TMNT: Mutant Mayhem review: Funny, lively, a simple shell

As box office analysts have noted with equal measure of delight and alarm, it has not been the hottest summer for the major film franchises. “Fast X” flailed. “The Flash” fizzled out. The Latest Adventures of Indiana Jones and the Impossible Mission Force was less stratospheric than expected. Meanwhile, the extraordinary commercial success and cultural staying power of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” have been hailed by many as a rare triumph for non-franchise storytelling, but also as a stark referendum on Hollywood’s sequel/reboot overload: Give us originality, or give us depth!

Still, there are always exceptions, contradictions, and various whats on the subject: we can argue about the extent to which Barbie, a smart, interesting movie made for toy sales and sure to spawn a franchise of its own, counts as original . And this week comes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, an unexpectedly delightful challenge to the critic’s reflexive anti-franchise mentality.

Swiftly directed by Jeff Rowe (“The Mitchells vs. the Machines”) from a funny, sensitive screenplay he co-wrote with Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit, this wild action comedy conveys nostalgic, action figure The best-selling comic-derived franchise is re-launching a solid name. To say that it’s the best Ninja Turtles movie I’ve ever seen is entirely accurate, and arguably feeble praise given the amount of depraved mediocrity this aging franchise has churned out over the past 33 years – and I say that as someone fond of childhood memories of the 1990 live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, with its endearingly rubbery Jim Henson turtle costumes, shabby-looking sewerage sets, and “hey dude, that’s not a cartoon” slogan. .

Mutant Mayhem happily embraces its cartoonish character, if that’s the right word for Rowe’s aesthetic, ripped from the pages of a heavily scribbled children’s notebook. There is poetry in that imperfection: unlike the artificially smoothed, computer-animated turtles of TMNT (2007) or their motion-captured equivalents in Michael Bay-produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014), these latest incarnations of Leonardo ( (spoken by Nicolas Cantu), Raphael (Brady Noon), Michelangelo (Shamon Brown Jr.) and Donatello (Micah Abbey) spring to gloriously sketchy, smudged pop-art life from the very first frame as they lurk, leap and soar through a neon-drenched scene New York City that, for all its digital renditions, feels as fresh and handcrafted as a Brooklyn pizza made to order.

Of course, food, pizza and other things are never far away for the turtles. Their first mission here – completing a long shopping list (and ticking off a product placement or two) – requires great stealth and cunning, as it is important that they remain unseen by human eyes. They’re supersized humanoid turtles, after all, thanks to a lab-made green goo that fouled their sewer 15 years ago. They’re also teenagers, which only adds to their frustration at being outcasts for life, which they feel a lot when they sneak into an outside screening of teen liberation classic Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. In other words, this story, more than most Ninja Turtles stories, emphasizes the youthfulness of her foursome, their relentless banter, their flair for pop culture (Michelangelo likes Beyoncé), and most importantly, their eagerness to fit into a world in which they life is afraid and immediately rejects it.

Given the involvement of Rogen and Goldberg (they’re also credited as producers), the film’s coming-of-age slant isn’t surprising, though anyone hoping for a terrapin-themed “Superbad” is out of luck. Rather than beefing up the material (apart from some impressive puke gags), Mutant Mayhem was wittily conceived as a comedy about alienation and assimilation. Splinter, the austere mutant rat who raised the turtles, trained them in martial arts, and taught them that “humans are the demonic scum of the earth,” is basically every overprotective immigrant father in rodent guise. (It helps that Jackie Chan tones his voice with pure Cantonese papa energy.)

The Turtles’ individual talents and personalities haven’t changed – Leo is still the responsible leader, Raph the brave hothead, Mikey the lovable goofball and Donnie the leader of the troupe – but they all share a poignant need for acceptance. It’s this longing that first plants the idea of ​​superheroes in their headscarves wrapped in headscarves and drives them into a happily nonsensical storyline involving a seedy scientific institute and a crime wave involving mutants and living beings. As the turtles race through town trying to save the day, accompanied by hip-hop songs and a driving soundtrack by Trent Reznor–Atticus Ross, they team up with April O’Neil (Ayo Edebiri), a brave high -School journalist who in… This statement is almost as much an outsider as she is.

That speaks to the warm, inclusive spirit of Mutant Mayhem, which, while not as exhilaratingly free-form as the current Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, uses its own whimsical visual style to explore new worlds of to suggest display options. And in a way reminiscent (among other things) of the “X-Men” series, it transforms the state of mutanthood into a potent metaphor for the Other. Even if this insight is now almost obvious, the film still takes its politics lightly and rarely scores with an exaggerated speech when it can instead incorporate a light laugh, a fast-paced chase or a dynamically staged action scene.

It’s telling that some of the funniest and cutest moments in history involve the turtles’ supposed enemies. Disturbing at first, but ultimately disarming, it’s a motley menagerie of mutants voiced by the likes of Rogen (warthog), Paul Rudd (gecko), Rose Byrne (alligator), Natasia Demetriou (bat) and John Cena (black rhino). Their leader is the aptly named Superfly (a terrifying ice cube) who plays a key role in the film’s climax – a wonderfully grotesque but coherently planned sequence that salutes Godzilla, David Cronenberg and finally the We-All-in -this-together spirit of New York itself.

Whether it calls for a sequel is questionable. But I wouldn’t mind seeing if this latest cycle of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles turns out to be not just a reboot, but a renaissance.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

Evaluation: PG, for violence and action sequences, language and rude material

Duration: 1 hour, 39 minutes

Play: General release begins August 4th