text: tmnt ( film ) tmnt is a 2007 american computer - animated fantasy action film based on the teenage mutant ninja turtles characters which were published by mirage studios and part of teenage mutant ninja turtles franchise . written and directed by kevin munroe , the film features the voice talents of james arnold taylor , nolan north , mitchell whitfield , mikey kelley , chris evans , sarah michelle gellar , kevin smith , patrick stewart , zhang ziyi , and laurence fishburne ( who provides narration ) . it was the last film that mako iwamatsu made before his death and was co - produced by the franchise 's co - creator peter laird for warner bros. pictures . tmnt was the first teenage mutant ninja turtles film made with computer - generated imagery ( cgi ) , created by imagi animation studios , as well as the first feature film in the franchise in 14 years . the film sees the four turtles ( raphael , leonardo , donatello , and michelangelo ) grow apart after their final defeat of the shredder , when strange things are happening in new york city as ancient creatures threaten the world and the turtles must reunite to save it . tmnt premiered theatrically on march 23 , 2007 , grossing $ 95 million worldwide on a budget of $ 34 million . its release coincided with tie - in products including toys , comics and video games . plot three thousand years ago , an aztec warlord named yaotl and his four generals discover a portal opening into a parallel universe which is said to have great power . yaotl becomes immortal but at a high price , as his four generals were turned to stone . the portal releases thirteen immortal monsters that destroy his army as well as his enemies . in the present , the teenage mutant ninja turtles have grown apart . after defeating the shredder , master splinter has sent leonardo to central america for training . donatello works as an it specialist , michelangelo works as a birthday party entertainer called cowabunga carl and raphael works at night as a vigilante nicknamed nightwatcher . april o 'neil operates a company that locates and acquires relics for collectors with the help of her boyfriend , casey jones . during a business trip to central america , april runs into leonardo and tells him that the turtles have drifted apart . she returns to new york with four statues for her client , max winters , the richest man in the city . upon arrival she calls casey and tells him that she spoke to leo and tells him that leo 's not coming back . however a little later leo does return , and april and casey deliver the statues to winters . winters hires karai and the foot clan to search the city for the thirteen beasts before the portal opens again . raphael encounters casey , who reveals his knowledge of raphael 's double identity and joins him in hunting criminals . winters , who is actually the still - immortal yaotl , reanimates his generals with his company 's advanced technology , but they remain made of stone . leo returns to the sewer , meeting splinter . splinter forbids the turtles from fighting until they can act as a team again . while training , the turtles encounter one of the thirteen beasts , bigfoot , battling the foot clan . the turtles engage bigfoot , going against leo and splinter 's orders . eventually , the generals and the foot clan captured bigfoot . when raphael visits casey , they encounter the vampire and witness her capture by the foot clan and the stone generals , who spot them and knock raphael unconscious . casey takes him back to the apartment while april calls the turtles for help and reveals the identities of yaotl and his generals . after being revived , raphael suggests they pursue yaotl , but leo forbids him to go until splinter gives out the order and so raphael goes out to investigate alone as nightwatcher . leo , donny and mikey return to their sewer home to plan their next move , where donny discovers the reopening of the portal will be directly over winters ' skyscraper headquarters . splinter informs leo that his team is incomplete , and that he knows what he must do . after eleven monsters have been captured , general aguila questions yaotl 's actions . the generals conspire against yaotl , wanting to remain immortal . raphael encounters one of the remaining monsters , the jersey devil , at a diner , but drives him off . leo has been following him , wanting to put an end to the nightwatcher 's vigilante acts , but when raph is revealed , they battle . raph breaks leo 's twin swords and seems as though he is about to kill him - but then realises the terrible act he was about to commit , and flees . immediately after raph leaves , the generals ambush leo , who is shot with a poison dart and too weak to fight them . raph hears him scream in the distance as he 's taken hostage and doubles back in pursuit , but he fails to get there in time . he takes leo 's broken sabers back to splinter and explains what happened . the generals intend to substitute leo for the thirteenth missing beast and raphael decides to make amends for his reckless mistakes by rescuing leo . as the portal opens , yaotl discovers his generals ' treachery , while splinter and the turtles , accompanied by casey and april , fight their way through the foot clan cordon and breach the tower . yaotl reveals the truth to the heroes : he wants to be free of his curse of immortality . the generals reveal that they wish to preserve their immortality , but also to use the portal