Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Review
While it never quite reaches the heights of Spiderverse, TMNT cements the fact that we’re living in a golden age of superhero animation.
Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu) and Raphael (Brady Noon) are chafing at being kept at home, underground in the sewers by their overprotective father Splinter (Jackie Chan). They long to be accepted by the humans, and when they stumble across the understanding human reporter April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri), they hit on an idea to win the hearts of the masses; by taking down the evil supervillain Superfly (Ice Cube).
Directed by Jeff Rowe, and Kyler Spears, with writing from Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg, this is a really fun and fresh take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that is super funny, with some great action.
The animation, similar to the hugely popular Spiderverse movies, is creative and new. It sucks you in and makes this feel quite artistically of merit.
Storywise, its a pretty simple story on offer here but told well. Of course, there are the usual suite of mcguffins on display, and Splinter’s martial arts knowledge is hamfisted in such a way that our hero turtles need something on top of all of that to defeat the villain, which is a bit of a shame. But the scene where they use their skills to defeat a gang of humans is action-packed and exciting.
The four main characters have witty repartee and energy to spare, and the chemistry pours through even with the animated setting. They are pitched at just the right age where they feel still kid-like, while being adult enough to be in charge of their own destiny, and it works really well.
