I was shell-shocked in a great way once I saw “permanent teenager” Seth Rogen’s production of the latest cinematic presentation of the pizza king quartet. From showing the TMNT in a better light in front of humans to their awkward teenage angst to including NWA’s Ice Cube as a Shaft-knockoff, this film was the best I’ve seen of the Turtles.
In a New York with animation reminiscent of the comic book style from the Spider-Verse films, four turtle brothers-Leonardo, voiced by Nicolas Cantu, Donatello, voiced by Micah Abbey, Raphael, voiced by Brady Noon, and Michelangelo, voiced by Shamon Brown, Jr.-are on a mission to get humankind to accept them. But add to that a mutant Superfly, voiced by Ice Cube, on a reign of terror and the titular Mutant Mayhem begins. It’s going to take ninjitsu, their adoptive father Splinter, voiced by Jackie Chan, their new human ally April O’Neil, voiced by Ayo Edebiri, and some pizza for them to be the heroes from the shadows.
I liked the new direction the production team headed into, specifically making the Turtles seem more grounded and acting more like teenagers struggling to find their place rather than just fighting and ordering pizza. I guess that’s one reason why actual teenagers voiced them this time, maybe because the actors could relate to troubled adolescent issues. But when it came to fighting corrupt humans and mutants, despite not being completely macho men, they made up for it with cool action choreography and Grand Theft Auto-type driving. It was also cool in seeing their love of 80s pop culture and modern-day culture like Adele or BTS, and Splinter being an agile fighter despite seeming old enough to be a grandpa. And Leo’s actor sounded like a younger Tom Holland version of Peter Parker from the MCU Spider-Man films, and Mikey’s actor sounded like Shameik Moore as Miles Morales from the Spider-Verse films.
When they first met April, albeit under wrong circumstances, it was funny how Leo developed a crush on her and stumbled trying to impress her. Away from her meetings with the boys, she was a very determined journalist who also wanted adolescence to be fun and criminals brought to justice, all in time for prom. Pretty cool how she put aside fears from the past to show New York that help is on the way. It’s been a while since I’ve watched the short-lived Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles show, but this is probably better than the April that got fired from jobs too many times.
Other funny parts came in the boys trying to become high school and social media ready, Ice Cube’s character of Superfly acting all gangster (and he had some human moments trying to keep his group of mutants from being isolated and mistreated like Splinter and the Turtles), and the boys’ fun interacting with mutants such as Mondo Gecko or Bebop and Rocksteady. I hope Ice Cube had fun being this tough guy in this family-friendly coming-of-age film. Like I said, his character was like a Shaft knockoff.
Aside from the humorous action and characters, two other great parts of the film were the hip-hop songs in the background and the scoring by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, with bass and electronic beats similar to composers such as Hans Zimmer. All in all, the cast and crew did a great job assembling this film and showing the Turtles and other mutants to be human and relatable, while showing some great martial arts action and family moments in between. It was crazy and kicking, and cowabunga until the next big thing, Turtles crew!
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