Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem - A Pizza-Fueled Frenzy
An explosive animated film with an unforgettable bestiary – as tempting as a New York pepperoni pizza.
In a clandestine laboratory, a mysterious scientist conducts experiments on animals. A quartet of mutated turtles and a rat named Splinter manage to escape, along with a host of grotesque creatures, including Superfly – a mutant obsessed with wiping out humanity. Under Splinter’s guidance, the turtles mature, master martial arts, and encounter kindred spirits. They team up with journalist April O’Neil to challenge a dangerous syndicate.
Still from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
The Ninja Turtles have as many lives on screen as cats. The green mutants are constantly being reborn! Over the past two decades, animation and cinema have significantly expanded the Turtles universe. But was it worth it? Kevin Munroe’s 2007 film is barely remembered today, last year’s “Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” on Netflix only appealed to die-hard fans, and Michael Bay’s reboot was widely criticized as soulless commercialism. But Jeff Rowe, the new Turtles auteur, has decided to follow in the footsteps of the recent “Spider-Man” films, returning the heroes to their carefree youth, or rather, focusing on their coming-of-age (as did Jon Watts’ “Spider-Man” films and Sony Pictures’ groundbreaking animated duology). Today’s superheroes don’t just grow up; they experience the pains and joys of adolescence with full intensity. Like the recent Spider-Man projects, the new “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” looks not to its comic book origins, but to the tradition of 80s teen comedies. It’s no coincidence that the quartet watches John Hughes’ “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” in one scene – viewers of the new Turtles story can expect a similar experience: carefree adventures in the big city, separation from parents, and the search for identity in a world where they just want to be accepted. “I’m not like everyone else” is not a superpower, but a curse.
“Mutant Mayhem” is an intricate and vibrant animated symbiote. The lively and dynamic animation echoes the impact of “Spider-Man” on the genre: everything sparkles and illuminates, whisking the viewer through the greenish tunnels of the sewers and the nocturnal streets of New York. The filmmakers aren’t afraid of the grotesque: the mutant turtles, both as infants and as older teens, are depicted with an obvious penchant for exaggeration, external distortion of proportions, and playful experimentation with forms. This is especially true when the heroes encounter Superfly and the mutant syndicate. The film seamlessly transforms into a phantasmagorical terrarium, borrowing the style of Japanese kaiju – in other words, it would be a crime to shy away from the ugly in such a universe.
Still from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
As for other oddities, there’s the unexpected take on April O’Neil. Not only is she not portrayed as a slender beauty like Megan Fox (it’s astonishing how vulgarly the Bay team simplified her in 2014), but she’s constantly throwing up on screen – an unenviable start for a young journalist. The Turtles strategically and cleverly steal food from stores, and the villain in the film is not a brutal martial arts master (Shredder is still far off), but an insect-like monster with a mutated claw that grows to the size of Godzilla. The whole story, unsurprisingly, is presented in a feverish, non-stop rhythm, accompanying the aesthetics of the repulsive with witty humorous interludes (a particular highlight is the lyrical flashback of Splinter meeting the Turtles, almost in the style of James Gunn).
“Mutant Mayhem” is a genuinely mischievous film, more akin to the uninhibited fun of Troma Studios than to typical superhero fare, where laughter is combined with a bizarre, grotesque ornamentation. The film is made by true movie fans, who don’t hesitate to accompany the Turtles’ training with the song “Push It To The Limit,” joke about Chris Pine, or mockingly play with the conventions of kaiju films (although the creators’ sources of inspiration were much broader, including the nocturnal romance of “Chungking Express”).
Of course, the creators know when to stop and temper the reptile circus with genuinely human emotions: the children go from rejection and alienation to socialization. From sewer turtles shunned by the people on the streets, the quartet of mutants transforms into the heroes of New York. The screenwriting involvement of Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg is evident in how the story and gags are infused with the juices of pop culture, and how puberty is now a problem not only for teenagers from the 2000s (think “Superbad”), but also for anthropomorphic turtles. In any case, “Mutant Mayhem” is a wonderful revision that doesn’t feed on nostalgia, but surges forward, harnessing the power of modern animation and following the synthesizer riffs of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.