Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.5

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman December 12, 2023

There's been a concerted push to bring classic 80s and 90s toy, cartoon and comic book franchises into the modern age in order to prey upon, er, milk, er, market to, er, entertain adults now in their 40s and 50s who grew up with those franchises. The cinema results have been decidedly mixed to bad. After a truly groundbreaking first film, Michael Bay's Transformers became arguably the most bloated, irritating, just make it stop! franchises ever. The G.I. Joe franchise never really took off, even one focused on fan-favorite Snake Eyes. And then there are the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, characters who have been on the big screen in some for or fashion for decades, from live action to CGI to hybrid, all to mixed results. And here is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, another animated film that is unlike any of the others with a very stylized animation technique that aims to bring a crude comic book look to life and bring the franchise firmly into the modern age and 2023 to be precise. Does it work? More or less.

Down in the sewers below New York live four mutated turtles: Leonardo (voiced by Nicolas Cantu), Donatello (voiced by Micah Abbey), Raphael (voiced by Brady Noon), and Michaelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.) along with their mutated rat master, Splinter (voiced by Jackie Chan). They are forced into hiding because they are different. Much of the storyline centers on the Turtles' search for acceptance in the human world. They love the things of the world -- films, food, and fun -- but because they are different, they really can't break into the world, forcing them to enjoy it, as they can, from afar. It is that search for acceptance and an opportunity to engage more freely that drives their desire to become crime fighters, and it is also what pairs them up with April O'Neil (voiced by Ayo Edebiri) who is a student journalist who loves the work but not being in front of the camera. When the city becomes paralyzed under a crime wave led by the enigmatic "Superfly" (voiced by Ice Cube), the turtles see an opportunity to use their ninja skills to save the day. April can get her big break reporting on a big story, paint them in a favorable light, and allow them to live freely in the world. It's a win-win, but of course things get much more complicated once the plan is set into motion.

This is an origins story through-and-through, looking at the basics, and then some, of what made the Turtles the Ninja Turtles. There's the ooze, there's Splinter, there's the ninja training (which is presented in a fun montage showing the turtles learning from a number of Karate and Kung Fu movies...there are actually quite a few live action film clips interspersed throughout, including the parade scene from Ferris Bueller's Day Off), and breaking into the crime fighting arena as rookies and, as they grow, a "fearsome fighting team." It's nothing fans haven't seen or experienced before, but it's in how they see it and how the experience it in this film that makes all the difference and, really, will make or break anyone's experience.

The film pushes full on to 2023, not living in the past (as some recent reboots have) but fully embracing modern technology and modern sensibilities in every way. Its lens is right here and right now, and the movie is written and even stylized in a way that reflects a cutting edge modernity that brings the Turtles into the relevant space for today. Even the theme of acceptance is very much 2023, and the filmmakers have worked hard to build a film that is at once both faithful to the original storylines and characters that introduced them to the world decades ago while also bridging the divide from then to now to make what is certainly the most relevant of the Ninja Turtles films of them all.

The animation style is probably going to divide fans. On one hand, it has character. It’s different from something like Paw Patrol and the other new, shiny, glossy, high yield digital element films out there. On the other hand, there’s a potential for some audiences to find it off-putting because it is different: harder, less shiny, not as clean, going for a more crudely stylized look that accentuates the grim and grit realities of crime, city life, and alienation the turtles (and other characters) experience. Kudos to the film for a bold decision to go against the visual grain, but it’s more than likely not a style that is going to be universally loved by every audience member.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Paramount brings Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem to Blu-ray with a very impressive 1080p transfer. The image delights with its faithfulness to the source, meaning that even in some of the cruder animation elements, there is a perfection to essential details that reveal the hard angles, uneven lines, and various textures of differing depth and detail to 1080p perfection. The image defies a more traditional review in this arena, but expect the elements to display on screens as faithfully as this resolution allows. The color grading is terrific, offering a good blend of bold tones on lights around the city which contrast with urban grays and other dull colors. Down in the sewers, the brown and unappealing environmental colors are contrasted with turtle green, computer screen readouts, and other assorted decorations that liven up the place a bit. Colors depth is excellent, certainly lacking the intensity and fullness that the Dolby Vision UHD has on offer, but easily displaying colors to a satisfying level of punch and vividness within the SDR confines. There are only very trace examples of banding and aliasing to be found, and most such issues are so slight as to just melt into the deliberately messy backgrounds, anyway.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Dolby Atmos soundtrack that accompanies Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is first-rate. The track is everything a modern Action track should be, offering the kind of clarity, range, and immersion that listeners have come to expect from the best of Hollywood and the best of Atmos. There are a lot of moving parts to the track, with excellent spatial awareness and seamless movement around the stage. Just listen to the opening raid in the lab early on. Sounds swoop around with seamless definition and perfect placement. The overheads chime in with a first foray into discrete usage when dust and debris fall after an explosion and also carry some of the movement elements, too. The top end is not used with discrete output with regularity, just as often performing in a supporting role as in a starring one, but the important thing is that this track is precisely engineered to take full advantage of every channel not for the sake of engaging them, but for the sake of building the fullest and most seamless listening experience that these audio elements can produce. Musical clarity is excellent and placement is perfect, with the fronts hefting the bulk of the load. Action elements never lack in clarity, even in the most robust and complicated sound environments. The subwoofer is used to good effect, maybe not booming and blaring like some who enjoy more aggressive audio would like, but at calibrated reference it's a rock-solid support element. Finally, dialogue is clear, well prioritized, and centered for the duration.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem includes four featurettes. No DVD copy is included. However, Paramount does include a digital copy voucher. This release ships with a non-embossed slipcover.

• TEENage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1080p, 6:14): Casting teenagers to play the turtles and exploring the voice work. Cast and crew also discuss their favorite colors and turtles. The piece also includes a look at the character qualities that make each character unique.
• The Mutant Uprising (1080p, 8:34): Exploring the slew of new and returning mutant characters and the actors who voice them.
• New York, New York: The Visual World of Mutant Mayhem (1080p, 5:57): Building the look and feel of the unique animation style, including core aesthetic and production design elements.
• Learn to Draw Leo (1080p, 21:12): The team from the Art for Kids YouTube Channel instruct viewers on drawing Leonardo.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a character film and a period expose as much as it is an Action picture. The narrative, characters, and yes even the style take centerstage. The action is a product of the narrative and it serves the larger story and character arcs. The final act pushes big (literally!) with some of the most epic action ever found in a Turtles film, yet even at its loudest and most monstrous the film always pushes back to that angle of character growth and depth in the pursuit of place and acceptance. The film ends with the promise of a sequel, so it will be interesting to see where it all goes from here. Paramount's Blu-ray release of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem delivers striking and near pristine 1080p video and Dolby Atmos audio. Extras are fine if not a little underwhelming in terms of both quality and quantity. Recommended.