Ani-May-tion II: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Dir Jeff Rowe, 1h 39m, 2023)

Up till now, I've really got the Teenage Mutant Ninja (or as they were briefly dubbed in the UK, due to squeamishness over nunchucks, throwing stars, and the like, Hero) Turtles. Their first late 80s reign, where Reagan-era relaxation on marketing met a ultra-violent pulp underground comic from Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, topped by the then highest grossing film of all time, was a little before my time, whilst their subsequent sojourns out of the sewers, from the mid 2000s onwards, largely seemed the preserve of younger audiences, whether it be umpteen cartoon reimaginings, or the execrable live action Michael Bay films. In the same way, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have never truly been teenagers, permanently just out of teenagerhood if not years beyond it. It's thus quite refreshing to find that Mutant Mayhem fixes both of these things, a teen coming-of-age tale that perfectly introduces the quartet of Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello and Raphael to a new generation of fans, including myself.

As with many of the previous TMNT adventures, the tale is a familiar one: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael and Donatello (voiced by Shamon Brown Jr, Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon and Micah Abbey) are human-sized teenaged mutated turtles, raised by their surrogate father, Splinter (Jackie Chan) in the New York sewers, who acts as over-protective, if well meaning father, and martial arts tutors to the boys. Each of our chelonian chums have a couple of major attributes: Leonardo is the would-be leader, Michelangelo the comedian of the group, Raphael the toughest and most impulsive and Donatello the tech-loving nerd, and, like more recent outings, their designs match this; Dontello wears thick glasses, Raphael towers over his older brothers, and Michelangelo is wirier than his brothers.

Pizza the Action: Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael and Donatello (voiced by Shamon Brown Jr, Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon and Micah Abbey)

Where the brothers are united, as we join them on a nighttime snack run, is in their dreams of normality; sparked by them sneaking into an outdoor screening of Ferris Bueller's Day Off, so the quartet dream of nothing more than attending high school, a distant possibility given human fears of mutants, smartly illustrated in a flashback of the previous time they tried to fit in with the above-ground New Yorkers. Across town, however, trouble is brewing, as the work of the late Baxter Stockman (a cameo from Giancarlo Esposito) has been taken up by a mysterious figure called Superfly, who has taken to heisting scientific equipment and killing those responsible.

With budding reporter April O'Neill (Ayo Edebiri), hot on the trail of Superfly to make up for an embarrassing on-screen gaffe, accidental crossing paths with the quartet via a thrown shuriken and a subsequent bike theft-the resulting fight scene as the boys find themselves up against an entire garage worth of thugs is enjoyably bruising, as they're forced to use their wits and skills against the gang-so they begin the hunt for Superfly, partly driven by April's attempts to redeem her image, and partly through the quartet's attempts to become heroes and thus popular. Through a quick-cut/match-cut montage that sees the group search for information by beating the snot out of most of New York's criminal underworld, so a lead is gained on what Superfly is after next, and so our heroes head to a rendezvous with him, with April in tow, only for the villain's identity, and his plan, to be far more complex than first appears, and our heroes are forced to put aside their quest for acceptance to combat the threat, not only to themselves, but to their home in New York, of the machinations of not one but two factions of villains.

The quartet and April O'Neill (Ayo Edebiri) hatch a plan

This is to say, so far, so bread and butter-or should that be pizza?-to the Ninja Turtles. Where Mutant Mayhem differs is in presentation; whilst Mutant Mayhem undeniably belongs to the camp of films that take stylistic influence from Into the Spider-Verse, it executes this in a very different way. Nickelodeon’s film division, still working in largely digital 2D, via Mikros Animation and VFX studio, Cinesite, have adopted a unique visual style, best described as looking like the doodles in the margins of a teenager's notebook. This lends itself fantastically to both the mutant cast who emerge in the latter half of the film, a rough and angular bunch-and also where the majority of the more famous voice talent, from John Cena to co-producer Seth Rogan, to Paul Rudd and Ice Cube, appears.

This not to mention the meticulously uneven appearance of the turtles themselves, as well as in its human cast as well-there's so many great character designs in this movie it's practically a style-guide on how to reinvent an existing work's heroes, friends, and rogue's gallery, and together with the Hong Kong aping action, and the film's fantastic visual style, all of this gives the film an organic, punkish quality, as though the film's cast have leapt off the pen or pencil and lined page and into action. This organic sensibility is all over Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's at turns punkish and piano-led score, crashing drums and electronics giving way to that patented pathos-driven Reznor solo keyboard where the film needs to dwell on emotions, rather than actions.

Mutant Mayhem is ultimately a visually striking and well told coming of age story for the TMNT

Yet, one piece of the puzzle is missing. It is in the presentation of New York-has a film ever truly been a New York Film where the city doesn't feel like a living breathing member of the cast-where the film truly shines, the film showing the city from skyscraper to sewer with a loving sense of place, seen in the choice of several of New York hip-hop's choicest cuts; April's school may be run-of-the-mill, but it's where our heroes begin to dream they can be more; their sewer may be, well, a sewer, but there's a detail and a charm in the sketched out visual charm that rivals Spider-Verse's love for its city. It is this connection to the city that looms above them, and whose rooftops the boys chase across, and it is this city that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pin their chances of acceptance on protecting, that drives the film, and grants it its greatest moment of pathos.

Perhaps that's the beauty of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles as a franchise: rarely has a single work, a single quartet of characters been reinvented so often in so quick a time, like jazz variations on a theme. They got me in the end; but if the film where the pizza-munching quick-quipping quartet finally clicked for me was this riot of art and creativity and being a teenager and brotherhood and belonging somewhere, all I can say is, ya got me. Cowabunga.

Rating: Highly Recommended

Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is available to stream via Paramount Plus, and on DVD and BluRay from ‎Paramount Home Entertainment. It is also currently available via AmazonPrime, and on DVD and BluRay from ‎Paramount Home Entertainment in the US.

Next week, at long last, Nimona, as we discuss the villain-buddy-comedy fantasy adventure film Disney tried to kill.

Why not keep up to date with all things AFootandAHalfASecond, or comission a season of your own, and subscribe to my Patreon from just £1/$1.00 (ish) a month? https://www.patreon.com/AFootandAHalfPerSecond