I never really got into the Ninja Turtles stuff as a kid - Loved the videogame, watched a few cartoons, was aware of and liked them well enough but it wasn't really my thing. I only really watched the 00's Nickelodeon series when my son got into it, which was pretty fun.
Mutant Mayhem, though, is on a whole other level. Co-directors Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears borrow a little flair once again from the recent Spider-verse animated movies (after doing it earlier on The Mitchells vs The Machines) to adapt a script from writing team Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg (Jeff Rowe tweaked things enough to also get a co-writer credit) that takes a lot of the elements from the decades-spanning comics/cartoons/series and puts its own gentle spin on them. It's fairly faithful to what I've seen of the originals, except that it sets up a fairly different status quo for any possible follow-ups.
So here are the basics for this iteration of the story: A mysterious ooze gets thrown into the sewers, transforming a rat and four baby turtles into furries. Scalies? I think they're still called furries. Anyhow.
The rat furry - Splinter (voiced by Jackie Chan, whose English has gotten a lot better) adopts the turtles and, to protect them from the menace of the humans (whom he insists, in a bizarre but funny running gag, will try to milk them) he trains them in the ninja arts with youtube tutorials, old workout videos and older martial arts movies (including Jackie Chan and Shaw Brothers stuff!)
But as the wee mutant ninja turtles become teenagers, a life of lurking in the sewers with occasional incursions into to the city for supplies and watching Ferris Bueller from a distance isn't enough. And when they're discovered by a human teen would-be-journalist (Ayo Edebiri), they seize on the opportunity to try and become heroes so that people will look over the fact that they're mutants. This brings them into conflict with the shady organization behind the mysterious mutant-making ooze (led by a mad scientist voiced by Maya Rudolph) and, more importantly, another group of mutants let by Superfly (Ice Cube)
The plot, to be honest, is not that great, and has its share of corny shit and clichés and obvious joke setups. But the film is so lively, the moment-to-moment writing so good and funny, and the characters - including pretty much all of the ostensible villains - are so likeable, that it barely matters. Even in the early going, where it's more of a teen comedy than anything else, it's a joy to watch, and very funny to boot. The turtles are voiced by relative newcomers - Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu and Brady Noon, and they all do a great job. Most of the heavyweights are on the villain's corner; Besides Ice Cube (who sneaks in a six 'n the mornin' reference) you've got John Cena, Rose Byrne, Seth Rogen, and a bunch of others. Giancarlo Esposito turns in what's almost a cameo.
There are quite a few fights, well choreographed (Splinter gets a very Jackie-Chan fight) and very well paced - including an inventively staged scene that cuts between five separate brawls. The art style takes a page from the Spider-verse movies, but where other influencees have focused on its hectic mishmash of styles, Turtles settles on one of them and makes its own - a skewed, slightly asymmetrical style where straight lines are scarce, there are graffitti-esque scribbles all over the place, and a lot of the coloring is done out of lines. Sometimes it adds some scratchy animation for good measure, but it's a very coherent, considered look. It's often gorgeous, and always interesting.
The creature designs are faithful to Eastman and Laird's creations, and in their conversion to the new style they often achieve something I value a lot - they make me laugh just by looking at them; I mean, that's half a battle won already, right? Whoever gave Leatherhead those goggles deserves a raise.
The needle drops are all a lot of fun, very nineties-focused, which I guess betrays a little the secondary target audience for the film. But it's a pleasure to hear relative deep cuts like this after the incredibly lame selection from the Super Mario movie. Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor provide a great, synthy soundtrack.
It's great, and I say it as someone who doesn't really have any nostalgia for non-videogame katana/bo/sai/nunchuk-wielding turtles. Honestly, on everything except on a technical level I'd say I liked this one a whole lot better than this year's Spider-verse sequel.
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