Co-Directors: Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears
Run time: 1 hour 39 min
The latest version of TMNT is the fourth iteration on film and possibly the best one yet. These characters feel more alive than ever before thanks to teen spirit & some heavy-handed culture. The film flows with heart, humor, and fun, and could easily become the foundational version of the characters.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem begins with a slightly altered backstory for the turtles. Baxter Stockman, a scientist voiced by Giancarlo Esposito is an ex-TCRI employee working on a mutant spawning chemical in his basement. His first success was a housefly (voiced by Ice Cube), but before moving on to new trials on additional animals, TCRI armed forces ruin most of his work in a house raid. Four of Stockman’s turtles escape to a sewer during the raid, along with his chemicals, where a lonely rat named Splinter (voiced by Jackie Chan) discovers them.
Covered in ooze and unified by their humanoid bodies, Splinter pledges to raise his newfound family with ninjutsu in order to defend themselves from the surface world. He espouses a deep distrust for humans after previous interactions with them. After jumping to modern times, Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), and Raphael (Brady Noon), now teenagers, befriend high school journalist April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri), who is also an outcast at her own school. The turtles struggle with loyalty between their father and April as they grow curious about other rumored mutants and criminal activity, not realizing that TCRI is the larger threat that still wants the original mutant compound for their own reasons.

This is a very fun movie with an obviously passionate creative team behind it. The only complaint is the hint of saturation of culture in the film. The use of 90s rap and TikTok-style energy felt so sincere for the film. Yes, rap is the dominant culture and the pop music of the day, so the turtles would be hugely affected by it, but that logic didn’t feel fully produced throughout the film. At times, there’s a sense that the creators wanted to be cool rather than just being cool. So the cultural resonance wasn’t the same as the recent Transformers.
The bright side of TMNT is still the characterization, specifically the turtles, April, and Splinter. Even Super Fly and his crew have awesome texture to them, but the teens really run away with the film. Choosing to make the turtles teenagers and having April meet them at that age was a brilliant idea. The characters usually come across as youthful and naive, a little brand new, but now they speak like teens, and have young adult motivations, leading to more cohesion. Fans of the turtles since their first iterations in cartoons, video games, and live action will love this new take. Even with the heavy TikTok nature of the characters, this is the first time in a while the turtles felt really alive and brought us along on the journey at the same time.

An additional bright spot in the film, thought still a bit contentious for me, is the film’s use of culture. While it’s very believable the turtles would be influenced by multiple cultures while growing up in a sewer, particularly hip hop, and it’s also necessary to acknowledge that hip hop culture has had a huge influence on Gen Z. The connection in the film is too easy though and there isn’t enough care for the culture, so the notions come across as flippant and casual, almost throwaway. Writer Seth Rogen is consistent in his love of that culture and era, but the film is still missing a piece.
To conclude, VO work and animation are the additional bright spots for the film. Following the success of Into The Spider-Verse, Mutant Mayhem continues the trend of hand-drawn 2D blended with 3D environments. Rogan’s decision to use teenagers brings some resonance to the characters, as does Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, and Ayo, who all have some experience to fall back on working in animation.
3.5 out of 5