Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Mutations Unleashed

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Mutations Unleashed is a 1996 superhero action comedy film directed by Dennis Papadakis, written by Katherine Greenfield, Malcolm J. Katz and Earl Church from a story by, and based on the  characters created by and Laird. It stars, , , Kyle Oikawa, and Parson Brown with the voices of , , Dave Belenky, , Tony Woodburn and.

It is the sequel to  (1993) and the first film in the franchise not to have the involvement of original production company. It is the final film set in 's timeline.

Shortly before the film's production, producer severely reduced the film's budget, and 30 minutes of footage were deleted after negative test screenings. Upon release, it was widely panned by critics and fans alike, with many reviewers citing poor special effects, inconsistencies and plot holes. No further Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films were released until the computer-animated  in 2007.

Live action

 * as, a reporter for Channel 3 News
 * as
 * as, the Turtles and Splinter's arch-nemesis who survived a dock collapsing on him in the second film, and wishes to get revenge on the Turtles. Saito returned as Shredder after being replaced by in the second film.
 * Kyle Oikawa as Malcolm Saki, The Shredder's nephew who positions himself as his sidekick
 * Parson Brown as Alan Goode, a tycoon who takes over Channel 3 and repositions it as a  station.

Voice cast
Rist and Tochi, who voice Michelangelo and Leonardo, respectively, are the only actors to voice the same characters in all three live-action TMNT movies. Josh Pais returned as the voice of Raphael after being absent for the second and third movies.
 * as Leonardo, the leader of the group, dons a blue mask and wields two katana swords.
 * Dave Belenky as Donatello, the smartest of the group, dons a purple mask and wields a bo staff.
 * as Raphael, the aggressive member of the group, dons a red mask and wields two sai.
 * as Michelangelo, the playful member of the group, dons an orange mask and wields two nunchakus.
 * Tony Woodburn as Kirby, the mysterious "fifth turtle".
 * as Mondo Gecko, a mutated gecko who befriends and assists the turtles.
 * as Bebop, a mutated warthog in the service of The Shredder.
 * as Rocksteady, a mutated rhinoceros and Bebop's sidekick.
 * Thomas Stockton as Splinter, master and father figure of the ninja turtles.

Puppeteers

 * George Gillick as Leonardo (in-suit performer)
 * Chance Galdames as Leonardo (facial assistant)
 * Ricky Lan as Leonardo (in-suit martial arts stunt double)
 * Sam Ronnes as Donatello (in-suit performer)
 * Peter Bauernfeind as Donatello (facial assistant)
 * Yaron Shimoni as Donatello (in-suit martial arts stunt double)
 * Jeff Fleischhauer as Raphael (in-suit performer)
 * Adam Chesney as Raphael (facial assistant)
 * Armando Tan as Raphael (in-suit martial arts stunt double)
 * Kenny Huntsman as Michelangelo (in-suit performer)
 * Rick Coulson as Michelangelo (facial assistant)
 * Vernon Teng as Michelangelo (in-suit martial arts stunt double)
 * Simon Allen Jr. as Michelangelo (in-suit skateboarding stunt double)
 * Phil Szanto as Kirby (in-suit performer)
 * Louis Davidsen as Kirby (facial assistant)
 * Vince Maran as Kirby (in-suit martial arts stunt double)
 * as Mondo Gecko (in-suit performer)
 * Chuck Chesney as Mondo Gecko (facial assistant)
 * James Ashitomi as Mondo Gecko (in-suit martial arts stunt double)
 * Jamie Hogberg as Mondo Gecko (in-suit skateboarding stunt double)
 * Will Curtis as Bebop (in-suit performer)
 * as Bebop (facial assistant)
 * as Bebop (in-suit stunt double)
 * France Coburn as Rocksteady (in-suit performer)
 * Bill Gilroy as Rocksteady (facial assistant)
 * as Rocksteady (in-suit stunt double)
 * Jerry Yeager as Splinter (puppeteer)
 * Tim Theyer as Splinter (assistant puppeteer)
 * Crystal Michaels as Splinter ("walking" in-suit performer)
 * James Ashitomi as Splinter ("walking" in-suit martial arts stunt double)

Development and casting
, who produced the first three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films, planned to produce a fourth installment if  was successful enough. The film received an unexpectedly negative reaction and only grossed $54.4 million, which made it the lowest-grossing entry in the series.

After negotiations during the 1994, Golden Harvest sold the film rights to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise to and his  company for $2 million in August 1994, in a deal brokered by  and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles licensing partners Surge Licensing.

Multiple scripts were pitched. A script titled TMNT IV: The Foot Walks Again was written by Craig Shapiro and John Travis. was involved in a concept titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: The Next Mutation, some of his concepts were re-used in Mutations Unleashed, for which he received a story credit, while the subsequent  TV series re-used the name of that pitch. Comic writer Billy Thornhill penned a script titled Beyond the Valley of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a script with a more self-parodic tone in which the Ninja Turtles and the Foot Clan fight over control of a town of mutated creatures.

Filming
Production of Mutations Unleashed began in 1995. In his book Tales from New Hollywood, Parson Brown described the production of the movie:
 * Virtually everything was hampered by all kinds of budget restrictions and cutbacks. New Concorde had several projects in the works when we were filming, and they treated us no better. For example, Katz wrote a scene where the Turtles walk down the street to to accept the key to the city from the mayor. If that had been in a scene in any of the three films before that, they would have at least filmed the exteriors at City Hall, and would have choreographed many extras gawking at the sight of the Ninja Turtles like they're witnessing  flying through the air. Instead, we had to shoot in downtown  in the hot Southern sun in the middle of June with about a handful of extras and a dozen pigeons thrown in to try and trick the viewers into thinking it really is New York.

An interview with Tony Woodburn cited this scene as an example of Corman's budget slashing. Papadakis claimed in an interview that he and the writers begged to be able to film that sequence in New York in front of the real New York City Hall because everyone knew how it looked and the, which the scene made use of, looked nothing like it, but Corman refused.

Two months before production began in on June 1, 1995, Corman reduced the budget from the already-reduced $16 million to $7.3 million. During the production, the filming and special effects crews of the first three films were replaced with cheaper local crews.

To return production to North Carolina, where the first two films were shot, and to keep production solely in the state, none of the film was actually shot on location in any of the areas it was set in. For example, the opening flashback depicting Splinter and Shredder's ninjitsu training in Japan was actually shot at a Buddhist monastery in.

Special effects
, who was responsible for the creature effects for the first two films, were turned down by Corman due to their price quota "being too high". Instead, -based firm SFX Unlimited, led by Jim Capek, made the creature effects, including the Turtles in both their "regular" and "hyper-mutation" form, as well as those for Kirby, Bebop & Rocksteady and Mondo Gecko. In spite of being much more rudimentary than those of the previous films, the "hyper-mutated" Turtle suits were the most ambitious of the Turtle costumes used in the films.