Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Voices of: Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Ayo Edebiri, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Maya Rudolph, John Cena, Seth Rogen, Rose Byrne, Natasia Demetriou, Giancarlo Esposito, Paul Rudd, Post Malone, Hannibal Buress
Directed by: Jeff Rowe, Kyler Spears
Rating: PG
Genre: Animation, Action, Adventure
2023

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Four turtles live a life of isolation, but see a chance to emerge into the world when a mysterious mutant begins a crime spree across the city. Review:

Tim: The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise has been on a bit of a losing streak recently. The last animated movie, from 2007, was underwhelming. The remake films from 2014 and 2016 were not very effective. So, you can only applaud Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem for reversing this trend. Oh, this is still a far cry from the original movie and no where near great, but it's a good film. It's entertaining, funny, stylish, and overall, a badly-needed success for this franchise. It's at least the best film in the franchise since 1991 and you could argue maybe since the 1990 original. Maybe that's been a lowered bar, but a success is a success.

Let's start with the animation style. It was stunning. I loved the grittiness of the designs, the use of shadows. The whole look and feel of this film feels stylish and exciting. This film isn't a frontrunner of this style, but it's still new enough to feel exciting and different. The animation in TMNT a decade and a half ago was solid, but not like this. The style here was a major boost to this film. Now, my one complaint is that at times, it was too difficult to see what was happening. The shadows became too pervasive, the movement too jarring. I wish we could have seen many of the action scenes more clearly. So, while I did love the animation style and I praise it highly, it did come with some downside, too. I'm sure the (likely) sequel will use the same style, I just hope it's a bit easier to see all the action.

Another terrific change this film made was for the first time, having the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles voiced by actual teenagers. I have to admit, this felt odd when I first heard it. They all sounded so young and so unlike the other 6 films in this franchise. It took me a little while to recognize why it was so brilliant and important to this film. By the end, I loved the decision. Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon do a nice job of bringing the four iconic brothers to life. I'm not sure I loved any of their performances, but they worked.

What really separates this film and makes it work is actually the supporting voice cast. The cast of characters in this film is surprisingly large and hearing recognizable actors bringing this characters to life was a huge boost to the film. I have to give so much credit to Ice Cube- his voice work for Superfly was astounding. Ice Cube is just being himself, but we don't hear villains talk like this. I loved everything Superfly said. He feels so distinct as a villain and it was great fun watching his character on screen. He also delivers the funniest line in the film- after Post Malone sings his character's name, Superfly says something like, "Don't sing your name, fool. Just say your name normal, man." Ice Cube's delivery is absolutely perfect and I played that scene back at least a dozen times. Absolutely hilarious. I know it's surprising to take a whole paragraph to praise Ice Cube's voice work, but he was the MVP of this film.

The rest of the support cast is terrific as well. While I hated the visual depiction of Splinter (I have so many questions), I loved the casting of Jackie Chan. Come on, it's just so perfect. It was great fun hearing Chan bring this character to life. Brilliant casting. I mentioned Post Malone, loved Ray Fillet and his ridiculous singing. John Cena was fine as Rocksteady, but I'm struggling to identify a strong moment. Seth Rogen did a great job co-writing the script, and I loved that he got to bring his unmistakable voice for Bebop. Rose Byrne was excellent as Leatherhead. Her character was an afterthought, but her accent and voice work were perfect. They felt unique among the cast and I wish her character had much more to say. Loved hearing Paul Rudd voice a very Paul Rudd-esque character. He was a great additional. I'm always a fan of Giancarlo Esposito doing anything, I just wish he had a bigger role. Maya Rudolph was solid. Ayo Edebiri was pretty good, although I wasn't a fan of how April was presented here.

I've been highlighting a lot of the positives so far, but the film has issues, too. There's just so much crammed into the movie. There's too many mutants and too many of them are shortchanged. It's great hearing a few familiar voices, but the story would have been better served with 3-5 fewer characters of which to keep track. I was a bit surprised at the language- for a PG movie, there's far too many "hell" and "damn" utterances. I know I'd never complain about this a decade ago, but I watched this movie with my 8 year-old son and it got to be a bit much. I guess it was a good opportunity to remind him there aren't "bad" words per se. As I mentioned, I hated how Splinter was portrayed here. I appreciate the film taking on unique directions, but his character didn't work well to me. The same can be said for April O'Neil. She's such an important character to this franchise. The last two live action ones felt like they gave her a big role (but she was played by Megan Fox, so...). I just didn't like how she was portrayed here. The awkward teenage era makes sense, but it felt disconnected from the character I grew up with. I love the film leaning into more representation, that's always good, but I simply disliked how her character was handled in this film. Last complaint, just a reminder that as much as the animation style added much to the film, it detracted in a few places as well.

In conclusion, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem reinvigorated the franchise with a solid, humorous, entertaining film. It's the best animated movie in the franchise and the best film overall since at least the first sequel back in the early 1990s. Sure, you wish this movie were a bit better, but given the broader context, I think you need to declare victory here. This movie breathes new life into the franchise. I'm cautiously optimistic about the sequel. It feels like this film puts the franchise on new footing, but when you play back the tapes, the first sequels- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows both quickly degenerated from a quality standpoint. This franchise has mightily struggled with sequels. Still, I hope future films can at least match this film's level of quality. I'll happily watch more movies like this.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: TMNT