Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Is the Franchise At Its Finest: Review
The post Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Is the Franchise At Its Finest: Review appeared first on Consequence.
The Pitch: Stop me if you’ve heard this one — they’re heroes in a half-shell… and they’re green. They also happen to be teenagers, which is a major component of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, the newest iteration of the comic book characters created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman.
Mutant Mayhem begins with the events that eventually lead to Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michaelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), and Raphael (Brady Noon) evolving from baby turtles waddling on four legs to humanoid ninja-fighting pizza lovers. Fifteen years later, they’re tired of hiding from humanity in the sewers with their loving yet paranoid adoptive father, Splinter (Jackie Chan) — however, they have a plan for changing things, with some help from their new friend, aspiring teen reporter April O’Neil (Ayo Edibiri): Use the martial arts skills they were taught as self-defense against the humans to help the humans, and thus win humanity’s respect and get the chance to join society.
Unfortunately, the mutant supervillain they attempt to bring down is tougher than he seems, and there are other forces as well which are interested in finding mutants and exploiting them. In short, there’s plenty to keep the Turtles from living out their fondest fantasy — attending high school.
It’s Fun to Lose and to Pretend: One of the most exciting choices Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem makes might not be one you notice right away, but it’s actually a pretty significant one: All four of the title characters are different sizes. Not in a dramatic way, but each boy has his own individual physique — Raph’s a bit burlier than the others, while Leonardo’s somewhat leaner.
It says an awful lot about the Mutant Mayhem creative team’s attention to detail, and their priorities: It’s a lot easier for an animation studio to animate characters who are the same shape and size; it’s literally four times the work to create four distinctive designs. It’s why so many past TMNT adaptations have depicted the characters as largely identical, save for the coloring of their masks (the recent series Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles being one notable aberration). However, making sure each turtle reads as unique from his brothers proves to be an essential choice, one which enhances the character-forward narrative in countless ways.
With the Lights out, It’s Less Dangerous: Mutant Mayhem comes from “permanent teenager Seth Rogen,” according to Paramount’s marketing, and adolescence is the vibe, in ways that elevate the new film above the many past iterations. Yes, I confess that I’ve never seen the Michael Bay-produced films for… some reason… (I didn’t want to.) However, the original 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a fond childhood favorite, and Mutant Mayhem might just surpass that film. Not just on a technical level (though the Jim Henson’s Creature Shop animatronic suits hold up remarkably well), but on a character level as well.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Paramount)
Mutant Mayhem really focuses in on the first T of TMNT, with casting and character designs that really capture this specific demographic, with remarkable results. The narrative core of the Turtles franchise is similar to that of the Hulk, or Frankenstein’s monster, or the 1994 Disney animated series Gargoyles: The outsider who longs to fit in. The sting of that longing is even sharper, though, when coupled with the general malaise of being a teenager, all hope for the future and despair that it will never come. There’s a real emotional core to this film…
The fact that it’s also a genuine romp, packed with great jokes and breathtaking visuals? Bonus.
Here We Are Now, Entertain Us: The voice casting is pretty near perfect, starting with the brilliant choice of the four leads, who have amazing chemistry together — which the audience gets to experience in an unfiltered way, because the film’s cast recorded together in groups (as opposed to most voice acting performances, which actors record solo). Even a scene of the four boys talking before bed is alive and vibrant because of this; the movie would probably be half an hour shorter if you cut the scenes in which they’re just goofing around, but doing so would mean cutting out this movie’s beating heart.
In addition, Ice Cube plays a mutant fly named Superfly, a collection of words that are pure pleasure to type, and Jackie Chan gets plenty of charming moments as Splinter (plus, Splinter gets a fight sequence that pays direct homage to Chan’s on-screen martial arts legacy). The rest of the voice cast includes Hannibal Buress, Rose Byrne, John Cena, Natasia Demetriou, Giancarlo Esposito, Post Malone, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, and Maya Rudolph, with casting that’s sometimes a bit on the nose but not diminished by that: What We Do in the Shadows‘s Natasia Demetriou as a mutant bat? Sometimes the obvious choice is the right one.
The Verdict: Frankly, it almost seems unfair that this summer features not one but two genuinely fantastic animated re-imaginings of classic characters. The kids today, they don’t know how good they got it.
If anything feels out of sync, it’s the way in which life in the year 2023 doesn’t immediately integrate with aspects of the original premise… which is a roundabout way of saying that I never expected to put much thought into how one might get reliable cell service and home internet in a sewer, especially without a viable driver’s license or home address. Also, some of the pop culture references might not age as well as this film deserves, but they’re hilarious for now, and go a long way towards making the Turtles feel like real teens, who are far more interested in goofing around than they are in saving the world.
These are minor concerns, especially for a film that’s so seeped in love for its source material, and communicates that through the screen. There’s so much to appreciate here, such as the film’s dynamic score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, or the needle drops, which aren’t just delightful picks on their own, but integrated into the action with thought and care — one extended montage set to Blackstreet’s “No Diggity” might be one of the most beautifully animated sequences of the year so far.
Yes, that’s a big thing to say following the release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, but while playing in the same realm of raw and unfinished that the previous film occasionally did, director Jeff Rowe and co-director Kyler Spears have created a strong unique aesthetic of their own, one that embraces a hand-painted feel and thus yet more of a human touch. In a time when so much of what we consume can feel plastic and cheap and mass-produced, it’s the human touch we come to crave — especially when it leads to something as fun as this.
Where to Watch: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem kick-punches its way into theaters beginning Wednesday, August 2nd.
Trailer:
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Is the Franchise At Its Finest: Review
Liz Shannon Miller
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