"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" is the best of the reboots, yet still falls short

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Aug 4

The latest reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, fittingly known as "Mutant Mayhem," leaps past the franchise's otherwise dismal screen turns by bringing an animated flair and relative innocence to the sewers and rooftops of New York City.

But simply being better than past failures does not make something good. While "Mutant Mayhem" does several things right, from its likeable voice cast to its refreshed version of the Turtles' origin story, it also gets stuck in the same gunk as its forebears. Directed by Jeff Rowe, "Mutant Mayhem" boasts a wild, eclectic animation style that draws heavily from the groundbreaking "Spider-Verse" films, with overlapping scribbles, thick outlines and expressive character design. That includes the lumpy, mostly grotesque human characters, who are almost universally presented as monsters.

That's because our turtles — leader Leonardo, techie Donatello, bruiser Raphael and cut-up Michelangelo — are the true, sympathetic heroes of a story that draws subtle threads from "Phantom of the Opera" and "The Elephant Man." The turtles were found crawling in green ooze by a similarly radioactive rat, who would mutate into their father and caretaker, the ninja master Splinter (voiced with gusto by Jackie Chan). They hide in the sewers, yearning to integrate into a society that Splinter says is afraid of them and will kill them at the first chance they get.

April O'Neill (left) and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles discover a plot to turn all insects into giant mutants in the new animated movie "Mutant Mayhem." (Provided by Paramount)

That's more or less true, minus the scooter-riding April O'Neill, an aspiring documentarian. She's particularly young and brash here — a pivot from the adult broadcast-news journalist or scientist she's usually depicted as in TMNT films, TV series and the comics. She's voiced by the ascendant and immensely likable Ayo Edebiri ("The Bear," "Abbot Elementary"), who adds humanity to an already heartfelt film about trying to fit into a society that doesn't want you because you're different — and therefore a threat.

Cultural commentary aside, "Mutant Mayhem" goes kitchen-sink on familiar TMNT characters, most of them unwitting science-experiment victims of the mad baddie Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito). But instead of focusing on Shredder and Krang (the series' alpha villains), our main foil is Superfly, a mutated housefly voiced by Ice Cube that wants to turn all insects into giant, powerful mutants. That's obviously a bad idea and as our turtles learn of it, they also meet Superfly's gallery of rogues, including the iconic Rocksteady and Bebop.

Those talking animals, most of which are uneasy with their sudden, human-like qualities, are all voiced by ringers: Paul Rudd (Mondo Gecko), Post Malone (Ray Fillet), Rose Byrne (Leatherhead), John Cena (Rocksteady) and producer/co-writer Seth Rogen (Bebop), to name just a few. New York City, naturally, is another character and plot device that provides different literal and figurative perspectives on Brooklyn, where much of it takes place.

And yet, for all its committed performances and charm, "Mutant Mayhem" is also tonally confused and eventually falls into the too-easy rhythms of action-oriented superhero fare. As noted, it's better than the awkward (and regrettably live-action) '90s film adaptations, and certainly comes off as "Citizen Kane" compared to Michael Bay's unwatchable takes on the characters. Like Bay's also-soulless "Transformers" adaptations and Zach Snyder's murderous, nihilistic take on Superman and Batman, his TMNT movies were bad-faith revisionism less focused on reinterpreting the characters and more about projecting a toxic, hollow machismo.

"Mutant Mayhem" has a similarly militaristic, gun-fetishism opening that feels jarring for a PG movie, but that improves slightly as the movie unfurls. The humor, too feels uneven, ranging from adolescent quips to mean-spirited and overlong putdowns that confuse the message of tolerance. The plot is incidental and, at times, too meta for its own good.

But there are earnest intentions here, however mutated by convention, the not-so-fun demands of mass-market storytelling, and instantly dated pop-culture references. It's the best TMNT movie so far — but sadly, that's not saying much.