to bring in more monsters to conquer earth under their command . having refused to betray yaotl in exchange for serving the generals , april , casey and the foot clan work together , searching for the final monster while the turtles fight the generals . splinter and yaotl fight off winged portal monsters emerging from the portal . april , casey and karai arrive at the tower with the sea monster . the sea monster crashes into the generals , dragging them into the portal before it closes for another three thousand years . karai then warns the gang to enjoy their victory while it lasts , claiming they will soon contend with a familiar face from their past . she and the rest of the foot clan depart via smoke bombs . yaotl , now mortal , honors the turtles and splinter , thanking them with his dying breath for fulfilling his lifelong wish . splinter places winter 's helmet among his collection of various keepsakes ( items seen in the previous three films such as the time scepter and the ooze canister ) , as well as raphael 's nightwatcher helmet and michelangelo 's turtle costume . the movie ends with raphael narrating that the turtles will always be brothers as the four of them jump across the rooftops of new york . cast production a computer graphics imagery ( cgi ) tmnt movie was first announced in 2000 , with john woo supposedly at the helm . that movie languished in development hell and woo ultimately moved on to other projects . tmnt , executive produced by the tmnt co - creator peter laird , is disparate from the previous and subsequent films ' live action style as the only cgi film in the franchise to date . writer / director kevin munroe said that he wanted to do total cgi instead of live action and cgi turtles because it would be easier for the audience to " suspend disbelief for such an offbeat story " as there would be no break in the reality between cgi and live action . producer tom gray explained that the decision to depart from the live action series was due to escalating budgets for the three films , and with each film making less than its predecessor , a cgi film became a reality . for example , the first film made $ 135 . 2 million on a budget of $ 13 . 5 million , and the third made $ 44 million on a budget of $ 21 million . orange sky golden harvest 's rights to the franchise had expired , and gray said the question arose there over a cgi tmnt film in 2004 . munroe stated in terms of the story line that ideas were floated as extreme as the turtles being in space , but eventually it just came back to new york city , and the theme of the family that had fallen apart . when developing the screenplay , munroe wanted to take on a less lighthearted tone or " less cowabunga " and place an emphasis on dark elements as shown in the original comics to appeal to the mature audience . " i had a very specific tone because mixing that sort of action and comedy is a very specific thing . most people were just coming and wanting to make it too funny . i think that version of the movie could do really well , but we wanted to do something where it sort of pushes the envelope a little bit more and says that animation is more than just comedic animals bumping into each other and farting ! " munroe said that in design and in the rendering of the animation , he was after the feel of a comic book . karai was one of munroe 's favorite characters from the comics and he " was the one who really pushed for karai " to appear in the film . development and pre - production for tmnt began in june 2005 at imagi 's los angeles facility and the cgi animation was produced in hong kong , followed by post - production in hollywood . in designing the new york backdrop , art director / concept artist simon murton stylized the familiar manhattan skyline and urban landscapes : " we began with cinematic cues from certain black - and - white films from the 1940s and ' 50s . i really wanted to push the lighting and the environments to create the look and feel of an alternate reality . " the animators that worked on the fight sequences were inspired by hong kong action films . animation director kim ooi explains said that because of cgi they were able to " push and stylize beyond the limits of live action . " imagi used maya with pixar ’ s renderman for the production pipeline ’ s back - end . jim cummings was the only past tmnt actor to appear in this film , where he had previously contributed voice - work in the 1987 teenage mutant ninja turtles series . the film also features the two voice actors for ratchet in the ratchet & clank series , mikey kelley from the first game , and james arnold taylor from the others , playing michelangelo and leonardo respectively . tmnt was mako iwamatsu 's last film before his death . mako was announced as the voice of splinter at the san diego comic - con on july 20 , 2006 . he then died the next day . a dedication to mako appears at the end of the film 's credits . although iwamatsu is the only actor credited in the role , greg baldwin performs a substantial portion of splinter 's dialogue in the finished film ; baldwin had already mimicked iwamatsu 's voice when he took up the late actor 's role as iroh in the concurrently - produced cartoon avatar : the last airbender , and used this precedent to successfully lobby to join the cast of tmnt as splinter following iwamatsu 's death . talking about a possible sequel to the film , munroe said : shredder – it would be cool to see . i ’ d love to see us explore the karai and foot ninja thing a little more . i love the rat king , even though it ’ s such a ‘ one - ’ villain , but i still think it would be kind of cool to go back to him . [ ... ] i ’ d love to – and this is sort of the ‘ out there ’ one , as i don ’ t think it would work for our next sequel – the idea of the . i think that would be really fun – the idea of traveling to that planet or them invading or something . [ ... ] we come up with ideas for peter [ laird ] . ‘ okay , pete , they time - travel back , and they go to mayan culture , and they fight aliens , who just happen to be teleporting back at the same time . ’ and he ’ s like , ‘ eh , we did it in 1992 . ’ stuff like that . i mean , they ’ ve been everywhere . there ’ s so much source material . marketing and tie - ins at the 2006 san diego comic - con , the tmnt panel screened an exclusive preview that contained a splinter voice - over with facial tests , concept art , muscle and dynamic fight tests , and a few comedic scenes . a sneak peek booklet containing storyboards , environment designs and character designs by comic artist jeff matsuda was also distributed at the convention . several tie - in products were released in 2007 . the mcdonald 's fast - food chain had the film - based toys to collect with the purchase of a happy meal . a series of action figures based in the film 's characters was released by playmates toys . a novelization , adapted from munroe 's screenplay by steve murphy , was published by simon spotlight . a five - issue prequel comic miniseries was published by mirage comics . soundtrack the licensed soundtrack tmnt : music from the motion picture was released by atlantic records in 2007 . video games three beat 'em up / action adventure game / platformer adaptations of the film were developed and released by ubisoft in 2007 for a variety of video game consoles . a mobile game tmnt : the power of 4 was also developed by overloaded and released by that same year . in addition , characters from the film are available in ubisoft 's 2009 wii and playstation 2 fighting game teenage mutant ninja turtles : smash - up , while artworks from the film are available in this game as unlockable content . release the film was originally set for release domestically ( usa and canada ) on march 30 , 2007 , which would have been the 17th anniversary of the release of the first tmnt film . the march 30 date was advertised in the teaser trailer and early posters , but the release was moved up to march 23 . a home media edition of tmnt was released on august 7 , 2007 , for the dvd , hd dvd and blu - ray . in 2009 , a box set with all four tmnt films was released to celebrate the franchise 's 25th anniversary . the dvd release contains several special features , including commentary on the feature by writer / director kevin munroe ; an alternate opening and an alternate ending to the film ; and interviews with some of the featured voice talent as well as the filmmakers . reception box office tmnt ranked number one at the box office on its opening weekend , beating 300 ( the top film of the previous two weeks ) , the last , shooter , pride , the hills have eyes 2 , and reign over me . weekend estimates showed that the film made $ 25 . 45 million over the weekend of march 23 – 25 , 2007 . the film grossed over $ 95 million worldwide , including over $ 54 million domestically during its 91 - day run in the 3 , 120 north american theaters . critical response tmnt has a 34 % approval rating on the review aggregator website rotten tomatoes , based on 115 reviews with an average rating of 5 / 10 , and the consensus being " tmnt 's art direction is splendid , but the plot is non - existent and the dialogue lacks the irony and goofy wit of the earlier tmnt movies . " another review aggregator , metacritic , which assigns a weighted average score from film critics , calculated an average rating score of 41 out of 100 based on 21 reviews . claudia puig of usa today gave a negative review , stating that the film " is trying for a new image . but it takes more than an awkward title attempting to sound cool to overcome its mundane plot and silly dialogue . " michael ordona of the los angeles times wrote that " despite the doll - like cartoonishness of the human figures , the filmmakers seem to expect us to take this animated romp seriously . too seriously . " wesley morris of the boston globe called the film " a junk - food pastry . the plot is the wrapper . the action is the oily sponge cake . and the message — family , family , family — is the processed cream filling " . conversely , todd gilchrist of ign gave the film a positive review , calling it " a fun , action - filled adventure that will satisfy longtime fans and generate a legion of new ones , whether it be by virtue of simple storytelling , solid cgi , carefully - choreographed action , or just the spirit and energy that only the turtles can create . " stephen hunter of the washington post felt that the film " is technically superb and quite enjoyable as long as you don 't bang your head against the plot , which will cause hot flashes , premature aging and fallen arches . " according to steven rea of the philadelphia inquirer , the film is " not so dark or scary as to keep most kids away " and it " has a cool , noirish sheen . there 's an attention to detail in the visuals and sound design that pushes it up several notches above most kiddie fare . " awards