Nowadays studios expect sequels to make more money than their predecessors, but that wasn’t always true. It used to be fine and dandy if a sequel earned half of the prior flick’s take, and no one expected ever-increasing totals back in Ye Olden Dayes.

And that accounting makes the 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sequels successful. The 1990 original was a huge hit by any standards, and the 1991 sequel did just fine as well.

Sure, the latter made only half of the former’s gross. Nonetheless, it still turned a tidy profit.

The ledgers become more complicated with 1993’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. It grossed $42 million – or barely one-fourth the take of the first flick – but it also came with a low $21 million budget. When all was said and done, I’m sure New Line made money off the film, especially thanks to the then-ample revenue from home video.

But apparently this was not enough to keep going. Turtles III would be the last entry in the franchise until it got “rebooted” in 2007.

At a flea market, news reporter April O’Neil (Paige Turco) finds various items that she buys for her Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pals Leonardo (Mark Caso/voiced by Brian Tochi), Raphael (Matt Hill/Tim Kelleher), Michelangelo (David Fraser/Robbie Rist) and Donatello (Jim Raposa/Corey Feldman). She also scoops up an ancient Japanese artifact for their rat mentor Splinter (James Murray).

This item bears a supernatural connection to the feudal Japanese society from which it originated. When it becomes activated, it sends April back in time and exchanges her with Kenshin (Henry Hayashi), the son of a warlord who participates in a revolution against his pop (Sab Shimono). The Turtles head back in time to rescue her; inevitably, they become involved in the rebellion as they also try to take April back to modern-day New York.

If nothing else, Turtles III deserves credit for the ambition of its plot. While it offered a couple of new twists, the first sequel told essentially the same story as the original flick. Turtles III at least tries to give us something new and different.

The film also earns some points for a gutsy opening, as the first few minutes plop us in feudal Japan with no warning. We find nothing to tell us we’re in a Turtles movie, so we have to wait a little while before we see what we expect. Given the series’ youthful audience, it seems mildly audacious to open with such a potentially confusing bit.

And that’s where my praise for Turtles III ends. Although both of the first two movies aim for a youthful audience, they don’t usually embarrass the older viewer.

The 1990 film actually feels surprisingly dark. The 1991 sequel boasts a pretty light tone and the Vanilla Ice sequence should make the filmmakers hang their heads in shame, but otherwise the flick delivers decent entertainment.

Turtles III sticks so heavily with a kid-oriented experience that it loses the adult viewer – and probably doesn’t do much for the kids, either. The plot makes less than no sense, and the film just never delivers any real fun.

It tries super-hard to entertain us. However, most of the choices – like wacky sound effects during fights – come across as desperate.

There’s no real life on display, and the characters lack the same spunk found in the first couple of movies. They were never especially rich personalities, but here they’re just annoying most of the time.

The flick does bring back some 1990 actors missing in 1991, so Corey Feldman returns to voice Donatello, and Elias Koteas comes back to play a second part in addition to Casey Jones. They must’ve needed the pay, as they can’t have been enchanted by the lousy story.

Though it boasts a higher budget than its predecessors, Turtles III looks cheaper. The primary problem comes from the character effects.

I thought the Turtles and Splinter looked pretty good in the earlier films, but here they seem much less convincing. The franchise changed studios from 1991 to 1993 – maybe the Hensons charged too much to retain them for the third movie – and the quality really suffers. Poor Splinter often looks like a refugee from Chuck E. Cheese!

All of this disappoints because Turtles III could’ve been a satisfying flick. It takes on the most ambitious story of the first three films, and it occasionally demonstrates a vague willingness to take chances. Unfortunately, the execution totally falls flat.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This became a solid Dolby Vision presentation.

Sharpness looked quite good. A few slightly soft shots occasionally materialized, but those instances remained minor. The movie usually seemed sharp and well-defined.

No issues with jaggies or shimmering occurred and edge haloes remained absent. Grain felt appropriate and I saw no print flaws.

Colors fared well, as the movie used a bright palette that often excelled. The hues were lively and bold throughout the movie, with an appealing bump from HDR.

Blacks appeared dark and firm, while shadows were pretty good. Contrast and whites enjoyed a leap thanks to HDR. This may be a bad movie, but it gave us the best visuals of the 1990s Turtles flicks.

While not quite as good, the DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack of Turtles III was more than acceptable. The soundfield worked fairly well.

Music demonstrated pretty good stereo imaging, and effects broadened the spectrum well. The forward domain dominated and featured a lot of activity. The elements weren’t always tremendously well localized, but they showed fair enough placement.

Surround usage was fine. By current standards, the track didn’t utilize the back speakers to tremendous effect, but it allowed them to create a reasonably lively setting. The mix opened up the action in a satisfying manner.

Audio quality was also positive. Speech showed nicely natural qualities, as the lines were always appropriate.

On a few occasions, music sounded slightly dense, but the score was usually pretty robust and full. Effects demonstrated good accuracy and range. Overall, the track didn’t excel, but it was worth a “B”.

How did the 4K UHD compare to the 2009 Blu-ray? The DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack seemed virtually identical to the BD’s Dolby TrueHD 5.1.

With the UHD’s Dolby Vision image, we got the expected improvements in terms of colors, delineation and blacks. This turned into a nice upgrade in terms of visuals.

The BD lacked real extras but we get a mix here, and we start with an audio commentary from director Stuart Gillard. He gives us a running, screen-specific look at story/characters, cast and performances, sets and locations, stunts and action, effects and related domains.

Though Gillard launches into the track with a lot of gusto, he starts to fade fairly quickly. He does continue to give us a decent level of insight the rest of the way but the discussion becomes less consistent after a strong opening.

Two featurettes follow, and Rebel Rebel goes for 14 minutes, 17 seconds. This one involves actor Vivian Wu.

She discusses her career along with aspects of the Turtles III shoot. Wu gives us a lively look at these topics.

Daimyos & Demons runs 10 minutes, 14 seconds. It brings us notes from actor Sab Shimono.

Here we learn about Shimono's experiences during the Turtles III production. While not as informative as Wu's chat, Shimono nonetheless provides a likable discussion.

An Alternate UK Opening spans two minutes, three seconds and changes the scene to remove Michelangelo's nunchaku to suit UK censorship. This becomes worthwhile as a historical artifact, though with a 1.33:1 ratio and VHS-quality reproduction, it doesn't look good.

In addition to the film's trailer, we conclude with an Image Gallery that displays 23 frames. Along with a few posters, these mostly show shots from the movie so this feels like a meh compilation.

After two reasonably watchable adventures, the franchise falters with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III. Despite a potentially exciting story, the silliness and idiocy ensure its failure. The 4K UHD boasts solid picture and audio along with a moderate compilation of supplements. I can’t fault the quality of the movie presentation, but it’s a bad flick.

Note: this Turtles III 4K UHD currently appears only as part of a “Trilogy” set that also includes 1990’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze.