Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

In 1603 feudal Japan, four samurai on horseback chase a young man into the woods. A mysterious woman hidden in the underbrush watches closely. The samurai capture the youth, who is revealed to be a prince named Kenshin.

In the present, a year after the defeat of Shredder and the Foot Clan, April O'Neil buys gifts for The Turtles while shopping at a flea market. At their underground lair, April gives Michelangelo an old lamp, Donatello an old radio, Leonardo a book on swords, and a fedora hat for Raphael. Splinter receives an ancient Japanese scepter.

Back in the past, Lord Norinaga berates his son, Kenshin, for disgracing their family name. Kenshin argues that his father's desire for war is the true disgrace. When an English trader named Walker arrives to supply Norinaga with added manpower and firearms, Kenshin leaves to brood alone in a temple. There, he finds the scepter and reads the inscription: "Open wide the gates of time".

The scepter that April is holding lights up and she is sent into the past as Kenshin takes her place; each is wearing what the other wore in their own time. Walker imprisons April after deducing she is not a witch and is powerless. Back in the present, Kenshin thinks the Turtles are "kappa". After Kenshin explains the time swap, the Turtles decide to rescue April. According to Donatello's calculations, they only have 60 hours to rescue her before the scepter's power disappears. Meanwhile, Casey Jones will watch over Kenshin and the lair. As the turtles warp through time, they are replaced by four of Norinaga's honor guards.

The Turtles land in the past dressed as honor guards riding horses. Amid the confusion, Michelangelo rides into the forest and is ambushed by the mysterious woman Mitsu. An unseen person takes the scepter from him. The other Turtles go to Norinaga's castle and rescue April and also free Whit, a prisoner resembling Casey. In the woods, the Turtles, April, and Whit are attacked by villagers mistaking them for Norinaga's forces. Mitsu, the leader of the rebellion against Lord Norinaga, unmasks Raphael and sees that he looks like her prisoner. Realizing Michelangelo is her captive, the Turtles accompany Mitsu to her village. Upon arriving, Walker's men are burning the village. As the Turtles help the villagers, Michelangelo is freed and joins the fight. Walker is forced to retreat, but the fire has trapped Mitsu's younger brother Yoshi inside a house. Michelangelo saves Yoshi and Leonardo performs CPR; this earns the Turtles the villagers' gratitude and respect.

Walker bargains with Lord Norinaga over weapons for gold. Michelangelo consoles Mitsu about Kenshin, whom she loves. In the present, Casey tries to help the honor guards adjust to the 20th century, while Kenshin and Splinter fear the Ninja Turtles will not return before the sixty hours are up.

Principal photography began on June 15 and ended on August 5, 1992.

Writer and director Stuart Gillard spoke about the film for the first time in 2024. He said that Golden Harvest approached him to make the third movie from his experience in television. Gillard flew to Massachusetts several times to discuss the script with co-creators Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, who had film rights to the TMNT property. They went through several revisions until he pitched the idea of time travel, which was immediately greenlit. Eastman and Laird made it clear not to bring back the Shredder, who was killed in the previous film, and make this sequel "edgier." The time sceptre was loosely based on the character Renet from the Mirage comics. However, it was agreed not to feature her in the film. One of Gillard's favorite scenes is when Yoshi befriends Raphael, which is his favorite turtle.

The film holds a 19% approval rating and has an average rating of 4.10/10 on Rotten Tomatoes based on 32 reviews, with the consensus: "It's a case of one sequel too many for the heroes in a half shell, with a tired time-travel plot gimmick failing to save the franchise from rapidly diminishing returns". On Metacritic, it has a score of 40 out of 100 based on reviews from 12 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Michael Wilmington of Los Angeles Times noted that distributors deliberately kept the film away from critics. Despite mild praise for the look of the film, Wilmington called the first film a fluke hit and called this third film "sequel hell". James Berardinelli gave it one out of four stars, citing that "any adults accompanying their kids will have to invent new and interesting ways to stay awake. Not only is this movie aimed at young children, the script could have been written by them". TV Guide gave it two out of four stars and said in their review: "If the time-travel gimmick has to be employed twice in a row then it's probably best to banish these characters to a retirement sewer", when commenting about a possible future film invoking time travel.

TMNT co-creator Peter Laird mentioned in the 2014's Turtle Power documentary that he disliked the film, and Kevin Eastman noted the efforts taken to create it.

What we tried to do with the third movie was to make it as good of a story as we could. We went through a painstaking level of do's and don'ts, what they could and couldn't do. We wanted something that would be good for all ages again. I call movie one the best, movie two the worst, and movie three halfway in between.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III debuted at number 1 at the U.S. box office with a gross of $12.4 million from 2,087 screens. The film grossed $42.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $12.2 million internationally, giving a worldwide gross of $54.4 million.