I’m a couple days late, but a film that got me to care about MONDO GECKO deserves a full review on the site. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is the latest iteration of the long-running franchise, featuring a unique ugly-cute messy animation style, great gags, and committed performances from the entire cast. This is the first time, at least for me, that these turtles have actually felt like real teenagers. Of course, they are still mutant turtles, but actually being voiced by teens is wildly effective. Mutant Mayhem feels like a real movie, not just a brand extension.
The film opens with the latest twist on the turtles’ origin story. Geneticist Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito, getting to do something that’s not just Gus Fring) is under attack by mysterious executive Cynthia Utrom (Maya Rudolph, having a blast) for creating a powerful mutagen. Stockman just wants to create a mutant family, but Utrom sees dollar signs. Though Stockman is killed, his experiments escape, and the remaining mutagen falls into the sewers.
Fifteen years later, the four mutant turtle brothers Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Donatello (Micah Abbey), and Raphael (Brady Noon) live a cautious life in the NYC sewers with their rat-father Splinter (Jackie Chan). Splinter was mutated when he met the turtles, raising them as his own and teaching them martial arts to calm his irrational fear that the turtles will be “milked” for their mutant blood. Though they have plenty of TV, video games, and pizza, the boys are growing cramped and yearn to join the human world. Thanks to a chance encounter with intrepid teen reporter April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri), the turtles see their chance. April is investigating a tech-stealing gang led by the mysterious Superfly (Ice Cube), who turns out to be the very mutant Stockman died protecting. The turtles are thrilled to meet other mutants, including Bebop (Seth Rogen), Rocksteady (John Cena), Ray Fillet (Post Malone), Wingnut (Natasia Demetriou), Leatherhead (Rose Byrne), and Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd), but they soon learn of Superfly’s nefarious plot. Can they find a way to help their new friends while also keeping them from wiping out humanity?
That’s a lot of characters and a lot of setup, but somehow just about every mutant gets a key moment. Unlike most of the people behind these reboots or reimaginings, I do believe Seth Rogen genuinely loves all these characters and is having the time of his life putting them in this scribbly sandbox. Not every joke hits, but the teens referencing BTS and Adele felt more real than any time they’ve said “cowabunga.” They’re 15 years old, of course they love Attack on Titan! Nothing about Mutant Mayhem could be called lazy; in fact, its problems lie in doing too much. We could have used a couple more moments to breathe between action sequences, but those are so brilliantly choreographed and animated it’s hard to complain. As in Spider-Verse, it’s a relief just to see animation that doesn’t look airless and dull. Why be boring when you can have the ugliest and most unique character designs this side of Paranorman?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a triumph, breathing new life into the TMNT franchise and winning over someone like me, who only cares about the arcade game which I beat at a birthday party once in 2001. I can’t wait to see where the sequel goes, and I can only hope the whole cast returns for more.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
2023
Dir. Jeff Rowe
99 min
In theaters everywhere now!
