Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is the latest reboot of the franchise being headed by Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg. In this continuity, the Turtles want to take part in human activities despite Splinter's fear and distrust of the world above the sewers. Upon helping and befriending a teen version of April O'Neil, who is an aspiring journalist, the Turtles learn about the crimes of Superfly and want to stop them to prove to Splinter that they're responsible and be seen as heroes by the people of Manhattan. The only problem is that Superfly and his gang, which includes Bebop and Rocksteady, are also animal mutants created by the same ooze that changed them. Considering how many times this franchise has been rebooted in such short amounts of time, you'd think this new one wouldn't be that great or hugely memorable. But not only did Jeff Rowe, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit all do incredible work as director and writers, but they managed to get an incredible home run in not only a good movie with a great story but the writing willing to do unique things for the franchise. Ending the movie with the Turtles, Splinter, and the other mutants being accepted by the humans and the teens attending April's school is a wonderful change of pace from what's come before. Only downside is not all of the jokes, often occurring too much at once sometimes, land and a bit of the TCRI aspects aren't as interesting. If the one thing that any adaptation of this franchise absolutely needs to nail is the chemistry between the Turtle siblings. Thankfully the combination of the writing and the performances from Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon succeed in this. A wonderful aspect to their voice acting is that they were allowed to improvise together and thus making their bond feel more real. The rest of the cast such as Jackie Chan as Splinter is perfectly suited, Ayo Edebiri is wonderful as April, Ice Cube brings great menace to Superfly, and the rest of the cast including the mutant gang are fun. As for the animation, it's quite beautiful and has a slight stop motion look combined with fun and creative comic book style visuals. The movement and action scenes are fluid, and combined with the strong cinematography, creative editing, and memorable score and music will certainly keep you from forgetting for a long time. First debuting in 1984, the Turtles never had a good track record when it comes to their movies compared to their shows, but hopefully Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem will change that. Over all: 100%

2023 top list so far:

1. Oppenheimer

2. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

3. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

4. Asteroid City

5. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

6. Barbie

7. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1

8. Elemental

9. Air

10. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

11. Creed III

12. John Wick: Chapter 4

13. Scream VI

14. M3GAN

15. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

16. Cocaine Bear

17. Knock at the Cabin

18. The Flash

19. The Super Mario Bros. Movie

20. Renfield

21. Fast X

22. The Little Mermaid 2023

23. Shazam! Fury of the Gods

24. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts

25. Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania