Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Review

        As far as animation is concerned, it’s been inconsistent this year. The heavy like Disney didn’t have any box office hits in their department. With their Pixar and main original film just not cutting it as far as getting people invested. Sony knocked it out with their Spider-Verse sequel that might win the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. While I’ll probably review the Spider-Verse films at another time, mostly to wait for the third one and talk about them retrospectively. I decided to take a stab at another comic book animated film that some people missed.

1. Turtles in Film

        It’s surprising to even imagine that an independent comic book from the mid-80s has a massive imprint on both pop culture and in cinema. Created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, the comic was supposed to be one issue with no continuation. That changed when the comic circulated, and the duo created more issues. Inevitably culminating with the release of their famous animated series and the plethora of merchandising. 

        In the early 90s  New Line Pictures decided to adapt the shelled heroes to the big screen. Their first hit drew a lot from their comic origins by sort being dark and comedic. While the sequels were more kid-oriented and progressively got worse, to the point that they didn’t even use their Ninja weapons. There wouldn’t be another film until the 2000s when Warner Bros. released TMNT. It mostly got mixed reviews and I haven’t had the chance to watch it. 

        Just recently we had the duology of Turtle films were the heroes weren’t animatronic and puppet but where digitized. They were not good, with heavy criticism being levied at Michael Bay. While he didn’t direct either, he was only a producer, but his fingerprints are apparent in those films. So I was on the fence with this new one. Just the teaser gave the sort of anxious and preparation of disappointment. But of course, I wouldn’t be talking about it if it wasn’t great. 

        With that heavy handed attempt to put everything in context out of the way, let’s talk turtles. One could say that this is sort of an origin story and it’s very simple. The Turtles are being sheltered by their father Master Splinter who has them mostly going out at night to get food and other materials. They yearn to be normal and venture out, inevitably meeting April O’Neill and getting embroiled with a seemingly evil mutant gang. Meanwhile, a secret organization is involved that will probably be elaborated more within the sequels and series that ties it all together. 

        What dawned on me when I watched the film is that the voice actors are teenagers instead of a bunch of 30-year-olds voicing what’s supposed to be Teenage Mutant Turtles. The chemistry sells the whole movie since they never stop vibing with each other and being witty. For one thing they’re brothers and they mostly joke and rag on each other. Specifically, all of them have personalities beyond their usual traits as teammates. 

        Just the moments of them wanting to be normal gives them their want that every hero goes through. Just seeing them watching Ferris Bueller and that one shot of Mikey looking out at the horizon and cutting to him where it looks like he’s in a jail cell is just the chef’s kiss of telling us of their predicament. Now, Master Splinter is a great character but he’s way too ignorant to let them out due to his bad experience. Going beyond to tell them to avoid anyone. 

        If there's one detail that I wasn't expecting it was their eyes. Now, you know I'm stretching when I'm talking about eyeballs. When we first see them at night, they have that Batman eyes to them when they don't have pupils. A callback to their comic roots, then transition to having regular cartoony eyes. In the context of the story, it makes sense to have their eyes big since they're inexperienced being heroes and not having to deal with anything beyond their strength and might. 

2. Freaks and Heroics

        So it’s obvious that in the first half we spend the movie in their comfort zone while in the second half we spend it with the bad guys. Since the movie has the subtitle Mutant Mayhem, it didn’t disappoint to have nearly all their mutant bad guys showing up. In comic book films, it’s a massive red flag to include multiple villains. Somehow, in this movie it works since the main baddie is Superfly. Voiced by Ice Cube, he’s mostly bad but can change to have a good personality. 

        It’s funny that mostly all of Seth Rogen’s connections voice all the mutated villains. He did produce the film for Paramount and Nickelodeon, so it makes sense to have his buddies be in the film. They aren’t inherently evil but are just going along with Superfly’s plan since they don’t know any better. All of it leads to the main film’s theme of acceptance. Specifically, being themselves. The turtles are mostly defined by their ninja masks and I think in a meta way more than that. Just how the film looks by literally being different than its contemporaries fully expands more on the theme. 

        Now, it’s not one of those things where you have to pay attention to notice, it beats you over the head that most of the characters in the film, mutated and just regular humans, want to be accepted among their peers. All of it leads to just how everyone wants to prove their worth. And in extreme cases, have a ruling class so they can be on top. I think the theme of the film matches the art style the film’s going for. 

        The animation is also the main highlight of the film. Now, it’s an impossible task to try and recreate or even have a worthy imitator when it comes to the Spider-Verse films. That one has an amazing art style that changed animation for the moment. With this film, all of it has that distinct pencil scratch style to it. Sort of independent looking, and it helps that it gives the human characters an odd-looking design. Intentional or not, it lines up with what the film is going for as far as acceptance being the theme. 

3. Overall

        Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is probably an underrated hit for animation and comic book films. It does it’s own thing without being too dated for the time in the present. I look forward to seeing how they’ll expand this interpretation.