Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

The animation in this movie is just amazing, the aesthetic this movie has is just spectacular, at times it looks like how a kid would make a drawing but in a good way, really this is a truly win for animation...but the story is not as good as the animation, it lacks something. For starters the personalities of the turtles are okay, I dont have a problem with them being actual teenagers but I do feel some rejection to these new personalities given that Im really used to their more young adult vibes but still, I think its a fine change, my problem sometimes comes with the humor; I dont know if Im just too old but not even a joke landed for me, I was never laughing at anything I just felt that it was too childish for me to enjoy, and I was a little entertained so I went through it but I always felt I could be more happy watching this movie. Also the story is just meh, its okay. Its very simple, the turtles find more mutants but theyre bad so they have to stop them, this while fighting theyre wish to become accepted as humans, its fine, I hope it gets better with the sequel and with Shredder. Just dont change the animation, it was gorgeous.

I think from the initial teaser I could tell this was gonna be an amazing animated movie since it adopted the "Spiderverse" style fantastically aswell as adding its own charm. And after watching it I can safely say that it is...almost amazing.

First of all, the animation is very clearly gorgeous and was another great addition to the animated Disney rebellion we've been having over the past few years. The action sequences were also very good and expressed each characters unique fighting style very well. The voice acting was also surprisingly amazing from both the main 4 characters and the villains. The comedy was solid it didn't really have much that made me laugh out loud but at least it consistently made me smile. The story was actually very good aswell. Sure it's got the cliche "I want to be accepted in society" plot line but they actually do a good job at making me feel for these characters during just the first 15 minutes of the movie. The script was...well it was mostly good (I'll explain the issues later). The chemistry between the brothers is great and the villain's dialogue was amazing. So from the sound of it this movie is amazing, right?

Well a couple of issues I had like I mentioned before was the script. So for a large portion of the movie they kept adding as many pop culture references as possible within their speech mentioning a huge range of movies and shows specifically like Attack On Titan. Whilst these are fun at first, it just keeps happening again and again and like I get it they're all nerds but just calm down a bit.

Also one of the main problems I had was the music. You have these big over the top colourful action sequences yet you're listening to the most boring emotionless music on top of them. WHY? They had a massive opportunity to create something unbelievably special to rival something like Spiderverse yet kept the music to a minimum. I've always said that music can make or break a scene. You can have one of the greatest scenes visually in cinematic history but if the music misses and doesn't match with the emotion of the scene, it DRASTICALLY reduces the quality of that scene. I felt next to no emotion during most of the climax since the music was just boring and didn't really feel like there was any build up.

The other big problem was the lack of character arcs within each brother. I get that they're all in this together but I would have liked to see some specific character moments in the climax that act as pay offs to their own characters. We did get a great character moment for Splinter but that's about it.

Overall this movie is just a very fun and unique movie with a somewhat lack of emotional depth. The characters are solid and help to create an engaging quite funny story. Solid 7/10. Could have been an 8 if the music was improved.

Things I liked:

I liked that they used actual teen actors for the turtles for the first time, and getting them to record at the same time created a natural, but at times chaotic and difficult to decipher, dialogue.

Splinter's character was more fatherly and less focused on the strict sensei/teacher role.

Superfly was a decent central villain with a bit of a backstory. He was kind of likeable to start with and turned quite dark and psychotic. Well acted by Ice Cube and gave the character some depth.

The action set pieces were exciting and fast paced.

The art style is different enough to make it visually interesting and the colours pop.

A decent soundtrack of East coast hip-hop tunes.

Things I didn't like:

April is supposed to be a vulnerable teen who is a victim of bullying, but she came across a little annoying and arrogant, with an attitude, making it difficult to warm to her.

Michelangelo wasn't "Mikey" enough, not the silly 'party dude'. Donatello didn't 'do machines' either, no gadgets or creations. There was a definite lack of distinction between the individual turtles personalities.

Many of the villains felt under used and had little screen time. With dialogue often difficult to hear clearly due to background music or sounds. They also seemed very easily swayed over their allegiance.

The origin story was changed and didn't make as much sense, but I guess it meant that they could drop Shredder and skim over it in 5 mins.

Love it or hate it, the art style is different enough to appreciate, but I hated the use of real world footage at the movie and on YouTube. It snapped you out of the world they had created. At one point I thought the cinema had randomly started playing a different film.

Some blatant product placement.

Deliberate gender and race swapping, that felt forced to appease the Hollywood quotas, and often failed to hit the mark.

Some poorly forced 'jokes' and cultural references that were often over pushed and quite literally 'milked'.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) is a movie that my daughter and I caught today at an advanced screening. The storyline follows the Ninja Turtles as they become teenagers and obsessed with the human world. They run into a reporter, named April, who accidentally convinces them that becoming heroes will help people adjust to them. They target a recent crime spree that happens to be executed by mutants that may be tied to their past.

This movie is codirected by Jeff Rowe (The Mitchells versus the Machines) and Kyler Spears (directorial debut) and contains the voices of Jackie Chan (Rush Hour), John Cena (The Suicide Squad), Ice Cube (Friday), Seth Rogen (Superbad), Paul Rudd (Ant-man), Post Malone (Wrath of Man), Giancarlo Giuseppe (Breaking Bad) and Rose Byrne (Insidious).

This is a rather uneven addition to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe. The storyline set-up, and background of the turtles, is perfectly executed and entertaining. The animation was excellent and almost had a claymation feel it at times. The voices were well selected and it was impossible to not love Ice Cube and Jackie Chan, who were both terrific. Despite how good Ice Cube was in this, I don't think I loved his character as the main villain. They took too many non-traditional twists with the mutants and turtles that it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. I will say the soundtrack was excellent. It might have been the best part of the movie.

Overall, this is definitely entertaining and worth a watch but I'm not sure it's the reboot we were looking for. I would score this a 6-6.5/10 and recommend seeing it once.

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" is the new film based on the acclaimed cartoon that aired from the late '80s to the mid-'90s, both animated and live action film adaptations had previously been made, this new film stands out with its computer animation mixed with some scenes based on the look of a comic, in addition to the excellent use of shadows and colors. The script is common telling the story of people trying to fit in and family relationships, all from a mutant perspective. The soundtrack is good, having an eighties style in some of its compositions. A well-made film, with an unoriginal script but wonderful animation.