Raph gets the most emotional heavy lifting here. He forms a bond with a young boy named Yoshi, making him realize that he might actually prefer the quiet, respected life of a warrior in ancient Japan over being a "monster" in a New York sewer.
The story kicks off when April O'Neil buys an ancient Japanese scepter as a gift for Splinter. Unbeknownst to her, the scepter is a magical time-travel device. When she activates it, she inadvertently swaps places with Prince Kenshin from 1603 Japan. Las Tortugas Ninja 3
After being absent from the second movie, Elias Koteas returned to play Casey Jones (and his ancestor, Whit). Raph gets the most emotional heavy lifting here
While the previous films focused on the Foot Clan, this one features samurais, gunpowder plots, and horseback chases. It feels more like a classic Kurosawa film... if the lead actors were wearing giant rubber turtle suits. Production Trivia: Unbeknownst to her, the scepter is a magical
The Turtles—Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael—must travel back in time to rescue April and retrieve the scepter before the "space-time window" closes forever. Once they arrive in the past, they find themselves caught in the middle of a civil war between a ruthless Daimyo (Lord Norinaga) and a group of village rebels.
Although set in Japan, the movie was actually filmed in Astoria, Oregon , using the rainy Pacific Northwest to stand in for the Japanese countryside. The Verdict
The Vibe: After the dark grit of the first film and the neon-soaked "Secret of the Ooze," the third installment takes a sharp turn into historical fantasy. It’s a "fish-out-of-water" story that swaps the sewers of NYC for the feudal landscape of 16th-century Japan. The Plot: Turtles in Time