Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a refreshingly exciting and visually delighting surprise of a film. It may open with more than its fair share of exposition heavy dialogue, and wander about in that space a few more times, but the screenplay riffs and plays with a dense amount of overlapping humorous banter and is genuinely funny. The animation is rife with creative doodling joy, and the story familiar and fun. Modestly budgeted for a big scale animated production (~$70MM), this latest iteration of the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise is a winner.
The Production: 4.5/5
“I wish there was another way, but the peoples, they gots to go.”
Created out of violent tragedy, four baby turtles soaked in ooze mutate and are raised in the sewers by a mutated rat called Splinter. Now teenagers, these mutant turtles ache to be able to experience the world above. But humans are the enemy ever since Splinter ventured to take the baby turtles above only to find themselves angrily chased away by frightened and violent people. But now, that need to be accepted and live freely is overwhelming for the teens. One night when they meet a nice human, April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri), and able to use their honed martial arts skills against criminals who stole her ride, they hatch a plan to bring the city’s main villain to justice in hopes of being seen as heroes and welcomed by humanity.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (TMNT:MM) is terrifically entertaining. It may move along on a conveyor belt plot of a villainous mutant on a dangerous crime spree and a nefarious corporation on the unfortunate end of those crimes, but it lives and breathes on the lightning interplay between the four ninja turtles, Michaelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Raphael (Brady Noon) and Donatello (Micah Abbey), and their relationship with their father, Splinter (Jackie Chan). And that exemplary voice cast captures the characters and lands the joke-rich dialogue with ease. The emotion of the teenagers looking to be accepted resonates and the voice performances convey teenage doubt, inexperience, cockiness, and know-better attitudes well.
The rest of the delightful voice cast includes Ice Cube voicing Superfly, Seth Rogen and John Cena delivering solid versions of Bebop and Rocksteady, Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter Stockman, Post Malone as Ray Filet, Hannibal Buress as Genghis Frog, Rose Byrne as Leatherhead, Natasia Demetrious as Wingnut, Paul Rudd as Mondo Gecko, and Maya Rudolph as Cynthia Utrom. What a cast!
TMNT:MM is full of energy and vibrancy. The frame is constantly rich with detail and movement. The creativity of the animators, working from a screenplay crafted by six writers (including unabashed fans, Seth Rogen, Jeff Rowe, and Evan Goldberg), has been unleashed. The computer-generated imagery (CGI) style animation, which could have produced photorealism or a variation of crisp and clean looking images, harkens back to the ink animation from the comic origins. Influenced by the creative genius of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, this film runs free with animated imperfections that become perfect expressions of creativity. It’s stunning and infectious.
Direction by Jeff Rowe, co-directed by Kyler Spears, is inventive and beautiful. The animation moves even in static shots, and the characters within the frame move in interesting and funny ways. The framing of the shots around action and conversation are always exciting or interesting and the dimension and depth created by the images is terrific. Simply put, this is a fun movie just to watch and see what’s going on in the frame even if the story doesn’t interest you. Fortunately, the story is an origin tale of sorts and manages to be captivating, entertaining, and welcoming.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
Framed at 2.39:1 aspect ratio, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem looks splendid. The film is a film of colors. Saturated in reds and blues and greens and yellows, it’s a glorious display of animated colors deepened by the Dolby Vision grading. Oh, my, is it beautiful. Detail is precise for the animation expression, bold lines, blurs, neon colors, the appearance of splashed or smeared colors bringing a playful dimension. An excellent 4K disc.
Audio: 5/5
Featuring a Dolby Atmos track, the film is aurally active. Superb separation, good use of the overheads for effects, especially during the dizzying finale. The surrounds a healthily active, too, and the subwoofer pounds in all the right places and ways. The music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is a treat. Filled with 1980’s synth glory, the soundtrack captures a feeling that’s hard to put into words. It’s both a wonderful throwback to the Harold Faltermeyer action scoring days, with a wisp of Jan Hammer, and an assortment of other 80’s fueled influences ratcheted up a notch with grungier twinges and beats and contemporary brooding. And it’s all mixed together with well-placed hip hop and pop stylings. It’s a treat.
Dialogue is precise out of the center channel, sound effects mixed perfectly with all the other elements to give clarity in all you hear. Very well done.
Special Features: 2.5/5
While over 40 minutes, there’s not a great deal of depth to the special features. They are likable, though. The film doesn’t include a Blu-ray copy, only a digital code sheet along with the 4K disc that redeems the film in UHD (redeemed via VUDU) where it also includes the film’s trailer and how to dram Donatello extras.
- TEENage Mutant Ninja Turtles— For the first time the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are voiced by actual teenagers! Hear how each Turtle was cast and how having all four boys record together helped create the authentic camaraderie seen on screen.
- The Mutant Uprising— Get to know the Turtles’ mutant antagonists, led by the wild and original character Superfly, voiced by Ice Cube.
- New York, New York: The Visual World of MUTANT MAYHEM— Take a deep dive into the breakthrough visual style of the film’s characters and environments and how they evolved over time.
- Learn to Draw Leo—Try your hand at drawing the Turtle leader with this fun tutorial!
Overall: 4.5/5
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a refreshingly exciting and visually delighting surprise of a film. It may open with more than its fair share of exposition heavy dialogue, and wander about in that space a few more times, but the screenplay riffs and plays with a dense amount of overlapping humorous banter and is genuinely funny. The animation is rife with creative doodling joy, and the story familiar and fun. Modestly budgeted for a big scale animated production (~$70MM), this latest iteration of the popular Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle franchise is a winner.
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Neil has been a member of the Home Theater Forum reviewing staff since 2007, approaching a thousand reviews and interviews with actors, directors, writers, stunt performers, producers and more in that time. A senior communications manager and podcast host with a Fortune 500 company by day, Neil lives in the Charlotte, NC area with his wife and son, serves on the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Charlotte Board of Directors, and has a passion for film scores, with a collection in the thousands.
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