Didn’t we just do an animated TMNT in 2022? Yes, yes we did… and it was fine. But we didn’t do THIS Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. And, sure, it’s yet another franchise reboot with a whole new art style… and yes, we get to see their origin story again. But when its done this well? Cowabunga!

Mutant Mayhem is definitely a reboot. We meet the turtles – now voiced by actual teenagers – as they start to (ahem) come out of their shells and investigate the human world. They meet an age-appropriate April O’Neil and have to fight a new mutant menace.

This movie is a lot of fun… very, very randomly funny with a lot of quirky (and age-appropriate) pop culture jokes. The voice actors riffed off each other like they were together in the same voice over booth. The comedy is wild, bizarre, and sometimes satirical in a way that works. I laughed often, especially at the random weirdness.

It has a great soundtrack that’s full of well-selected (and sometimes random) songs. I wasn’t asking “what’s going on” at the songs since they felt in-tune with the movie’s attitude and characters. Solid needle drops all the way down.

The art and animation is curious. Call it scribble water color with Claymation-tinged CGI characters. A pessimist would say they were “inspired” by that Spider-Verse movies while an optimist would say the Spider-Verse movies made creatives realize there were more ways to make movies than Pixar perfection or Dreamworks generic (looking at you, Trolls). A pessimist would say it sure must be easy animating explosions when all you have to do is draw in some red and add scribbles… an optimist would say that it looks like a teenager scribbling in his or her Trapper Keeper.

I’m an optimist on this one. I really enjoyed the look and artistic freedom… even if it IS “inspired” by the Spider-Verse movies (and maybe a little by that Puss ‘n Boots flick everyone loves).

I very much enjoyed this film and nobody is as surprised as I am. I’ve always had a fondness for the turtles… of the tiny handful of comics I read in my teens, the original black and white TMNT books were somehow among them. It means a lot for me to say this is effortlessly the best in the franchise, both cartoon, live action, and whatever in hell Michael Bay was doing.

Score: 86