ANI-MOVIES, *Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Seth Rogen totally fumbled the ball with his last theatrical adaptation of a comic book series, so he worked out a deal with Nickelodeon and Paramount to do a new take on the TMNT just after their TV series and movie of Rise Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reached a finale. Mutant Mayhem is the second all CGI-animated film of the Turtles franchise as well as the second animated theatrical release, and became the overall pilot for the new Tales Of The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles TV series. Including Rogen, there were a total of five writers behind the screenplay, including some from the Prime version of The Tick, so after watching the movie you can see how the story got a little muddled as it went along. This new incarnation of the Turtles employed the more graffiti style of animation that the Spider-Verse movies have taken in making the half-shell heroes look like a cross between claymation and 3D effects.

The story starts out as yet another retelling of the Turtles origin., Rogue scientist Baxter Stockman breaks away from the shadowy TCRI organization to secretly concoct an ooze that mutates animals into intelligent humanoids. Stockman gets captured by TCRI goons and we never see him again for the rest of the movie. A sample of the ooze drops down the sewers of New York City which mutates a common rat and a quartet of baby turtles. Fifteen years later, the rat named Splinter calls his new sons Leonardo, Donatello, Michelangelo, and Raphael, and tries to protect them away from the inviting human world by teaching them the art of ninjitsu from how-to videos and martial arts movies. The turtle brothers want to be accepted by humans, so they figure the best way to do that is to use their fighting skills to bring the city's biggest criminal to justice, who happens to go by the handle Superfly. The turtles help out teenage girl April O'Neil after her scooter is stolen by some crooks who have a connection to Superfly, and they take the gang's place when they're supposed to handing over some heisted tech. Turns out that Superfly and his crew are all mutants also made from the same ooze, and they're planning on using the stolen tech to create a device which will mutate all the animals in the world to take over the planet while killing off mankind. The Turtles pretend to be into Superfly's scheme, but they get caught by TCRI who want to bleed them dry. April gets Splinter to rescue them, and the ninjas confront Superfly while talking the other mutants into going against him. All the mutants destroy the mutant-making machine as Superfly falls into an exploding pool of ooze which mutates him into a kaiju-sized monster made up of other animals. The Turtles use an anti-mutagen weapon they got from TCRI to reduce Superfly back to normal and are recognized by the citizens of New York as being heroes. The other mutants move in to the Turtles' underground lair as the boys themselves start their first day of high school. TCRI is still waiting in the wings to unleash their commrade Shredder on the Turtles.

Mutant Mayhem is an adequate new take on the hit 80s underground comic book, but seriously misses the mark at trying to capture the nostalgia of its previous incarnations. The Turtles here are just walking dispensers of pop culture references, and it could have used a slightly more serious enemy to fight instead of a mutant fly gangsta rapper that is overplayed by Ice-T. The extended cast of mutants who eventually become the Mutanimals don't add much either with non-actors like John Cena as one of the voice overs, and even Paul Rudd's appearance isn't helpful. The fact that the movie gender-flips some of the secondary characters isn't a dealbreaker but it didn't add anything to the movie either. Hardcore Shellheads will deem this worthy, but newbies might be a little turned off by the contrasting art style. Donatello with glasses? Who needs that?