TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Review: Reinvigorated origin story for the turtles in a half-shell

The newest incarnation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) on the big screen goes animated in Mutant Mayhem.

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are having a quietly hot summer behind the scenes in 2023. Their production company Point Grey Pictures co-produced Joy Ride, the year’s best comedy so far. The dynamic duo follows up the crude humor with a surprisingly touching retelling of TMNT. Unsurprisingly, the humor hits at a consistent enough clip.

Mutant Mayhem focuses a large amount of story real estate on the Turtles as outcasts of society and doesn’t shy away from humanity’s ugly response to beings from different backgrounds.

The characterization of the turtles is what you expect. Leonardo is the responsible one until he develops a crush on April O’Neal. Michaelangelo is a guy who wants to have a good time. Raphael has a rage issue. Donatello represents the nerdy side of the turtles. Mutant Mayhem’s greatest triumph is making the turtles feel like true brothers. They chide each other, particularly Leo when he’s trying to talk to April, but support each other.

Jacki Chan and Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) are terrific as Splinter and April. Splinter serves as the father of the turtles and helps bring the family atmosphere to life. He wants the turtles to be happy. For him, that means keeping the turtles away from humanity. Edebiri portrays a different type of April. She shows that it’s not just turtles who are searching for a place to belong, humans can feel like outsiders as well.

On the villain front, Mutant Mayhem reintroduces Bebop, Rocksteady and some other familiar faces. Cynthia Utrum (Maya Rudolph) and Superfly (Ice Cube) serve as the villains. Cynthia and Supefly are pretty weak villains. but Mutant Mayhem does make some changes to characters who have been portrayed as villains in previous films, shows and games.

The animation and visual style are gorgeous. However, there aren’t too many great action sequences. In spite of uninspired villains and a lack of action. TMNT’s soundtrack makes up for some small blemishes.

As an overall film, Mutant Mayhem doesn’t quite reach the vaulted status of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse but comes close at times.

TMNT: Mutant Mayhem Review Score: 8

Great

With the overview out of the way, let’s take a closer look at turtles who live in the sewer. All of the TMNT movies and shows are available to stream on Paramount Plus.

The Ninja Turtles in Mutant Mayhem

Mutant Mayhem sets the tone of finding your family at the outset. Scientist Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito) creates a special serum or “ooze.” His goal is to create the family he never had by combing the ooze with animals. Before he can complete the process, TCRI agents ambush the scientist causing the capsules containing the ooze to fall down the sewer drain. The turtles, Splinter and several other creatures are exposed to the ooze.

Mutant Mayhem resumes in the present day. The four turtles are going on a stealth food run but delay in returning to watch Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. The longing for connection to humanity is clear. They’re a family with human culture but are not allowed to interact with humans. They return to the sewer without incident. While Don, Mike and Ralph lie when asked what took so long, Leo fesses up right away. The other turtles give Leo a hard time, but it doesn’t last too long.

The situation changes when the turtles meets April. An incident with ninja stars and a watermelon leads to April’s scooter being stolen. The turtles catch the thieves and take down the gang. For the first time, the turtles realize they can put their training to a good cause. Perhaps if they save human lives, humans will accept them similar to how April eventually came around.

Everything about the interactions between the turtles, April and Splinter is excellent. For all of the comedic moments and there are plenty, especially involving Leo’s bumbling attempts to talk to April, there’s an equal amount of heart.

The Outsiders

While the turtles are pining for the human world, Splinter and April are also on the outside looking in.

For Splinter, he’s experienced human discrimination firsthand. He doesn’t want his four sons to face that kind of evil. His distrust of humans is shared by Superfly as well. However, Splinter stops short of declaring war. In Mutant Mayhem, Splinter matures as well as his son. He starts out with a hard-nosed stance against humans. However, after his sons spend a long period of time above the sewer, he tries to meet them halfway by bringing the human world to them via clothes, pizza, etc. What makes Splinter such a great character is he knows his sons are keeping something from them, but still gives in here and there.

Meanwhile, April is a human trying to recover after a public humiliation. She’s a high school student aiming to be a journalist. A string of robberies have taken place throughout New York. April keeps tabs on the investigation. She reveals her findings to the turtles. For the turtles, stopping the thieves will give them a heroic spotlight. For April, reporting on this story could restore her status at school.

Splinter and April are terrific throughout the film. They serve as important guides for turtles as they figure out what type of heroes they could be.

Not so Superfly

The main villain is Superfly. A fly who was exposed to the ooze and became a mutant himself. He leads a group of mutants who have less evil ambitions but don’t know another way until they meet the turtles. His plan is very similar to Lizard’s plan in Andrew Garfield‘s The Amazing Spider-Man. He plans to unleash ooze across the whole city which will turn all animals into mutants. Since the mutants are more powerful than humans, the humans would become subservient to Superfly and other mutants.

The other villain is Utrum. She wants the ooze for herself to continue Stockman’s experiment for her own gain.

The villains are easily the weakest aspect of Mutant Mayhem. There’s nothing unique about his plan. However, it’s pretty fun to watch the turtles interact with Rocksteady (John Cena), Bebop (Rogen) and Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd).

Mutant Mayhem final thoughts

Overall, Mutant Mayhem is the 2nd best-animated film of the year behind Across the Spider-Verse.

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