“Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem” is a new animated film based on the famous comic-book characters.
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a 2023 American computer-animated superhero film
- It is directed by Jeff Rowe
- From a screenplay he co-wrote with Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Dan Hernandez, and Benji Samit
- It is the seventh theatrical Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film
- It marks a reboot of the series
- The film stars the voices of Micah Abbey, Shamon Brown Jr., Nicolas Cantu, and Brady Noon as the titular team
- Alongside a supporting ensemble voice cast that includes Hannibal Buress, Rose Byrne, John Cena, Jackie Chan, Ice Cube, Natasia Demetriou, Ayo Edebiri, Giancarlo Esposito, Post Malone, Rogen, Paul Rudd, and Maya Rudolph
- In the film, after years of being sheltered from the human world, the Turtles set out to be accepted as normal teenagers through acts of heroism
- The brothers go on a hunt for a mysterious crime syndicate
- But trouble arises when an army of mutants is unleashed upon them
- Nickelodeon announced Mutant Mayhem in June 2020, with Rogen, Goldberg, and James Weaver producing under their Point Grey Pictures banner, and Rowe as director
- Kyler Spears joined as co-director soon after
- The animation was provided by Mikros Animation in Montreal and Paris and Cinesite in Vancouver
- It was primarily influenced by school notebook sketches
- Seeking to explore the teenage aspect of the Turtles, the filmmakers drew inspiration from teenage coming-of-age films
- The majority of the cast was announced in March 2023
- Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross composed the musical score
- Mutant Mayhem was screened as a work-in-progress at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival on June 12, 2023
- It was released by Paramount Pictures in the United States on August 2, 2023
- It received positive reviews
- With praise for its vocal performances, script and stylized animation
- Several critics named it the best Turtles film
- A sequel and spin-off television series for Paramount+ are both in development
- Following Ramsey Naito’s appointment at Nickelodeon in 2018, she and Brian Robbins discussed who to bring onto the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles franchise
- Seth Rogen was decided upon, and Jeff Rowe joined the project soon after
- In June 2020, Deadline Hollywood reported that Nickelodeon Animation Studio was developing a computer-animated Turtles film for Paramount Pictures
- Marking Nickelodeon Animation’s first CG-animated theatrical production
- Rowe was hired to direct, from a screenplay from Brendan O’Brien. Rogen, Evan Goldberg, and James Weaver produced through their production company, Point Grey Pictures
- Naito and Josh Fagen oversaw production for Nickelodeon and Point Grey, respectively
- In an August 2020 interview with Collider, Rogen said that the film would heavily lean into the teenage element of Turtles
- In June 2021, Rogen revealed a teaser image through his Twitter page, which contained school notes written by Leonardo, the film’s original release date, and other details
- By October 2021, the film was under the working title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Next Chapter
- The title Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem had been finalized by August 2022
- Kyler Spears joined the film as co-director, signing on because he had worked with Rowe on his prior film, The Mitchells vs. the Machines (2021)
- J.J. Villard, creator of King Star King for Adult Swim, was commissioned to design the film’s logo
- The film was animated by Mikros Animation in Montreal and Paris, and Cinesite in Vancouver
- According to executive producer Ramsay McBean, there were about 120 artists working on the film across both Mikros and Cinesite
- Like with his previous outing, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, Rowe wanted Mutant Mayhem to look different from what was expected from an animated film
- The director’s aim was to make it heavily resemble the concept art
- He was inspired by sketches he made in school notebooks as a teenager and how they tend to have a lot of exaggerated features, spikes, and random effects lines, and wanted the film’s animation to reflect a similar feeling
- Rowe described the film’s sketch look as its “North Star”, as the comic book-inspired look was for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
- Kassai found working out the sketchy and unfinished style of the film one of the most difficult parts of the production
- He and Rowe encouraged the artists to embrace their imperfections and draw like teenagers
- Kassai cited the 1987 television series, the original film series, and the classic toyline as big inspirations for the production team
- He also cited Chungking Express (1994) as a heavy influence on the film’s visuals. Since a lot of the film takes place at night, the artists spent a lot of time diversifying what New York looks like at night and giving it a variety of different color schemes
- For the action scenes, the filmmakers studied Jackie Chan films such as Police Story (1985) and Rumble in the Bronx (1995)
- Rowe and lead character designer Woodrow White pushed for less bulky versions of the Turtles and to have the main four sport more teenage builds
- Similar to Michelangelo and his braces, Donatello was given glasses not as a defining trait of geekiness and wisdom but rather as one of adolescence
- With Splinter, White wanted to lean into the dad aspect of the character and have him look “disheveled” ”from the stresses of parenthood”
- As a ninja master, Splinter wears a kataginu he cut from a bathrobe, which also reflects the DIY nature of the character
- Additionally, White gave him sweatpants, which he described as “a common staple of stay-at-home parents”
- Jeff Bridges “Dude” character from The Big Lebowski (1998) served as inspiration for Splinters fashion, while his build was inspired by Danny DeVito
- White also studied photos of actual rats when designing the character
- White didn’t want to make Leatherhead look too muscular, but rather very much like what an actual alligator would look like if it stood on two legs
- He collaborated with Kassai when designing Genghis Frog and based the character’s look on that of a pixie frog
- Rocksteady was given a larger head to emphasize the character’s horn, which White felt was a rhinoceros’s defining feature
- With Ray Fillet, he wanted to give the character a more “menacing edge” and ”inject more manta ray” into him
- Similarily, White wanted Wingnut to be more bat-like than previous versions of the character by keeping her wings on her arms
- In the United States and Canada, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is projected to gross $30 – 40 million from 3,851 theaters over its first five days of release
- The film made $10.2 million on its first day
- These include $3.85 million from Tuesday night previews
- The film made $4.87 million on its second day
- On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 96% rating
- Based on 161 critics’ reviews
- With an average rating of 7.6/10
- The website’s consensus reads: “With its unique visual style and a story that captures the essence of the franchise’s appeal, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is an animated treat for the whole family”
- Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 74 out of 100
- Based on 43 critics
- Indicating “generally favorable reviews”
- Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of “A” on an A+ to F scale
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