Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: It's a Shell of a Good Time!

I've never been a gigantic fan of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but I never hated them (what kind of a monster would?).  I've seen a few of their movies: The 2007 animated TMNT, 2014's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and its sequel Out of the Shadows.  I always thought it was a cool concept and really wanted to get into it more.  When Mutant Mayhem was announced back in 2020, I got pretty excited because there hadn't been a Ninja Turtles movie in years.  Months back, when the first trailer came out, I got really excited.  It just looked like a ton of fun and I really liked the animation.  It felt similar to the Spider-Verse movies.  Of course, when I go to see the movie the theater I was in left the lights on for the first 15 minutes, so it was a little hard to see anything.  I asked them to turn it off and the guy said they were working on it.  How does this only happen to me?  Now that I've seen the movie, is it worth the hype?  That's what I'm here to tell you.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is directed by Jeff Rowe and stars Nicolas Cantu, Shamoon Brown Jr., Micah Abbey, Brady Noon, Ayo Edebiri, Jackie Chan, and Ice Cube.   Ever since they were little, all that the Ninja Turtles (Cantu, Brown Jr., Abbey, and Noon) have known is the sewers.  All they want is for New York to like them.  When a crew of mutants led by Superfly (Cube) shows up, they think they might have a chance to be accepted and team up with high school reporter April O'Neil (Edebiri).  With all of that out of the way, let's dive into the review!

I loved this movie.  It was a great time and I had a big grin across my face throughout the whole thing.  What really makes this movie work is the turtles themselves.  Seth Rogen (who wrote the screenplay, produced the movie, and plays Bebop) said that he wanted actual teenagers to play the titular characters.  This has never been done before in the franchise. They also all recorded their lines with each other, which is rare for an animated film.  This shows in the final product.  Leo (Cantu), Mikey (Brown Jr.),  Donatello (Abbey), and Raph (Noon) really felt like brothers.  They would talk over, roast, and joke with each other.  It felt natural.  I think anyone who has a sibling will really connect with this movie.  I really felt like I was watching a bunch of teenagers just goofing off with each other.  It was great.  The idea of them just wanting to fit in was interesting as well.  This was touched upon in other iterations (Out of the Shadows comes to mind), but it's really fleshed out here.  They just want to be normal and go to high school.  These guys are essentially teenagers, but just happen to be mutant turtles with incredible ninja skills.  I also really liked Splinter.  Jackie Chan (despite me learning he's not the best guy in real life) did a great job in the role.  Yes, he's still the turtles' sensei, but in this iteration he feels more like a dad first, teacher second.  He doesn't want his boys to go out into the real world because he feels that humans are just too dangerous for his sons.  Yes, it's a little cliche, but it was still nice to see.  I also really liked this iteration of April.  She's a high school reporter who's trying to make her classmates forget she had an embarrassing moment.  The turtles are her way to do this.  O'Neil doesn't take any crap from her new mutant friends and it was cool to see this version of the character be their age.  When it comes to the mutant mayhem in the title, it doesn't dissappoint.  There are dozens of mutants here and they all stand out in their own way.  Ice Cube did a really good job as Superfly, the leader of the gang.  Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd) was probably one of my favorites.  He's just a big doofus that doesn't really understand what's going on.  This sort of ties into the humor as well.  I was cracking a bunch.  A lot of this has to do with the Ninja Turtles and how well they bounce off of each other.  They're constantly referencing things (there's even an Avengers: Endgame shout-out) and it's just hysterical.  The funniest bits, though, are when the brothers are goofing off with each other.  This again ties back to the idea that these guys are teenagers.  They'll say stupid stuff, but it's hilarious.  There's one scene that immediately comes to mind which involves ordering a bacon, egg, and cheese sandwich.  I also loved how this movie looked.  The easy comparison to make is the Spider-Verse movies, but this has its own flavor.  Everything is asymmetrical and sort of messy.  I heard in an interview that the look of the movie was supposed to be as if a kid drew a Ninja Turtle in their notebook.  Mutant Mayhem is also very grimy and rough-looking.  I mean that in the best way possible.  The characters are not too pleasant to look at, but this plays into the movie's message of not judging based on appearances.  The animators did a great job here and, unlike Across the Spider-Verse, they weren't worked to death.  The action is also very well done.   Even though these guys are teenagers, they can still kick butt.  There's a montage scene that was the standout for me.  It involved a bunch of really interesting transitions.

There's not a ton that really holds this movie back.  At times it can be a little predictable.  There were also a few things where I wish some more time was spent on.  This movie is pretty short so it glosses over some moments.  Most of the humor lands, but there is one joke that was funny at first but after a while starts to where thin.  I think little kids will think it's funny.  Other than that, I really didn't have any nitpicks.  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a blast from start to finish.  The turtles and their chemistry is fantastic, the supporting characters are well done, the humor really works, the animation is incredible, and the action kicks butt.  There are some moments when the movie is a little predictable, some moments get glossed over, and a few jokes don't work, but they don't detract from the movie at all.  I'm really excited to see where they take this franchise.  I can't wait to see this movie again!  If I were to rate it, I'd give Mutant Mayhem a 9/10.  Also be sure to stick around through the credits a little bit.  There's a really cool mid-credits scene!