Checkered Ninja 3 (Danish: Ternet Ninja 3) is a Danish 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.
Contents
Plot
Aske has gradually become less interested in ninja missions and would rather spend time with his friends. Checkered Ninja therefore feels left out and starts seeking new missions on his own. As a result, Aske inadvertently gets into conflict with Jessica's bad-boy boyfriend Marco and his gangster friends. They set fire to the garden shed, and suddenly Aske is entangled in a new conflict he never asked for. Matters are not helped by the fact that Jessica, who is still in love with Aske, becomes very jealous when Aske befriends Emily, a newly arrived girl. Finally, Aske's stepfather Jørn has begun taking his fatherly role a bit too literally for Aske's liking.
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.
