TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, Paramount Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 31, 2023

Is there really any point in arguing what the appropriate tone for a story about four mutant turtles, trained in the martial arts by their mutant rat father/master, should be? Purists of the original comic books would likely argue a more serious approach, while those who grew up with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by way of video games, animated TV series, and cheesy live-action movies would probably contend a sillier one. What both groups might agree on is that the material should be fun in some way, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is, above all else, fun in a way that these characters have never been in any of their big-screen endeavors.

Gone is the attempt to make stunt performers in elaborate or cheap costumes look as if they belong in the real world. Absent is some generic style of computer animation meant to look stylized without actually possessing any style. We can all be grateful that whatever the filmmakers of the most recent hybrid approach, in which CG versions of the Turtles interacted with the real world, were thinking in taking a "realistic" approach to character design is a forgotten memory here.

Everything about the characters and world of this new animated adventure blends together seamlessly, and director Jeff Rowe, with co-director Kyler Spears and the film's team of artists, have guaranteed that this enterprise has a genuine, notable sense of style. It basically has become a cliché to state that a movie looks like a comic book come to life, but that won't stop the observation being made in this case, because, well, that is definitely the case here.

What's somewhat unique about the creative team's approach to that moving-comic style in this film is that this doesn't look like some polished product. It possesses the visual form and edge of a comic made outside the mainstream, as if it has been drawn by someone who hasn't mastered basic shapes (Circles look more like ovals, while squares are more akin to off-balanced rhombuses, and none of those shapes match any others, even when they're supposed to, such as on a traffic light) or perspective (Apart from one important character, every human face is off-kilter). It doesn't matter, though, because the artful passion is so clearly on display.

The outsider approach is appropriate when one considers the Turtles began as the wholly independent creation of Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, who challenged the big two comic houses in the 1980s with their decidedly weird creations. The fact that we're still talking about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles almost 40 years later—after all of the movie ventures, television shows, other pieces of media, and many, many toys—means they got something right. It's tough to argue against that kind of longevity.

It's also tough to argue against the elements that come up short in this film, mainly in terms of its gradually generic plot and rushed third act, when it gets so much else right. From the film's rich but admirably off-kilter look to its decisive portrayal of these characters, the filmmakers get the most important aspects correct.

The back story, of course, is pretty much what everyone knows already, in that some mysterious ooze transforms four ordinary turtles and a rat into larger, talking, and standing-upright creatures. The Turtles—Leonardo (voice of Nicolas Cantu), Raphael (voice of Brady Noon), Donatello (voice of Micah Abbey), and Michelangelo (voice of Shamon Brown Jr.)—have spent 15 years living in the sewers of New York City under the protection and tutelage of a paternal rat named Splinter (voice of Jackie Chan). What's nice here is that each of the Turtles has a distinct look to go along with their divergent personalities, meaning we can actually tell them apart without the aid of their color-coded costumes.

The quality they all share, though, is that they are decidedly teenagers—filled with a sense of longing for more, curiosity about the world beyond their little one, a deep knowledge of pop culture, and a tendency to be goofily cheery with everything they like. That's especially true when they get into their first fight, against a group of goons who steal the scooter belonging to April O'Neil (voice of Ayo Edebiri), an intrepid reporter for a local high school's newspaper. The group makes a lot of mistakes in their first brawl and get a bit distracted whenever they pull off a particularly cool move, and that, along with their general attitude and enjoyment of shenanigans, makes them endearing in the way only well-meaning and enthusiastic, if slightly annoying, teenagers can be.

The Turtles are desperate to be accepted by human beings, even though they've been raised by Splinter to be suspicious of and fear humanity—for good reason, too. That gets them to meet fellow outsider April, who has been investigating a string of major heists of advanced technical equipment by a criminal mastermind known as Superfly (voice of Ice Cube). The third act revolves around the mutant housefly's nefarious plan to turn every animal on the planet into mutants, like himself and his assorted henchmen, and conquer humanity.

That thread, which overtakes the entire story at a certain point, is routinely formulaic, which makes for a disappointing final stretch of a film that otherwise shows so much creative and comedic energy. Still, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is the best the Turtles and their world have looked and the most dynamic they have been as characters. Even when the film finally becomes a string of generic fights, it's still fun, and that has to count for something.

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