Friday, 9 February 2024

VOD: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Mutant Mayhem (dirs; Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears, 2023)

"We wouldn't have K-Pop without humans!"

With the origin story (again) and villain set-up delivered reasonably efficiently upfront, the film moves forward fifteen years to pit our teen protagonists on their first major mission against criminal mastermind Superfly.  The animation is in a  painterly and grungy style that is a clear nod to SpiderVerse, and the overall darker and serious tone targets a slightly older demographic than the live-action movies.  Instead of a reliance on slapstick and caricatures, this version delivers pop-culture references, rapid-fire slick banter and reasonable emotional beats in these teens' search to fit in.  The soundtrack that mixes R&B/hip-hop with Trent Reznor/Atticus Ross atmospherics gives the film a fresh feel for the franchise.  Above all else, these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles actually sound like teenagers!  The need to fill the first half-hour with the Turtles/Shredder/April backstories is questionable, and whilst this is hardly an essential film, it does a good job of dramatising the source material for today's audience.  
 

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