Checkered Ninja 3

Checkered Ninja 3
Ternet Ninja 3
Directed by	Anders Matthesen Thorbjørn Christoffersen
Written by	Anders Matthesen
Produced by	Trine Heidegaard Anders Mastrup
Production company	A. Film
Release date	21 August 2025 (2025-08-21) (Denmark)
Country	Denmark
Language	Danish

Checkered Ninja 3 (Danish: Ternet Ninja 3) is a Danish adult animated film from 2025, directed by Anders Matthesen and Thorbjørn Christoffersen. It is the third and final film in the series about Aske and his checkered ninja doll, following Checkered Ninja in 2018 and Checkered Ninja 2 in 2021. It is also based on the book Checkered Ninja 3, which Anders Matthesen published in 2024. The film received positive reviews in the Danish media.

The two previous Checkered Ninja films are among the most popular Danish films in recent times, with approximately 900,000 tickets sold each.

Plot

One year after defeating Phillip Eppermint in Thailand, Alex Stentrøm has grown tired of ninja training with Taiko Nakamura and spends his time at the local youth centre. To get Nakamura off his back, Alex allows him to come to the youth centre with him one evening. There, his friend Odysseus introduces him to the new girl, Emily. Outside, Nakamura witnesses an apparent drug deal involving Marco, Alex's ex-girlfriend Jessica's new boyfriend, and slashes his tyres, making it look like Alex did it. The two fight with Alex winning, but this gets him banned from the youth centre for four weeks by Arne, the owner and school music teacher.

That night, Alex's shed is set on fire and he witnesses a mysterious black car leaving his street. The next day, Alex shows Emily around the neighbourhood and the two bond. After Emily goes home, Alex is chased by the mysterious black car. Concluding Marco is behind the recent attacks, Nakamura scares him off by soul jumping into a school mascot costume. At Alex's great-grandmother's funeral, Nakamura sees what appears to be Marco and ends up in the coffin. Alex runs into Emily and they follow the hearse to the crematorium on her bike. After saving Nakamura, Emily discovers his existence. At home, Jessica turns up and reveals she broke up with Marco after realising that she truly loves Alex. However, she becomes furious after seeing Emily, thinking Alex has moved on. Alex gets a threatening message addressed from Marco, telling him to meet him at a building site. Alex fights off what appears to be Marco wearing a helmet and Emily ends up in hospital after apparently being injured. Enraged, Alex goes to Marco's neighbourhood and beats him up. Arriving home, Alex runs into the black car again and confronts the driver; a man named Lionel Ollipop who claims to be Alex's biological father.

The next day, Marco and his mother turn up at Alex's house, demanding an apology and that Marco, despite having anger issues, is actually innocent and the "drugs" he's been selling have actually been Pokémon cards. Alex's mother Sirena reveals that she accidentally burnt down the shed after trying to cook meat as she has decided to stop her vegan lifestyle. Alex, blaming Nakamura for misleading him with Marco, denounces him and sneaks out to meet with Emily at the hospital. Emily tells him that Jessica, who has been arrested, has been behind the recent events. Disheartened, Nakamura decides to finally pass over to the afterlife. Alex and Emily go to Lionel's cabin for dinner. Alex's stepbrother Sean (who is also aware of Nakamura's existence) unwittingly brings Taiko back and Jessica, who has been exonerated, finds out that Emily has actually been behind the events as she is revealed to be Phillip Eppermint's daughter who escaped from juvenile detention. Emily attacks Alex who discovers that Lionel is actually a scarred Phillip, wanting revenge on Alex for ruining his life and nearly killing him.

Tracking down Phillip's cabin, Nakamura, Sean and Jessica come to Alex's aid but are taken down by Emily and Phillip. Alex tries to convince Emily that Phillip doesn't actually care about her, but she refuses to listen until she discovers Phillip plans to leave her to get arrested for Alex, Sean and Jessica's murders. After he knocks out Emily, Phillip lights the cabin on fire and leaves them all for dead. Nakamura conquers his pyrophobia and his spirit launches out of the cabin and forces Phillip to drive back and possess him to free the kids. As Alex tries to save Emily, he stops to help Nakamura. Phillip tries to get Emily to help him but she denounces him as her father and pushes him into the fire, killing him. She then saves Alex and the cabin burns down. Nakamura's spirit appears and silently bids farewell to Alex before finally crossing over.

Some time later, Emily is back at juvenile detention, now leading a happier life. Alex's family and friends gather at a barbecue where Sirena finally reveals the identity of Alex's true, biological father: Arne. Accepting him and his stepfather John as both of his fathers, Alex and Jessica resume their relationship and dance along to Arne's song about family.

Cast

• Louis Næss-Schmidt as Aske
• Flora Ofelia Hofman Lindahl as Emily
• Emma Sehested Høeg as Jessica
• Anders Matthesen as Checkered Ninja, Marco, and several other characters

Production

The YouTube channel Spørge Jørgen, run by Jørgen Bjørn Hansen and Kristina Iskov, followed the development of Checkered Ninja 3 for seven months and visited A. Film to speak with Anders Matthesen and the animators about the film. In addition, Spørge Jørgen also visited Nordisk Film, where the dialogue was recorded. Art Director Kresten Vestbjerg Andersen uploaded a video showing the film's character models on his YouTube channel in December 2025.

Reception

Box office

According to a tally in mid-December 2025, the film had reached nearly 775,000 tickets sold and was at that time the highest-grossing film in Danish cinemas that year.

Reviews

Filmmagasinet Ekko awarded the film four out of six stars. Reviewer Frederik Hoff argued that Danes were fortunate that Checkered Ninja, as the most successful business venture in Danish cinema, was at the same time an original and deeply personal story, even if some of the film's jokes felt somewhat dated and not all of its voice performances were equally convincing. Hoff was also highly impressed by the animation, which he considered the highest quality yet seen in Denmark and at times astonishingly photorealistic.

In Politiken, Joakim Grundahl awarded the entire trilogy the maximum six hearts, arguing that the three films together formed a perfectly shaped coming-of-age story and stood as a unique masterpiece in Danish film history because of their complex characters, provocative humor, and sensitive tenderness.

Berlingske reviewer Birgitte Borup awarded five stars and wrote that the film was simultaneously for children and adults, a coming-of-age story, a critique of the spirit of the age, a thriller, and at times a laugh-out-loud comedy.

In Information, Lone Nikolajsen argued that the success of the three Checkered Ninja films was well deserved and encouraging. She praised the concluding film for its fast pace and abundance of ideas, for having a story that made sense within its own absurd framework, and for an ending frightening enough to make a 43-year-old film critic shiver. She also noted that the film spent most of its time heading in unexpected directions rather than predictable ones. Nikolajsen further praised the film for its accurate depiction of the Vestegnen environment in which Aske and his blended family live, a setting otherwise underrepresented in Danish children's fiction.