It’s apparent that the ripples of Spider-verse’s impact have made their way across the planes of American animation, driving studios to try out new and inventive styles beyond the samey Disney/Pixar style we’ve seen for the past few decades. Both Spider-Verse films are visually stunning and quite reflective of the character’s comic book origins, showing that there’s more to animation than simple 3D work. This belief spilled over into other films like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, a film I didn’t really have any intention in seeing until I saw where they were taking the animation style. Animation is a medium that gives you complete control over the world you make, and I’m glad more studios are giving it a try.

That brings us to this new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle movie, and look I’m gonna be honest, I was never a really big TMNT fan. No idea why as I am a child of the 90s; it just never really hooked me. I was much more of a Street Shark connoisseur, you know what I mean? But, when I saw the unique animation style they were going with, I was, for the first time in my life, immediately hooked on a TMNT project.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is such a unique blend of styles, nailing a rough, sketched design akin to the IP’s demographic doodling in their notebooks, while also capturing an exaggerated, stylized approach that feels right at home with its setting of New York City. The weight of the film is carried by a talented and well directed voice cast, making the comradery of the turtles both endearing and believable. While it’s straightforward plot leads to little surprise, I was still pleasantly satisfied with how fun the film could be for both old and young audiences.

The film is thankfully not much of an origin story, leaving much of the exposition short and sweet. It’s kind of like Spider-Man, we don’t really need to see Uncle Ben shot every time there’s a new iteration. But in case you need a refresher, four little turtles came into contact with a mysterious ooze that mutated them into bipedal hybrids who, under the tutelage of their adoptive mutant rat father Splinter, learn the ways of ninjutsu in order to traverse the shadows of a world unable to accept them. Too dumb to take too seriously, but too perfectly 90s to need to be changed. But in this film we find the turtles yearning to live a life of acceptance above ground, which Splinter adamantly disapproves of. The teens do manage to befriend a human girl named April, who convinces them to take up a career in crime fighting. Along the way they encounter other mutants led by the mutant criminal Superfly, and must decide if they can try to save a world that views them as monsters.

Across all of the adaptations of TMNT, there’s usually a few consistencies. They’re mutants, they’re ninjas, they’re turtles. But when it comes to the “teenage” aspect, I always felt like this was a missed opportunity. Sure, you have them shouting outdated 90s vernacular like “radical” or “cowabunga”, but there’s no real element of youth in these characters half the time. Mutant Mayhem remedies this substantially, starting with casting actual teenagers in the roles. And not just the latest teen TikTok star they can use to sell tickets, but actual, talented actors. Their interaction between the four of them feel genuine to a modern teen to a degree. I do think the script kind of kills some of the dialogue with its pop culture references, but still, it never felt like some out of touch 50 year old struggling to write how teens talk. They’re goofy, impulsive, and impressionable, making them the most TEENAGE of most of the adaptations I’ve seen. There’s also solid voice work across the rest of the cast, primarily made up of big name actors which doesn’t always get the best results, but there’s still some fun to be had with them. Jackie Chan’s Splinter actually carries a good chunk of the film’s emotion, Ayo Edebiri’s April delivers an awkward yet endearing spin on the character, Ice Cube’s Superfly brings menace that feels pretty unique for a kid’s film, and Paul Rudd’s Mondo Gecko is probably the standout of the goofy mutant side characters. There’s quite a lot of side characters with cool designs that just don’t get a ton of attention, which includes another big villain played by Maya Rudolph that doesn’t exactly make that big of an impact and honestly could have been excluded from the story all together. 

This biggest talking point of the film is the animation in my opinion, and for good reason. Similarly to Spider-Verse, this film employs a lower framerate style of animation, which I think gives more weight and impact to character movements, especially during action scenes. Yet the film doesn’t try to look too much like Spider-verse, employing its own unique style that I haven’t really seen before. Like I said earlier, the style is rough around the edges, often with sketch lines left visible. I can definitely see where the team was going with this, making the style akin to sketches and doodles kids might make after seeing these characters. Yet there’s even a bit of a grunge aesthetic here, which I think is most apparent in the environments and human designs. A lot of the locations almost have a graffiti and street art kind of vibe to them, which I think is a great stylistic representation of New York City, soundtracked by a fun assortment of East Coast hip hop. As for the humans, well, most of them are some ugly looking mofos, but in a good way. The designs really kind of brought me back to a period in the 90s and 2000s where youth culture was embracing more imperfect, exaggerated designs. I think it was also interesting to have humans be less visibly conventionally appealing than the turtles, which drives home the feeling of being an outsider like the turtles experience, but not in the visual way you would expect. Some of the mutant designs are great too, really leaning on some gross-out visuals that ran parallel to the turtles’ hayday. Overall it’s just great design work that looks good in motion too. The fight scenes are a ton of fun, even if they are fairly sporadic. The film isn’t afraid to get pretty rough and tumble with the fights, and was that an Oldboy hallway reference I caught? Good stuff.

The film is a ton of fun, even if I do have some minor issues with it. While I enjoy the relationship and dynamic between the turtles, I didn’t feel like their personalities were particularly fleshed out or unique like in past iterations. I felt like Leonardo as the leader and Raph as the rage machine were fine, but Mikey and Donnie felt a bit off. They’re still fun, don’t get me wrong, I just felt like personalities had a tendency to blend together. The story itself is pretty straight forward, which is par for the course for an introductory film, but it does play out in a fairly predictable way, filled with some expected cliches of the superhero genre. If you’ve seen the first Raimi Spider-Man movie, you might know what I’m talking about. I do think the simplicity of the film works in the film’s favor in the long run though, delivering one of the most solid interpretations of the teens on film in quite a while.

Mutant Mayhem is another great example of the evolution of American animation as more than just a medium, but a form of expression. The designs are unique, the style is fun, and the writing is both realistic and hilarious, making this not only one of the better animated films of the past few years, but also one of the best films from this year. Even if you’re not a fan of TMNT, you’re sure to have a good time if you enjoy energetic animation and goofy coming-of-age tales. Now if we can get a Street Shark movie in the works, animation may finally be respected as actual cinema.

Rating

The Ooze

Rolls off the tongue, doesn’t it? Inspired by the suspicious green gunk that turned our heroes from turtles to freaks of nature, the Ooze is a tall green drink made up of crispy, sweet fruit flavors like green apples, lychee and lime. Topped with soda water, this drink is light, refreshing and best of all, easy to drink!

Ingredients

• 2oz gin
• 1oz green apple juice
• 3/4oz lime juice
• 1/2oz honey
• 1/2oz lychee liqueur
• 1/4oz midori
• Top: Soda water
• Garnish: Lime half

Instructions

1. Add ingredients to a shaker and shake with ice.
2. Strain into Collins glass over ice.
3. Top with soda water.
4. Garnish with half of a lime (you can use a husk if you just squeezed your limes).