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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
A group of popular comic book heroes from the 1980's have been been re-imagined for the New Millenium with an eye popping animated adventure called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem that earns its credentials by concentrating the whole concept of the story around the first word of the title: "Teenage."
This 2023 action adventure finds our teenage turtle brothers encountering a human teenager named April who wants to be a journalist and leads our heroes to an insect villain known as Superfly whose personal mission is destroy all human beings on the planet. Things get complicated though when the turtles discover a possible familial connection between themselves and Superfly that is in direct conflict with our heroes personal ambition.
The screenplay for this film seems to have been crafted for viewers, like myself, for whom these characters are unknown. We are provided nicely detailed exposition/backstory that doesn't slow things down too much, revealing that the turtles were exposed to a special "ooze" created by a mad scientist and were then adopted by an elderly rate named Splinter who raised the turtles in the sewers of Manhattan. Splinter, however, has a bad history with humans and has trained the turtles to live in fear of humans and avoid contact at all cost. Still, our turtle teenagers long to be human, evidenced in their love of the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off and their desire to go to high school and have dates for the prom.
I loved that this story never forgets that these four central characters might b e turtles, but that they are also teenagers. The elaborate excuses they make to Splinter when they get in trouble had me on the floor and whenever they had to explain themselves, they would all talk at once, talking over each other so that nothing they're saying is really being understood. The flashback of Splinter taking the baby turtles out onto the streets of Manhattan were a heartbreaker as were the longing on the boys' faces as they watched the magical life of Ferris Bueller.
LOVED the look of the film. The color schemes and basic drawings of the settings of the story seemed to be based in charcoal and pastel-colored chalk giving the film the look of animated drawings, rather than the CGI, technology-charged look of Disney Pixar. This is an animated film that never apologizes for being what it is.
The voice work is splendid and I loved the fact that the four teenage brothers were actually voiced by teenage actors, giving the characters so much more authenticity than they would have voiced by adult actors. There is also standout voice work by Giancarlo Esposito as the scientist Dr. Stockman, Maya Rudolph as the evil Cynthia, John Cena as Rocksteady, Ice Cube as Superfly, and especially Jackie Chan, who pretty much steals the show as Splinter. All in all, a rowdy animated adventure that is true family entertainment.
A group of popular comic book heroes from the 1980's have been been re-imagined for the New Millenium with an eye popping animated adventure called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem that earns its credentials by concentrating the whole concept of the story around the first word of the title: "Teenage."
This 2023 action adventure finds our teenage turtle brothers encountering a human teenager named April who wants to be a journalist and leads our heroes to an insect villain known as Superfly whose personal mission is destroy all human beings on the planet. Things get complicated though when the turtles discover a possible familial connection between themselves and Superfly that is in direct conflict with our heroes personal ambition.
The screenplay for this film seems to have been crafted for viewers, like myself, for whom these characters are unknown. We are provided nicely detailed exposition/backstory that doesn't slow things down too much, revealing that the turtles were exposed to a special "ooze" created by a mad scientist and were then adopted by an elderly rate named Splinter who raised the turtles in the sewers of Manhattan. Splinter, however, has a bad history with humans and has trained the turtles to live in fear of humans and avoid contact at all cost. Still, our turtle teenagers long to be human, evidenced in their love of the movie Ferris Bueller's Day Off and their desire to go to high school and have dates for the prom.
I loved that this story never forgets that these four central characters might b e turtles, but that they are also teenagers. The elaborate excuses they make to Splinter when they get in trouble had me on the floor and whenever they had to explain themselves, they would all talk at once, talking over each other so that nothing they're saying is really being understood. The flashback of Splinter taking the baby turtles out onto the streets of Manhattan were a heartbreaker as were the longing on the boys' faces as they watched the magical life of Ferris Bueller.
LOVED the look of the film. The color schemes and basic drawings of the settings of the story seemed to be based in charcoal and pastel-colored chalk giving the film the look of animated drawings, rather than the CGI, technology-charged look of Disney Pixar. This is an animated film that never apologizes for being what it is.
The voice work is splendid and I loved the fact that the four teenage brothers were actually voiced by teenage actors, giving the characters so much more authenticity than they would have voiced by adult actors. There is also standout voice work by Giancarlo Esposito as the scientist Dr. Stockman, Maya Rudolph as the evil Cynthia, John Cena as Rocksteady, Ice Cube as Superfly, and especially Jackie Chan, who pretty much steals the show as Splinter. All in all, a rowdy animated adventure that is true family entertainment.