Review of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem'
In this new origin film for the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”, rogue scientist Baxter Stockman (voiced by Giancarlo Esposito) has invented a Mutagenic “ooze” but is killed by a squad sent by Techno Cosmic Research Institute (TCRI) executive Cynthia Utrom (voiced by Maya Rudolph) to steal it. An explosion sends the ooze into the sewers where it transforms three baby turtle brothers: Michelangelo (voiced by Shamon Brown Jr.), Leonardo (voiced by Nicolas Cantu), Raphael (voiced by Brady Noon) and Donatello (voiced by Micah Abbey). They are discovered then raised by a rat named Splinter (voiced by Jackie Chan) who cautions them against trusting the humans. Years later the teenage brothers are bored confined to the sewers, fascinated with the human world around them. On one of their clandestine forays into the city they meet teenager April O'Neil (voiced by Ayo Edebiri) who aspires to be a reporter investigating a series of robberies of TCRI technology by a criminal known as “Superfly” (voiced by Ice Cube). April and the turtles agree that if they stop the criminals the humans will treat them as heroes rather than freaks. When they eventually meet Superfly's mutant crew, he has an offer for them…
This film looks absolutely amazing with a unique colourful and dynamic visual style that is fascinating to watch. This coupled with never ending action, wild camera angles and interesting characters makes this a very fun watch. Children's television producer Nickelodeon was involved in the production and there is top notch vocal talent as well: Jackie Chan as Splinter, Ice Cube as mutant Superfly and Paul Rudd as hilarious Superfly gang member Mondo Gecko. On the subject of humour, there is a good amount of this but not to the point of getting in the way of the story. The turtles are there fun-loving selves (yes, still loving their pizza) who are often thrown in over their heads but manage to work their way through it with Splinter and April always around to guide them in the right direction. They are the naïve children that are finding their way in the world with their adoptive father Splinter finding that perhaps he can learn from them as well: Perhaps he was mistaken in completely protecting his sons from the humans? The plot and themes are quite basic, perfectly suiting the teenage audience to which this film is primarily intended, but for older audiences it is just a lot of fun to watch.
There are multiple sets of baddies that they fight against who are quite horrible and talk of doing horrific things but is not dwelt upon but rather we are treated to some spectacular fight sequences and massive (literally) mutants – Spectacle is a big thing here and the film does it VERY well.
Looks incredible but is also a lot of fun, with not a huge amount of story.
Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”
Review Date: 2025-06-08
Directed by: Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears
Studio: Image Comics
Year: 2023
Length: 119 minutes
Genre: Animation
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8589698/