I’m personally not well-versed in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise. My only exposure to it has been the animated 2007 film, TMNT, as well as the two theatrical films in the 2010s with Megan Fox.
So, I didn’t know what to expect from this latest theatrical offering. Everyone seemed to love it! Some people loved it even more than Spider-Man: Across Spider-Verse! What did I think? Read on to find out!
(Caution, there will be mild spoilers!)
Directed by Jeff Rowe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem serves as an origin story of sorts for the turtles. A scientist studying mutagens, Baxter Stockman, voiced by Giancarlo Esposito, is killed in a raid by the Techno Cosmic Research Institute.
His house explodes in the raid due to the various chemicals he possesses including an ooze which seeps into the sewers below. The ooze reaches four turtle brothers transforming them into mutants. They are Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael, voiced by Nicolas Cantu, Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., and Brady Noon, respectively.
The ooze also transforms a rat named Splinter, voiced by Jackie Chan. He comes across the turtles and raises them as his own sons. He teaches them fighting skills as well as warns them to stay away from humans.
When the turtles are older (in their teenage years), they desire to interact with humans secretly without Splinter knowing. They come across a teenage school journalist, April O’Neil, voiced by Ayo Edebiri, whom they eventually befriend.
Things take a turn for the worse though when a mutant villain, Superfly, voiced by Ice Cube, is involved in a bunch of robberies. He leads a gang of mutants including Rocksteady (voiced by John Cena), Bebop (voiced by Seth Rogen), and Leatherhead (voiced by Rose Byrne). It’s up to the turtles and April to put a stop to Superfly’s evil plans!
Honestly, I felt very underwhelmed by this film; I know I’m in the minority! I didn’t find it enjoyable nor engaging at all!
Granted I don’t know that much about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise, but I felt this film was very heavy in comedy and needed to have more drama imbued in it. I needed to feel for the turtles’ struggles; I needed to feel for April’s struggle; I needed to feel for Splinter’s struggle. But in the end, I couldn’t fully connect or sympathize with any of the characters.
I got so annoyed listening to the turtles talk with each other as well! I guess it’s because they really made them more like teenagers in this iteration compared to the previous films I’ve seen, so they sounded exactly like teenage boys…annoying! I felt Micah Abbey gave the best performance in the film, but nobody else blew me away!
And the pop culture references! Oh my goodness, I don’t think I’ve ever seen an animated film that made as many pop culture references as this one!
I also wasn’t fond of the animation style! It felt very dirty and gritty which I guess is what they were going for (since they live in the sewers in the darkness), but it made the film very unappealing to look at! It also was very dark, so it was hard to clearly see what certain things were; I hate it when films have that bad lighting!
I feel bad that I didn’t like this as much as everyone else did, but it’s my honest opinion. This film is not better than Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse by any stretch of the imagination!
The Animation Commendation 
In the comics Splinter named them after reinassance artists since he found a book on Reinassance artists in the sewer and liked the names.
Jackie Chan gets few lines in so many animated movies since he is really hired to help them plan out comedic fights that involve martial arts.
Ah, that makes a lot of sense!