The Turtle brothers, sheltered from the human world for years, set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers by taking on a mysterious crime syndicate. A film by Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears, featuring the voices of Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, Brady Noon, Ayo Edebiri, Maya Rudolph, John Cena, Rogen, Rose Byrne, Natasia Demetriou, Giancarlo Esposito, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Paul Rudd, Post Malone, and Hannibal Buress.

A computer-animated superhero film directed by American filmmaker, Jeff Rowe. It is based on characters from comic book Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, created by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, first published in 1984 by Mirage Studio.

The story follows Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo, four anthropomorphic turtle brothers trained in ninjutsu who fight evil in New York City.

The comic book was originally intended to be a one-shot, but due to its popularity, it has become an ongoing series that has spawned television series, feature films, video games, toys, and merchandise. The TMNT franchise is estimated to be worth over $1 billion.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM is the second attempt to reboot the TMNT film series, following the 1990 film and the 2014 reboot. (2014 reboot grossed over $490 million worldwide against a production budget of $150 million.)

TCRI (Techno Cosmic Research Institute) executive Cynthia Utrom (Maya Rudolph) dispatches a squad unit to go atfer Dr. Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito), a former TCRI lead genetic scientist who has gone rogue. The unit’s mission is to recover the mutants and mutagen that Dr. Baxter has created. However, the mission is a disaster. Dr. Baxter is killed in the explosion. A housefly mutant that Stockman created escapes with the rest of the specimens, and one of the mutagen canisters falls into the sewer.

We all know the story, by why not go over it one more time. A canister of mutagen breaks in the sewers, transforming four turtle hatchlings into humanoid baby mutants. An adult city rat, Splinter (Jackie Chan), is also exposed to the mutagen and transforms into an adult humanoid rat. He takes the four turtle hatchlings under his wing and raises them as his own sons. He trains them in the way of ninjutsu.

Fifteen years have passed, and the four turtle mutants are now teenagers. They have taken on the names Donatello (Micah Abbey), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), and Raphael (Brady Noon). At night, they prowl the city for food and supplies, avoiding humans as instructed by their father.

During a supply run, the turtles intercept a stolen moped from a gang of criminals. In doing so, they reveal themselves to April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri), a young journalist who is investigating a series of robberies by the notorious Superfly. The turtles enlist April’s help in catching Superfly and bringing him to justice. They believe that if she can document their crime-fighting and release the story to the public, they will finally be accepted by human society as heroes.

The most visually striking aspect of the film is the character design and animation. Every scene looks like they have been lifted straight from the comic pages, and their movements are fluid and acrobatic. This is likely due to the film’s heavy inspiration from the success of SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE.

However, the film’s narrative and characters are underdeveloped. The plot is overly generic and predictable. Overall, it feels tedious and overly long. Using the actual video clip from the film FERRIS BUELLER’S DAY OFF (1986) instead of recreating the scene in comic art style is simply a lazy way to create content. This is a missed opportunity, as the film had the potential to be a fresh and innovative take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise.

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM was theatrically released in the United States on 2 Auguest 2023, by Paramount Pictures. The film has grossed over $139 million worldwide against a production budget of $70 million.