Movie Review: 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem'

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Directed by Jeff Rowe

Written by Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Jeff Rowe, Dan Hernandez, Benji Samit

Starring Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Hannibal Burress, Rose Byrne, Nicolas Cantu, John Cena, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Post Malone

Release Date August 2nd, 2023

Published August 6th, 2023

I watched the 1990 live action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles recently for a review timed to the release of the latest attempt to rebuild the Turtles as a viable movie franchise. What I found was a movie that I absolutely loved. I was too old when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released in 1990, I was 14 and I thought it was for much younger kids. Look back now, with the wisdom of more than 30 years, I can say, yes, it is a product for young children, younger than 14 even, but it's a wonderful product. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 1990 is a ridiculously fun movie. It's filled with wonderful invention and kid friendly action.

Everything that came after that movie, not counting the television shows that I've never seen, has been a dreary slog. Each new film iteration of the Turtles has carried with it the very obvious burden of corporate exploitation. Each of the various filmmakers who tackled the franchise appeared to be doing so with a studio held gun to their head that dictated exactly how the movie should be geared toward selling merchandise and creating sequels was the only reason these movies existed. Thus, we got a series of joyless, unpleasant live action and animated attempts to leverage a popular I.P into a cash making machine.

I say all of this to demonstrate the bias that the latest iteration of the Turtles on the big screen was up against in my mind. To say that I was cynical about seeing the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles on the big screen again would be a grave understatement. What a lovely surprise it is then to report that the newest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles adventure, subtitled Mutant Mayhem, doesn't completely suck. In fact, it's actually pretty alright. The team of Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and director-co-writer, Jeff Rowe have found a tone and spirit that does well to hide the high level corporately leveraged truth behind its creation.

Mutant Mayhem is yet another Turtles origin story. We have the back story courtesy of a flashback to the origin of our antagonist, a fellow mutant named Superfly. Superfly was the creation of mad scientist Baxter Stockman. Baxter created the ooze but was killed not long after by an evil organization who wanted to steal his ooze and use it to create their own mutant army. A very young Superfly fought off the baddies, rescued his fellow mutant babies, and fled into the night. He left behind one last tube of ooze which breaks and drips into the sewer. There, it finds the Turtles who are rescued by Splinter (Jackie Chan) who gets into the ooze himself.

Splinter is rightfully afraid of humans. His first time taking his turtle babies to the surface world nearly ends with them being killed. Thus, Splinter becomes deeply overprotective. He spends the next decade training his Turtles, Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michaelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.) and Raphael (Brady Noon), to fight. Using old, abandoned VHS tapes, Splinter trains his Turtles to be able to defend themselves against humans. As the Turtles grow up into their mid-teens however, they've only become more and more curious about humans. They wonder if humans aren't as bad as Splinter claims.

That's when the Turtles meet fellow teen, April O'Neil (Ayo Edibiri). After rescuing her stolen scooter from thugs, the Turtles realize that their fighting skills are really sharp. Sharp enough, in fact, that they could use them to become crime fighters. Through April they realize that if they did good deeds, fought crime, humans might like them and let them do things like go to school, make friends, and have a somewhat normal life. Thus, with April as their inspiration, they set about chasing down the biggest criminal in the city, Superfly, unaware that he and his gang are also fellow mutants.

That's the set up for the story that unfolds in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and it's really solid. The whole story really holds up from beginning to end. The poignant desire of the young Turtles to find acceptance in the world matches well with Superfly, voiced brilliantly by Ice Cube, and his desire to irradicate the humans who have treated him like a freak. The competing motivations have a modest middle ground on which the plot exists and it's smarter and more affecting than any previous attempt at giving the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles a reason to exist.

There is a strong sense that the creative team behind Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem truly enjoyed making this movie. Normally when I see five screenwriters have a credit on a movie, I get very cynical, and my negative expectations are of the chart. Here however, it feels as if everyone was pitching very fun ideas, many of which landed in the movie. For a movie with 5 credited screenwriters, there is a surprising cohesion to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. The characters all feel richly brought to life and there really aren't any bad characters, performances, or needless gags.

Then there is the animation which actually overshadows the comedy, action and storytelling of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mutant Mayhem. This is a great looking movie. The animation matches the anarchic spirit of the movie. The animation, though I am sure it was precisely crafted, looks messy, smudged, blurry at the edges. It looks like a comic strip struggling to come to life. That sounds bad, but it's actually brilliant. This movie looks incredible. I loved the style and the way the style of animation enhanced the story being told. The Turtle characters are sloppy teenagers, it makes sense that the animation feels as messy yet lovable as these characters.

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