Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
“TMNT: Mutant Mayhem” is the first animated movie where you can really clearly see the influence the “Spider-Verse” movies have had. In the art, the action, the elevated story. It's very apparent they're taking cues from Spider-Man. But you know what? That's totally fine, because it produced an absolutely kick ass Ninja Turtles movie. “Mutant Mayhem” is funny, hilarious actually. It has great action sequences. A phenomenal voice cast. And above all, it's a Ninja Turtle story we haven't seen before. I'm a long time Ninja Turtle die-hard, so it's not a hard sell to try to get me into a story featuring The Shredder. But he's absent here in favour of a new threat, and it's a refreshing take I'm here for.
The most important part of the movie is getting the four turtle brothers right, and this movie nails it. All the individual identities come through, with maybe the exception of Donatello who could have used a little more screen time. But the main focus is on Leonardo and his inability to fall into the leadership role seemingly thrust upon him. All four have their moments though. Some of those best moments come while interacting with Master Splinter (played excellently by the legendary Jackie Chan). Splinter is a real highlight in this movie, because it's such a different take. He's still a martial arts expert, but he's a lot more bumbling as a parent. Which is a big difference. Splinter has always been presented more like a Sensei who accepts his students as his children. Here Splinter is a parent first and a teacher second, and it works so well. I'm incredibly curious to see how they handle him when they inevitably introduce The Shredder in future films.
April O'Neil is also changed up from being a seasoned adult reporter, to a teenage outcast with a desire to make it as a future reporter. I didn't love the changes initially, but it grew on me as the movie played, and by the end I was fully sold. It actually makes so much sense for April to be a teen too, so she and the turtles can share in the adolescence experience. She's also voiced by Ayo Edebiri (now famous for her role on “The Bear”, quite possibly one of the best television shows ever made).
The character design is a little hit and miss. I think it lands where it counts, but some of the mutants look a little too weird to the point of looking ugly. I think that's kind of the point since they're supposed to be literal mutants, but it's just a bit too off putting at times. The “final boss” so to speak is a cool idea that I don't want to ruin here for you, but it's appearance just comes off as ugly. It's easy to overlook because the rest of the film is so damn good.
The comedy is excellent, tons of jokes that will have you consistently laughing the entire runtime of the film. Which is to be expected since it was written by the team that brought you movies like “This is The End”, “The Night Before”, “Superbad” and more. And much like the aforementioned films, the soundtrack is also bangin. Perfect for a film set in New York about street level superheroes. Did I mention the influence of “Spider-Verse”? But these are good things.
I'm really excited to see where they go with this as a new franchise, especially given the ending that takes the Turtles in a vastly different direction than they've ever gone previously. It's a thrilling new take that is going to spawn a television show, as well as more movies. And I'm going to be here for all of it.
8.5/10
