After Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse came out, it really upped the ante for animated movies, and then they dropped the sequel Across the Spiderverse earlier this year, and I still have it as the number one film of the year. So when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem started to get hyped up for its unique animation style, and how good it was, I was skeptical, and although it is no Spiderverse, it is an incredibly fun time, and it does look great, but in its own new and unique way. The vibes are high, and the jokes are good, and everyone in the theater was having a good time, and I even enjoyed seeing it in the 4DX theater being slammed around and splashed, which rarely happens.
The movie starts in a lab, and there is a scientist messing around with some ooze, and he gives it to a fly, and then he is raided by law enforcement. In the process, some of the goop gets out into the world, and it lands on some turtles. Fast-forward many years, and now the turtles are teenagers, that live in the sewer with their guardian, Splinter. The turtles go on mundane expeditions to get food, only the essentials like family sized Doritos and pizza, but they yearn for something more. They want life to be more than hiding in the shadows of the sewer, they want to go to school, and they want to be accepted, but they are mutants, and when Splinter tried to take them out into the world when they were young, it did not go well. Everyone was scared, but like all good teenagers, the turtles were fed up, and they decided they were going to start fighting crime to slowly seep into the public eye, and when they are doing this, they run into April, an aspiring journalist, who wants to bring to light injustices, so they team up and make a plan.
The plan is going well, until the turtles find out that the villain is Super Fly, the original mutant from the lab. The turtles had no idea that there were mutants besides themselves and Splinter, but now they were face to face with a small army of mutants, and they had never felt more accepted in their lives, but the only problem is that Super Fly wanted to eradicate the human race and turn all animals into mutants. Although the turtles like the idea of not being the only mutants, they could not stand for the destruction of the human race, so they fought back, and this led to the creation of a massive Super Fly that was now on a rampage through the city.
The music in this movie was incredible. It was like every time there was a new needle drop, they had some classic 90s hip-hop song ready to go, and none was used better than “No Diggity,” but even when they dropped “Can I Kick It?” which was used as the song in the trailer, it hit. You cannot help but let your head start bobbing to the beat, which was made easier for me in the 4DX theater, because the chair was whipping me around. I have said it before, and I will say it again, I know a movie has a good set list, when I go home, and I start listening to the whole soundtrack, but this is rare, and it is not like this is my kind of music, it just help create the perfect hang out teenage vibe, and I loved it.
The animation in this movie was also great. The movie takes place in New York City, which does have a reputation for being a dirty city, and the grubbiness is evident in the animation style. Everything has this dirty look to it, and it is awesome. Also the animation style has a very unique look, and they said that the goal was to make it look like drawings that might be found in a high school notebook, and they hit this perfectly. At first, I found it a little off putting, it felt like there was some distortion around the turtles and other parts of the screen, but eventually I got into the style and ended up loving it, and the same thing happened in Across the Spiderverse. Initially I did not like their merging of styles, but by the end I was like oh! This is art! The same can be said for this. It also looked great in 3D.
The fun in this movie is constant, and it comes in a variety of forms. There were jokes throughout, and they hit. There was like at least a joke a minute, and it is hard to be as funny as this movie is. There were also the fighting scenes, and the action looked great, and when it was paired with the music, it worked even better. My favorite of the scenes was the montage when they were taking down all the crime groups, and it kept switching between who was fighting and their setting, but it was all basically the same formula, and it looked so good.
The cast also added to the fun. They had four teenage boys voice the turtles, and they had some serious chemistry, and when they asked the creators about the movie, they said that there were many lines in the movie that were total improvisation by the boys just hanging out and ribbing on each other like boys do. They are ridiculous, and they do not care who see, which was best illustrated by the bacon, egg, and cheese scene, where they just kept singing the same lines over and over again and doing a ridiculous dance. It was very endearing. They also brought current slang into the movie as well. The one that stands out the most is rizz, which is a word I learned like maybe a month ago, but this was made many months ago, and they already knew the word. They also injected plenty of other pop culture references in as well, and this is the only movie where it actually feels like the turtles are teenagers.
The whole theme around the movie of wanting acceptance was great as well. The turtles had been in the sewer their whole lives, but they saw other people out in the world and the connections they had with each other, and the turtles liked watching movies and scrolling on their phones like everyone else, but they could not enter the world because they were different, and they did not want to be attacked for being different. That is what made the villain in this movie so great, before he turned into a massive monster, he was just pulling at their hearts. They finally had a group to be a part of, a place to be welcome, but like all things it was not as ideal as it seemed, but the turtles were able to get the army around Super Fly to turn on him by using morality. So in the end, they got to be a part of human society and go to high school like they wanted, and they also got to add new mutant members to their family, the best of which was a lizard that rides on a skateboard, and of course Shredder was the tease for the next movie, and I am very excited for it to come!
This was an amazing time at the movies, and it is fun for people of all ages. The guy next to me and I were both having a great time, and the other people in the theater could be heard laughing as well including kids. It is a quick one hundred minutes, and it is a great vibe. All the pieces fit together nicely. It is a great summer movie, and it just makes you want to go and hang out with the boys. The casting is great, my favorite of which was Jackie Chan as Splinter. It does not get much better than that. I give this movie 3.5 Stars and highly recommend seeing it!
Turtle Rankings: Michelangelo, Donatello, Leonardo, and Raphael
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