Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Movie Review: A Turtles Mission to Feel Included

The film follows the Turtle brothers as they work to earn the love of New York City while facing down an army of mutants. The Turtles and April O’Neil embark on a dangerous mission across New York City to stop the likes of Rocksteady and Bebop, and more.

This review will contain spoilers for the movie, please be aware!!!

Overview

You can say what you like about the live-action TMNT movies. Yes, they are not fantastic money makers at the box office, but what makes The Turtles so special is animation and that is what makes this film. The animation is fantastic and the story is just as good.

The hardest thing for me was simply finding places that spoke about this movie. I saw people talk about it when trailers dropped for it but that was it. I saw some tweets about it when it was released but apart from that nothing.

With how the Turtles are in this movie, being teenagers, this sets up a fantastic universe for them going forward, we can see them grow into the characters we all love and we can get many different stories that normally we would not get.

Story

This was a story that was completely new, unique, and stood on its own feet. The story delivered some emotional and impactful moments. The story made you care for these mutants and truly showcased that they were done wrong by humans.

The story showcases that while the Turtles are just that, turtles. They do have a life, they do want and need what other teenagers want, a life. We get to explore that throughout the film and see what happens when they are revealed to the city.

This was a story that wasn’t just a straight “we are ninja turtles and we fight crime” type of movie. This was a story about a mission that the turtles had to feel included, to be included. To be normal.

Ultimately, the story showcased that the humans will always shoot first and not even ask questions later. If they want something, they’ll take it. As shown in the opening sequence where they killed Stockman and created this Superfly mutant that despises humans and wants to exterminate humanity.

Characters

With a stacked cast from the likes of John Cena, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Giancarlo Esposito, Post Malone, Seth Rogen, Paul Rudd, and more it was hard to dislike anything about the cast within this movie. Honestly, for an animated movie, this was a stacked cast and no one tried to truly out-voice anyone else.

For the Turtles themselves, for me personally, I don’t know their respective voice actors but my god were they spot on. They were truly similar to all aspects of what I’ve watched for TMNT in my life.

For the full cast list, you can visit IMDB by clicking here.

Hype

Honestly, I feel like the hype for this movie has been none existent unless it’s when a trailer has dropped. Typically I see people talk about it on social media or even see interviews or YouTube videos with the cast. I’ve barely seen anything for this.

Favorite Moments

1. The opening scene where the viewers get to see the events o fifteen years prior to the present-day where the TRI hunts down a rogue scientist named Baxter Stockman, who is the creator of a mutagen to form his own mutant animal family. Stockman ultimately dies in an explosion caused by the strike force.

2. Seeing Master Splinter teach the Turtles the art of Ninjutsu, and only instructing them to leave their home to steal supplies to survive. This goes on for years and we see that as teenagers, the Turtles want a normal life, to go to school, although Splinter doesn’t like that idea.

3. During a supply run, the Turtles defeat a gang of criminals to recover a stolen moped that belongs to April O’Neil. The Turtles trust her enough to reveal themselves and tell April about their origins. April tells the Turtles about a string of robberies of TVRI by a criminal only known as “Superfly”.

4. The Turtles get captured by the TCRI. At their headquarters, the Turtles are “milked” for their mutagen. April arrives with Splinter to rescue the teenagers. This is where we see Splinter go absolutely crazy on the soldiers to rescue his sons.

5. After the big fight scene, the Turtles are actually celebrated by the city. The mutants move into the sewers and the Turtles enroll at April’s high school. They open the doors and are embraced as heroes. We see that Donatello joins the computer club, Raphael joins the wrestling team, Michaelangelo takes up improv comedy, and Leonardo develops a crush on April so he joins the investigation in the TCRI. We also get a Shredder tease.

Dislikes

Honestly, I have nothing to dislike at all in this movie.

Recommend?

Yes! 100% this is a fantastic animated movie and a great addition in the line of TMNT projects, it’s right up there with the best of the best stories involving the Turtles.

Verdict

Ultimately, this animated movie is a feel-good movie for the Turtles. The love and care that this movie, the writers, the voice actors, the animators, and more delivered for the Turtles makes this one of the best TMNT stories to date.

Rating: 9.6/10

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is available in cinemas worldwide and also available on. You can visit here for more information on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem.