Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023)

Warning: It contains spoilers and blah, blah, blah let's get over with it!

TMNT is a franchise that I watched as a kid (particularly the 2012 show) and remember that I played with the action figures. I'm not one of those Gen Z who is blinded by nostalgia any means it's that I liked TMNT, I found the characters interesting and I like their dynamics. The action is cool and I respect the creator of this! Going as far as I might read the comics one day and never watch the other/live action TMNT films! Once Nickelodeon announce that they are making a film of TMNT and once I saw that in my local Omni-plex cinema I feel like I watch something quite new and refreshing! 2023 is a big year for cinema for the highs and the box office bombs.

Without a further-a-do let's get into the sewers;

The animation is fantastic!: For starters the animation of that film is amazing and clearly inspired Spider-Verse animation. When Spider-Verse came out now every animated film wants to be like Spider-Verse! The reason why I said refreshing is the animation itself, that's considering that Nickelodeon doesn't make a lot of artist films and only their 2D ones are but mainly it's 3D animation. I love it has a glow(ish) vibe to it, e.g. went the TMNT meets the other mutants at the bowling and a lot of blue and other colours or the action scenes with all the hit like the comic is just icing on the cake! It really makes it stand out and give a personality to the film itself!

The voice cast is also great: I love the voice cast is because the boys who plays as the TMNT are actual teens (and not fully grown adults) is remarkable and on a side note Nicolas Cantu (who voice Leonardo) also voice Gumball from The Amazing World of Gumball which is the only Cartoon Network show I only watch funny enough (not counting any Warner. Bros like Looney Tunes or Scooby-doo) and Jackie Chan is amazing as Splinter in my opinion!

The writing...: As much I like the film, the writing is when my prises starts to fall, the movie's plot is very basic to say the least, the beginning is basically Master Splinter find the turtles and both got mutant and grow as a family but society hates them because they think they are monsters (on a side-note OMG guys Mr Beast is in this film!-). The TMNT finds a friend name April and a gang of mutants who wants to take the world in their own hands.

So what do I mean basic? I'm saying that the only character that has development is Leonardo being what means to be the leader and that's about it everyone else just meet each other fast or mainly the mutants where they are just NPC's. I'm not saying it's bad writing for any means there are good stuff like where Master Splinter cares about his kids but thank goodness there is no overprotected or misunderstanding subplot trope! Like the TMNT also wants to go to school and I guess that makes the film stand out from the other TMNT comics and shows out there.

However I don't think it's as heart felt as other TMNT media's (also not saying I'm one of these people who says sad moments = best film ever).

The third is the worst act: The last act of the movie rubes me the wrong way because when all the Mutants gets ready for the take over the TMNT says things like "No, not all humans are stupid" sand they are like "Oh yeah! Why didn't thought that earlier!" because they instantly change their minds, April joins in and no mutant reacts to her, you know a human before and lastly during the big fight the people for some reason thinks TMNT are the ones who are destroying the city like do you people have eyes! There is a big mutant whale and your blaming on them?! Oh course we need to over come April's fear of throwing up in a news cast yeah, I guess? So the city basically change their mind and fight the mutant whale ,they accept the TMNT (even though they are stupid, what humanity is stupid? So that means STAY AWAY FROM STUPID!) and cliff hanger Master Shredder is coming to kick grass!

The comedy is pretty hit or miss: The reason I said a good Seth Rogan film because every animated film he is involve are kind meh (love you Mario movie) or whatever he writes are terrible (Sausage Party is the most overrated film in animation history in my opinion!). It's a Seth comedy and weirdly has a lot of pop-culture refences and I'll give a pass since they are teens but other character says things like that guard said Ratatouille, really? Also they mention TikTok, why, just why? You know that I absolutely hate jokes on social media but it's not offensively embarrassing bad like Ralph Breaks the Internet or The Emoji Movie and I don't think they intentionally did that for this, it's more like just why that exist. Also the milk starts to get tiring when you watch it the THIRD time but not all comedy is bad, the reactions with Splinter and the TMNT is very funny and some did make me laugh so I'll be fair movie.

Final thoughts: It's a film that stand out of many Nickelodeons work and just a unique spin on the TMNT franchise and even my critical problems its still good like guys you done well enough! I appreciate the film doesn't feel like it was playing down to the kids or moms taking their children to watch a product its defiantly not for younger viewers and makes the PG rating worth it and unlike Disney which their films are mainly PG rated even though I think its safe for children to watch e.g. Frozen for some reason or Strange World. It's not an great film it has it's flaws but still it's a fun time and I'm giving it an 7/10! I can not wait for the sequel!

So that's all I got to say!