This piece was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the movie being covered here wouldn’t exist.
Now this is how you reboot! The turtles were some of my earliest toys and earliest memories of pop culture, gladly saying cowabunga and playing the various NES and arcade games forever and ever. It’s always hard to tell what popular stuff from 30 years ago could still work today, but maybe the lesson here is if you want to do a generational translation, get Seth Rogen, one of the funniest people alive, do help bring it to life, ooze and all. TURTLE POWER!
It’s been a while since we spent any TV time with the turtles, so Rogen starts us fresh. For those who don’t know, a rat named Splinter (Jackie Chan) found 4 baby turtles walking around in ooze, from a company called TGRI. Those 4 turtles and Splinter gained superpowers from the ooze, and also studied 80s and 90s Jackie Chan movies (nice) to learn ninja skills. From there, Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), Donatello (Micah Abbey) and Raphael (Brady Noon) become the TMNT we know and love. They 4 boys are eager to go out into the world, but Splinter, jaded by past human interactions as a rat, orders them to stay put. Being teens, the boys make YouTube ninja clips, one of which ends up landing them a human friend, April O’Neill (Ayo Edebiri), who informs the turtles of the Super Fly organization terrorizing New York City…and the city needs heroes to stop them.
When the turtles were a hot commodity, movie, TV, and videogame makers all focused on the Mutant Ninja Turtle part. Seth Rogen however, finally gives us the Teenage part of their essence, injecting something that had been missing for a long time. These 4 turtles really feel like 14 year olds, giving each other s***, just a delight of a nostalgic hang for fans of the 90s TV version. All the pieces of TMNT are there, but unformed yet, like the brilliant notebook drawing animation style, making the arc of the movie wholly satisfying. We get to see Leo blossom into the leader, Donny become the brains, Mikey being the fun glue, and Ralph turn his brooding into a ninja force, making mistakes along the way. Heck even April has to get over some onscreen pyrotechnics to become New York’s shining teenage journalistic beacon. Because of the downward age shift too, these turtles seem way more beatable, as the enemies get more and more harrowing like Ice Cube’s Super Fly.
Teenagers also bring with them a joy of discovery and zest for living, which this movie proudly plants its flag on. You know there’s gonna be a showdown of some kind: it is sort of a superhero movie. But, the big emotional climax happens before the big showdown. Splinter and Super Fly grew up in a world filled with cruelty. The turtles know nothing of this jaded existence, only the hope for the future. And that’s the best thing Rogen brings to the table: you can feel the joy in Leo, Donny, Mikey, and Raph when they find some kindred spirits like April and other mutants (voiced incredibly, especially Paul Rudd). Yes, we get a lot of joy watching the turtles fight off the bad guys, but the ultimate hope here is that they don’t have to fight at all, and can just be, well, teenagers first, mutant ninja turtles 2nd. That positivity oozes throughout the story, washing over the audience with the movie version of a 10 year old kids pizza party for 90 minutes.
I knew Mutant Mayhem was working because of how varied but constant the laughter was. Kids would laugh, then 30 year olds like me, then older parents later, showing how the Turtles had found their way into the modern world. And for parents whose kids caught the TMNT bug, here’s some advice. You can’t show them the 1990 Turtles movie (that one’s WAY too adult), but you CAN start them on #2, Secret of the Ooze. And, as a double bonus, you can explain to them who Vanilla Ice is.