5 Reasons 'Mutant Mayhem' Is Overrated

It’s turning out to be a great year for animated movies. Following The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) and Across the Spider-Verse (2023) is the CG-animated reboot Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023), which has made a big impression on audiences, fans, critics, and the box office.

So far the film has grossed $94.7 million worldwide against a budget of $70 million, and it’s already widely considered to be the best film in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series. But is that really a compliment?

The Turtles driving in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem trailer TMNT — Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies

Mutant Mayhem follows six previous theatrical iterations: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze (1991), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III (1993), TMNT (2007), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016).

However, it’s only the original 1990 film, which for nine years was the most successful independent film of all time, that continues to be adored by fans. Its two direct sequels, however, are stuffed to the crust with ’90s cheese (guilty pleasures, if you will).

Leonardo fighting in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem — Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies

While TMNT (2007), which is also CG-animated (though not a 2D/3D hybrid like the current film), often finds itself at the high end of rankings, fans aren’t shy about admitting that it has some serious flaws, with the most notable being its paper-thin plot.

Then there are the two Michael Bay-produced films. Out of the Shadows is a fun adaptation on the popular 1987 cartoon series, and a vast improvement over the 2014 film, but audiences hardly raced to movie theaters after being disappointed with the first installment, and as such, it’s a stretch to describe the 2016 film as being widely loved.

All four Turtles talking to April O'Neil in Mutant Mayhem — Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies

So, is Mutant Mayhem simply the best of a bad bunch? Well, not so fast. There’s no denying that the latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles reboot is a solid film. Other than the animation style, which is stunning and perfectly encapsulates the world of the Ninja Turtles, one of the film’s biggest selling points is the fact that the titular half-shell heroes are actually teenagers this time, and portrayed by teenagers too.

This gives the film plenty of focus. Leonardo (Nicolas Cantu), Raphael (Brady Noon), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.), and Donatello (Micah Abbey) are teenage boys, but they’re also mutants. And therein lies the conflict, because they don’t want to live down in the sewers forever — they want to join humans up on the surface, go to high school, make friends, and be “normal.” So, in the hope that the citizens of New York City will accept them, they decide to help budding journalist April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri) take down a gang of mutants led by the formidable Superfly (Ice Cube).

The Ninja Turtles looking scared in Mutant Mayhem — Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies

Mutant Mayhem has Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles written all over it, but it’s also quite a departure from previous incarnations — at least in film. On the small screen, it’s perhaps most comparable to the 2012 CG-animated series, but on the big screen, there’s nothing quite like it. But is the film a solid 10/10 like a lot of people think it is?

It might be a pretty unpopular opinion, especially as the film continues to take slices out of the box office, but here are five reasons we think Mutant Mayhem is slightly overrated.

1. It Erases Rich TMNT Lore

Splinter training the Turtles in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem trailer — Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies

Mutant Mayhem completely erases vital TMNT lore, which is something a lot of fans seem to be in agreement with. The lore has gone through some changes over the decades, though. Splinter, for example, who is almost always inherently the pet rat of a ninja master named Hamato Yoshi that becomes mutated, is oftentimes depicted as being Hamato Yoshi himself, who becomes a rat after being exposed to the mutagen. In Mutant Mayhem, he is neither; he’s nothing more than a sewer-dwelling rat who happens upon the green ooze.

This creates two pretty major problems, one in Mutant Mayhem, and another that will likely transpire in the Mutant Mayhem 2. First of all, we learn that Splinter (Jackie Chan), who, of course, had no prior knowledge himself, taught the Turtles how to become ninjas by showing them martial arts movies and YouTube videos as they grew up.

Donatello in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem trailer — Credit: Paramount Pictures / Nickelodeon Movies

Not only is this very similar to how the Turtles learn to become ninjas in the 2014 live-action reboot (in which Splinter learns it from a discarded book and then passes on his learnings), it feels like a cheap and easy way to explain the Turtles’ fighting abilities without giving it any real history or meaning. Perhaps this was yet another way for the film resonate with the younger audiences, who have grown up learning things from platforms like YouTube. But this storytelling decision ends up erasing a ton of TMNT history, including Splinter’s knowledge of, and relationship with, The Shredder.

Traditionally, Hamato Yoshi, whichever of the two versions, has a long history with the formidable samurai and his army of Foot Soldiers. But now, all that backstory has been abandoned. While there’s nothing wrong with making alterations to the lore, in the case of Mutant Mayhem this does a pose a problem regarding the return of the iconic villain.

In the film’s mid-credits scene, TCRI CEO Cynthia Utrom (Maya Rudolph) enlists the help of The Shredder to capture the Ninja Turtles. But now that he’ll have no history with Splinter, who is he? Is he nothing more than an assassin-for-hire, or will Mutant Mayhem 2 retcon Splinter’s new origin somehow? Either way, this was a pretty bizarre choice.

2. The Plot Is Derivate of Previous TMNT films

The TMNT ready to fight in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem trailer — Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies

Over time, when the “honeymoon period” is long gone, we think fans will notice just how much Mutant Mayhem borrows from previous Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies, particularly the widely hated Michael Bay-produced reboots.

In the 2014 film, villainous CEO Erich Sachs (William Fichtner) captures Leonardo (Pete Ploszek/Johnny Knoxville), Michelangelo (Noel Fisher), and Donatello (Jeremy Howard) and places them in a chamber where he tries to extract their mutant blood to create a deadly toxin and its antidote. In Mutant Mayhem, Cynthia Utrom does the exact same thing, though with the intention to create an army of super-mutant soldiers. The 2016 sequel, Out of the Shadows, focuses on the Turtles’ desire to live among humans and be accepted, which is a theme that also plays heavily in Mutant Mayhem.

In hindsight, it’s fair to say that the animation does a lot of heavy lifting for the film. On closer inspection, the plot in Mutant Mayhem is incredibly derivative, and if the film was live action, we suspect that fans, audiences, and critics wouldn’t be so forgiving.

3. The Tone Is Inconsistent

The Ninja Turtles looking menacing on a rooftop in Mutant Mayhem — Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies

Perhaps one of the most frustrating things about Mutant Mayhem is its totally inconsistent tone. The film opens with a sequence involving the company TCRI (TMNT‘s Oscorp, if you will) sending a SWAT team to retrieve Baxter Stockman (Giancarlo Esposito) and all of his animal test subjects. The music throughout this whole sequence is pulse-pounding, and the tone surprisingly serious.

We then cut to the Ninja Turtles hopping between rooftops against a night sky, as they are seemingly in pursuit of a criminal gang. The music is still very serious, and at this point it feels like the filmmakers have finally delivered a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie that’s more in line with the gritty comic books. Unfortunately, this entire sequence is played for jokes: despite their menacing white eyes as they scale the rooftops, it turns out Leonardo is just daydreaming, as the Turtles are just out grocery shopping.

This varying tone is a problem throughout the film: one minute, the Turtles are yearning for a life on the surface while some poignant, Stranger Things-inspired synth plays; the next, Splinter is making out with a giant cockroach… As a result, Mutant Mayhem winds up suffering from a major identity crisis. You could say the filmmakers are trying to have their pizza and eat it.

4. The Mutants Become Good Guys

Rose Byrne as Leatherhead in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem character poster — Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies

Mutant Mayhem takes quite a few liberties with its depiction of certain characters from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles universe, particularly its mutants. Not only is Splinter’s backstory completely erased, villains such as Leatherhead (Rose Byrne) and Wingnut (Natasha Demetriou) are now portrayed as female (there’s nothing wrong with this, of course, but it’s a change nonetheless). Genghis Frog (Hannibal Buress) is no longer one part of a quartet of characters similar to the Ninja Turtles, and Superfly is seemingly his own character, no longer part of a Dr. Jekyll-and-Hyde storyline with Baxter Stockman.

But there’s one creative choice that doesn’t really land, and it’s when all the mutants, including iconic duo Bebop (Seth Rogen) and Rocksteady (John Cena), wind up joining the Turtles to help take down Superfly, before moving in with them in their sewer lair. It’s just plain weird.

5. Iconic Characters Are Wasted

Official Baxter Stockman TMNT Mutant Mayhem poster — Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies

Mutant Mayhem might be bursting at the seams with characters of all shapes and sizes, but there are a handful who are completely wasted throughout the film. Among the mutants, Bebop and Rocksteady are side-lined for obscure characters such as Superfly and Mondo Gecko (Paul Rudd), and when they do take center stage, they’re suddenly good guys.

But there’s one character whose time in the film is bordering on criminal: Baxter Stockman, who only appears during the film’s opening sequence. With an actor like Giancarlo Esposito providing the voice work, you’d think the filmmakers would want to maximize his time on the screen, however, it becomes abundantly clear throughout the film that its A-list voice cast is nothing more than a marketing ploy to sell movie theater tickets.

With the exception of Jackie Chan (Splinter), Paul Rudd (Mondo Gecko), and Ice Cube (Superfly), the rest of the film’s impressive ensemble — Seth Rogen (Bebop), John Cena (Rocksteady), and Rose Byrne (Leatherhead), included — don’t end up talking all that much.

Mutant Mayhem is in theaters now. Check out the trailer below:

As per Wikipedia, here’s the official synopsis for Mutant Mayhem:

After years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtles set out to win the hearts of New Yorkers and be accepted as normal teenagers through heroic acts. Their new friend April O’Neil helps them take on a notorious crime syndicate, but they soon get in over their heads when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem — Credit: Paramount Animation / Nickelodeon Movies

Mutant Mayhem stars Nicolas Cantu (Leonardo), Micah Abbey (Donatello), Shamon Brown Jr. (Michelangelo), Brady Noon (Raphael), Jackie Chan (Splinter), Ayo Edebiri (April O’Neil), Seth Rogen (Bebop), John Cena (Rocksteady), Hannibal Buress (Genghis Frog), Rose Byrne (Leatherhead), Ice Cube (Superfly), Post Malone (Ray Fillet), Paul Rudd (Mondo Gecko), Maya Rudolph (Cynthia Utrom), Natasia Demetriou (Wingnut), and Giancarlo Esposito (Baxter Stockman).

Did any of these things bother you in Mutant Mayhem? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!