The Return Of Turtle Power: TMNT "Mutant Mayhem" Movie Review (Spoilers) By: Brody Sorbera

The turtles we know and love are back in a desperately needed reboot of the TMNT franchise. It follows the comic-book-style animation and coming-of-age plot device that the Spider-Verse movies mastered. There is nothing wrong with taking inspiration from something else, as many of the most significant art pieces are inspired by other works. But enough about that, let's dive into what made this movie a big success and why I'm excited about the future direction of this franchise.

We follow the turtles' origin, which some fans may question since it's another superhero origin story, but the basis is done in such a fun and exciting angle that it makes up for it. The turtles are isolated from society, but they yearn to live like normal teenagers and go to high school, which is contrary to Splinter, who hates humans and wants nothing to do with them and who acts more like a father to them than a master as in other interpretations of this franchise.

This movie then takes no time to dive right into the main story, which is stopping the other mutants, specifically their leader, Superfly, voiced by Ice Cube, from genociding the humans to establish a new mutant world order. Meanwhile, the mysterious group of scientists is trying to go after the mutants and the turtles and "milk them" (clearly a Seth Rogen-inspired joke), more specifically, suck their blood out for observation.

I don't want to go over the entire plot because you'll have to see for yourself. But, the biggest plus this movie has is the animation style, which the SpiderVerse inspired. In addition, they embrace their gritty nature, as the Turtles franchise is known for. Hard-core Turtles fans might take issue with Splinter being treated more like a father and less as a master, along with a couple of Hollywood clichés about the main characters wanting to fit in. Still, I can see how it works for the general audience, as this can be a great introduction to the Turtles franchise if you are not a hard-core fan.

This film has loads of talent. Many recognizable names voice the characters, which might only sometimes be good. Still, they did a great job casting for this film. Also, a huge positive is that the turtles acted like teenagers in the past; teenagers were just in the name and didn't act their age, but many themes in the film are about coming of age. They teased the sequel in the post-credits scene, and I cannot wait to see how this new rendition of the turtles continues. Turtle Power!