HERE IS WHERE I TALK ABOUT THE MOVIE
What in the world is Mutant Mayhem?
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a computer-animated superhero film released in August 2023 about – you guessed it – the beloved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It's the seventh theatrical TMNT movie, and the -nth in a long line of TMNT series and spinoffs and what have you.
The story of is about the four turtles – Leonardo, Raphael, Donatello, and Michelangelo – who live in the sewers with their rat dad Splinter. 15 years before the movie is set, all five were mutated from some green ooze they all just happened to come under. Splinter mutated into an adult rat-guy, while the turtles, who were baby turtles, mutated into turtle tots. Splinter took them as his children (what else do you do in that situation, I guess), choosing to raise them in the safety of obscurity after learning that people did not take kindly to mutants.
But the turtle teens yearn for a social life! They yearn for normalcy and high school and friendship and romance! They yearn for BTS. They've built a life for themselves in the shadows, but are at a point where they're getting restless, needing more than just stealing groceries to take home and hanging out with literally only each other.
They meet a human on accident – April, a girl who wants to prove herself to her peers after an embarrassing incident. Misfits team up with misfits and they hatch a plan to try and solve an ONGOING CRIME together (when Splinter is not looking) to earn all of them their yearned-for social acceptance.
... There's obviously more, like what is the crime all about? But like I said on the home page, I'm not much of an action, crime-fighting, superhero fan naturally, so my writeup is focused on the more mundane themes of the movie. The action scenes are fun though.
How is it different from other TMNT iterations?
Mutant Mayhem was my introduction to TMNT1, so I had nothing to compare it to and enjoyed it as its own thing. However (and I came to learn this through firsthand experience also) there don't seem to be many TMNT fans who ONLY enjoy exactly one iteration of the turtles, let alone only know stuff about one iteration. You get a taste of ninja turts and want more, or at least are curious about how else they could be.
So I pursued that curiosity and fell into a turtle hole. I'd already been interested in Rise (the 2018 cartoon) and got into that the December after I'd already been obsessing over Mume for 3 months. I would watch clips of the 2012 cartoon and read fics by fans of the Bay movies. TikToks of 1987 Raph would come onto my FYP. And I learned a bit more about some other iterations – common themes and points of diversion.
Here's what I've found are things Mume did a little differently:
- Splinter is originally a rat who mutated to be humanoid, as opposed to a human who became a rat mutant.
- The turtles are voiced by actual teenagers, and also seem to be younger teens than most iterations.
- They're not from an ancient Japanese clan or anything that makes their ninja-ness inherent to them. They just learn martial arts.
- The turtles' story arc is about them integrating into and being accepted by normal society, leading more regular lives and doing things like going to school, as opposed to other turtle iterations where they lead a unique lifestyle of crime-fighting and goofing off.
- There were a lot more references to actual, real life media and culture (like Donnie liking Attack on Titan) than in other iterations, making them feel more like real teens. (I'm comparing this specifically to Rise, where the turtles like a franchise called Jupiter Jim in place of any existing sci-fi media the viewers know about.)
I didn't include things that are never the same across iterations anyway: the boys' personalities, the role of other characters like Stockman, Bebop and Rocksteady, etc. The short list above is what I noticed is a departure from more consistent themes.
Some of these were points of contention, but I think these decisions made sense for the direction the writers were going in. And maybe it's because I'm a new fan, but in general I'm not one to knock adaptations or new perspectives on old IP, and see them more as "for me" vs. "not for me" than as "good" vs. "bad". It just so happened that the Mume choices were for me, and I'm happy about that!
(This is not to say the other iterations being different means they are not for me. They are also for me, despite my not having predicted they would be. Rise Splinter origin story my beloved.)
Why do you like it so much?
The first thing you should know about me is I watch things for cute boys. It's mildly embarrassing how little interest I have in shows or movies that don't have any characters with strong blorbo / scrunkly / what-have-you potential, but I've learned to accept it.
The Mume turtles are SO. CUTE. Maybe it's because they sound so much like teens you could meet in real life. I'm always amused by the goofy cringiness that comes with being that age. Leo's inability to play it cool around a new crush, Donnie's smart alecky nerdiness, all of them ribbing each other... As a result, none of them are particularly cool, composed, or pretentious – they're just teenagers clumsily making their way through each situation, making mistakes and having fun.
I thought the family angle was really sweet. Immigrant allegories are close to my heart, and I always like media that wrangles with stuff like generation gaps and loving but not understanding and trying to work through all that. Their relationship with Splinter was a cute focus point, and it felt unique to me that neither side was at fault for wanting what they wanted. No one was the bad guy –not Splinter for wanting them to stay in the sewers, and not the turts for wanting out – and there was some miscommunication and mishandling, but without any malintent. It felt true to my own experiences with my family and working through growing pains together.
It just makes me smile! I thought it was very funny (my siblings and I laughed so much at Ray Fillet), I was supremely endeared and cringed out by how teenish they were, and I loved the family moments. I thought April was cool and I like Leo's silly puppy crush on her. Superfly and his siblings were fun, and I CANNOT BELIEVE PAUL RUDD WAS MONDO GECKO. It's visually so well done and I liked the fight scenes, even if I'm not an action gal. It's overall a fun, lighthearted movie that helped me fall in love with an entirely new IP lol. Please give it a watch if you haven't already!
Also. TURTLE TOTS.
^ like... what the hell...
I'm such a sucker for a baby version of grown character I like. Why so cute. Look at them...
[1]: My siblings had moved onto other things by the time I could like non-toddler-typical cartoons, and none of my friends were into it.