Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Official Australian release date: 7/9/23. Viewed: 3/9/23.
Directors: Jeff Rowe & Kyler Spears
Actors: Nicolas Cantu, Micah Abbey, Brady Noon, Shamon Brown Jr.
Genre: Action / Adventure         
Rating: PG

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‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’ may be the 8^th TMNT film, but it’s clearly the best so far – even better than the 1990 original that most of us grew up with! While this is a predominantly-animated reboot, it doesn’t diss or tarnish anything from the original films of the 1990s cartoon, but rather remain faithful to them, while building a new interesting world with accurate takes on the teenagers. Here brothers Leonardo (Cantu), Michelangelo (Brown Jr), Raphael (Noon) and Donatello (Abbey) are likeable outcasts who yearn to be normal teenagers in the human world.

That all changes when a new villain emerges, who was created by the same radioactive ooze: Superfly (Ice Cube). The brothers find an ally in April O’Neil (Edebiri), who helps them set out to take down Superfly without Master Splinter (Chan) finding out. While there’s some obvious plot points, there’s also a lot of levity and self-aware jokes made. The banter between the boys is genuinely funny and realistic throughout, especially Donny.

Written & produced by Seth Rogen & Evan Goldberg, with one of the directors of ‘The Mitchells vs the Machines’ this was always going to be handled with care and look unique – the animation and lighting throughout is superb for a cartoon, almost as good as the ‘Spider-Verse’ films. And what a voice cast – Jackie Chan, Maya Rudolph, Ice Cue, Paul Rudd, Rose Byrne, Seth Rogen, John Cena, Giancarlo Esposito, Hannibal Buress! The score is by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, outside their comfort zone, and the soundtrack is suitably modern with some old hip-hop and fun choices. All done in 100min!

Overall: Fun new take on everyone’s favourite green brothers!

Gav's Rating: 4 stars