Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)
a review by Evan Landon
The last Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie I reviewed was actually the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie that was made, “Out Of The Shadows”, to which I do remember that I did not like. It's weird how many different iterations there have been made from this treasured franchise, now that I think about it. I think there are the three live action movies, those two CGI Michael Bay disasters, two animated features, four animated series, a short-lived live action show, a live concert with them playing music (seriously), not to mention god knows how many video games and comic books they have released throughout the years. So that is a lot of product off of one intellectual property. Now, there is this animated feature to add to that extensive list.
Let's just focus on this one for now.
I have my own gripes with Seth Rogan and Evan Goldberg's slew of nonsensical, arbitrary movies going back like twenty something years, however I don't feel that ever-looming, non-entertaining, unfunny cloud is hanging over this one. It is animated and they let actual teenagers have a little free reign when it comes to the script, and it shows. Throw in some heavy hitters like Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, John Cena, and Paul Rudd to round it out and you have yourself a very diverse cast with a lot of promise. Speaking of diversity, they made the awkward decision to make April O'Neil a chunky, black teenager with dreads, but I won't get into that because it really is not worth it. That's just par for the course in Hollywood or Disney these days and believe it or not, after the first initial shock, it kind of ends up fitting into the narrative they are trying to tell. In a way, it harkens back to what her character was in the original Eastman & Laird comics. If Kevin Eastman can even show up in this movie himself, who are we to bitch or complain about it?!
Here are the things I liked about it: Big shout-out to the animation here because it is like nothing else and it really reminded my of how they did the animated Spider-man movies or that Puss In Boots flick that were both very well-liked. All very original, in that regard. Again, I liked the use of actual teenagers to voice the turtles giving it the focus on the “teenage” part of the monicker. They never really put that much focus on their level of adolescent immaturity that every teenager comes complete with in the past incarnations. The soundtrack is pretty awesome with a few remixes of popular songs against some choice hip hop tracks from the past and present to give it a certain gravitas that fits like a glove. Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails fame even fills in the rest of the score making it almost seamless between those needle drop songs. It also focuses on the technology of our time with Splinter texting the turtles from his smart phone, which was a very bold choice, to say the least.
What I did NOT appreciate was the liberties they took with the story (i.e, that April O'Neil thing), but changing the Baxter Stockman story to where he created a humanoid fly creature called “Superfly” instead of turning into it for some reason that really did not make a lick of sense to me. There also was not a very clear cut narrative to follow, but that was never a strong suit for any TMNT to begin with, but they do have a subplot from the very start about how they wish to be above ground with the population of humans and being accepted that I think is a little bit of a tired trope these days. Aside from the way the turtles look, there is not really any character traits to tell the turtles apart either. They literally all act the same way, say the same things, so any line of dialogue could be drawn out of a hat as to which one is going to say it. That sort of thing kind of makes it bland to me, but the four kids voicing them seem to be having a good time vibing off each other, so that makes it feel earnest.
The critical response is almost identical as the audience that is generally favorable. Resting at ninety-nine minutes and pulling in $180 million against a $70 million budget, it did fine enough to entertain a sequel which is good because they teased it at the end anyways. Who knows if that will ever happen though because sometimes a lot of so-called sequels never make it out the door. It is an easy watch for both kids and adults at the same time, especially if said adults want a trip down nostalgia lane. Just watch out for how contemporized they made it for a modern audience. It is definitely way better than those Michael Bay renditions that seem to have scrapped their third entry and choosing to go in this direction instead. Good call.
3 out of 5