In feudal Japan, there existed a class of secretive operatives known as ninjas, proficient in covert activities, mercenary work and guerrilla warfare.
In the 1980s, there was a cultural fascination with ninjas and kung-fu movies. During that era, two cartoonists, Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, financed by a tax refund and a family loan created a black-and-white comic book centred around ninja characters.
Surprisingly, these ninjas were not human, but rather, pizza-loving Mutated Teenage Turtles. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) laid the foundation for a popular franchise, giving rise to TV shows and six movies, targeting young audiences.
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have proven to possess a timeless fan base. Not surprisingly, Hollywood capitalised on this enthusiasm and, just six years after the last live-action movie, decided to produce yet another TMNT film.
So, pizzas, skateboards, kungfu, and a budget of $70 million – what does Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, which was produced by the self-proclaimed permanent teenager Seth Rogen, have to offer this time around?
Story: In the shadowy underbelly of New York City’s sewers, Splinter nurtures the Turtles imparting self-defence skills while imposing a well-justified decree against mingling with the humans. However, being adolescents, their greatest desire is to experience acceptance from the world of humanity.
Star-studded: As the end credits rolled, I was taken aback by the incredible line-up of stars in this film. Apart from the main characters – Nicolas Cantu portraying Leonardo, Micah Abbey as Donatello, Brady Noon in the role of Raphael, Ayo Edebiri voicing April O’Neil, Shamon Brown Jr. embodying Michelangelo – the movie boasts an impressive cast including Ice Cube as Superfly, and notable appearances by Jackie Chan, Seth Rogen, John Cena, Giancarlo Esposito, Post Malone, Paul Rudd, Hannibal Buress, Dylan O’Brien, and James Marsden, but don’t get excited many of them are just cameos.
What worked: First of all, this is not just any other animated movie; it’s an animated movie with a distinct visual style inspired by Spiderman into the Spider-Verse.
Instead of copying, it borrows elements such as vibrant, popping colours, a combination of various art styles, and playful outlines on the assets.
Despite being in 3D, the movement feels reminiscent of Claymation and stop-motion, while the character designs give the impression of 2D designs expressed in 3D.
The dark environments, contrasted with vibrant lighting, create a visually pleasing and unique look.
Beyond the visuals, the movie is also well-written, funny, and highly entertaining. It captures some of the best teenage moments for the turtles, fully embracing their teenage nature of intellectual property (IP).
The interactions among the characters feel authentic as if they’ve known each other and grown up together, which makes for fast-paced and hilarious banter.
I’m also glad that they gave Splinter an arc in the film. Previously, Splinter’s relationship with the teens was more of a master-student dynamic, centred around lessons rather than emotional connections.
However, in this movie, Splinter, voiced by Jackie Chan, has a full story arc and plays more of a fatherly role than that of a master.
Speaking of voice acting, the four main characters who play the turtles are fantastic. Chan’s portrayal of Splinter is excellent, but the true star of the show is Ice Cube as Superfly.
He brings charisma and menace to the character and delivers some of the funniest moments in the movie.
If you enjoy 90s hip-hop music, you’ll have an excellent time with the well-mixed music that complements the story, capturing the mood at just the right moments.
Lastly, the film is well-edited and shot, which greatly aids in its pacing. Despite being an original film, it impressively manages to contain a lot in terms of story, drama, and action within its one-hour and 39 minutes runtime.
As initially mentioned, the character design is fantastic, but there are two characters that I found repulsive. Their designs are intentional and play into the story, but they were really difficult to look at.
Superfly is a fantastic character personality-wise, but again, his design is odd.
Symmetry plays a big part in character design, so I couldn’t wrap my head around Superfly as a character with one really big crab-like hand and the other a short human-like hand.
The theme of the film is acceptance, and while it works, especially in a movie targeting a younger audience, I thought it was overdone.
What do I mean? All the characters’ motivations and arcs in this movie are based on a need to be accepted. I mean, you don’t go 20 minutes without someone, in one way or another, talking about being accepted and it eventually starts getting old very quickly.
The other thing, a personal preference, I hoped that they would have kept the third act much smaller than they did and focused on more grounded fight scenes rather than the Godzilla-like approach to bring out the “ninja” aspect of the movie.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a beautiful, fun family iteration of the TMNT franchise. It was made by individuals who love the IP and offers a good time in the cinema.
Younger audiences will have fun with it as well as adults. Some designs might be gross, but what the art department was able to do sets this movie apart from any other animation that came out this year, coming second only to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It is a good time in the cinema. Cowabunga!
