This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labour of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn't exist.
In the wake of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse there's been an influx of animated films done in a similar style, mixing of computer animation with a style that looks hand-drawn. Like that smash-hit comic book adventure – and it's wildly successful sequel, as well as the inventive and moving The Mitchells vs the Machines, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem looks like a film created from the pages of a comic or at it's best – like something the titular characters would draw themselves.
This is now the fourth attempt at a big screen franchise and each time has dabbled differently. But finally, with thanks to director Jeff Rowe and some incredibly savvy writing, we get the big screen outing we should have had years ago. The film follows the four teenage turtles, Blue-masked leader Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), red-masked muscle Raphael (Brady Noon), orange-masked jokester Michelangelo (Sharon Brown Jr) and purple-masked gadget wiz Donatello (Micah Abby) as they try to find their place in the world despite protests form their father Splinter (Jackie Chan).
The film works because both the voice actors and the writing make you feel like these are teenagers, as opposed to thirty-something men which all other films have done. The film is as interested in their teenager as they are the other three words in the title. The banter and bickering between the four is what makes the film so enduring, each with their own journey to go on as they try to attain some feeling like they belong to more than their sewer home.
It helps that Rowe creates action that is kinetic and energetic, mixing four different action sequences into one fight montage that merges all at once, throwing in great songs to underline the fact that the film wants to be first-and-foremost fun. It's unsurprising them to find that among the writing team are Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg and despite the family friendly rating there is indeed a feeling of the Superbad.
The supporting voice cast are all sublime, Chan is particularly funny as their rat-father, but Ayo Edebiri brings April O'Neil to life in a way that few other people have ever been able to. She has her own motives and internal life too that compliments the story and makes her more than a plot contrivance.
The film's energy is matched by a slew of visual and verbal jokes that range from witty, the meta, to slapstick, to gross-out meaning all funny-bones are tickled over the course of the runtime and in a world of bloated superhero films, this feels like one that wants nothing more than to make you have a good time. For the most part this works and even as the film's climax offers one more thing on top of another something quite remarkable happens, a finale that is as emotionally satisfying as it is thrilling.
If this is to start a franchise, and the mid-credit sting definitely sets that up, this could be the next thing to get hyped for after Miles Morales is done showing the animation world how it's done. It's one of the year's most joyful and fun films. There's nothing else to say expect… cowabunga.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is in cinemas now.
