Review of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) by Inshane — 06 Aug 2023

"Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem" was a fun and sweet movie for kids: It's a unique an interesting take on our beloved reptilian heroes, having them be actual teenagers and not the usual 20 something designs that we are TOLD are teens. April O'Neil also benefits from a new spin on her character, making her a highschooler and aspiring journalist. I wasn’t crazy about splinter having more of a protective father role and less of a wise sensei role, but the movie makes it work. While the movie is mostly a comedy, there are notes of unity, trust, friendship and family.

“Mutant Mayhem” really shines in the animation department! This films art/animation is unique and stylized creating a rough and sketchy atmosphere almost like doodles from a kids sketchbook. The impact that “The Spiderverse” movies have made on animation in film has become quite apparent, notes had to have been taken from those movies. However, the aforementioned rough/sketchy animation style was a bit much at times: A lot of scenes felt VERY busy and sometimes it was hard to make out what was going on.

Another minor gripe was the bloated cast of the film. Even for a movie with the phrase “Mutant Mayhem” maybe had too many mutants. The trailers boasted a robust cast, but some of those cast members were lucky to get 3 lines. Having Giancarlo Esposito as Baxter but barely be in the movie feels like a waste of that actors efforts.

This is an excellent film to take your kids to see, if they are TMNT fans or even if you want to introduce your kids to the TMNT series. If you’re an adult type person, your opinion may very, as not everyone will appreciate this new unique take on our turtles and your nostalgia for the older iterations might interfere.

7/10, I would say that this is one of the better TMNT movies. Maybe not as good as the 1990 film, but nowhere NEAR as bad as the 2014 Michael Bay film.