Finally, it's here. We have a TMNT film that the franchise deserves. This is by far the best film the franchise has produced especially after the abomination that the Michael Bay produced films force fed us almost a decade ago. Coming back to its animated roots and actually focusing heavily on the "teenage" parts of our Turtle heroes, this is an origin story that packed a lot of thrills, chills, and laughter.
Fifteen years ago, an unfortunate incident caused a radioactive ooze to fall into the sewers of New York. This ooze by chance came into contact with four baby turtles and one rat and made them into mutants. In present time, the four Turtle brothers cannot contain their curiosity of the human world - there's just one problem - their father figure, the rat Splinter (Jackie Chan), has told them that the humans are not to be trusted. But this does not faze the Turtle brothers as they find ways to be accepted as normal teenagers. Their new human friend April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri) proves that not all humans are bad and she helps them take on a mysterious crime syndicate to do the ultimate heroic act and make the world accept them. But soon they discover that there are other mutants out there who are more powerful and sinister than they could have ever imagined.
This film has been hyped the past few weeks. And after seeing "Mutant Mayhem", we now get it. This is the first film that we actually felt like these turtles are actually teenagers. Not only because they were voiced by actual teens but the narrative, the script, the comedy, and their origin story all hinge on the fact that these turtles just want to discover the world and for them to be able to do it, they need acceptance from the world. Don't get us wrong though, while the writing was solid, we still felt that it needed more depth especially considering its competition in this ever-growing comic book style animated space. And while the Turtles, Splinter, and April O'Neill had great characterizations and development, the film had a tendency to leave out its antagonists from introducing themselves more intimately. If we're being completely honest, this doesn't really hold a candle to "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse" even though they may look and feel the same. We also felt that the art style may be too dark (even scary perhaps) for audiences on the very young range of the spectrum. All of these are minor issues when the material is taken as a whole. Its third act was a hell of a closer and cemented the film as the best Turtles film. The comedy and soundtrack had their own unique vibe that it certainly caught us off guard countless times. And yes, they had this Jackie Chan inspired fight scene starring Splinter that was just the icing on the cake. If you want to be introduced to TMNT or introduce TMNT to a new generation of potential fans, this was one of the best executions to do it! Cowabunga!
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Movie Review: Cowabunga!
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