entirely while making your way through the missions. I bought a few abilities but mostly made my way through the campaign using the default kits. I never felt like I needed to really shift my strategy or try different abilities, because the missions were perfectly doable without using the shop at all. The handful of options for each turtle seemed aimed at giving each of them a secondary strategic hook, but they didn’t feel vital.

Imagine sitting on the floor in front of your TV watching the pilot episode for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in the 1990s, and that’s how it feels to play TMNT: Tactical Takedown. All the elements are there, you had a great time while it lasted, but you can sense it’s really the rock-solid foundation for something much grander. The game itself is a great distillation of some radical concepts, but it also feels like it’s straining against its own limitations. Nonetheless, this is a great start to what I can only hope becomes another way to spend time with the turtles.

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TMNT Trilogy Limited Edition Revealed – 4K Restorations And New Bonus Content

$100 | Releases December 16

$95 | Releases December 16

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Comic Book Collections

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin Series

TMNT: Tactical Takedown Review – A Bite-Sized Saturday Morning Romp