Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem: Difference between revisions

2023 American film by Jeff Rowe

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a 2023 American computer-animated superhero film directed by Jeff Rowe, who co-wrote the screenplay with Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit. It is the seventh theatrical Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film and a reboot of the Turtles series. It stars the voices of Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon in the lead roles, alongside an ensemble voice cast that includes Ayo Edebiri, Maya Rudolph, John Cena, Rogen, Rose Byrne, Natasia Demetriou, Giancarlo Esposito, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Paul Rudd, Post Malone, and Hannibal Buress. In the film, the Turtles go on a hunt for a mysterious crime syndicate, but trouble arises when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.

Nickelodeon announced Mutant Mayhem in June 2020, with Rogen, Goldberg, and James Weaver producing under their Point Grey Pictures banner, and Rowe as director. Kyler Spears joined as co-director soon after. The animation was provided by Mikros Animation in Montreal and Paris and Cinesite in Vancouver, and was primarily influenced by school notebook sketches. Seeking to explore the teenage aspect of the Turtles, the filmmakers drew inspiration from teenage coming-of-age films. The majority of the cast was announced in March 2023. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross composed the score.

Mutant Mayhem was screened as a work-in-progress at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 12, 2023, and was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on August 2, 2023. It has grossed $102 million worldwide. It received positive reviews for its performances, screenplay, and stylized animation; several critics named it the best Turtles film. A follow-up television series, Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is set to premiere on Paramount+, and a sequel film is in development.

Plot

Techno Cosmic Research Institute (TCRI) executive Cynthia Utrom sends a squadron to hunt down rogue scientist Baxter Stockman, who has created a mutagen to form his own mutant animal family, starting with a housefly. Stockman is interrupted by Utrom’s strike force and killed in the resulting explosion, while the mutagen falls into the sewers of New York City.

Fifteen years later, the turtle brothers Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael and Donatello have been raised by their adoptive rat father, Splinter after the five of them were transformed into humanoid mutants by Stockman’s mutagen, which they call “ooze”. Being chased away by humans led Splinter to distrust humanity and train his sons in the art of ninjutsu, instructing them to only leave their sewer home to steal supplies. Now teenagers, the turtles long to live as normal high schoolers, much to Splinter’s dismay.

During a supply run, the turtles defeat a gang of criminals to recover a stolen moped belonging to a teenager named April O’Neil, revealing themselves and their origins. April, an aspiring journalist struggling to move past an embarrassing viral incident of vomiting on camera, has been investigating a series of robberies of TCRI technology by a criminal known as “Superfly”. The turtles plan to stop Superfly and, through April’s reporting, win public acceptance as heroes. They intercept a piece of stolen technology and meet Superfly under the Brooklyn Bridge, discovering that he is not only a mutant himself, but leader of a mutant gang. Ecstatic to meet fellow mutants, the turtles bond with Superfly and the others and he explains that they were created by Stockman, evading TCRI and living on an abandoned ship in Staten Island.

The turtles try to intervene, but the gang escapes with the equipment while a tracker TCRI installed on the equipment falls back with the turtles, allowing them to get captured. At TCRI headquarters, Utrom painfully “milks” the turtles for their mutagen, but April arrives with Splinter to rescue them. At the gang’s hideout, Splinter and the turtles convince them that their plan for domination will make them no better than the worst of humanity, and together they turn on Superfly, destroying his machine. However, the ooze falls into the water, combining marine wildlife with Superfly, who then transforms into a gigantic whale-like kaiju after grabbing animals from a nearby zoo. He attacks the city and the turtles and other mutants attempt to stop him but are assumed by the public to be fellow monsters.

April overcomes her anxiety and commandeers a news broadcast to explain the mutants’ good intentions and the citizens of New York come to their aid. Leonardo finds his voice as a leader, and with the help of the citizens, other mutants, and fellow turtles, drops a canister of TCRI retro-mutagen into Superfly’s blowhole, turning him back into a collection of normal animals. Reconciling with Splinter, the turtles, April, and the mutants are celebrated by the city. The mutants soon move into the sewers with them. Splinter and Scumbug fall in…